Last
fall I signed up for a summer class that would take me to Vietnam the
following summer. It renewed my interest in Vietnam era aircraft and I
built this F-4E. I would have loved to build a C/D version, but they seem
to be hard to find, and I even read a review on line that suggested the
Hasegawa plane had raised panel lines like the B/N version. Yuck! I went
with this instead. All I added were some bombs and ECM pod from a
Hasegawa weapons set.
Click on
images below to see larger images
This
aircraft was based out of Udorn Thailand and was credited with one Mig
kill. After my 3 week visit to Vietnam I had a hard time even imagining
what it must have been like walking down the same streets during time of
war. My experiences there are something I will always
treasure. I am
glad that Vietnam is a peaceful and prosperous land today, but the air war
there in the 1960s and 1970s have provided a tremendous history of aerial
combat, something I hoped to pay tribute to. This is my fifth phantom in
the past 2 or 3 years, and the only other jet that I have been working on
are super hornets. Both are called Rhinos by the people that fly
them. I
have lots more Rhinos in my closet, and I look forward to building them
all!
Tyler
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