1/48 Hasegawa F-4G Wild Weasel

Gallery Article by Fernan de Gannes on Aug 31 2010

Trinidad and Tobago National Day 2010

 

This is my Hasegawa F-4G Wild Weasel.  I wanted to build a fairly detailed and accurate replica so I added the Aires cockpit set, Aires Exhaust and selected parts from the Eduard F-4G set.

Starting at the cockpit, the Aires set took considerable effort to install, but the result was worth it.  I added the photoetched sills from the Eduard Set to complete that section.

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I read in various articles that the Aires Exhausts were a challenge to fit. The main problem is that the overall unit when assembled is longer than the kit part. This meant that I needed to remove some plastic from the bottom rear left and right fuselage halves to allow the exhaust assembly to go all the way in.

The raised panels lines on the weapons pylons were sanded off and rescribed.  I also added some details that are prominent on the real aircraft and corrected the chaff dispensers based on photos found on ARC.  Hasegawa molded the flaps in the neutral position, so I cut them off and dropped them.

The model was painted with Model Masters enamels in the Hill Gray scheme. Markings are from Aeromaster’s ‘Last of the Wild Weasels” sheet.  Walkways were masked and painted dark gray and the weathering was kept minimal as this particular aircraft was relatively clean.  The bare metal areas were finished with Testors Metalizer, Steel, Aluminum and Burnt Metal.  I applied Future tinted with Tamiya Clear Blue and Clear orange to some of the individual exhaust petals to capture the discoloration that occurs in this area.  Finally, I scratchbuilt the antennas and their bases which are located on the spine of the aircraft and added the weapons – a HARM and a Sparrow, both dressed up with markings from Two Bobs.  I also installed an ALQ-131 pod from Hasegawa Weapons B and painted it light gray.

Hope you like the model.

Fernan de Gannes

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Photos and text © by Fernan de Gannes