Sincere appreciation to Eduard for providing yet another review item, and to the IPMS USA reviewer corps leaders for sending it to me!

This set continues Eduard’s effort to provide modelers with previously unavailable, well detailed resin sets. Forty-one resin parts, and photoetch - both color and unpainted, make up this set. You can assemble one F-4J cockpit with late model Mark IV Martin Baker Ejection seats.

F-4’s are the poverbial dog’s breakfast when it comes to cockpit configuration. All Naval aviation varieties have the provision for the aerial refueling probe taking up the upper starboard side of the radar navigator (GIB or “Guy in Back”) compartment, and therefore have lots of cobbled-together configurations as to black boxes, communication gear, controls, etc. The front pit is more common, but still varies from bureau number to bureau number, and upgrade to upgrade. I would never attempt to figure out what is on any given F-4B or J at any given time. We won’t address the USAF and foreign versions.

Cool details. This set has two types of instrument panels; one with full instrumentation ready for old-school detail painting and installation, and one set with a pre-cleared panel with little detail, ready to use the magnificent (I’m not prejudiced) pre-painted photoetch panels.

What did not work for me: the nose gear interior roof. This is a brass plate, which you are supposed to bend into place on the existing nose gear walls, then install and all will be well. Wrong. I removed the nose gear well after I figured out it needed to be SERIOUSLY reduced in height. Good thing: Great Planes metal sanding “T” and replaceable paper. I took the whole nose gear well walls down 1/8 of an inch, and the fuselage sides & fuselage undersurface (with nose well attached). I then was able to fit everything under the resin cockpit tub. I will install rib detail later, but only after I had done all this did I learn why things did not fit.

It’s called STUDY the instructions. You are asked to remove part of the rear sill area on the kit fuselage. This would allow the cockpit tub to move up about 1/8 of an inch.

Guess how much I had to remove to get the tub to fit? “We is our own worst enemy”. Stupid reviewer syndrome strikes again.

The ejection seats are multi-part, and require some skills. First, there is a really nice looking stencil for marking the seat cushion so it has proper markings. This will only work before you have the seat installed, and will require very low airbrush pressure and steady hands. I had neither, and botched it. Oops. Nobody will notice this under the seat harnesses.

The rest of the seat construction went well. Painting was painting, and the belts and harnesses fit fine. I did not try to bend them too much, for fear of cracking the paint. With the Martin Baker seats, I prefer molded on detail, as it is easier for me to detail paint, wash, and drybrush to get a great result. Others seem to do better at this than I do. In the final moment, with the survival kit handle on the right, overhead grab handles, plus the front ‘tween the knees’ grab handle and safe shield, it looked pretty good in spite of my poor PE skills.

Cockpit sill detail fits perfectly and adds that little bit missing in other, older sets. Same for the canopy rails; a noteable effort, including latches and hooks.

The final product looks magnificent, even with all the reviewer-generated problems. That means others will do better!

All in all, a great effort. Eduard’s Brassin range is always expanding, and with this being yet another complete model in a blister pack, with resin parts, I give them 10 of 10 for subject and performance, well done Eduard!