Furball Decals FD 48061: Black Bunny VX-4 F-4J

Back in the late 1960s, the Navy wanted to experiment with a paint scheme for use on night attack aircraft. For this purpose, VX-4, the test and eval squadron, painted one of its F-4Js overall black. The stencils were white and the unique markings were painted in light gull grey. The aircraft, then nose number 9, became quite popular for its overall black paint scheme. The experiment was deemed to be a failure as the overall black scheme did not seem to be that effective. The aircraft later had the scheme modified with white markings, and a Playboy bunny replacing the XF tail code. The stripes also changed a bit and in 1971 'Vandy 1' became the Black Bunny. So popular was this scheme that when the F-14 was in service, VX-4/9 continued the tradition. Interestingly, the subject of this sheet was one of a dozen F-4Js sent to the RAF as the F-4J(UK), becoming ZE 352 and operating with 74 Squadron for several years.

This sheet is quite large and provides not only the unique markings, but a full white stencil suite. The placement guides for this scheme are quite extensive and you can build the aircraft in either of its schemes. This sheet is designed for the new Z-M kit, but would probably also fit F-4Js from Hasegawa, Academy, or even Monogram.

July 2017

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