1/32 Tamiya F-4J
By Daniel Scislo
We lived on the northern part of the Ruhrgebiet in Germany. That was low level flight area. The playground for the A10, coming from the UK, the F-16 from the Netherlands and the F-4s from Rheine Hopsten. And these Phantoms, boy what a sight. Coming low level, with smoking trail behind and then, with the afterburner on, Going straight in the air. I think I´ll never forget that sound. After years out of the hobby, I began building other stuff and worked a few years for model mags. But one day there was the chance to grab a cheap F4 from Tamiya. I put it in my shelf because I have not forget that sound. I was new in 1:32 and it took a few weeks until I get some aftermarket stuff. But after that I waste no minute to get it built.
The Kit is very high standard, I know it, the rest of the world knows it too. I use the Eduard set for the cockpit. I love this stuff, you can read the instruments! OK, I understand….you know it too.The building process was very straight forward, the painting,too.
I used Testors enamel for this. The VMFA 235 decals are from Yellowhammer and they are fantastic! A second sheet came from CAM with stencils. And that was fun! I did not count them, but I think there are 200 decals or so on this sheet. It was a lot of work. After hours of putting them on (and lot´s of four letter words) I sealed the model with Humbrol gloss coat.
Then a oil based wash of burnt sienna and raw umber was put on the model and wiped away . After 48h drying time I dry brush the highlights with grey and white. And then the last coat of dull coat was brushed on.
A few years later, after this smoker, there was this impressive big box in my local hobby shop. It was a A-10 from a new manufacturer and I had this sound in my ears...
© Daniel Scislo
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016