with Aires resin cockpit
VF-96 ‘Fighting Falcons’, US Navy, USS Constellation 1972
This is Hasegawa’s F-4J Phantom II in the, apparently clichéd, markings of the famous Showtime 100. I love these markings, so even though the kit I actually bought was the ‘Liberty Bell’ boxing, I used the decals from my previous F-4J that I converted to an F-4S. The kit went together as well as any of the other Hasegawa Phantoms that I have built (F-4D; FGR.2; F-4C) and was built alongside my F-4F using an Aires cockpit. This detail set consists of a very nice resin tub and seats with photo-etch details. I left some of the latter off as it gets too fiddly for me and I wanted the thing finished. The fit of the detail set is ok — I don’t know why they didn’t supply the canopy sills as photoetch because the resin detail is removed when filling the gaps! Some of the decals wrinkled very badly using Mr Mark Softer and had to be touched up — this decal solvent can be very variable even with markings from the same sheet. Paint is all Humbrol and the finish is not up to the standard I would like, but I can live with it — I’m just glad to have a gull grey and white Phantom in my collection. Metal surfaces are Alclad II.
Year bought: 2004 (Hannants, Lowestoft)
Year built: 2005 (St Ives, Cambridgeshire)
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