Eduard 1/48 Brassin F-4 Phantom Wheel Sets
By Randy Fields
The Phantom has always been one of my favorite kits to build in 1/48th scale. One of the drawbacks to the Hasegawa kit is the lack of detail on the wheels and tires. Part of this problem has been solved with the release of the Eduard Brassin F-4 Phantom II wheel sets in 1/48th scale.They have released two beautifully cast resin replicas of Phantom wheels packaged as F-4J/N Set #648-014 and a F-4S Set #648-015. Both sets contain two main wheels and two nose wheels with detail down to the Goodyear brand on the tires. The sets also include etched metal break lines, paper painting masks and as a bonus wheel chocks for the Phantom.
These are great aftermarket upgrades for your quarter-scale Phantom but with one major draw back. The F-4B/N Phantoms main landing gear utilizes 8-inch wide "thin" tires while the F-4J/S Phantoms have 11-inch wide "thick" tires. Using the #015 set you can accurately build either a F-4J or F-4S. However, the #014 set is wrong for a F-4J or F-4N. For the main landing gear it has the wrong hub for the J and it has to wide of tire for the F-4N.(Ed. Note: You can find images of the wheels and tiresĀ in Danny Coremans' fine publication Discovering the US NAVY PHANTOMS B/J/N/S published by DACO Publications.)
Conclusion
This is a great aftermarket kit from Brassin but only the F-4S wheels are correct. Hopefully in he future they will update the F-4B/N set to have the correct 8-inch tire width.
Thanks to Eduard for providing the review sets.