Revell's 1/32 scale
F-4F Phantom II

by Ingo Degenhardt

HyperScale is proudly supported by Squadron.com

This is Revell’s 1/32 F-4F Phantom II. This kit was issued in the mid-1990s and when I bought it I considered it to be a good kit from the first look into the box – nicely engraved panel lines, clear and thin canopies and so on. Doing some research on the net, I was quite shocked to find a list with well over 70 minor and major errors for this one.

The errors range from a completely incorrectly shaped radome, missing or surplus engravings, short main wheel legs, wrongly positioned inboard pylons to a badly misshapen cockpit that, when built out of the box will leave the rear seat’s head box below the canopy rail.

I corrected nearly all of these errors either by scratchbuilding (cockpit), the use of Tamyia parts (fin cap and intakes) or the addition of Eduard’s interior and exterior sets with PE parts. The intake covers come from CAM resin.

Dozens of minor corrections where included as well (opened auxiliary air intakes, a scratch built nose gear leg (not so minor), a new pitot tube and not to forget the new shape of the gun fairing between muzzle and front gear door – also not that minor when I remember all the cutting, sanding and re-shaping with Miliput.

In summary then – lots of work on this one.

When construction finally had been finished, it was time for the paint job. I had Airdoc’s decal sheet for aircraft camouflaged in the Norm 90J scheme and chose 37+17, an aircraft still on active duty with Jagdgeschwader 71 “Richthofen” at Wittmund Air base, Northern Germany.

All the painting was done with my preferred Xtracolor paints and a quite heavy weathering job was done according to pictures found on the net. Many German Phantoms show a more or less ruined camouflage scheme like this one – constant spot painting with the wrong colors, lots of boot marks from ground crews all over the aircraft.

As Airdoc does not supply all the stencilling, I had to take some of them from the Revell sheet and they are of a much better quality than one might think from looking at the sheet. Only the carrier films for the stencils are a bit oversize – but they react very fine with Set & Sol and show very little tendency to silver.

In conclusion, I am satisfied with the outcome of the model but I have to say that the Tamiya F-4s are clearly the better choice – even with the changes you will have to make to convert an F-4E into an F.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 

Thumbnail panels:

Model and Text Copyright © 2008 by Ingo Degenhardt
Images Copyright © 2008 by Lutz Degenhardt
Page Created 25 April, 2008
Last Updated 25 April, 2008

Back to HyperScale Main Page