The Old Man Blog No.085 - The Giant of the Jet-fighters F-4: the Answer from Zoukei-mura - Part 1

We finally start accepting pre-orders from October 8th (Sat)!
(Regular release scheduled for December within Japan. Sequentially released in the rest of the world.)

The Giant of the Jet-fighters
F-4: the Answer from Zoukei-mura - Part 1

Hi everyone.
To all the F-4 fans around the world: good news from Japan where a lot of typhoons come one after another.

The SWS 1/48 F-4J kit pre-orders will be accepted from October 8th (Sat)!
Send your pre-orders to the following address right now!

"SWS 1/48 McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom Ⅱ"

SWS 1/48 F-4J
"SWS 1/48 McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom Ⅱ"
Price: 7500 JPY
(before tax, no shipment fee included)

Release date: December 23rd, 2016

Order via Japan (in Japanese Yen)

Order via Japan is sold out.

Order via Volks USA (in US Dollars)

Order via USA is sold out.

F-4, the special aircraft that left an unprecedented, enormous trace in the history of jet-fighters, is finally ready to join your collection in 1/48 scale.

Before that, I will introduce you in few episodes some contents of the SWS 1/48 No.4 "F-4J", starting from this blog entry.

But as always, this kit is still one step behind its final version since it is the latest test shot. Consequently, there are still some parts here and there to be fixed. But please be relieved, the kit that will be delivered to you in December will be a full SWS kit.

"Someday I want to have the ultimate version of the F-4 in 1/48 scale!" This dream I always had is about to come true now.

If you are reading this blog, I definitely recommend you to pre-order this kit right now. The release is scheduled for December but delivery will follow the reservation order.

* Furthermore, this F-4J will be pre-released from November 12th at the IPMS in Telford UK where it will be available for the first time in the world.
Of course, you can pre-order your kit and pick it up at the venue, so if you are going to attend the IPMS Telford please make your reservation from the link below.
(Only a few pieces will be available for this special pre-release. As soon as the available quantity will be covered by the pre-orders, we will stop accepting pre-orders, so please hurry up).

For customers who want to pick up their kit at Telford.

SCALE ModelWorld

F-4 Pre-order for IPMS Telford 2016

Item NameSpecial Price for the Show
SWS 1/48 McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom Ⅱ £69
  • * Pre-orders accepted for the "1/48 F-4J Phantom Ⅱ" kit only.
  • * Pre-order limited to one kit for each customer.

How to pre-order the "SWS 1/48 McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II"
for the IPMS Telford 2016 Show

If you want to pre-order the kit, please contact us using the email address below no later than 23:59 on October 5th 2016 (Wed).


  • * In order to prepare the reserved items, no pre-order will be accepted for any reason from October 6th 2016.
  • * Please pay for your kit at the venue (IPMS Telford 2016 Zoukei-mura booth).
  • * Only cash payment (in GBP) will be accepted.
  • * We will try to accommodate any storage request, but we ask for your understanding in case of sell-out.
  • * Reserved items must be picked up on November 12th (Sat) 2016 from 9:00 to 15:00, at the Zoukei-mura booth.
  • * In case pickup is not possible in the above mentioned time, please let us know via email when you make your pre-order, or no later than the pre-order deadline (Oct.5).
  • * Reservation will be cancelled if you don't pick up your item before 15:00 on November 12th (Sat) 2016.

Mail us at the following address to reserve and pick up
the F-4 at IPMS Telford 2016
Pre-order acceptance closed. Thanks everyone!
See you in Telford!。
Pre-order deadline is 23:59 on October 5th 2016 (Wed)
(Japanese Time).

Assembled F-4J out of the box.

Without adding anything and without doing any work on the parts. Just out of the box, that is what you get with this F-4. Beautiful outline, sturdy form, and impressive balance, the SWS 1/48 F-4J is assembled in front of your eyes.

 

Pay attention to the accurate representation of the F-4 outer shape.

"This is an F-4 but it's not a real F-4 at all…"I have got this sad feeling many times until now. I bought so many F-4 kits so far that ended up in despair. These F-4 kits were F-4, but at the same time there were not real F-4. It is finally time to part from that miserable feeling.

Let me introduce you what makes this kit an SWS!

First of all, the representation of the giant, complex air intakes. It is nice to see the J-79-10 engines through the intakes. There has never been an F-4 kit in 1/48 scale which areas around the intakes had been reproduced so accurately. In addition, we could make this in an amazing realism while keeping a low parts number.

Don't miss the cockpit too.

This is the best we could do with a 1/48 scale. The complexity of the real aircraft's cockpit is exceptional anyway. That's why it has always been difficult to turn it into a kit. But this F-4 has gone to a higher level, overcoming the common knowledge. What will it look like once you have worked on it?
To me, this is already fine. I am more than satisfied!

So, let's see some assembly!

We have come this far with the F-4 Instruction Manual. To make sure you will not lose any part, cut only the parts used for assembly, put them into a container, and refine them with sand papers, a shaping chisel or a file. Be careful especially when you work on the emergency ejection handle as it is easy to break because of its shape and thickness. The PRO-ZETSU Nippers from the "Old Man's 7 Tools" will save you the hustle here. PRO-ZETSU Plastic Modeling Chisel, capable of 90 degrees precise cuts, also shows its strength in these situations.

[Note] This is a test shot, so the color of the parts will differ.

The cockpit is complete. Plug it on the right side of the fuselage, and adjust left and right sides of the fuselage to test-fit. Make sure you understand well the cementing positions. Rather than on the underside of the fuselage, use extra thin cement on its right side to fix the parts, and let it dry. (If you use extra thin cement, the cement dries in 2 or 3 minutes.)

Make sure you have fixed the cockpit on the exact position on the right side of the fuselage, and then proceed to the fuselage assembly. Adjust left and right, and also top and bottom lines of the fuselage. Please test-fit the parts as much as you can. If you think that "ah no, this is an easy cake…", and cement straight-away, you might be crying later.

So how was this introduction to the SWS F-4J build out of the box?

So let's make a break for this time.

Next time we will move on to the assembly of the J79ー10 engine and the work around the intakes.
Also, I will show you the pictures of all the runners. Please look forward to it.


This is it for today.
A very hard, technical work on the tooling is actually necessary to reproduce in 1/48 scale the details of a jet-fighter's cockpit. But we tried our best to represent everything we could with this F-4 kit. Now it's up to you and your high skills to take it to an even higher level.



Please wait for "F-4: the Answer from Zoukei-mura - Part 2" entry!!

See you next week then. TV News is reporting that another typhoon is going to hit Japan.

Well, looks like heavy rain will follow.

Hideyuki Shigeta
President, Zoukei-Mura


▋Thank you to all the customers all around the world for your orders of the "tweezers" from the Old Man's "Seven Tools" that I have introduced you in the last entry!

This service is effective until 31st December 2016. Don't miss this chance to get such a masterpiece.

▋"Zoukei-mura V Tweezers (Bent)"

For you guys who missed this at the venue, we will deliver this anywhere in the world to all of you without charging you the shipping fees. Just write "I read the blog!" and order it.
These are my favorite tweezers and I have been using them for over 30 years.
Don't miss this chance to buy it. So user-friendly that you will never want to put it down.



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