genedig65

There is a way to convert Revell's recent F-4E to a Navy F-4J. The "conversion kit" you'll need is a 1970s vintage Revell F-4J. This supplies the nose, hard wing leading edge, and Navy style slatted tailplanes. Best of all an old F-4J can be had for about 15-20 dollars. Now granted, it won't be a 100% accurate model, but I built one like that around ten years ago. To get past the F-4E cockpit vs F-4J cockpit issue, I used the old Revell crew figures (I respositined their arms and heads to a more candid pose)and a closed canopy. I also built the aircraft on a stand to simulate an inflight pose, thus bypassing the landng gear problem.

Unfortunately Hakan my digital camera has gone on to the great darkroom in the sky! However, take alook at ebay. Plenty of flight gear makes its way to this site. Specifically, look at MS22001 and MBU-12 oxygen masks. These were the predominate USN issue masks during the 70s and 80s. Note that modern day MBU-12 masks are colored grey. For flight helmets, look for APH-5 ( early 60s) APH-6 ( 60s-70s) and HGU-22/p ( 70s-80s). Revell's F-4 drivers look like they are wearing HGU-22/p helmets with the "widow's peak" style visor cover common to this helmet from the 70s and 80s. Also try this site: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ It's mostly for WW2 US Army collectors and re-enactors but there several folks on the site who collect flight gear.

One of my side hobbies is that I collect flight gear. It started with getting gear used by father and uncle as they were USN fliers during the 70s and 80s. All of the 70s vintage oxygen masks I have are colored green. Glove are olive drab nomex with light grey palms. The flight suit of the time could either be sage green ( a kind of grey-green color) or olive green. My dad was issued olive green flight suits in the early 70s but was then issued sage green coveralls by the late 70s. My uncle's mid 70s vintage anti-G suit is colored a dark green somewhere between forrest and olive. Boots of the time were black. Naval aviators had brown boots until the late 1960s I think. Every picture I've seen of 70s vintage USN fighter pilots shows their helmets painted in rather fancy paint jobs. My dad's helmet (he was a P-3 Orion crewman) is covered with reflective tape stripes. My uncle who was an A-7 pilot, had a helmet painted red and black. Rarely are they just white.

I've found Gunze paints hand brush very well. Any hand brush paint must have a slow drying time. After the paint has thoroughly dried, I'll rub the surface down with a very fine grit paper (600 or better) to take down any brush stroke marks.

Well, I got it out of the box. A mixed bag really. One hand, the fuselage is a clone of the Tamiya bird. That's good. However, the paintwork is not very good. Far too much weathering for my tastes. As stated earlier, the walkways are sloppily painted. The cockpit is actually nice considering that it's meant to be a toy. I like the instrument panels and they seem to be correct for a Navy Phantom. The crew figures look nice, well detailed. However the shape of the canopy is off. Comparing it to my late issue Revell F-4E and Tamiya F-4J, it seems that the center section and pilot's canopy are too long on the BBI Phantom. The injection molded L/G seems nicely detailed but a bit flimsy, I have detached the gear and keep my Phantom in the inflight appearance. So to sum it up: 1/32 F-4J via mail order: 54.99 USD plus shipping Tamiya F-4J or Revell F-4E clear plastic canopies: 0-15 USD CAM decals Phantom walkways, F-4 data stencils, US insignia , and markings of your choice: 46.00 USD plus shipping That's over 100 dollars already. You can probably score a Tamiya kit off Ebay for less. If BBI had done a better job on the canopy shape, I'd consider these jets to be an alternative to Tamiya's. But the poor canopy shape and sloppy paintwork make it hard to consider them a scale model. Oh well, it makes a cool toy!

Looking at my BBI F-4 and comapring it to my unbuilt Tamiya bird, I'd say the level of detail is close but not the same. The Tamiya model is still the best 1/32 F-4, but it is also still rather pricey. I think any decent modeler can do a better paint/decal job than the factory finish applied to the BBI F-4. I'm probably going to repaint mine and add decals from CAM.

My better half ordered one for me to be opened at Christmas. Me, being a bad 42 year old boy, couldn't wait that long and had to sneak a peak! Overall, it's an impressive model/toyand it looks pretty good out in the box. ( Ican't take it out of the box until Santa comes down the chimney!) Some of the paint work is quite fuzzy though. This is especially true of the walkways along the top fuselage, they don't look too good. In addition, on my example, the intake ramps were painted the same color as the walkways. Also the weathering around the exhausts was, in my opinion, overdone. The pilot figures look great including the yellow and black helmets as worn by VF-84 crewmembers. I think all of these items can be addressed and certainly with the amount of 1/32 Phantom decals, one can choose any markings they wish. I would say modelers now have a lower cost choice over the Tamiya F-4J. Look for pics after Dec. 25! In the meantime Merry Christmas to you all!