To most knowledgeable and intelligent people, the finest jet in the last 35 years is the F-4 Phantom II. Those lacking proper perception will undoubtedly differ in this matter, however, it isn't too late to come to your senses! :o)

Other than perhaps the Mig-17 or Mig-21, no other post-Korean war jet has been built in greater numbers. Certainly no other non-Soviet designed aircraft. There must have been a reason for it. It certainly isn't simplicity or ease of maintenance. The Phantom was one of the last Western fighters where the airframe was designed first and then room was found for other equipment. Nowadays, ease of maintenance is as important as any other factor. It certainly wasn't designed to be stealthy. Nothing like two smoke trails following several tons of hurtling metal to make yourself visible! It also wasn't designed to be quiet. If you have ever been around the beast without proper hearing protection, your ears will definitely be ringing.

What made it such a success is that it was able to perform a variety of missions and perform them all well. Probably your first decent multi-mission aircraft. It was an interceptor, a (unwilling) dogfighter, a superb ground attack aircraft, a night fighter, a level bomber, a SAM suppression aircraft, and a blast to fly. Before that, aircraft were generally specialized. After the Phantom, there were still purposefully built aircraft, but it lead the way to today's multi-mission aircraft.

It was one of the few combat types flown by the US Navy, Marines and Air Force at the same time. I'm sure that if the Army was allowed fixed wing supersonic combat jets, that it would have flown them as well. Nearly all who flew it loved it, and so did many of those who fixed it (albeit several years after the type left service!). The final tally of F-4s, including those built in the UK and those built in Japan was 5,027. The milestone 5,000th aircraft was built in March of 1978 and was one of the last batch built. 77-0290 was one of 24 Block 65 F-4Es that went to Turkey. 8 others of this block went to Greece. The final Phantom produced; 78-0744 was one of 18 block 67 F-4Es built for the South Korean Air Force. Greece and Turkey are still flying the F-4 and I would not doubt if South Korea was as well. The fate of 77-0290 is unknown to this author.

Those who have built any of the previous Hasegawa 1/72 F-4Es will find nothing new in this kit except the decal sheet. Like all of the newer mold Phantoms in this scale, it is a mass of plastic, offering many options and interchangeable sprues. This kit dates from 1991; difficult to believe that it is ten years old, however it is still, to many, the best in this scale. 

If you have read the preview of the F-4J done a few months ago, you will notice that much of this kit is the same. All that I said about that kit is true of this one. The big differences are those sprues circled in orange. The benefit of this system is that the manufacturer can produce a bunch of different variants using many of the same sprues. The downside for the builder is that you have a bunch of extra seam lines and inserts to have to deal with. You also get quite a few spare parts when you are done.

As with many other Hasegawa 1/72 kits, there is no ordnance included. This is so that you will gleefully plunk down the extra funds on a weapons set. Frankly, many of us do not like this, but there is darn little we can do about it.

I did mention that this is basically the 1991 F-4E kit. In fact, you get the same instructions, just an addendum sheet to cover the special decals. The old kit decals are not included. The decals that come with the kit look very nice and seem to have all the various striping and such as part of the decals. The only area that you may have some trouble will be with the nose section. This is a highly complex surface over which to try to wrap the decal. However, the decal is well formed and one never knows until one tries. Should you really be brave and want to paint on the stripes, you have a separate section with flags for this purpose.

Since this is was a special short time scheme, the problem of ordnance and various racks and drop tanks really doesn't come into play as most of its flights like this were done with the airframe free of all those things. Only if you want to use different markings would that come into play. You will notice from the picture that this plane did not have the triangular reinforcement plates on the horizontal stabilizers. These will have to be sanded off the kit ones. I am also not positive about it having extended slats on the outboard wings as in the kit parts. The picture isn't much help and the box art doesn't show that part! Additional research will have to be done in that regard. Thankfully, the aircraft was mercifully devoid of the myriad stencils found on most F-4 so decaling will not be a week-long process.

Overall, it really does look like it will be a very nice model. All you have to do when using the kit decals is to be sure to use very warm to hot water to soften them so they will stick.

Review kit courtesy of Marco Polo Importers. Thanks for your support.

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