Hasegawa

1/72 - F-4S Phantom II CVW-5 Midway Combo

Kit Number: 00977

Reviewed by  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $79.95 Hasegawa Website (English version): www.hasegawa-model.co.jp Imported by Dragon Models USA: www.dragonmodelsusa.com Thanks to Dragon for the review kit. The aircraft: There isn't much that can be said about the Phabulous Phantom which hasn't been published somewhere. My bookshelf on the F-4 runs about 1 ½ feet wide, and it's far from complete. Hasegawa's latest release is a double kit of F-4Ss from the USS Midway back in the 80s, when the CAG aircraft were gaudy but very good looking. The schemes offered are: · VF151 CAG NF200 1982 · VF151 CAG NF200 Oct.,1984 · VF161 CAG NF100 1981 · VF161 CAG NF101 1986 The Phantom started out as a fleet interceptor, and these aircraft were just about the last of the US F-4s which weren't "fast bombers". The Kit: The sprues are designed to be modular. In this one, they use A, C, and J for the basic fuselage and wing, E for the slatted outer wing, G for the slotted stabs, and K for the forward fuselage. P, Q, R and W are the seats, gear, underwing add-ons and canopies. This allows maximum use of some sprues, with no necessity for compromises in the accuracy of the model. This means a little more work, as the fuselage is 4 parts instead of 2, but the results are certainly worth it. Assembly: Assembly begins with the seats and cockpits. These are quite nicely done, and fit is excellent. The panels and consoles are done with decals, but it's nice enough that I didn't even think about an aftermarket upgrade. Everything fits, because this is great engineering, which follows through the entire build. There were a few gaps and mismatches, but generally everything fit. I was also taken with the little sensors inside the intakes, a touch which adds a lot to these parts, even though they're almost impossible to see. Painting: The large assemblies were complete, and now I could begin painting. The basic paint job on this plane is so simple. I had decided to do the 1986 VF-161 aircraft, with the all-black spine. So it was very easy to paint the entire aircraft gull gray, then mask and paint the black area, which included the vertical stabilizer. Yeah, right. It took a lot longer to put on the mask than it did to paint the black area. Nevertheless, I would nominate the guy who thought of Tamiya Tape for a Nobel Prize.

The metallic areas on the fuselage rear and horizontal stabilizers were done with Testors Metallizer, Burnt Metal and Steel. Then I put a couple of light coats of Future/Klear on to protect the metallics from fingerprints, and prep the paint for decals. Decals: The decals are the major part of this project, and they are what change the model from a so-so representation of the aircraft to a WOW. I have heard a lot of criticism of Hasegawa decals, saying they're thick and hard to work with. I didn't have a lot of trouble with these decals, even though the ones on the tail are quite large. And I managed to break a corner off of one of them while moving it off the paper. But it was fixable, and is not easily seen. I also had some problems getting the small red decals on the fairing at the top back of the tail to sit tight and straight. Fortunately the red color is almost a dead match for Floquil "Caboose Red", and only one of them required a small spot of touch-up. Everything else went on just as they were supposed to. It just figures that I would only have trouble with the big and gaudy decal. There's a corollary to Murphy's Law in there somewhere. Final Assembly: I've learned to put the decals on before I add landing gear, underwing stores, antennas, and open canopies, as the handling and concentration required to do decals usually causes me to handle the model in a way which would destroy all those details. The fineness of the detail, the ease of assembly and the good fit of parts made this a real pleasure. The fit of the rear canopy attachment points into the slots in the fuselage are so clean and tight that the part can be test fitted and left there without fear of it moving or falling off. I've build several F-4s with open cockpits, and these are just about as good as it gets. Overall Evaluation: Highly recommended. The markings are eye catching, the parts fit quite nicely, and the kit builds into an accurate model which goes well with my other F-4s. It's a great build, and I really like the way this one looks. Many thanks to Hasegawa for producing a super kit in "the one true scale", to Dragon USA for providing the review item, and to IPMS/USA for the chance to add to my Phantom collection.