F-4 Phantom love in Japan

stevethefish

My name's actually not Steve
Joined
Jun 12, 2015
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So 2020 is the final year Japan will fly their Phantoms before they finally decommission these beauties. Last December was the "Farewell to Phantoms" air show at the Hyakuri Air Base in Ibaraki Prefecture. I wasn't able to attend because I could not find any solid transportation arrangements online and I was running very low on money at the time. Plus it's an unfamiliar place, so even if I could find somewhere to park, I was facing the possibility of finding myself stranded. I've been to the air show at Iruma Air Base once, but I guess they don't fly Phantoms there.

Anyhow, I'm close to finishing up Hasegawa's old legacy F-4EJ Phantom kit, the old kit with raised panel lines and miniscule cockpit detail, to name a few issues. It still comes together fairly well for such an old kit (I assume it's from the '70s), so I can't complain much. I have a clear gloss coat over the decals done, so I just need to weather it up and I'll be done.

To commemorate, Hasegawa has been releasing plenty of commemorative LE Phantom kits, using their newer Phantom toolings from the '80s.

This year I have also started working on a couple more Phantom kits: the 501 Squadron RF-4E with the beautiful oceanic camouflage color scheme and the
301 Squadron F-4EJ Kai with the neat frog with a yellow handkerchief. I've already started working on these two kits and have finished the main construction on them. I just need to begin painting them. I bought the Eduard photoetch inserts for the engine cans as well as ABS seatbelt sets by Fine Molds.

And in August there is another 301 Squadron F-4EJ Kai Phantom coming out, this one with the Phantom mascot on the tail fin.

To top this all off, Fine Molds will be releasing two brand new tooled Phantoms: the F-4EJ and the F-4EJ Kai. I have a preorder in for the Kai. Just as with their F-14 Tomcat they produced years ago, these have very amazing detail.
 
I didn't know anyone still flew the Phantoms. One of my favorite jet aircraft.
 

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