Cross kitting Tamiya F-4C and Revell RF-4C

[Lothar]

I vaguely remember that grafting the Revell RF-4C nose to the Tamiya F-4C has been discussed before,

but for the life of it, I just don't remember where and when.

Can someone shed some light if this does make sense at all? If I understand correctly, the Tamiya kit

is better in general, especially around the cockpit area (I don't have the Tamiya kit - only the Revell RF-4C

so I can't judge for myself)

 

Thanks for any help.

Lothar

Edited February 4, 2020 by Lothar

[thierry laurent]

It makes sense as the Avionix resin RF-4 nose for the Tamiya kit is clearly based on the Revell RF-4 parts. So it can be done and has already been done by someone (I think it was to make a similar RF-4B).

[Ben Brown]

Is Donnie Dixon on this forum? He was an RF-4C crew chief and several years ago, he was doing the very thing Lothar is suggesting. 

 

I had the Avionix resin nose. It's pretty good, but IIRC, it didn't include the RF-4-specific instrument panel glare shield. Fairly easy to scratchbuild.

 

Ben

[Oldbaldguy]

I'm about to finish up the polar opposite of what you are considering doing.  Instead of cutting up an expensive Tamiya kit, I threw a bucketload of AM parts intended for Tamiya kits at a Revell F-4G in hopes of coming up with an affordable but passable late-block RF-4B.  It was a grinding, mind numbing, never ending, all but impossible effort.  It has been an interesting journey but not really worth the effort because the result is no better than a Revell RF-4C built out of the box -- something I never even thought of before starting the build -- and the issues with the Revell kit are still there.  If you are committed to doing this, don't do what I did; grafting a Revell camera nose onto a Tamiya Phantom is the without question the best way to go. 

 

Cheers and good luck

The Old Bald Guy

[Lothar]

32 minutes ago, Oldbaldguy said:

I'm about to finish up the polar opposite of what you are considering doing.  Instead of cutting up an expensive Tamiya kit, I threw a bucketload of AM parts intended for Tamiya kits at a Revell F-4G in hopes of coming up with an affordable but passable late-block RF-4B.  It was a grinding, mind numbing, never ending, all but impossible effort.  It has been an interesting journey but not really worth the effort because the result is no better than a Revell RF-4C built out of the box -- something I never even thought of before starting the build -- and the issues with the Revell kit are still there.  If you are committed to doing this, don't do what I did; grafting a Revell camera nose onto a Tamiya Phantom is the without question the best way to go. 

 

Cheers and good luck

The Old Bald Guy

I went the same route, bought a lot of AM for the F-4C and, boy, did I regret it. The only usable parts are the

Aires F-4C burner cans, they are apart from a few tenth of mm usable. So I finally got me the Tamiya F-4C

and first measurements look quite promising for grafting the Revell nose to the Tamiya kit.

However, I've read that the real weak point of the Revell kit is the canopy, seems to look a bit dodgy on

the finished kit. So I startet comparing the Revell / Tamiya clear parts and finally orderd a set of Tamiya clear

parts since it looks doable using the Tamiya clear parts on the Revell kit (with a little elbowgrease of course).

Since I consider the Revell kit as being a nice kit, I've decided to just get a second set of Aires burner cans,

wait for the Tamiya clear parts and build the Revell kit without butchering it. The Tamiya kit will be built into a

straight F-4C, it's indeed a beautiful kit.

Lothar

[Tony T]

It's a complex cut and splice, not a nose job.

Look at the Avionix RF parts and cut away at the Tamiya, including a vertical cut near the tip of the windshield coaming and a horizontal cut under the cockpit. Then cut the Revell parts as if they're Avionix parts and fit.

Voilà.

 

Did I do it? No, I'd rather have my Tamiya F-4C as a Texas ANG jet using Caracal decals, and will wait for a new tool RF-4 — if Tan Model's never happens it's a case of 1/48 filling the void, or biting the bullet and just getting on with a corrected Trumpeter F-105G giant.

 

Tony 

[thierry laurent]

Personally I would do the horizontal cut at a lower level to avoid creating problems with the air intakes. I'm even wondering if it is not possible to replace the left and right sides where the bulges replacing the Sparrow slots are located while keeping the central area with the LG bay. 

[Tony T]

Personally I would not. The RF-4 fuselage under the cockpit has a straighter, more boxlike profile due to the SLAR cheeks, so the Avionix horizontal line will produce the right profile.

 

Tony 

[Bruce]

So, what I did was to cut under the canopy rail of the Revell RF kit and graft a resin copy of the Tamiya canopy rail area to the Revell kit.  I made resin copies of the canopy frames from Tamiya and bought some Tamiya clear parts.  I had done the same thing on a Revell F-4 kit.

 

See my build