1:72 F-4J Last Japanese Phantoms

The Japanese Phantoms on their last parade

When the Japan Air Self-Defense Force lined its Phantoms up on the runway for the last time in 2019, it closed forty-five years of unbroken service. The type reached them in 1974, that is at a time when a new generation of machines was already beginning to come in elsewhere in the world, and even so it lasted at the Japanese bases until the end of the second decade of the new century.

The sheet offers the markings of two particular aircraft. The first is the machine with the fuselage number 77-8399 of the 302nd Squadron, a unit that was among the last to say goodbye to the type and whose machines received conspicuous commemorative finishes for that reason. The second aircraft carries the number 07-8438 and its markings cover precisely the span from 1974 to 2019.

What to get with it

The package contains only printed markings for a model in 1:72 scale, and the airframe of the aircraft has to be obtained separately. The Japanese machines differ from the American ones in supplementary equipment and in the layout of the antennas, so before buying a kit it pays to compare photographs of the particular aircraft. A set of resin exhausts also comes in useful, because it is precisely these that carry the most traces of service on the late machines.

Apply the carrier film onto a smoothly clear coated surface. The Phantom has a number of convex covers and transitions on the fuselage where the film easily arches, so a decal softener and patience come in useful. The commemorative color finishes are moreover usually dark, so test in advance whether the print keeps its opacity on a dark surface. The most sensitive place tends to be the transition between the fin and the spine of the fuselage, where three surfaces meet at once and the film likes to form a crease there.