Are all versions of the F4 available as a model?

White Navy version? You mean gray, right?

Virtually every version of the Phantom is or has been available from Hasegawa in 1/48 at one time or another.

There haven't been as many 1/32 scale F-4 kits and the early Revell F-4E, F-4J, and RF-4 versions are best avoided. Tamiya makes an F-4C/D, F-4J, F-4E, and F-4EJ, while Revell has done the RF-4C, F-4E, and F-4F (these have nothing in common with the earlier Revell Phantom kits).

Al Superczynski offered me a plate of cheese and whispered:

And as for 1/72... well! One would have thought that there would be a surfeit of F-4 kits, but no! Apparently there is not one single currently available kit of the F-4J... what's *that* all about?

There must not be enough current demand. There *are* a few available on eBay right now though, and prices seem to be reasonable so far at least:

The market must have been saturated in the past decade. There were the very nice Monogram kits, followed thereafter by the extensive ESCI and Fujimi lines, and then the Hasegawa line. That was a *lot* of F-4 kits back then!

Last time I checked, Fujimi and Hasegawa still had J models in 72. What's the problem?

Rob

The problem is that the Hasegawa kit appears to be currently unavailable n the UK, and I don't think that there are *any* Fujimi kits available.

The Hasegawa F-4C will shortly be re-released so I am considering using that instead. Under normal circumstances that would require an additional outlay of 7 quid for the correct jet nozzles, but luckily I have found three suitable sets in a scrap box in my loft! Yay!

I'm hoping that the Hasegawa kit still has the correct catapult points and rear cockpit sidewalls as a holdover from when it was an F-4J. In that case all I really have to do is fill the IFR socket, scribe a new IFR panel and remove the strengthening plates on the tailplanes. Is that the case?

You might take a look at

I just compared the parts lists of a J and a C. They are identical, save for the following:

stabilisors : the C is plain, the J is slotted. inner pylons: obviously, these are different styles IR seeker: the J doesn't have one, but that's no problem.

If you can replace the pylons from somewhere, and slot your own stabs, you should be fine. If it would help, I could copy the instruction sheet of the J for you, so you'll know which parts go where for this specific build.

Rob

What exactly are the differences between some of the versions, I am wondering mainly between the B and the N versions, but also the J and S versions as well.

Gondor

Thanks very much Rob. I would appreciate that.