The book has six chapters plus a foreward by an RAF Phantom pilot, an introduction that suggests different modelling tools and materials, a section on weathering, duplicating the bare metal areas, displaying the completed model and photographing the model, a biography and reference section,  and a list some of the currently available Phantom kits with some comments about each.  One possible problem for American purchasers of the book is the liberal use of British brand-name paints, materials and chemicals, calling for the use of such materials as "Rotring air brush cleaner" and "Halford's screen wash."   I have no idea of what the US equivalents of these would be, but of course with the internet I'm sure we can get that info readily from our Brit friends.  The authors also describe using different gauges of "fuse wire" for cockpit details, but as an American, even being an electronics tech, I'm not sure what fuse wire is nor what an American equivalent would be.  I've found several gauges of lead wire at a fishing tackle shop (for tying flies) that work very well for detailing. Perhaps this is the same stuff?

  In an F-4, if the canopy doesn't leave the airplane, the seat won't go through it as it would on some other fighters.  When the canopy jettisons, the wire pulls out the interdictor block on the top rear of the seat, which allows the ejection sequence to proceed.  All production Phantoms use Martin-Baker seats (Mk-H-5 or Mk-H-7) and have this feature.  I do not know if the prototype Phantoms which used McDonnell designed seats had this. 

  The first project is an 81st TFS (Spangdahlem AB, Germany) Hill Gray painted F-4G in 1/48 scale by Hasegawa with Eduard photoetch, Aires exhaust nozzles, and AirDOC decals.  There are a couple of very minor errors in this chapter, referring to AGM-88 HARMs as AGM-45 Shrikes in a couple of places for one, as well as mentioning cutting and dropping the "moulded-in flaps on the main wings... just inboard of the wing-fold",  the "flaps" which of course are the ailerons.   I would have hoped a book on the F-4 would have mentioned the unique-to-Phantoms (AFAIK) characteristic that when the stick is deflected one aileron goes down while the opposite side has a spoiler that comes up (with that side's aileron traveling upwards only a couple of degrees as the spoiler comes up).  As the book says, when the hydraulics aren't pressurized, both ailerons tend to droop over time.  The F-4G is shown with the left side aileron fully down, which was possible but rare to see.  Generally the ailerons would droop to a maximum of only 30 degrees or so, and most often the ailerons on each side would be at noticeably different angles from each other.

    Interestingly, in this chapter the authors describe a mistake they made, planning to use the Aires resin exhaust nozzles but failing to make sure they fit before gluing the major assemblies of the aircraft together.  Because some plastic structure inside the rear fuselage of the Hasegawa kit should have been cut away for the nozzles but wasn't, the author had to cut the nozzles much shorter so they would fit.  I liked that they so readily admitted their mistakes and how they compensated; who among us has never done something similar? 

  The authors also heavily tint the center windscreen green on this and the other models in this book, which is incorrect.  The three-piece windscreen on a Phantom consists of the side panels which are Plexiglass plastic roughly 1/2 inch thick, and the center panel which is laminated glass, roughly an inch thick.  Glass is less transparent than plastic (compare a large acrylic aquarium with a glass aquarium of similar capacity at a pet store if you want to see this for yourself), and really thick glass takes on a very faint green tint when viewed from an angle, such as that of an observer on the ground next to the aircraft.  I had seen many models of Phantoms with tinted center windscreens before I joined the Air Force, so when I was working on the real jets I took a good look to see if this was accurate.  In most lighting conditions, the center windscreen looked absolutely clear, but perhaps VERY slightly darker than the side panels. You'd really have to be looking for it to notice it. However, in certain lighting conditions (hazy no-shadow days as I recall) the glass would appear a beautiful shade of green.  The center windscreens on book's models are tinted far too dark.  If you are going to tint the center windscreen glass on your models, make it VERY subtle! 

  The second chapter in this book illustrates the Revell RF-4E in 1/72 scale, using Eduard Photo-etch, part of the Aires Cockpit and afterburner nozzles, and AirDOC decals to finish the model in AG51 marking in the two dark greens, dark gray Luftwaffe scheme of the 1980s.  This is a short chapter, but does a nice job of showing the detail that can be incorporated in this small scale.

  The third chapter details the 1/48 scale Hasegawa FGR.2 painted light grays in 23 Squadron markings, using the Aires F-4E/F cockpit with modifications, Airwaves seats for British Phantoms, and AeroMaster decals.  The authors show the difficulties involved in getting the Aires cockpit to fit, and have a few good detailing ideas.  One minor quibble I have is that the author deflects the rudder and rudder pedals (correct) and the nose wheel is turned to match (maybe not so correct).  On the Phantom (as with most other aircraft with hydraulic nose wheel steering) the nose wheel position is independent of the rudder pedals with the hydraulics depressurized.  The rudder is mechanically, as well as hydraulically, connected to the rudder pedals, but the nose wheel steering is hydraulic only with a small hydraulic motor and gears.  Whatever position the nose wheel is in after engine shutdown or after the tow bar is disconnected is where it will stay.  The rudder and rudder pedals will go to a neutral position, unless a stiff breeze blows the rudder off to one side in which case the pedals will deflect accordingly. As an addendum, on the Phantom when the hydraulics are depressurized the control stick goes to the centered neutral position no matter what deflection the stabilator was set to during shutdown.  The stab will retain whatever position it was left in when the hydraulics were depressurized even as the control stick goes to centered neutral.  The ailerons were always at neutral and the spoilers closed when the jet was shut down in my experience.  The spoilers could be pried up by the crew chief during his preflight inspections.  Normally they'd close themselves after he let them go, but sometimes they'd stay up a little.  Still, it was extremely rare to see them open even a little without the hydraulics pressurized and the stick deflected.  Do note that Phantom spoilers were used in conjunction with the ailerons only; the left and right wing spoilers couldn't be raised simultaneously like you might see on an airliner or cargo aircraft.  Anyway, it is possible that the nosewheel, rudder pedals and rudder would all be in alignment off to one side on a parked Phantom, but it's much more likely that the nosewheel would be centered.  If you want to throw contest judges for a loop, cock the nosewheel off to the opposite side from the rudder and pedals; you'd be just as correct but it'd sure look unnatural!

  This is the only model in which the auxiliary air doors ("aux air doors" for short) are mentioned.  These doors opened automatically when the landing gear handle was selected "down" on J79-powered Phantoms, and opened automatically on Spey-powered Phantoms when the air speed was below a certain limit.  The aux air doors allow cooling air to circulate around the engines when the aircraft is at slow speeds or sitting stationary, and should always be open when the aircraft is parked.  On the J79-powered versions, the doors snap shut when the engines are being shut down as the generators drop offline, but as soon as the engines have spooled down completely a ground crewman will pry them open and insert a safety strut to keep them open.  Parts of the engines and the centerline keel structure are visible through the doors.  J79-powered versions have only the pair of aux air doors on the belly while Spey powered versions have a second pair on the sides of the aft fuselage.  With the engines shut down, the aft fuselage aux air doors drooped almost closed.

  The next chapter features the 1/32 scale Tamiya F-4J in the RAF's 74 Squadron markings from Yellow Hammer, Eduard PE, Cutting Edge Sidewinders and Navy Wheels, a CAM SUU-23A gunpod on the centerline, and Reheat seats and intake covers.  This model features a scratch-built Ram Air Turbine and landing gear downlocks made from thin plastic tubing.  Most Phantom models I've seen don't have the downlocks in place, which clamped over the rod portion of the gear retraction actuators. Those downlocks were in place until just before the crew "stepped" to the jet when we maintenance folks would remove them, and reinstalled by us as the aircrew was still getting out of the jet after they shut it down.  Accurate downlocks would be a nice thing to have Cutting Edge or someone else market.

  The authors did an excellent job depicting the worn paint on the canopy sills, worn from personnel getting in and out of the aircraft.  The only problem I see with it is that they have the left and right sills equally worn.  In reality the right sill was never badly worn, and we entered and exited the cockpit from the left side only.  The right-hand sills got only very minor wear from the crew chief standing on them as he polished the interiors of the open canopies.

  This model also has an open dragchute door with a chute packed inside.  This is inaccurate, as the door would be pulled closed as soon as the chute was stuffed in the canister, or the door left open with no chute inside.  You could display a model with the chute inside like this if you also position a maintenance stand under the rear of the jet and have a crewman on the stand who is about to close the door.
  This model uses the Cutting Edge wheels for Navy Phantoms which are bulged to represent aircraft weight.  The True Details Company seems to have started this trend, but the tires on a Phantom (and many other high-performance jet fighters) don't bulge with weight.  The tires have extremely strong sidewalls. As weight is added to the aircraft, the part of the tire on the ground gets flatter and flatter, but the sidewalls don't bulge at all.  As a side note, forgetting to move the chocks away from the tires before we refueled and loaded up the jet would mean the jet would settle onto the chocks with all its additional weight.  Once the aircraft was started and the pilot gave the signal to "pull chocks", we'd discover the error.  We'd have to pound, kick, cuss and otherwise struggle to get the chocks out.  I personally ruined a couple of pairs of boots from kicking out stuck chocks!  If you could get one chock loose, you could use it to knock the others loose.  Sometimes it was a real battle!  We tried not to forget to move the chocks away from the tires before servicing the jet. 

  The authors include a photo of a real Phantom in which the three access panels on the sides of the intake bulge out slightly.  The caption points this out and says "Tamiya accurately represented these panels... contrary to some views". These are the panels that some modellers have mistakenly called "Battle Damage Repair patches".   I have similar photos I took of other Phantoms in which these same panels were flush.  I don't remember them bulging out like this on any of the Phantoms I worked on.  Why are they bulged out on this particular aircraft (and the Tamiya model)?  Darned if I  know.  Perhaps they had a thicker than normal layer of sealant on the lip around the opening that the panels mount on.  Personally, when I finally get around to building a Tamiya Phantom I'm sanding those panels flush.

  The last model featured is another 1/32 scale Tamiya model, this time the F-4E.  The authors also used several Eduard photoetch sets, Reheat seats and intake covers, Cutting Edge resin leading edge slats and wheels, and decals from CAM, AirDOC, and Superscale.  The model is finished in Greek Air Force markings; interesting to me on a personal note,  68-0408 is the tail number they picked.  I worked on this very tail number at Ramstein AB, Germany in the 1980s when she belonged to the 526TFS.  This model is painted in the Hill Gray scheme that 408 was in when it was received from the USAF, and is depicted by this model as very faded.  Paint touch-ups are represented by darker gray, including the spot where the American "star and bar" was painted over by the Greeks when they received the jet. The authors show a number of "faded paint" and oily, greasy stain weathering techniques. This model is very well done.  The paint and weathered finish is spectacular. 

  There are a few extremely minor errors.  One is that the author put on all the correct downlocks and REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT flags, but they put the 370 gallon wing tank safety pin RBF flags on the outboard sides of both pylons.  The pins should be on the left side of both pylons, so on the right wing the RBF flag ends up on the main landing gear side of the wingtank, not the outboard side.
  The second minor error involves the little antenna at the rear of the panel directly behind the rear canopy.  This is the antenna for the SST-181X rendezvous beacon.  The Tamiya Phantom was first released as an F-4C or D version.  On the F-4D, the SST-181X antenna was mounted on the aircraft centerline as you see here.  On the F-4E version, it was relocated to the right-hand side of the same panel (Door 19).  Tamiya didn't make thiscorrection in their F-4E release, and the authors didn't catch it either.

  Another error is that the wing root walkways are painted too far to the rear, extending on to one of the honeycomb panels that cover the wheel wells.  Those honeycomb panels were definite "NO STEP" areas!

  The last error I spotted is that 68-0408 had the modification done in approximately 1984 while it was at Ramstein in which the upper UHF comm antenna was relocated from inside the cap at the top of the vertical fin to the right side of the upper fuselage.  The authors didn't add this antenna to the fuselage.  There is another antenna on the top fuselage centerline between the SST-181X antenna and inflight refueling receptacle that I'm not familiar with; it wasn't on 408 when I worked on her. Navy Phantoms have an antenna located there, so I think it was more likely a mistake on this F-4E and should've been removed. 

  For the cockpit, the authors used the new pre-painted Eduard photo-etch set, and the effect is outstanding.  I was interested to see that the authors added the gunsight video tape recorder on the front cockpit right console.  This is the first time I've ever seen this on a model.  This was added to real F-4Es and Gs to replace the old film gunsight cameraapproximately 1985.  It was great for smacking your right elbow against when you were reaching for switches on the right console. 

   No mention was made of the "gun gas purge door," which is the small scoop on the top right side of the nose.  Modellers should be aware that on nose-gun equipped F-4Es and Fs this door is always locked open when the hydraulics are depressurized.  As the engines are started and the hydraulic pressure comes up, this door closes and stays closed except when the gun is fired when it opens briefly to purge the gun bay of gases.  Upon engine shutdown it opens again.
  Again, scratch-built downlocks are put on the landing gear actuators, greatly enhancing the authenticity of this model.  I would have liked a written description of how those were constructed, or perhaps a step-by-step series of photos.

  The last chapters suggest ideas for displaying Phantom models, for weathering and painting, for photographing the models, and a bibliography of good references.

  This book relies more on photography than text to show modeling techniques such as cockpit detailing and weathering.  It appears geared toward an intermediate modeller, one who has basic construction and painting techniques down, but needs to learn weathering techniques.

Scott R Wilson
Phormer Phantom Phixer
Comm-Nav Avionics
149 CAMS, 149 TFG,  Texas ANG, Kelly AFB, Texas 1980-82 (F-4C)
35 CRS, 35 TFW George AFB, California 1982-83 (F-4E)
525 AMU, 86 TFW, Ramstein AB, Germany 1983-86 (F-4E)