Finished the 1/48 Tamiya F-4B Phantom tonight. I added the Eduard “Space” 3D printed colored resin cockpit placards to the interior. It also has pe for the kit seats, but I used a couple of spare resin seats instead. Otherwise, this was an OOTB build. This is a very good kit, though I question the method Tamiya chose for adding the outer wing panels and the way they designed the tail planes to be added to the rear of the model. It all “works” ok, but just seems overly complicated. The canopies include interior side rail and bulkhead details, and are engineered to fit firmly at the correct open angle (the kit has a complete closed canopy too). The gear doors and landing gear are all very well engineered with positive, firm attachment points.
I used Furball markings for VMFA-122 so I could finally have a Marine F-4 on my shelf once more, and also so I could hang a gun pod from the spares box underneath! The wing tanks and Sidewinders are from the kit, but the TERs and bombs are from a Hasagawa weapons set. All in all, this was a good experience, though I’d rate their F-14 kit as slightly better from an engineering standpoint. Now to pick up that new P-38J and see how IT stacks up!
Gil