I decided to start this one to kickstart my F-4 Phantom collection.
With aircraft kits, it always begins with the cockpit. Typical of Hasegawa, the control surfaces are all decals. Many people don’t like this but for this scale, I think it’s perfectly fine. Cockpit grey colors were handbrushed on and the decals quickly put on. The seats are quite detailed, made up of 5 parts. The only downside is the lack of any seatbelts. I made them by carefully cutting Tamiya masking tape and painting the resulting straps in grey. Placement was based on a picture of the actual Martin Baker Mark H-7 ejection seat I saw in The Ejection Site. I left out the waist belt since with the cockpit in the fuselage, that lack of detail can’t be seen by anyone anyway. The ejection handles were carefully handpainted in alternate black and yellow colors. Not accurate by any means (the bands are too thick) but I they are really tiny.
In the process of placing the control panel details, I lost the left one. That’s what I get for not working in a well lit room. Anyway, I decided to leave it as is, figuring that that again, with the cockpit, this missing detail won’t be visible.
And I was right! Closing up the two fuselage halves, most of the missing detials can’t be seen. Heh. And with my planned closed canopy configuration, they will be even more hidden.
The rest of the cockpit area was quickly painted up. Now I just need to attached the HUD and I can close up the cockpit. Never to see it again until I’m finished with the project.
The Aircraft
