F-4J Phantom II One Piece Canopy

An absolutely wonderful model of the best fighter of its time. Easy to build, it looks great on my desk. Highly recommended.

Very good details on recess panel lines and rivets. Some very small and delicate parts meant patient work but generally the parts fit well. I built the kit with open canopies. The hinge contacts and the lift actuators are very delicate with minimum contact points to effect a good cementing. The decals are extremely thin and they looked like they were painted on after drying. But while handling the larger pieces of decals, they could tear easily or even disintegrate if you had to re-position them. The forward wing attachment to the fuselage didn't fit well and some vigorous sanding or putty work was necessary. This would not a problem except some surface details were lose and could not be readily replaced. While overall details are very good, there are some details which I wish the kit had. The air inlets are large and it would be nice to have visible turbine inlet blades included in the duct interiors. With some patience the product is a very nice looking airplane.

Hasagew's F-4s are some of the best F-4 kits on the market. The external detail is excellent, with nicely recessed panel lines and rivet details. The cockpit detail is a little on the weak side, but this seems to be common to almost all Hasegawa kits. Eduard provides beatifull PE interior detail sets for all of the Hasegawa F-4 kits, and there are numerous resin aftermarket cockpits, wheel wells etc. For me the wheel well detail of the kit is adequate. Fit of all parts is excellent, with no flash present. Decals are nice. I was surprised that though the kit says one piece canopy, there is actually parts to build it either closed (one piece) or open. The only other kit of this particular aircraft is the old Raised panel line Monogram/Revell kit and this is only aviavable on E-Bay or at swap meets. I would recommend this kit.