The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom is one of the most iconic aircraft ever produced. At the time, it was the highest performance fighter jet in the world, setting several altitude and speed records.

The Phantom became idelibly linked with the war in Vietnam as it was deployed by the Navy, Marines, and Air Force. After realizing that the jets would be engaged in close quarters dogfights with enemy fighters, the Vulcan 20mm cannon was added to the F-4E variant so that Phantoms could engage the opposition when the aircraft were too close to use missiles.

This is the 1/72 Hobby Craft kit. It is very old, lacking a lot of detail, and had very poor quality decals. I wanted to build it in the Air Force Vietnam camouflage color scheme (South East Asia colors).

Here is the basic kit. I pre-emptively added some weight in the nose using wax and a few ball bearings so it would not be a tail-dragger.

I added a few dry-brush details to the cockpit and some belts using masking tape.

A lot of putty and sanding was required to fill the gaps in the fuselage and wings after assembly. Unfortunately, with raised panel lines, detail is lost after sanding.

I airbrushed the underside with a custom light grey mixture and used Tamiya NATO Brown XF-68, Tamiya NATO Green XF-67 and Tamiya Deep Green XF-26 for the camo colors.

I did the best I could with the decals. In this case, I really liked the matt finish I had, so I didn’t coat with Future clear acrylic. As a result, there is some decal silvering, but overall it looks pretty good.

I used some painted masking tape for the markings on the Sparrow missiles and dipped the tip in a bottlecap of grey paint.

Overall, it was a good build to work on filling and sanding, airbrush control and technique, and to try decals without a clear coat. Mr. Phantom is ready to take on the North Vietnamese MiG’s!