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Spiros Pendedekas
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Revell 1/32 F-4E Phantom II, Hellenic Air Force

August 2, 2021 · in Aviation · · 62 · 3.2K

Hi everyone!

This is my F-4E II, finished as a bird, wearing the "older" Vietnam camo.

The Phantom entered service with the Hellenic Air Force in 1974 under the arms program “Peace Icarus”.

Although it is a second-generation aircraft, 36 Hellenic Phantoms have been upgraded with advanced electronics (program “Peace Icarus 2000”), extending their operational life. They are based in Andrabida AFB (117 Combat Wing, 338 and 339 Squadrons with call signs “Aris” and “Aias” respectively). Initially in “Vietnam” camo, some of them wore the “Aegean Blue”, whereas some received as US surplus, wore the “Hiil Gray”. After the upgrade program, all the Hellenic F-4Es wear the lovely three-tone “Aegean Ghost” camouflage.

This is the second generation Revell kit, a very nice kit with engraved panel lines, good fit and good (at most places) detail.

The specific kit has been severely criticized for nose shape inaccuracy and anemic nose landing gear, also for other "secondary" issues (like cockpit sidewall sparsity and so on...).

Critiques, together with remedial actions, are easily found at the Net.

Though these critiques are totally respected regarding the subjects, their severity or not might lie up to the individual. To me, the final result looks like a mean , I am ok with that.

The air brakes were attached in the closed position (which is not that realistic, as they - and also the flaperons - droop very soon after engine shutdown...).

The stabilators were modified to "slatted" config, using AMRAAM body halves and stretched sprue:

I used the Icarus Decals maintenance stencils, a bazillion of them, their application resulting reaching the absolute limits of my sanity envelope...

The model was too big to take pics inside, so I took outdoor pics during a lovely Greek morning.

Should you like to read the full build review, you are most welcome to do so by visiting my beloved site Modelingmadness, through this link:

https://modelingmadness.com/review/viet/us/usaf/fighters/penf4e.htm

Happy modeling!

Reader reactions:
15  Awesome

62 responses

  1. Wow ! That’s a phantaistic Phantom, Spiros ! Excellent build and painting. Very nice presentation in this article. The back ground of the photos is nice too !

  2. Wow, Spiros, you're building some big models lately, and this Phantom looks great, love the coloour scheme and the outdoor photographs, definitely liked.

  3. This looks like a lovely greek kipos 🙂 awesome build, pame Ellada!

  4. Looks great, Spiros. Well done!

  5. That’s really nice, Spiros! Great paintwork. Those big Phantoms always attract crowds at model shows. One of the most amazing flying videos that I’ve ever seen involves two Greek F-4s. They buzzed a ship in the Aegean. The first one came in low from the bow and broke to the ship’s port side. His left wingtip couldn’t have been more then a couple feet above the waves. Search it on YouTube. It’s worth a look.

  6. Great build Spiros. The kit is value for money and the nose is only noticeable from certain viewpoints and doesn't detract from the quality of the build at all.

    • Thanks my friend @haslam55!
      Yep, this kit is great value for money, a joy to build, though Revell lately increased its price and Tamiya lowered the prices of their very good 1/32 F-4s...
      (but Revell often comes with nice offers!).

  7. Beautiful work Spiros I love the paint job, this is a great looking Phantom!

  8. Look very nice Spiros. The paint job makes me jealous !
    I alway loved the Phantom. Something active during the 70ies one could count on.
    Awesome look. Well done.

  9. Cost is a factor for me as well! I like what you’ve done with this Phantom. Digging the beautiful Mediterranean light you used for your photos!

    • Thanks my friend @vacrat!
      Cost is a major factor for me, as well. I am so glad Revell delivers a lot of great products in good prices, and I hope it will stay like this.
      Thanks for the comments on the Mediterranean light, got plenty here, will wholeheartedly take more model pics under it and post them!

  10. Fantastic Phantom! I'm not into jets, but I like F-4, also SU-22 😉

  11. Spiros- what can I say...another masterpiece from the Spiros-werks!

  12. Great work Spiros! @fiveten, that bird is spectacular! 🙂

  13. An awesome build, Spiros @fiveten.
    That is a great Greek scheme as well.
    Remarkable how many different planes the Greek airforce had and still has.
    Your basement fills up quickly with you recent large builds.

    • Thanks my friend @johnb!
      Indeed, the number of planes operated by the HAF is remarkable, scheme-wise, too! A modeler’s mini heaven, might I say!
      This F-4E was built for a colleague (hence the super clean / no weathering finish – he wanted a clean bird!], meaning that it now resides in his home and not in my basement! So some serious space is saved!

  14. Really good looking bird. I like the Vietnam camo and lends its self to nice weathering and fading. Your finish looks great, and stencils alone are one reason I stay away modern aircraft. I don't know about the shape, and other issues the kit may have, but in the end I agree, there is no mistaking that for plane for anything but an F-4. I try not to let the rivet counters and super critics ruin the fun of just building a model, glad you didn't either.

    • Thanks my friend @luftwaffe-birfman! Indeed a myriad of stencils, the decal designers rendered every stencil the aircraft's technical documentation featured...kudos to their job, but the decal job took ages...

  15. Hey Spiros buddy ! this is a great build , well done , I love the camo.
    Neil.

  16. You know I like all things "Phantom," and this is a winner! I started my build of what I thought was going to be a Greek Aegean Ghost Phantom, but realized the kit I started with (though it SAID it could build an E as well as a G), didn't actually have the right gun snout for the E, so it'll be a US Wild Weasel. I'll grab a different kit to start the Greek Ghost soon... In the meantime, I can bask in the glow of your build! Nicely done.

  17. Excellent paint job and bringing out the best in the Revell kit Spiros. Often I wonder the motive behind doing some projects. With so many new released kits with "better" technology and materials or better information one could assume that you can now buy the "best kit. Now add all of the resin goodies, P.E. and now the 3D printed parts . . . the question being who do you model for? In this case a good friend and in the end if the friend is happy then you have set out to do what you wanted to do. Which is what modeling is all about. Making a kit your own and being entertained and happy for doing. Older kits can do the same given circumstances.

    Two thumbs.

    • Thanks for liking and for all kind words, my friend @stephen-w-towle!
      Mostly an OOB guy, some scratch building and I am usually happy, though, admittedly, I adore all those super builds that utilize all these aftermarket extras. Building models for friends makes me double happy, though, in this F-4 case, I did not manage to convince him to let me weather this bird: he wanted a clean shiny one….oh, well!

  18. Looks great. Reminds me of the F-4E Air Force Magazine paid me to go get "the best roller coaster ride ever" in. Super resulting model from a not-so-super kit.

  19. It's a good thing it wasn't one that I worked on. Phabulous Phantom, Spiros, I saw it on the MM site. @fiveten.

  20. Same here Robert 😉
    Spiros my friend, saw your big scale Cat some days ago at MM and loved it. Revell has a rather shady track record, some kits offer great value for the price tag, other not so.
    Since I never built this kit (or any Phantom kit for that matter) I can only testify that judging by your work this is a very interesting buying option. Thumbs up!

  21. Very nicely done Phantom. I like the Vietnam era camo.

    The only thing I don't like about Phantoms is the number of stencils they put on those things!

  22. Fantastic Phantom, Spiros. Your work captures what a beast the F-4 was (and is). I always loved seeing these aircraft out in the real world, and your model brings back that feel. Appreciate the link to your "Modeling Madness" article also.

    Superb job!

  23. Very nice model Spiros, and very big too, I am finishing one at 1/48 that I will present to you soon.

  24. That is a laaaarge Phantom! Would be interesting to build these large kits, but unfortunately no space for them.
    Great build, like it!

  25. There is nothing better than a Phantom with a gun under the nose. Your model is AWESOME as always Spiros. Well done. Thanks for posting this one!

  26. Beautiful work Spiros, and a really awesome subject, the Camo looks great. Well done, very nice.

  27. That's a fabulous Phantom Spiros @fiveten. I love the paint scheme. I'am planning to build the mirage V BA, BR and BD in the Vietnam camo scheme as well. Thanks for sharing your results.

  28. Great job on this, Spiros. It must be huge! I like the look of the phantom but haven't built one since I was quite young.

  29. Very good presentation of this iconic bird. The model is really huge, and you did a great job in HAF.

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