The Phabulous Phantom is in its twilight years, having been produced in larger numbers than any other post WWII American fighter. Though out of the inventory of many who flew it, the airframe is still able to perform a variety of missions, including the air to ground/air to ship mission.

One of the nations that has decided to breathe new life into the old girl is Turkey, who, with assistance by IAI, has modernized a number of airframes with new avionics to allow the aircraft to stay in service until 2020, by which time, the Phantom II will have been in active service somewhere for 60 years. Since those external clues are pretty simple to replicate, Caracal Models has brought out a sheet covering the two active and one test unit that are still flying the plane.

There are three options. The first is the aircraft on the cover photo from 111 Filo, 'Panthers'.

Next is a 132 Filo plane. This is the test unit and carries the knight on the intake.

The third is 171 Filo, 'Pirates' with the large swashbuckler on the fin.

The decal sheet includes wing walk areas and stencil data enough to build two models. All the options are in the Hill Grey II scheme. The sheet instructions include a background history and what needs to be done to bring your kit up to specs. No kit is specified, but most will gravitate to the still excellent Hasegawa offering. To see the profile schemes, visit the link directly below.

Decals themselves are superbly printed by Cartograf and you can get this sheet direct from http://www.caracalmodels.com/cd48011.html . It is a sheet that no Phantom Phan should be without. As Caracal sheets tend to sell out rather quickly, I suggest picking one up soon.

March 2012

Thanks to www.caracalmodels.com for the review sheet. Get yours today from the link or have your local shop order it for you.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.

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