One of the early lessons of the conflict in Vietnam was that modern jet fighters really needed an internal gun. Pod mounted guns were thought to be the best way to deal with that, but the truth was that these weapons were never able to be as rigidly mounted as one in an airframe. Besides, there was no way to really sight one of these. So early in the war, it was decided by the USAF to arm its future Phantoms with guns. While they were at it, they also upgraded the avionics and the engines. A bit later, they improved the airframe as well by adding slatted wings. This latter upgrade allowed a 10% improvement in turning radius at the expense of some speed. This was retrofitted to most all extant F-4E airframes. So equipped, this is how the Phantom operated for the rest of its life in USAF/ANG service. The initial F-4Es were 1966 fiscal year builds and entered combat around 1968. More F-4Es were built than any other variant. 140 F-4E models were built by Mitsubishi for the JASDF and served into 2021. 

What is presented is the standard F-4EJ boxing (which is pretty much an early F-4E without the Agile Eagle slatted wings) with an additional decal sheet.The fuselage has a separate nose and this nose only has the later, elongated gun muzzle. The nose is on a smaller separate sprue. I should also mention that when joining the wings, there will be a seam through the lower flaps that will need to be filled.

The cockpit is very nice for the time with raised detail on the instrument panels and side consoles. The bang seats are good representations of the MB Mk 4 used by the F-4 but are devoid of straps and other fine detailing. This is because the kit comes with a full crew and you are supposed to install these folks inside. The cockpit is a relatively accurate USAF F-4 cockpit with control sticks for both crew members.

The kit comes with the correct longer burner cans for the updated J79-GE-17 engines. It also comes with the slatted stabs that have the reinforcement arrow. Landing gear are well done and though there is little detail in the wheel bays, is typical of the time. So is the typical ejector pin marks on the gear, inside of gear doors, on weapons, and so on. The kit includes a weapons suite that includes both Sidewinders and Sparrows.

Instructions are standard fare for a 1989 era Hasegawa kit and provides Gunze paint references for a light grey over white F-4E. The additional decal sheet is for a 10th anniversary of 305 squadron plane as shown on the box art. There is an additional sheet for decal placement for this scheme. If you'd rather do a 'normal' F-4EJ, you can do that as well as the original instructions are used and the standard F-4EJ decal sheet is included in with the kit. All of the common markings as well as the unit badge will come from the standard decals (not shown). While I don't doubt that the 35 year old decals may well still work, they suffer a bit from yellowing and, of course, the whites are not white but an off white color. You can find aftermarket if you do a web search.

Hasegawa's once pinnacle 1/48 F-4 kits are now eclipsed by other manufacturers. However, that does not mean they are junk. Just not as detailed. I've built quite a few Hasegawa Phantoms and am used to them. The F-4Es were retooled after the initial production kits to have engraved panel lines, so no worries about building a raised panel line dinosaur. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phantom_II