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Mysterious F-4C markings


J.P.

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I used to have a Hasegawa 1/72 F-4C that came with decals to do a plane with checkers on the vertical and horizontal tail surfaces, see below. I'd like to do that scheme in a larger scale, 48th or 32nd, but I have no idea what unit it was with to look up an aftermarket decal sheet. I'm sure those tail codes give a clue but I have no idea how to read them. Any one ever seen an aftermarket set with this scheme on it? TIA

John

 

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57FIS (Fighter Intercepter Squadron) based at Keflavik in Iceland. Painted for the William Tell Fighter Meet in 1976 - hence the bicentennial pretzal on the intake. I think the meet was in Florida but happy to be corrected

 

A quick look at my resources give 63-618, 63-685 and 63-436 as being so marked - I think there may be more.

 

If you are one of those people who need total accuarcy be careful because some decal sheets got the pattern of the checker board wrong. I'm fairly sure microscale (superscale) did the scheme in 1/72 and 1/48 so check Hannants website for availability.

 

Once I have found my Colour and markings book on the F-4C I'll add addtionall info.

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To add some more info, this style of marking was applied to all aircraft of the unit after William Tell 1976 and was kept on the F-4C until these were replaced with the E variant in mid 1878. On these aircraft of course there was no Bicentennial logo and no William Tell markings on the tanks. The scheme lasted for less than 2 years but is undeniably good looking !

 

Edited by Giorgio N
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The picture on the front of Detail and Scale F-4 Phantom pt 1 shows 63-436 with lots of white and black stencils - now that takes me back. The 57th had a great variety of markings over their time with the Phantom (C and E models) - there's also the famous picture of a 57th E -in adc gray - with folded wings in-flight!

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12 minutes ago, iainpeden said:

The picture on the front of Detail and Scale F-4 Phantom pt 1 shows 63-436 with lots of white and black stencils - now that takes me back. The 57th had a great variety of markings over their time with the Phantom (C and E models) - there's also the famous picture of a 57th E -in adc gray - with folded wings in-flight!

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😲

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2 hours ago, iainpeden said:

57FIS (Fighter Intercepter Squadron) based at Keflavik in Iceland. Painted for the William Tell Fighter Meet in 1976 - hence the bicentennial pretzal on the intake. I think the meet was in Florida but happy to be corrected

 

A quick look at my resources give 63-618, 63-685 and 63-436 as being so marked - I think there may be more.

 

If you are one of those people who need total accuarcy be careful because some decal sheets got the pattern of the checker board wrong. I'm fairly sure microscale (superscale) did the scheme in 1/72 and 1/48 so check Hannants website for availability.

 

Once I have found my Colour and markings book on the F-4C I'll add addtionall info.

I'm not a rivet counter but any additional info would be appreciated.

 

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33 minutes ago, J.P. said:

I don't believe I've heard of this company, are they any good? I'll have to Google some reviews on this kit.

That link is a reliable review with the summary being that the ZM F-4 in 1/48 is the best for detail and accuracy. Academy might be an easier build though.

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Those were standard 57th FIS markings, not something special for William Tell (which, btw, was always held at Tyndall AFB, Florida, home of the Air Defense Weapons Center).

 

The Zoukei Mura F-4C has 57th FIS markings in the box.

Edited by Sonoran
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14 hours ago, iainpeden said:

57FIS (Fighter Intercepter Squadron) based at Keflavik in Iceland. Painted for the William Tell Fighter Meet in 1976 - hence the bicentennial pretzal on the intake. I think the meet was in Florida but happy to be corrected

 

A quick look at my resources give 63-618, 63-685 and 63-436 as being so marked - I think there may be more.

 

If you are one of those people who need total accuarcy be careful because some decal sheets got the pattern of the checker board wrong. I'm fairly sure microscale (superscale) did the scheme in 1/72 and 1/48 so check Hannants website for availability.

 

Once I have found my Colour and markings book on the F-4C I'll add addtionall info.

The Detail and Scale book for early USAF Phantoms blasted the Microscale sheet with the scheme as being totally wrong.  Unfortunately that is typical of Micro(Super)scale decal sheets.  The decals are fairly decent but can be very inaccurate or have lousy instructions.  As an example, I am using a sheet of their's for OA-37s, one Columbian AF and the other USAF.  They indicate a type of wraparound paint scheme with 36081 and 34079 for the Columbian AF aircraft.  HOWEVER they only show the left side of the aircraft with no other views or diagrams of how the scheme looks.  Nothing on the web either, so I did it based on what I could find on the Uraguay AF markings for their OA-37s.

Later,

Dave

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7 hours ago, Sonoran said:

Those were standard 57th FIS markings, not something special for William Tell (which, btw, was always held at Tyndall AFB, Florida, home of the Air Defense Weapons Center).

I have always thought the markings were, at least initially, for the William Tell Meet and then carried on until the F-4Cs were painted ADC gray (at least some were). According to the World Air Power journal "Spirit in the Sky" the 57th started to use the Phantom in 1973 (F-102s before that) and transitioned to the E starting March 1978. The book has a picture of 63-618 (as illustrated at the start of the post) in SEA camo with a checkered rudder only (not the fin) but does wear the bicentennial pretzal which dates the picture to sometime in 1976 before the fighter meet (any dates on that??) and with the 63-618 in white with the unit badge above the "8"

 

There are pictures of the Es also in SEA camo before painting in ADC gray - note NOT the Hill Gray/Egyptian 1 scheme - usually with a checker band on the fin cap and also running along the base of the fin. So my understanding of the time line:

From 1973 - SEA camo with check rudders and white serial numbers

1976 - add the pretzal marking on the port intake

1976 - full check fins for the meet

1977 - at least some of the Cs repainted in ADC Gray

1978 - transition to E with some of them retaining the SEA scheme

1983 and 1985 I ACTUALLY GET TO SEE THEM AT IAT (HURRAH)

1985 - transition to the F-15

 

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Whelp, you guys made me do it. I went ahead and ordered the Zoukei F-4C kit despite my self imposed model embargo, since I have several un-built/half started kits occupying my shelves of doom (yes multiple shelves are needed due to the sheer number of kit that are languishing). I've watched a number of You Tube videos of reviews and builds on this kit and it seems to be a gem. One gentleman, Scale-A-Ton, does a great job building his, here's the link to it for anyone interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsVm6Fzji3w. I'm psyched, I really love this scheme.

 

Thanks again all for the info.

John

 

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