Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force F-4E Phantom tank killer

[BradG]

From what I've read, Iranian pilots really liked the Phantom. It's speed, weapons and durability were put to good use against Iraq especially, conducting bombing, fighter sweep and reconnaissance duties, However when equipped with the Maverick air to ground missile, the Phantom found a new and deadly role; tank killing. Nearly 50 machines are still in service with the IRIAF today.

 

The 1/72 Hasegawa Phantoms are pretty decent kits, although do watch out for the fit of the forward fuselage to the body and the fit of the air intakes, it can be tricky to get right and the better you get the fit the less sanding you will have to do. The instructions give you three machines, but I was not happy with the colour call outs, so I went with matching colours to the box top that I believe look better. I did use their suggested Gunze 44 flesh for the sand colour, but picked RLM 71 over their suggested Gunze 303 for green which I think was too light and I went with Revell SM381 brown. Gunze 311 grey was used for the under surface and RLM 70 for the drop tanks as the green here looks darker than the air frame colour. 

 

You will have to source weapons as only three drop tanks are included, but Hasegawa has put the inner pylons along with sidewinder launch rails in the kit. The Mavericks and launch rails come from the Hasegawa weapons set.

 

 

 

 

[aircommando130]

Nice! I watched Phantoms fly  out of Tehran when it was the IIAF....

 

Cheers...Ron

[RNoAF]

I must say the iranians have some cool aircraft in their air force. Im planning to build av 1/32 Iranian F-5F myself with the cool camoscheme. Nice build mate. 

[AxialFlow]

Very superb job! I really love the camo.  Perfect for a Phantom. 

[LSP_K2]

Looks great, Brad.