F-4 CBU

[Oldbaldguy]

Well, this irrefutable photo evidence of a black-bottom F-4 presents me with a double quandry:  First, I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am and, secondly, there is not a C or D model F-4 kit in any scale anywhere in my house or adjoining grounds, making it more than a little difficult to model this great paint scheme.  Having flown a couple of times with FACs in O-2s in broad daylight, I cannot imagine the same mission at night in a fast-mover, blasting along in an F-4 at the speed of heat at 0200 local time trolling for bad guys in utter darkness.  In real time, conversation in the airplane probably went something like:

 

GIB (Seat all the way up, eyeballs outside):  "Hey!  Did you see that?"

GIF (Squinty-eyed, half a head ache from concentrating on not running into something):  "What?  No.  I can't see anything.  What was it?"

GIB:  "I dunno.  Looked like a muzzle flash or maybe a light on the ground."

GIF:  "Okay, coming around. You still got it?"

GIB (Straining to see behind the airplane):  "Nah.  Lost it."

GIF:  "Okay. Where was it?"

GIB (Quickly doing the math in his head):  "Uh, about a hundred clicks back there somewhere."

[Confusionreigns178]

Are my eyes tricking me, or has the ground-crewman in Finn's photo above been super-imposed on the image? If you look closely, he is in a very different focal-plane to the F-4, under different lighting conditions and he does not look like he belongs in that image at all. It's one of those things that, once you see it, you can't ignore it. 

 

What say ye, merry gentle-folk?

 

Chris.