1/72 Scale USN F4-L USS Hancock 1978

[Gondor]

That's one thing I never knew...the differences in the covers ! I guess you learn somat new every day.

The modern 1/72 scale Hasegawa kits have about three, maybe four different versions. Single aerials on them, twin aerials, with a notch  and without sounds about right off the top of my head. The aerials by the way are the little round bumps on the cover, I am guessing that they would be something to do with the ECM kit that the aircraft was carrying.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I wonder why they bothered to change such a trivial part of an aircraft that already worked pretty well. 

[Gondor]

I wonder why they bothered to change such a trivial part of an aircraft that already worked pretty well. 

As far as the ECM aerials go it would depend on the frequencies covered as well as the area that the aerial covers as in azimuth. A different design, used by a different equipment fit would have different limitations as well as technology allowing improvements, though not all the time would they be an improvement, would also be a factor in the number of and positioning of aerials. Hope that help Kit?

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Makes sense, yes, do Hasegawa provide different chute hatches for the different ECM fits then?

[Gondor]

Makes sense, yes, do Hasegawa provide different chute hatches for the different ECM fits then?

Yes they do Kit and sometime in the dark and distant future I will finish writing my list of what part from what sprue is for which version of aircraft. About the only things not provided by Hasegawa in their kits are the pylons usually used in place of the under-fuselage and wing fuel tanks. Wish I knew of a source of these as after-market parts, it would open up a whole new range or armament options.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Doesn't the old Airfix F-4D have loads of pylons and stuff? I seem to recall there were far too many to put on the kit all at once.

[Gondor]

Doesn't the old Airfix F-4D have loads of pylons and stuff? I seem to recall there were far too many to put on the kit all at once.

The old Airfix kit tries to be many things to everyone in one box and as it's a 60's moulding its not to the same level of detail as the more modern kits I am using in this build. Good idea though.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Very interesting. I think I have one or two in the stash. Could be Fujimi tho.

[Gondor]

I just realised that I and Kit have got ourselves cross threaded about weapons pylons. That should be in my thread "A Little Rhinoplasty" where I was talking about weapons load. The F-4L which is this thread, will be armed with the normal Sparrows and Sidewinders and three tanks Edit: fuel tanks

Gondor

[Gondor]

Several more bits of plastic stuck together today.

I started out by adding a fillet of plastic card behind the cockpit to make up for the length lost during the separation of the cockpit from the rest of the airframe for another which didn't work out with this kit as the donor airframe.



Then I glued the nose in place and the two parts of each air intake together as well. The result being the pictures below once I glued the air intakes to the fuselage.





There is still a fair bit of work to do but you can see that it is getting there.



Work is going to slow on this build for about a week while I concentrate on a group build.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Love Phantoms. Thanks for posting all these pics of her coming together.

[DogfighterZen]

Love Phantoms. Thanks for posting all these pics of her coming together.

Same here!

[Gondor]

No pictures for a couple of days for a change. Filler was applied yesterday and I have been creating a minor dust cloud this evening as I sand it all back to where it should be. The tail cone has been flared into the rear fuselage contours as have the nose cheek intakes. Needs a going over with a finer grade of sanding stick then a test shot of primer to check that everything is ok before I move onto the next addition, under-fuselage aerials for the ECM suite as they are not going to be added until the underside is ready for proper paint.

Gondor

[DogfighterZen]

Putty dust clouds are very bad... it reminds me that i still have the same thing to go through with my F-16W... 

[Captain Canada]

Thanks for the update ! It's actually pretty easy to visual an update on an aeroplane as recognisable as the Phantom !

That is, if you can visualize it through the putty dust