Hasegawa

1/48 McDonnell RF-4E Phantom II Hellenic Air Force Special

Kit Number: 09883

Reviewed by  Fred Amos, IPMS# 6672

MSRP: $57.60 Review Kit Supplied by Dragon Models USA: Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com This is the latest version of this old war horse to be released by Hasegawa. It celebrates 30 years of service with the RF 4E by the Hellenic Air Force. The kit is also Hasegawa's last release in the F 4 Phantom line of models. The kit has been available for a number of years but this is the first time I have had the opportunity to build one. The kit is typical Hasegawa quality in fit, scale, and accuracy. The decals are a different story however. As usual construction begins in the cockpit and in this case the camera bay. The cockpit builds up nicely but locating in the fuselage side is tricky. Normally with a Hasegawa F4 kit the nose gear wheel well bay glues up to the bottom of the cockpit tub and when all is ready the wheel well will fit into the lower nose of the fuselage which positions it correctly. On the RF-4E the bottom of the fuselage at the wheel well is a separate piece and has to be put in place after the fuselage halves are glued together. So if you don't get the cockpit tub correctly in place the bottom piece won't fit. The pieces for the camera bay are very small and difficult to get into the proper location. When everything is done right the fuselage closes up very nicely. The rest of the model goes together with out any problems, very typical Hasegawa quality. The instructions call for Gunze colors RLM 66 Grey and Gunze 340, FS 34097, which are very hard to get these days. I have neither so I substituted with Tamiya XF-53 (Neutral Grey) and Gunze 422 (RLM 82-Light Green) which looks pretty close to me. After the paint had dried I sprayed on a liberal finish of Testors Gloss Coat in preparation for the decals. Here is where the problems started. I have experienced problems with Hasegawa's large decals in the past and this time was no different. When I put the decal on the right side of the rudder and tried to nudge into place, it broke up into three pieces. I finally got in close to where it was needed and moved on to the large yellow flash on the side of the fuselage. For some unknown reason it wouldn't slide so I tried to lift it in to place and it too broke up. So my solution was to do away with the yellow flash decals and paint it on. Using the surviving left side decal I made a template of a stiff piece of cardboard. I began placing blue painters tape (3M #2080) on the fuselage, checking the shape with the template, until I had the sides covered.

I made sure to protect the rudder decal that was already in place. I then sprayed Humeral Gloss Yellow with about 30/40% thinner onto the sides until coverage was complete. Also at the same time I painted the upper surface of the stabilizers. After it had dried I continued with the decaling. The only other problems I had been with the script that is on the yellow flash but after some struggle I was able to get them on. The rest of the assembly of small parts went very well. I used a fat black marking pen on the leading edge of the rudder to hide where the decals broke up. So in conclusion I will say that while this was not the most enjoyable Phantom I have ever built, it still turned out nicely. I would really like to see Hasegawa re-think their decal designs. Other than a little extra cost I can see no reason why they can't make decal in smaller sections that would fit together to make the over all decal. Or offer a template for the subject if it is all one color. And I don't think it would be too much to ask for Hasegawa to include decals for the instrument and side panels in the cockpit. I would like to thank Dragon Models USA for providing this kit to the Reviewer Corps for review. Visit their website at www.dragonmodelsusa.com.