Old School Revell 1/32 F-4 Phantoms
By Sean Hogan
Below are some photos of my recently completed Revell F-4J and F-4E. These are the old kits from the early '70s. Each were difficult to build and required extensive sheet styrene structural reinforcement as well as large amounts of putty filler especially along both sides of the rear lower fuselage just forward of exhaust nozzles. Another trouble area was where the forward air intakes mate to the fuselage sides. Despite large amounts of filler and hours of sanding they are still very obvious.
I purchased the F-4J in 1985 while attending power plant mechanics school in Memphis, Tennessee after finding out that I would be assigned to VMFA-333 as an F-4 power plant mechanic. I finished it last year in January of 2013. I would take it out once or twice a year only to put it back discouraged every time. Eventually a friend in my local IPMS club told me to, "Get over it and just build it! It will never be a Tamiya "J", just enjoy the build." So after 28 years I did just that. I finished the "E" this past July. I purchased the "E" at our local IPMS JAXCON in February of 2014.
They both have some glaring inaccuracies but as an avid Phantom Phanatic, I did not mind. If you resign yourself to the fact that you, (OK, in all fairness "I") cannot make this compete with the Tamiya of later Revell kits then it can be a rewarding albeit challenging (which is a euphemism for extremely difficult) build. My next projects that involve this kit are building the Marine Corps RF-4 version from VMFP-3 and then converting a "J" into an "S" by mating the "J" fuselage to the slatted "E" wing. I'll be sure to send in some photos of both as I complete them.
© Sean Hogan 2014
This article was published on Thursday, December 11 2014; Last modified on Thursday, December 11 2014