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Vietnam aera F-4E Phantom, Revell


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This plane has been clogging up my workspace for...., well since 2006

it has an interresting story to it: this was one of the first kits i purchsed after resuming modeling after the 20year hiatus. i always wanted a vietnam aera phantom and especially liked those assymetic loadouts. this was before i knew of all the problems the kit has, the nose in particular, but it was cheap, so i started it, using eduard photoetch for the first time.

besides being an archivist i also do exhibitions, like the state exhibition of lower austria in 2007, titled "fire and earth". in the exhibition room dealing with "fire and war" i dreamed of having a real napalm load trainer as exhibit (yeah, right), but had to settle for pics of napalm bombs. because the state is very strict on copright laws for pictures (they have learned their lessons from earlier exhibitions), they would only settle for someting with complete copyright, not being satisfied with internet freeware. here my F4 came into play: the thing wasnt finished at all, but i just threw on a quick (gunze) paintjob and applied decals (only to the starboard side), using napalm canisters from the trump F-105 kit and voilá: an F4 with napalm loadout.

the pic in the exhibition looked like this:

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a couple of years later, this was its sorry state, after a minor crash, the right MLG collapsed

over time i had purchased a resin nose that should correct the mishappen kit part and fitted it, but it was still in primer

i had experimented with various bombs for the loadout and seemingly lost a couple of parts (that i was able to find again now)

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speaking of the loadout:

i will use the MER and two TERs from the A-7 kit (i know they arent as good as tamiyas; but i had them)

after a pic in the squadron F-4 book i will use these wapons: 2000lb bomb with fuse extender, TER with three 500lb bombs with fuse extenders, two sparrows in the aft recesses, a fletcher centerline tank, an ECM pod in the forward sparrow recess, a TER with two CBUs and a MER with six snakeeyes

first i didnt find a 2000lb low drag bomb, only LGBs, so i settled for a CE 3000lb version with a six-foot fuse extender (to the right you can see that i tried to scratch a 2000lb bomb)

i also wasnt particulary happy with all the 500lb bombs i found, they all have different shapes (revell old tool/new tool/trump/tamiya). i ended up using the bombs from the old revell F-15E, because there are lots of them in the kit and the shape is the same as tamiya. for the snakeeyes i fitted the trumpy fins to them

the CBUs are made using parts of the trump A-10 kit (ugh) with a new front part and fins

more to come, stay tuned

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the middle protrusion (whatever its called) on the revell part is a lot too small and pointy, judging by photos

so i vacformed a bigger, rounder part that just snaps in. everything can still be taken apaqrt for painting

speaking of references: jake melampys phantom book is a great help, as are the old detail&scale publications and the aerofax minigraph books

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i will use the twobobs "SEA heroes" decal sheet for this plane, the one with modex 551

i have a pic of it where the later gunmuzzle is fitted, but the rest is early: no slats, no rhaw on top of the fin

criticism welcome

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