Scale aviation modeller international

model, the closed cockpit comes

in really handy for masking

the cockpit whilst painting.

The front wheel well is

integrated into the cockpit, so they

need to be built at the same time,

but it is really well thought out and

fits perfectly. The main wheel wells

are built into the wings and slot into

a tab at the bottom of the fuselage

to complete the inside of each well.

The rest of the airframe is

sublime and the detail is really well

refined. My personal highlight is

the depiction of the titanium plates

at the rear of the afterburners.

You get two complete J79

engines, but they are lacking in

a lot of detail. This is a shame,

as Zoukei Mura did such a great

job on the details for the Jumo

engines included in the 2016

release of the1/48 Ho 229 kit.

The kit includes a set of

AIM-7E Sparrow missiles and 4

AIM-9P Sidewinders. However,

no bombs are included in

the kit, which is a shame.

CONCLUSION

There are a few issues and

shortcomings with the kit: the lack

of harnesses is noticeable (although

there are plenty of etch or resin

replacements available), a few

details have been left out in the

wheel wells, and I had issues with

the fit of the outboard parts of the

wings, as there was a gap when

fitted in place. Also, some of the

sprue attachment points aren’t in

the greatest place, such as on the

spine at the top of the fuselage. Very

careful trimming is required when

removing these parts, especially as

Zoukei Mura plastic is quite soft.

The decal sheet is very nice,

but I would personally prefer

more than the one option in a kit

of this price; however, plenty of

aftermarket options are available.

Overall, though, this kit is fantastic

and easily the best F-4C in the scale.

Zoukei Mura have certainly done

their homework on this release.

This will be shortly followed by the

F-4D and hopefully, in my opinion,

an F-4B or N. Although it is quite

costly at approximately £70, don’t

let this high price tag put you off

what really is a fantastic kit.

I would sincerely like to

thank Zoukei-Mura, and Carmine

Napolitano specifically, for my review

sample; I will shortly be building it for

either a future issue of SAMi or MAM.

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