1/48 Monogram F4-J Phantom

Gallery Article by Brad Guy on Jan 24 2011

Silly Week 2011

 

This is a 1:48 scale F4-J Phantom, made by combining Monogram's old kit with Hasegawa's, and some landing gear from an old Airfix model. It is built out of the box except for a few small items. I added a Black Box resin cockpit with Aries interior update set, Seamless Suckers intakes, scratchbuilt FOD covers, Quickboost resin afterburner cans,  vacuformed canopy sections, MV lenses, weapons stores from the Hasegawa set, modified with 24 gauge wire and fine solder, Modelkasten individual link tracks, a Fruilmodel turned tungsten barrel, wingtip guns made from hypodermic needles I found washed up on a beach, photoetched deck railings and antennas, White Ensign screws and dive planes, Cooper Details flattened tires, a tailhook pulled from Tamiya's F-15 kit, aerials made from tempered silver wire, Black Box's resin avionics bay, detailed with Evergreen strip, fine solder, and home made stainless steel photoetch parts, (The avionics bay is closed up, so you can't see it, but I know it's there), and a partridge in a pear tree. The pilot and RIO are from the old AMT Star Wars Snow Speeder kit, with Dragon Resin heads. Seat harnesses were made from lead foil from a $700 bottle of wine, and buckles cut from a Dr. Pepper can. She was painted with hand mixed Model Master enamels and Citadel acrylics, mixed with Mr. Color Leveling thinner, and sports Two Bobs decals and slime lights from an Afterburner set.

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Ok, that's all a lie, except the part about it being a Monogram F4. I think it's silly when I hear about people who put an astounding amount of work into a kit, then send in half a dozen grainy, out of focus pictures, taken with flash, against a poor background. And all the pictures are from the same angle; they might as well have sent in one picture. If you are going to put all that effort into a model, please let us see it from every side, top and bottom!

Happy 2011 to you all!

Brad Guy

Photos and text © by Brad Guy