Phabulous Wrap-Around Phantoms SitRep - 1/48th Italeri F-4E Phantom II

I will keep this one brief as this kit is 1981 vintage and not very good at that (released under the Testors box as well). Italeri has more recently reissued their F-4 series (mid-2000s) based on a rework of the old ESCI molds, which are an improvement (with engraved panel lines).

Back in the early 1980's if you wanted to build a 1/48th scale F-4G, this was it. It had raised panel lines, a spartan cockpit with ejections seats that barely resembled any ejection seat let alone a Martin Baker seat. (I used replacement seats.) As I bought two of these kits (and they weren't great) I decided to build one as a F-4E as this was an option with this kit.

A cockpit upgrade and some refinements were necessary to bring this kit up to an acceptable level (and I am a pretty easy going kit builder but it had to be done). I decided to build a wrap-around scheme (former Vietnam MiG killer) F-4E with shark-teeth as I had a photo reference from a Koku-Fan book (No.21), for a 51st TFW example based at Osan, South Korea. The markings were cobbled together from spares and rub-on lettering. The tri-colour squadron commander marking on the tail was an added bonus.

All said and done, I wouldn't recommend this kit - the later Italeri upgraded reissue of their F-4E with engraved panel lines seems like a much needed improvement to this series, however the cockpit still seems to need work. We now have other options to give you a very nice F-4E (E.g. Hasegawa, also released as a Monogram Pro Modeler F-4E)

Completed build #36 - November 1988 using the 1/48th scale Italeri #811 kit.

Feel free to ask any questions or comment on the build - Keep on building what you want, how you want and enjoy the build - Cheers