1/32 Tamiya F-4J Converted to F-4N

Gallery Article by Miguel I. Becerril on May 21 2015

 

      

Greeting my fellow modelers. After a hiatus of several years, I decided to finish a 1/32 F-4J that I was converting to a F-4N. With aftermarket wings and exhaust cans, I slowly, but surely, began my journey. Half way through the build I decided to pose it flying with a heavy load. As a Marine Phantom Phixer and occasional back seater stationed at MCAS El Toro, CA in the ‘80s, I wanted to capture my last flight in the F-4N and that was refueling from a C-130. I have the fortune of a graphics arts department at work and they 
hooked me up with the cloud/C-130 images on foam board. I hardly put ordnance on my kits, but this time I wanted to highlight the “bomber” side of the F-4 Fighter-Bomber. I scavenged for the bombs and additional MERs.

 

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I first built the C-130/cloud mock-up and with trial and error determined how best to mount the plane. The entire refueling rig is scratch built from photos I obtained on the net. I thought building it would be easy, like jumping on a bike after a while, but boy was I mistaken. My estimated 2 months turned into 5 months, but I enjoyed every minute I spent on it. I used Mr. Hobby; Mr. Color, Gray C315 and the tail is Royal Blue from Tamiya X3. 

Hope you like it and keep on modeling!!

Miguel I. Becerril

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Photos and text © by Miguel I. Becerril