"And kill MiGs": Zoukei Mura F-4E Phantom
I finished Zoukei Mura's very nice 1/48 F-4E Phantom yesterday. It's a well-engineered and highly detailed kit. The only problems I encountered were self-inflicted by yours truly and his many thumbs. I'm mainly a "jet guy", however this is only the second Phantom I've ever built. The first was in 1979!
I wanted it to represent the MiG killer flown by Capt. Steve Ritchie and Capt. Charles DeBellevue in 1972, so I used the fine Werner Wings decals for serial number 67362. They went down without any trouble along with about a trillion stencils from the kit's decal sheet. I also used Quinta Studio 3D decals for the cockpits, but in retrospect this was a probably a waste of money because the kit's cockpit is very nicely detailed on it's own. It would've been sufficient to simply add some harnesses to the kit's ejection seats and call it done.
Unfortunately the kit doesn't supply the correct ECM pods for this specific aircraft, so I had to use aftermarket items. I used a Reskit AN/ALQ-101 pod on the left wing pylon and an Eduard AN/ALQ-71 pod on the right wing pylon. Reskit resin wheels and Hobbydecal brass pitot tube & AOA probe round out the aftermarket items. All the other "dangly bits" are from the kit.
The SEA camo colors are Mr. Color lacquers. The metallic colors are Alclad and AK XTreme Metal paints. I weathered the model with thinned artists oils, dry pigments, and acrylic inks.
All in all it was a very pleasant build.
Beauty
Lovely build. Will have to do one of these myself this year!
Outstanding.
Awesome looking Phantom, Marshall...incredible job on the painting and weathering!
Very nice work. Beyond my skill level. Looks great.
thats beautiful!
That is one sharp Rhino.
Very nice rendition of Richie & DeBellvue's "Paula 01" F-4E Phantom Marshall. I was thinking of building this aircraft or 68-0338 before the year is out. Thanks for the tip on the decals as I didn't know Werner Wings produced this set. - Cheers
Awesome result, Marshall!
Well done!
Excellent build, Marshall @crowtrobot
Superb build Marshall !
Marshall, this is a remarkable build in all respects. The camouflage is beautiful. And on closer inspection, all those stencils! You would have to put me in the proverbial rubber room if I were to try doing that. I am just curious, do you know how many there are? And one last question, did you drill the holes in the bottoms of the tires for later installation on a diorama base?
Thanks! The holes in the wheels are for inserting small pieces of wire to make handling easier while painting. I don't know exactly how many stencils there are, but the kit's massive decal sheet was loaded with them:
Excellent paintwork, Marshall.
A great-looking Phantom! Excellent paint and weathering.
Beautiful work Marshall - looks fantastic.
I have a similar kit in my stash, same colour scheme but will have RAAF markings. I want to get on and do it now 😀