Amazingly Hasegawa is still selling those pre-2000 F-4 kits today. I have in my stash an F-4G from 1990 that I will review soon. Thank you for your interest and comment.

Thank you for sharing your comment. I’d say those Eduard limited releases (Good morning Da Nang, etc) would have to be best value for money: good Academy parts , Eduard ‘s PE cockpit detail sets, paint masks and Cartograf decals, plus full colour instructions, if you can still get them…

I do crew with your opinion, the only thing that really drives me mad about F-4 from Academy is that one has to install the main landing gear almost at the very beginning of the assembly process. That is something I can't understand since all the small parts of the landing gear become breaking prone. Because of that I have only two Phantoms by Academy. Tamiya is great, so is Hasegawa. Early Monogram is also good, still could be found on eBay (but decals are sometimes dead), early Testors/Italeri is good too, modern ones have some geometry problems, way too shallow backbone seam line which requires lots of sanding, and somehow Italeri still do not make retractable airbrakes. But the kits are good though. Isralian RF-4 is my favourite. But Tamiya is great. Especially in 1/32 scale!) But the latest F-4B, you are right, is an amazing kit.) Thanks!

Tamiya’s decals are much better now, but still a little thick compared to the like of Cartograf and after market decal makers’.

Or masking, which is a skill building exercise even if they're "ready made" - why bitch about something that's hardly a secret of the model making "universe" - there's no pleasing anyone, is there. Seek an option or alternative, why moan? *As for stencil data, there are plenty of great aftermarket decal set's. You build skills moaning.

Thank you for your comment. The dark spots on some sprues are actually shadows caused by the oblique lighting used to photograph them, because of the light coloured plastic, it was quite difficult to show details otherwise. Tamiya used intricate shapes on their sprue trees following the contour of the parts to provide maximum protection.

@@keunghoa Ah ha - my theory was that the sprues with the black paint were marked either if they needed painting before building in or that you had sanded/cleaned them up while still on the sprue. I was wrong with both. Sounds like you animated a photo - my assumption was a steady hand on a video camera, hence my confusion! Thanks for putting my mind to rest!

Tamiya’s decals are notoriously thick, the major downside to their models, best to get aftermarket decals as backup

The Zoukei Mura Phantoms are in a different class, very detailed and come with large number of parts, so will probably appeal more to the more dedicated modellers, but they are definitely among the best Phantoms available today.

I have the Hasegawa 1/48 F-4G, the Zoukei-Mura 1/48 F-4F and F-4S, the Academy 1/48 F-4B and now the Tamiya 1/48 F-4B, so the claim that Tamiya’s is the best is based on what I have compared it to. My opinion is based on value for money, quality of the kit, ease of build.