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After months of
agonizing with the very tiny 1/720 scale ships ... I returned to the world of
1/48 scale jet aircraft. As a frequent surfer of ARC, I was very much
inspired by the variety and workmanship of the model builders that have
submitted their work. I was particularly interested in the F-4 models and
have always been an F-4G Wild Weasel enthusiast. Being stationed in the
Pacific region during my Air Force days, I got the chance to work with the 3rd
Tactical Fighter Wings 90th Tactical Fighter Squadron "Pair-of-Dice".
The unit flew F-4G Wild Weasels and in my opinion were the sharpest looking
F-4Gs out of the Weasel triad (George AFB and Spangdahlem AB are the others).
I wanted to model their aircraft for sometime. My chance for making this
squadron bird became a reality when Aeromaster brought out Phantom Collection
Part 1.. which had decals for the F-4Es and F-4Gs of the 3TFW. Ironically
... Aeromaster used photos from Mark Hasara, KC-135 pilot, and a modeller
himself and was someone I had met while stationed at Kadena. Mark is now a
full bird Colonel.
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The 90th TFS
received their F-4Gs about the same time as the 52nd TFW in Germany did around
1979. During their arrival at Clark they sported the sharkmouth which has
adorned all PACAF F-4Es and Clark F-4Gs during the 80s. The 90ths sister
squadron at Clark, the 3rd TFS "Puegots"; the 36TFS "Mustangs at
Osan, and the 497th TFS "Owls" at Teagu all wore the sharkmouth.
Like all F-4s... the 90th sported 4 different camouflage schemes during their
careers, the two tone green and tan with white underside SEA scheme then the SEA
wrap around followed by the Euro Green/Grey wrap around scheme then finally the
Hill Grey scheme.
The 90th had a
chance to be the first F-4Gs to see combat when SR-71 flights over North Korea
were fired upon. F-4Gs were dispatched to Korea and flew duing SR-71
mission windows but the North decided not to test them. In 1990, the brass
decided to retire the F-4Gs with the 90th leading the way. As this
happened... Desert Shield/Desert Storm came into play. The 90th continued
retiring her F-4Gs to make way for the newer F-15Es. However a handful of
90th TFS crews got the chance to augment pilots and "bears" of
the 81TFS from Germany at Sheika Isa, AB Bahrain. Some of the F-4Gs
themselves would not go away without a fight... aircraft 551, a MiG-21 killer
during its F-4E days during Linebacker II in Vietnam would join the 190TFS,
Idaho Air National Guard and fly Operation Northern and Southern Watch missions
and suppressing Iraqi SAMs. Idaho F-4Gs would sport that infamous
sharkmouth during their last days prior to converting to A-10s.
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The model I built is a 1/48 scale
Hasagawa F-4G Wild Weasel V. Its basically out of the box but with some
modifications. I used after market resin ejection seats from black box.
Another thing I did was modified the ALQ-119 that comes with the kit and
kitbashed it into a newer ALQ-184 3 band ECM pod. I also decided to depict
the F-4G as it would look armed if it was flying missions out of South Korea
which meant Wall-to-Wall AGM-88 HARMs and two AIM-7s for self protection.
Since the F-4G kit came with an older weapons package of AGM-78 Standard ARMs
and AGM-45 Shrikes, I had to steal 4 AGM-88s and 4 HARM launch rails from two of
the Hasagawa F-16CJ kits that I have. I also took the outer wing pylons
from AMT/ERTLs F-4G kit in order to make the outer wing pylons. I decided
not to hassle with photo etched parts for the cockpit and went with putting the
canopies in the down position. BIG TIME problems! My George AFB and
Spangdalhem F-4Gs that I will eventually build down the road will come from the
Hasagawa "one piece" canopy kits. As I said before I used
Aeromasters Phantom Collection Part 1 48-339 to depict the squadron commanders
plane, looks like this particular sheet is sold out. During the 80s alot
of squadrons "flagship" planes had TFS/AMU markings. This was
also the first time I had done some major weathering on a model. Overall I
am happy with the way the kit turned out and look forward to staying with 1/48
scale jets for awhile. I've included rare photos of 90TFS F-4Gs... and a
very rare one taken as the F-4s were heading back stateside with no squadron or
tail codes. Cheers!
Bert
www.legaspi.us.com
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