Who doesn't like the Phantom? Hasegawa had a corner on the market for this aircraft, and Monogram had a couple of offerings as well, but then interest in this aircraft seemed to have all but disappeared. But as the old saying goes, what goes around comes around... again. I fell in love with the box art, something that seems to contribute to my impulse buying all to often. So here I go... again. I made the decision to do this one OOB with the canopies closed and to just concentrate on the scheme.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Gregor...Well it has taken a bit of time so far. I ran out of rivets and had to contact Mike for more. Unfortunately he was on vacation, so I had to wait for his return. More are on the way now. I used the time to build and paint the underwing stores. It is going to take me some time to finish this project, but it is fun to load it up with data stencils. I want to do the F-4E next as that has a lot of the same stenciling.

Which photo are you referring to? I do not see any yellowing. Some of the decals have yellow stencils which might be what you are seeing.

Excactly, my bad. I just thought for a while they looked a bit odd. My old eyes or my old laptop 🙂

I also agree with Gregor that the rivet decals look fantastic!
I looked them up on the web, sadly OOP now.

Gregor...yes, there will be some additional weathering once the rivets are completed.

I did. You're right. I will be ordering a set, too.

FWIW, I have also recently obtained a sheet of rivet decals from Czech HGW Models. Much the same principle but the rivets come out protruding from the surface, and they come in large pre-printed sheets designed to fit specific kits such as Eduard's Hellcat. Haven't tried them yet but will definitely do.

http://www.hgwmodels.cz/products/rivets-nyty/

Looking forward to see more of this build!