1/72 phantom pylons for Hasegawa kits

I'm working my way through a *lot* of Hasegawa F-4s. None of the USN ones that I have planned will have outboard tanks. Am I correct in saying that they were only used on USN aircraft for ferry flights?

Anyway... I slice the pylons from the tank halves and assemble them. I then build up the lower surface with plastic card. Sanding and filling then gets rid of the panel lines, but I take care to keep the sway braces. A few strokes of a scriber will reproduce the panel lines. Each pylon usually carried an adapter allowing carriage of other ordnance, so I build these seperately from plastic card. Okay, I know it's a fair bit of work, but there's not really any option.

However, there's a gap in the market for some enterprising resin casting company to produce these pylons.

I don't know if that is correct, but I do get the impression they weren't nearly as common on Navy jets as the kit producers seem to think. The centerline tank on the other hand appears to have been there almost by default.

I suppose it's one way of getting the job done. Ever thought of getting at least one Fujimi for robbing and copying (resin casting isn't that hard)?

Either that, or for Hasegawa to start producing complete Phantoms:-)

Rob

if your talking about the outboard external fuel tanks yes the pylons in real life are permantly attached to the tank, only external fuel tanks could be installed on the outboard wing IIRC as for the centerline fuel tank there is no pylon the tank had a mini fairing around it and it latched directly to the aircraft centerline

I have a number of Fujimi Brit Phantoms - and that's putting it mildly. ;-) But they don't have the requisite parts. I *do* have a Fujimi F-4F, which does have the parts, so casting is certainly a possibility.

Given that the Fujimi F-4F is very slightly different to the Hasegawa one, it's unlikely that the Fujimi kit will get built to be displayed alongside the Hasegawa ones. I have built an old Esci RF-4C and that is noticeably different. In comparison, it looks somewhat "scrawny", as though it is an adolescent Phantom that is yet to mature fully. However, I'm considering building the Fujimi in a "what-if" Swedish splinter camouflage scheme.

I've often thought about exploring the possibility of resin casting. There are a number of things that I'd like to cast:

F-4 outboard pylons.

Hunter FGA9 exhaust and tailcone - from the Airfix kit, to convert the Revell F6.

Meteor tail and wingtips - from the Airfix MkIII, to allow the MPM kit to be converted to a Mk4 or a Mk 7. The wingtips would also help in conversion to the nightfighter versions.

Does anyone know of any decent websites which explain the procedure?

The outboard wing hardpoints can take other stores apart from the fuel tanks. I have seen pictures of USAF F-4Cs during the Vietnam war using an assymetric load of fuel tank on the port outer with an ECM pod on the stbd outer. During the Yom Kippur war, Israeli F-4Es regularly flew short range interdiction sorties into Syria with MERs loaded on the outer wing stations and the centreline.

Huh? They left them out? That's odd..

I wouldn't worry about that too much; I don't think there is any subject on which two different kits agree completely.

Hmmm...If there's one thing a Phantom shouldn't look, it's "scrawny". OK, maybe "cute" would be worse, but that's about it:-)

There's none in my mental or other bookmarks, but I think I've seen them at some stage. I 'learned the trade' from a magazine article decades ago.

Rob

Take a peek at these (and many others) for stores other than fuel on both the outer wing and centerline stations.

Rob

I'm working on an article about the availability in the Netherlands of the required materials. The following sites are listed in the article as references:

choose How To choose Articles choose Video Library choose Mold Making choose Molding Process choose Online Tech Support choose How To choose Product information - Instructional videos

Also, excellent articles can be found in Fine Scale Modeler: May 1994, March

1997, July 1998, July 2000 and November 2002, there may be more.

There are tons of ways of doing it, these sites will give you a rough overview. Personally I always use single-piece moulds, and vacuum to ensure 100% perfect castings. If you go for single-piece moulds, be sure to buy soft rubber, 10-15 Shore-A. My most impressive achievement so far is a 1/24 Nascar wheel in a one-piece mould:

It's quite an 'art' to learn, usually fairly expensive, but it's great fun!

Rob

My models:

Me 163B site: AQM-34 site:

I stand corrected lol in all my years working F-4Es I had never seen nor hung anything but an external wing tank on the outboard stores point

I don't know if the outboard station weapons pylons were EXACTLY the same shape as the pylons used with the 370s (wing tanks), though they look close enough to me. I did want to mention that the weapons pylons are not mounted exactly vertically like the wing tank pylons were. The weapons pylons lean outboard at the bottom, to give the weapons clearance from the main landing gear. I have some photos I took from the front, side, and rear of a weapons pylon and MER with BDU-33 practice bombs, mounted on an F-4G Weasel. I'll post them on alt.binaries.models.scale shortly, as soon as I get them scanned. Scott Wilson

I believe that was a special modification used only on the F-4G Weasel. It was necessary because of the fin span of the Harm. Those on the other models of F-4 were vertical.

Don H.

Don't know about the pylons themselves, but it was common for MERs hanging on the outboard pylons to be fitted at an angle to the pylon for mucht the same reasons.

Rob

Just had a look at them. Great pictures. The shape of the pylons is different from what I expected too. Once I get home, I'll have to take a close look at some of my other references to find out if my memory is failing, or if this is a different pylon.

Rob

Just took a peek at some reference material. I was both right and wrong. Hanging the pylon and MER combination at an angle was common, but the angle was between the pylon and the wing, as shown in Scott's pictures, not between the pylon and the MER.

Rob

It's the same pylon, but on the Navy planes there's unsually an adapter between the pylon and whatever stores are attached to it. The combination of adapter and pylon looks like a single, different piece of hardware.

Rob

Nope. I have a great picture of a VF-74 F-4B on the cat preparing for a combat sortie, with three fuel tanks, two sidewinders on the right inboard, and a single sparrow on the left inboard (and nothing in the recessed sparrow bays).

Rob

Really? That sounds *very* interesting. What publication is it in?

'Phantom, spirit in the skies' by Airtime publishing. Osprey's 'US Navy F-4 phantom II mig killers 1965-70' shows a phantom from VF-21 with a similar load. If you decide to try for the VF-74 bird, good luck finding decals. You'll find these markings for F-4J easily, but the only source for a B is the antique Airfix kit. My set was in such deplorable condition that it got me into designing and printing my own..

Rob