Hasegawa 1/48 McD.D. F-4G Phantom II "Wild Weasel"

HASEGAWA 1:48 MCDONNELL DOUGLAS F-4G PHANTOM II
'WILD WEASEL'

Reviewer: James Garnett (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 22 March 2008

Aircraft History:

The F-4 Phantom II needs little introduction and those of you reading this will no doubt know a fair bit about this aircraft already, so I will save my fingers and keep the typing as short as possible.

The Wild Weasel concept was borne out of the threat of SAMs from North Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam War. The idea was that Weasel aircraft would escort other fighters and strike aircraft and take out SAM sites before they reeked havoc on the rest of the flight. The first aircraft to undertake this role were two seater converted Super Sabres designated as F-100F. These aircraft had lots of shortcomings particularly in relation to the fact they were superseded by the strike aircraft they were escorting so were soon replaced by converted Thuderchief two-seat trainers into the F-105F. Based on combat experience and other necessary improvements needed, the Thunderchief was upgraded to F-105G format and served for the remainder of the Vietnam War.

Combat attrition for the F-105G was high during the Vietnam War and the Thunderchief was also labelled as having several shortcomings itself, so a further replacement was necessary in the late 60's. At the time the two seat F-4 Phantom was providing exceptional service for the USAF, USMC and US Navy so it made sense to explore this aircraft as the next generation Weasel, particularly given it was already a two seat strike platform. Initially 36 F-4C's were converted to Weasels which provided an improved combat performance than the F-100 and F-105. However, at the time the USAF already knew that the F-4E airframe was a much improved version, from avionics to wing slats, over the F-4C so decided to convert F-4E's into weasels.

The F-4G was thus born and could carry Sparrow AAMs as well as a whole array of anti-SAM missiles. The F-4G Wild Weasel became the mainstay weasel aircraft for the USAF from the late 1970's all the way through the 80's and into the first Gulf War, after which they were retired from service. Over 100 were built of the type which served with distinction in a number of conflicts for the USAF.

The Kit:

This kit has been on the shelves now for at least 25 years, probably longer, making it an elder statesman of the Hasegawa range. Unfortunately this means that it is not up to the standard of some later releases although is still a solid kit. There are 124 light grey injection molded parts on 8 sprues plus 11 clear parts on their own sprue. Surface detail is finely engraved and the parts are generally quite crisp and flash-free in the main (some smaller parts do have a bit of flash) with quite reasonable detail rendered. This kit naturally has parts and sprues common to all quarter scale Hasegawa F-4 Phantoms so there are a number of parts not used on this F-4G version.

Instructions:

These follow Hasegawa's usual format with 8 fairly easy to follow assembly steps, sprue map, brief history, a photo of the built up model, four view diagrams for the single aircraft the kit replicates and painting information from the Gunze Sangyo / Mr. Color range, including some FS Numbers as well.

Construction:

In spite of the instruction sheet I worked on the cockpit assembly first. Being an older kit than others I have built I was a bit disappointed the with the lack of internal detail and those who model in 72nd will no doubt relate to this. There is a cockpit tub featuring some generic side console detail for both crew stations along with a multi-part ejection seat, main instrument panels and control columns. The interior was painted in a medium grey and the instrumentation details were picked out by using drybrushing. I added in some seat harnesses, mirrors and throttles from various spare bits of plastic and didn't bother with putting the two pilot figures in. The completed cockpit assembly was installed into a fuselage half and test fitted the closure of the other half along with the nose well to find there wasn't going to be any major dramas.

The generic looking arrestor hook was put into its housing and naturally this needs to be painted first, lest you have issues trying to get into tight areas later. The nose wheel well was installed into the fuselage half under the cockpit with alignment pins removed to allow for me to choose the right position. I often find I attached wheel bays off centre otherwise. The wheel bay is given some structural detail and plumbing but it is nothing to write home about. The fuselage halves were closed with no major dramas and left aside to dry.

Attention turned to the main wings which have separate leading edge slats but are broken down into the standard upper halves and major lower wing piece. The fit of all the components here was pretty straight forward although a wing root gap needs to be filled and sanded, and a test run to make sure the holes for underwing stores were the appropriate size. Speed brakes are separate components to enable them to be displayed open, however, I opted to install them in the closed position. The leading edge slats required a fair bit of work to enable them to dry in a realistic position so attention and patience is needed here. Some attention is also needed to make sure the right angle of the wings are depicted once attached to the fuselage. The tailplanes also had the same dihedral problem and were quick to setting at a much steeper angle than needed plus I felt were not quite accurate in the actual positioning on the rear fuselage. The worst part here was that the large alignment pins engineered for the kit did not help, you almost had to force the tailplanes into their slots, so these were removed and the tailplanes ended up being attached with super glue, just to make sure.

Back to the fuselage area, I worked on the intake assembly which was made up of the standard splitter plate, internal parts and intake cover. Large ejector pin marks need to be sanded off first before the parts could be attached. These were a surprisingly good fit but hollow areas inside the the intake area need to be filled, lest you have a model that just does not look right. The rear exhaust section was attended to next and installed according to the instructions was also a reasonably good fit. Naturally the parts were painted prior to installation.

A reasonable amount of stores is provided in the kit to attach to the underwing hardpoints including 370-Gal tanks, ECM pod, Shrike and another hard to identify AGM, Sidewinder AAMs, Sparrow AAMs and a fuselage slung 600-Gal tank. It is fair to say that all the stores are rendered in a very generic fashion and lack any real detail whatsoever, particularly the 600-Gal tank which doesn't match reference photos I was referring to. I remember reading somewhere that these fuselage tanks were replaced - probably after Hasegawa produced this kit - with tanks used on other McDonnell Douglas aircraft at the time.

The landing gear is made up of several parts and includes separate actuating struts and jacks in an effort by Hasegawa to produce a reasonably detailed looking undercarriage. My reference photos suggest that while they have done their best to render the undercarriage it still lacks a decent amount of accuracy all up but I installed it according to the instructions anyway. Other than usual amount of attention attaching these parts, the landing gear sub assembly was overall reasonably straight forward.

Final bits that were added to the assembly included pitot tubes and very basic looking antenna masts/fairings all of which needed some attention, lest they be snapped. An 11-part boarding ladder is included in the kit but this look too complicated and fiddly for me so I didn't even bother going there. The canopy can be displayed open but as a little on the thick side so needed several test runs and adjustments before it would fit properly. Indications are that there would not be as many issues to encounter if attaching in the closed position.

Colour Schemes:

Two mid 1980's Cold War protector F-4G phantoms are covered by the kit, which are an aircraft of the 35th TFW in standard SEA Camouflage and another of the same TFW, 561 TFS in wraparound European I sceheme. The one I chose is featured on the boxart in its European I scheme. I toyed with the idea of going to aftermarket sets for another example, but in the end I could not be bothered so I painted the kit up in the scheme using FS 36622 light grey undersides, FS 30219 Tan, FS 34102 Green and FS 34079 dark green camouflage pattern. Bare metal areas of the tailplanes were painted accordingly and I used matt and normal aluminium to try and replicate the different shades of metal.

Decals:

The decal sheet is large and quite comprehensive with plenty of stencilling and other minor areas covered in addition to the normal unit and roundel stuff. The decal sheet had aged and worn a little but still retained most of its original register so I decided to use it. As with most Hasegawa kits I didn't encounter any major dramas, although the decals were a little brittle, and I did not use any setting solution. They were a little on the glossy and thick side also. I sealed them in with a Matt varnish afterward.

Overall Recommendation:

There are much better F-4 Phantoms in this scale on the market nowadays and this Hasegawa kit is certainly starting to show its age and is only rated as "reasonable" in accuracy, dimensions being just a touch out. However, it does build into a nice model and looks the part when its finished. The fit of most of the assembly was very good with just a few challenges to deal with as I discussed above. Recommended, yes, and for those of all modelling skills other than the real beginner, but only if you are not looking for a definitive kit of this definitive aircraft.

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