Good evening Da Nang
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See our preview of this kit here
Kit Build
As a manufacturer Eduard have drastically improved the quality of their own kits over the last few years. Even so they are still a comparatively small volume producer amongst the mainstream companies. We have become accustomed to opening a kit box and finding the contents are actually the product of a completely different manufacturer. This allows companies to expand their ranges for a fraction of the cost of constantly having to create new tooling. Thankfully in Eduard’s case they have always tried to use the best option available at the time of whichever subject they’ve picked. For their limited edition subjects this has meant Hasegawa, Academy, HobbyBoss, Airfix etc. Having already covered the U.S. Navy F-4B Phantom using the newish Academy kit now it’s the turn of the Air Force version with the same companies F-4C variant. The large box contains the complete Academy kit supplemented with a raft of improvements from Eduard’s own range of accessories. There are two frets of photo-etch, one painted, a set of pre-cut canopy and wheel masks and in resin wheels, seats and jet-pipes. The instructions have been re-drawn to take all these updates into account and consist of twenty pages, seven of which are in colour covering the paint and decals for the five options provided. The superb decal sheet designed by Furball Aero Design has four aircraft in the South East Asia scheme and one in the early navy style Grey and White. Altogether a nice package so let’s see how it builds.
The first job was to go through the instructions and the sprues as there are a lot of parts on them that aren’t required for the F-4C or are replaced by the Eduard parts. Without the Eduard parts this is quite a complex kit so removing the spares now makes it easier to keep track of where you are during the build. The build began with the cockpit and here you will find most of the photo-etch so you need to remove some of the moulded detail first. The tub was given a coat of H317 Grey and left aside to dry. While waiting for that some other sub-assemblies and parts were built and cleaned up ready for paint. Items like the intakes and undercarriage bays are good examples of this. Back to the cockpit tub a few details are picked out followed by some dry-brushing and pin washes before fitting the remaining pre-painted photo-etch parts. A quick coat of Vallejo satin clear seals the photo-etch and evens out the various finishes. The nose gear bay is added to the bottom of the cockpit and then that is fitted to the lower forward fuselage panel. We turn to the wings and main gear bays now starting with drilling the mounting holes for the pylons. One thing that is a bit of a pain is the main gear legs. These need to be added at this point as they are trapped in the wheel bay between the upper and lower wing halves. I managed to avoid breaking them during the build but it did make things awkward. The intakes and jet-pipes should be added to the wing now but I found the exhausts could be added later so these were left aside for now. The fuselage is a large single piece moulding in the same manner as the Tamiya 1/32nd scale kits but you still have a few insert panels to add. This is down to using the same basic fuselage for B, C, D and J variants. A touch of Mr Surfacer 500 blends these in nicely. Once a few small photo-etch parts are added to the cockpit sides the fuselage can be added to the wing and lower fuselage assembly. The front and rear fuselage joints just needed a swipe with a sanding stick to clean them up before adding the intakes. I’ve been building models for a long, long time and over that time I’ve built a lot of Phantoms from different companies and one thing that they have all had in common is the intakes. The fit is always challenging and I’m afraid this one is no different, especially on the underside. More Mr Surfacer to sort them out. The addition of the radome and it’s starting to look like a Phantom now. We move to the rear end now and here we find the one area that is a bit off as far as the shape is concerned. It tapers too much along the bottom making the tail cap the wrong shape when viewed from behind. Regardless of this the parts all fit well and are very well detailed. A big step now adding the outer wing panels, flaps, tailplanes, tailfin and rudder to more or less complete the airframe. I had already decided to do the grey and white aircraft so the rudder, flaps and tailplanes were left off to ease the masking and painting stage. With the addition of a few small parts around the airframe it was time to start thinking about paintwork. There is a lot of bare metal on the rear end of the Phantom so in preparation for some Alclad 2 the rear end and tailplanes were given a coat of thinned MrSurfacer as a primer/barrier. When that was dry it was given a quick polish before any paint went on. First to go on was an overall coat of Steel (L). Because it dries so quickly it was out with the Tamiya tape to mask off some of the Steel sections so I could add some brighter panels with Magnesium (K). The masking was then removed so I could do some shading and blending with Jet Exhaust (M). The bare metal parts were given a coat of Johnson Clear to seal them before they were masked up ready for the overall paintwork. While this was drying all the doors, drop tanks and pylons were prepared and mounted ready for painting as they are all pretty much White overall. The next paint to go was the H12 Flat Black on the radome and anti-glare panel. That was then masked and any excess Black overspray was polished off before the underside and all the detail parts were given a blast of H316 White. After another big masking session the topside H315 Grey went on. All the masking came off now and thankfully all was well with the paintwork. The last little bit of painting was to mask the airbrakes and refuelling recess panel before spraying them with H13 Red. A coat of clear gloss overall sealed everything and prepared the model for decals. There are a lot of these including the stencils and for the most part these went on very well needing just a touch of Micro Set and Sol to settle them down. The only thing to look out for is the Red stripe over the top of the fuselage. If you put this on before the stars and bars it will be visible under the White star. The answer here is easy, put the national markings on followed by the Red stripe. Before the stripe dries trim it back to the edge of the national marking. After any excess decal solution is removed the whole model was given a wash of thinned Grey acrylic ink to bring out the engraved surface detail. The wheel bays, airbrake bays and door were weathered with Mig Dark Wash cleaned up and blended with odourless thinners. The jet pipes were painted and added now and I have to say that these were the highlight of the Eduard additions. The detail on them is superb and a huge improvement on the Academy parts. With so many parts to add it’s a case of small detail painting and working your way through the pile. One problem I was aware of is the two triple ejector racks that are fitted to the inner wing pylons. If the Sidewinders are fitted the tailfins on the bombs clash with the missile fins. My fix was to put a couple of plastic card shims between the rack and the pylon to give it a bit more clearance. The Eduard ejector seats are very nice consisting of no less than twenty three resin and photo-etched parts for each seat. The Eduard canopy masks fitted perfectly making that job very easy. Whilst on the subject of the canopies, the kit parts are very clear and fit well but I was disappointed to find that there is nothing in the way of detail additions from Eduard. With all the colour photo-etch in the cockpit and the superb seats there is nothing for the cockpit sills or canopy frames/locks. For this reason I’ve closed up the cockpit on my model, fortunately a lot of the interior is still visible through the canopies. An overall coat of Vallejo acrylic Satin clear left just the lights to finish the model off.
Conclusion
For many years we have really only had the various Hasegawa kits to work on as Phantom fanatics. The Academy kits have set a new benchmark, apart from the rear end issue. From the box they are very nice but then Eduard have taken them up a notch further. At first glance the Eduard boxing seems a bit pricey but if you start adding up the cost of the base kit, photo-etch, ejector seats, wheels, jet pipes, masks and an aftermarket decal sheet all of a sudden it’s a bargain. The Eduard Bicentennial, "Good morning Da Nang" and "Good evening Da Nang" Phantom kits are limited editions so they won’t be around forever. Pick one up while you can as they are definitely worth buying.
Our thanks to Eduard (www.eduard.com) for the review samples. UK modellers can obtain this kit from Hannants, along with any other Eduard stockist.
Paints used
Alclad 2
Magnesium (K)
Steel (L)
Jet Exhaust (M)
Citadel/Games Workshop
Boltgun Metal
Chainmail
Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Hobby Color
H1 White
H8 Silver
H12 Black
H13 Red
H304 Olive Drab
H315 Grey FS16440
H316 White FS17875
H317 Grey FS36231
Tamiya
X19 Smoke
Kit Build
As a manufacturer Eduard have drastically improved the quality of their own kits over the last few years. Even so they are still a comparatively small volume producer amongst the mainstream companies. We have become accustomed to opening a kit box and finding the contents are actually the product of a completely different manufacturer. This allows companies to expand their ranges for a fraction of the cost of constantly having to create new tooling. Thankfully in Eduard’s case they have always tried to use the best option available at the time of whichever subject they’ve picked. For their limited edition subjects this has meant Hasegawa, Academy, HobbyBoss, Airfix etc. Having already covered the U.S. Navy F-4B Phantom using the newish Academy kit now it’s the turn of the Air Force version with the same companies F-4C variant. The large box contains the complete Academy kit supplemented with a raft of improvements from Eduard’s own range of accessories. There are two frets of photo-etch, one painted, a set of pre-cut canopy and wheel masks and in resin wheels, seats and jet-pipes. The instructions have been re-drawn to take all these updates into account and consist of twenty pages, seven of which are in colour covering the paint and decals for the five options provided. The superb decal sheet designed by Furball Aero Design has four aircraft in the South East Asia scheme and one in the early navy style Grey and White. Altogether a nice package so let’s see how it builds.
The first job was to go through the instructions and the sprues as there are a lot of parts on them that aren’t required for the F-4C or are replaced by the Eduard parts. Without the Eduard parts this is quite a complex kit so removing the spares now makes it easier to keep track of where you are during the build. The build began with the cockpit and here you will find most of the photo-etch so you need to remove some of the moulded detail first. The tub was given a coat of H317 Grey and left aside to dry. While waiting for that some other sub-assemblies and parts were built and cleaned up ready for paint. Items like the intakes and undercarriage bays are good examples of this. Back to the cockpit tub a few details are picked out followed by some dry-brushing and pin washes before fitting the remaining pre-painted photo-etch parts. A quick coat of Vallejo satin clear seals the photo-etch and evens out the various finishes. The nose gear bay is added to the bottom of the cockpit and then that is fitted to the lower forward fuselage panel. We turn to the wings and main gear bays now starting with drilling the mounting holes for the pylons. One thing that is a bit of a pain is the main gear legs. These need to be added at this point as they are trapped in the wheel bay between the upper and lower wing halves. I managed to avoid breaking them during the build but it did make things awkward. The intakes and jet-pipes should be added to the wing now but I found the exhausts could be added later so these were left aside for now. The fuselage is a large single piece moulding in the same manner as the Tamiya 1/32nd scale kits but you still have a few insert panels to add. This is down to using the same basic fuselage for B, C, D and J variants. A touch of Mr Surfacer 500 blends these in nicely. Once a few small photo-etch parts are added to the cockpit sides the fuselage can be added to the wing and lower fuselage assembly. The front and rear fuselage joints just needed a swipe with a sanding stick to clean them up before adding the intakes. I’ve been building models for a long, long time and over that time I’ve built a lot of Phantoms from different companies and one thing that they have all had in common is the intakes. The fit is always challenging and I’m afraid this one is no different, especially on the underside. More Mr Surfacer to sort them out. The addition of the radome and it’s starting to look like a Phantom now. We move to the rear end now and here we find the one area that is a bit off as far as the shape is concerned. It tapers too much along the bottom making the tail cap the wrong shape when viewed from behind. Regardless of this the parts all fit well and are very well detailed. A big step now adding the outer wing panels, flaps, tailplanes, tailfin and rudder to more or less complete the airframe. I had already decided to do the grey and white aircraft so the rudder, flaps and tailplanes were left off to ease the masking and painting stage. With the addition of a few small parts around the airframe it was time to start thinking about paintwork. There is a lot of bare metal on the rear end of the Phantom so in preparation for some Alclad 2 the rear end and tailplanes were given a coat of thinned MrSurfacer as a primer/barrier. When that was dry it was given a quick polish before any paint went on. First to go on was an overall coat of Steel (L). Because it dries so quickly it was out with the Tamiya tape to mask off some of the Steel sections so I could add some brighter panels with Magnesium (K). The masking was then removed so I could do some shading and blending with Jet Exhaust (M). The bare metal parts were given a coat of Johnson Clear to seal them before they were masked up ready for the overall paintwork. While this was drying all the doors, drop tanks and pylons were prepared and mounted ready for painting as they are all pretty much White overall. The next paint to go was the H12 Flat Black on the radome and anti-glare panel. That was then masked and any excess Black overspray was polished off before the underside and all the detail parts were given a blast of H316 White. After another big masking session the topside H315 Grey went on. All the masking came off now and thankfully all was well with the paintwork. The last little bit of painting was to mask the airbrakes and refuelling recess panel before spraying them with H13 Red. A coat of clear gloss overall sealed everything and prepared the model for decals. There are a lot of these including the stencils and for the most part these went on very well needing just a touch of Micro Set and Sol to settle them down. The only thing to look out for is the Red stripe over the top of the fuselage. If you put this on before the stars and bars it will be visible under the White star. The answer here is easy, put the national markings on followed by the Red stripe. Before the stripe dries trim it back to the edge of the national marking. After any excess decal solution is removed the whole model was given a wash of thinned Grey acrylic ink to bring out the engraved surface detail. The wheel bays, airbrake bays and door were weathered with Mig Dark Wash cleaned up and blended with odourless thinners. The jet pipes were painted and added now and I have to say that these were the highlight of the Eduard additions. The detail on them is superb and a huge improvement on the Academy parts. With so many parts to add it’s a case of small detail painting and working your way through the pile. One problem I was aware of is the two triple ejector racks that are fitted to the inner wing pylons. If the Sidewinders are fitted the tailfins on the bombs clash with the missile fins. My fix was to put a couple of plastic card shims between the rack and the pylon to give it a bit more clearance. The Eduard ejector seats are very nice consisting of no less than twenty three resin and photo-etched parts for each seat. The Eduard canopy masks fitted perfectly making that job very easy. Whilst on the subject of the canopies, the kit parts are very clear and fit well but I was disappointed to find that there is nothing in the way of detail additions from Eduard. With all the colour photo-etch in the cockpit and the superb seats there is nothing for the cockpit sills or canopy frames/locks. For this reason I’ve closed up the cockpit on my model, fortunately a lot of the interior is still visible through the canopies. An overall coat of Vallejo acrylic Satin clear left just the lights to finish the model off.
Conclusion
For many years we have really only had the various Hasegawa kits to work on as Phantom fanatics. The Academy kits have set a new benchmark, apart from the rear end issue. From the box they are very nice but then Eduard have taken them up a notch further. At first glance the Eduard boxing seems a bit pricey but if you start adding up the cost of the base kit, photo-etch, ejector seats, wheels, jet pipes, masks and an aftermarket decal sheet all of a sudden it’s a bargain. The Eduard Bicentennial, "Good morning Da Nang" and "Good evening Da Nang" Phantom kits are limited editions so they won’t be around forever. Pick one up while you can as they are definitely worth buying.
Our thanks to Eduard (www.eduard.com) for the review samples. UK modellers can obtain this kit from Hannants, along with any other Eduard stockist.
Paints used
Alclad 2
Magnesium (K)
Steel (L)
Jet Exhaust (M)
Citadel/Games Workshop
Boltgun Metal
Chainmail
Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Hobby Color
H1 White
H8 Silver
H12 Black
H13 Red
H304 Olive Drab
H315 Grey FS16440
H316 White FS17875
H317 Grey FS36231
Tamiya
X19 Smoke
