Revell F-4G Phantom II: Part 4

The fourth step in the build is the center wings and fuselage. This step took 1 hr 58 mins.

I divided the work into sections: center wing assembly and sub-assemblies.

Center wing assembly

Fuselage bottom (trimmed and sanded)
Guess the age of the original mold!
Center wing tops (trimmed and sanded)

The instructions call for some holes to be drilled, which serve as mounting holes for equipment underneath the aircraft. I picked the bit that matched the gauge of the hole on the underside of the part.

Hand drill with drill bits
All holes completed (right) vs. stock holes (left)

I’m not sure why these panels were separate parts instead of being part of the fuselage bottom. However, when I started test-fitting, I realized the numbering was backward.

Per the instructions, this didn’t look quite right (inside of aircraft view)
View from the underside of the aircraft; doesn’t line up with the air intakes
This looks more correct
Both panels installed

Sub-assemblies

At this point I test-fitted the rear fuselage (from Step 3) to the fuselage bottom and taped off sections to keep things in place for gluing. There were a few more holes to take care of first.

Pre-drilling
Post-drilling

The fit of center wing tops to the fuselage bottom was fairly good, but there will need to be sanding and filling later.

Top and bottom don’t quite align
Starboard side glued
Topside view of the starboard side
Front fuselage (from Step 2) ready to test-fit with the rear fuselage
The fit was fairly good.
Front and rear fuselages connected (underside)
Gaps on the underside to fill and sand later
Seams on the topside

Next step

Step 5 involves some assembly and painting of the air intakes.