1/72 Hasegawa F-4G Phantom II Wild Weasel

Gallery Article by Burt Gustafson on June 25 2010

 

For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of my 1/72 scale F-4G Phantom II Wild Weasel. 

History: 
Drawing from lessons learned in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, a project dubbed Wild Weasel V produced the ultimate SAM killing aircraft of the time, the McDonnell-Douglas F-4G Phantom II. The G-model was converted from the cannon equipped F-4E. The most noticeable differences in the F-4G over the F-4E are the chin pod in place of the Vulcan cannon and a pod on top of the vertical tail. There are 52 antennas on the F-4G which are associated with the APR-38 Radar Homing System. By 1990, the APR-38 had been upgraded to the APR-47.

The most potent weapon carried by the F-4G, and still in service today, was the AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM). The AGM-88 is a fire and forget missile that has a memory that remembers where the radar transmitter is, even if it stops radiating.

During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, approximately 100 F-4Gs were deployed to Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain. From there, F-4Gs carried out SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) missions into Kuwait and Iraq for the duration of the conflict.

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Construction: 
Not a bad kit overall. The parts fit was pretty good, although it did require some filling and sanding in places. The kit goes together easily, and the external detail is quite good. The cockpit has basic detail but most of it is hidden with a closed canopy. It was assembled and painted per instructions. It was an out of the box build except for the HARM missiles and the ALQ-119 ECM Pod; they are from the Hasegawa Aircraft Weapons: IV kit.

Painting: 
For painting, I airbrushed the model for a factory fresh paint job using Model Masters and Floquil enamel paints. Landing gears, wheel wells and the insides of the landing gear doors were airbrushed with Floquil Reefer White. Note the paint scheme for F-4Gs consisted of only two colors, Neutral Gray and Gunship Gray. The nose cone is painted Semi-Gloss Black.

Burt Gustafson

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Photos and text © by Burt Gustafson