1:72 F-4D Phantom II AF66-498 North Dakota Centennial 1889-1989

The Phantom that had to do without gun armament

The D version came about by adaptation for the US Air Force after the type had gone through its initial introduction with the Navy. It received a different radar with better work against ground targets, a reworked sight and the ability to carry the first generation of guided munitions. It lacked a built-in cannon, though: the designers started from the conviction of the day that combat would be conducted with missiles at long range and a barrel would be a burden. Combat experience disproved that reasoning and the remedy came only with the following form, which got a cannon in the nose.

The silhouette of the airframe is determined by a pair of engines with afterburners, wingtips cranked upward and a markedly downward-sloping horizontal tail surface. These breaks are not stylization but a correction of stability found during the test program; it is precisely they that make the type a shape that cannot be confused with anything else. The crew consists of two men in tandem, which was no luxury in an aircraft with the radar technology of the day.

The coloring on the sheet is celebratory and relates to the centenary of statehood, whose extent is described by the years 1889 and 1989 in the name; their difference really does amount to a hundred years. The machines of the air units of the National Guard tended to carry such finishes for a single season, then returned to tactical camouflage, so it is a short-lived state.

The package consists of a sheet printed for 1:72 scale. After soaking, the motif separates from the backing and slides onto the model; large areas are best divided into smaller pieces.