Hi gang!
Since I’m primarily a WW2 builder, I’m going to need your help with a Phantom reference. I’d like to build Hasegawa’s F-4 B/N “Sundowners” next. I’d like to try my hand at the Eduard color photoetch parts but I can only find them for the -4E, -4G and -4J variants. I’m pretty sure the E and G versions cannot be substituted but can I use the zoom color set of the J variant in my F-4B or were they utterly dissimilar?
Thank you for your help!!
Eric
Dissimilar but not utterly.
I worked on N radar and only saw the cockpits of Js a few times.
As I remember, the J’s rear radar scope was a bit larger and painted gray and the radar hand control was centered between the RIO’s knees. On a B/N the scope was black and the hand control was under the lower right corner of the instrument panel. It pulled out on a little shelf.
I think the left console area of the rear cockpits were different as well. The B/N had a big panel that controlled the radar’s display. Much of our time was spent “tweaking” the display since it was all controlled by circuitry that had vacuum tubes in it and the settings would wander as the tubes aged. The J’s radar was all solid state so I doubt they had that panel. There was also a bunch of relay panels over there and the AJB-3 bombing computer. I doubt J’s had those. What they did have over there, I don’t know.
The front cockpit and the right console (mostly a blank wall) were probably pretty close between an N and a J.
I just googled a picture of the J’s cockpits and what I said above is pretty true.
Here’s a link where you can research the differences and see if it matters enough to you. The J set from Eduard is probably closer than Hasegawa’s N in the kit.
David,
Thank you for the great response! Very informative. My brother-in-law was a Phantom Phixer but he worked on the -E variants only.
I’m going to check out that link. Thank you for posting it. I’ve never worked with any of the after-market color cockpit sets before and I thought this would be a good kit to “dress up”.
Best wishes,
Eric
What scale are you building?
This may sound sacreligious on this forum, but if its 1:72 it hardly matters. The scale is so small, you would not be able to see such a fine detail. The Eduard brass, as good as it is, can only provide a minimum “resolution” of detail before it becomes unnoticealbe IF they can even get it to register on the etching.
On 1:48, you are more likely to notice such subtleties. You sound like a person who cares about the tiny details that you can’t get with 1:72.
If you are building 1:32, well, you had better get it right. No excuses!
Hi Rogue!
I’m not a rivet counter by any means. But I can just see me building the plane with another vairant’s cockpit in there and then, eight years from now as I see the plane sitting on the shelf, that thought will keep coming back to me: “It has an incorrect cockpit in it.” It would be just enough to bug me. Ha-ha-ha! But if I were to do it in 1/72, I’d probably have the same thought process as you and just put in something that’s close without having to be EXACTLY 100% accurate.
Oh, and by the by, it is in 1/48 scale. That’s my favorite scale. That and 1/144. I still haven’t figured that one out yet.
Eric