Need info on F-4J(UK) Phantom weapons loadout

[deadmeat]

Hey all....I am currently collecting materials to do a F-4J(UK) Phantom in 1:48. I am having a devil of a time finding info on what kind of weapons loadout they typically carried. There is some info available that they carried AIM-9Ls near the end of their run and SUU-23 20mm pods on the center station, but outside that I can find little else. Does anyone have any suggestions for loadout, ECM, strike loads, etc?

here's what I have collected so far for the build if anyone is interested :lol:

Hasegawa F-4J 1:48

Cutting Edge resin cockpit

Aires Exhaust Nozels

Eduard interior/exterior set

dMold seamless intakes

Hasegawa Weapons set A-D (lots to choose from)

Quick Boost resin air scoops and weighted wheels

Thanks for ANY information you can provide!

[Andre]

Does anyone have any suggestions for loadout, ECM, strike loads, etc?

These aircraft were bought to fill a perceived gap in the UK Air Defence, so they were strictly used in the air-to-air role - no external ECM of A2G stuff was ever carried.

Mostly they were seen with just the centreline tank and AIM-9s and Skyflash (a UK upgrade of the basic Sparrow).

HTH,

Andre

[Rhino53]

Hi Deadmeat

To confirm what Andre says about the F-4J(UK) loadout, they were entirely air to air.

Below is a shot I took at an airshow somewhere in the UK, and this is the only photo I have of a loaded aircraft.

The baggage pods are interesting, as again it's the only time I saw them.

Most of my shots show the centre line 600 gallon tanks fitted, but not the 370 gallon wing tanks.

Hope this helps.

[MikeC]

"The aircraft were normally flown in 'Bravo' fit (high-g centre-line tank, no wing tanks) or 'Alpha' (no external tanks) ... The gun pod was seldom carried, though crews were required to fire it once a year at [Armament Practice Camp] in Cyprus."

So add the standard four Sparrows/Skyflash, 2xAIM-9s on each inboard wing station, C/L tank or not as you wish, and a gun pod if you want an aircraft on APC, and your F-4J(UK) is "hot to trot".

Quote from The Phantom Story, Anthony Thornborough & Peter Davies, Arms & Armour, 1994/2000.

HTH.

Edit: PS: Welcome to ARC, mine's a Martini, neither shaken nor stirred, merely slightly agitated.

Edited September 5, 2009 by MikeC

[gary1701]

Hi all,

Being a Wattisham local I used to visit the fence and watch these guys years ago in my school years. As the guy's say they were purely configured for air-to-air and used AIM-9L's and Sky Flash. Not completely sure, but I think at the start they did use Sparrow's before falling inline with the rest of the F-4 fleet. Suu-23's were fitted from very early in their service life, don't remember the exact date of this poor quality scanned print but believe it was around 86/87. Note centreline Suu.

The usual configuration for training sorties out of Wattisham was centreline and inboard rails only. You didn't see the standard 370 wing tanks that often, although as above there was exceptions, they became more common later on. Pics below show the usual fit. Top one shows the difference between the two colour schemes which seem to cause a lot of confusion on the forums.

Sorry the qualities bad, like most kids at the time with their first SLR (Olympus Om10!), shooting print film, I had no idea how rare these shots would become.

Gary

Edited September 5, 2009 by gary1701

[MikeC]

Hey Gary, nice shots. Where exactly are you? (I'm a Suffolk bor and have fond(!) memories of Air Cadet Wing parades at "What-a-shame".)

[Gerard]

Is the F-4J(UK) the one in the hangar at Duxford ?

I'll have a few photos of it if interested.

Regards,

Gerard

[gary1701]

Hi Mike/all,

I'm in Stowmarket, about 4/5 miles away from Wattisham. The F-4J at Duxford, now in USN markings (155529, which I believe was it's original USN serial) is former ZE359/J. You'll notice the four ship pic shows the ill-fated ZE358/H on the left hand wing - this was the one that was lost with the crew whilst low-level in Wales a few months after I took that during a 74 Sqn families day.

Gary

[deadmeat]

Wow...thanks to all for the info! Until I saw the pics posted here I couldn't find any of the birds with any sort of loadout. The first pic seems to show the Phantom loaded with Sparrows and what look like AIM-9Ls (?). I think I may go with that and the gun pod since I happen to have one in a weapons set.

Again, thanks to all!!

[gary1701]

Hi Deadmeat,

You can't go wrong with the AIM-9L's in the first pic, as I'm pretty sure they were carried by 74 from the start of F-4J operations (October 84), and I think they were a standard fit across RAF F-4 units by then. I'm not sure if the missile in the fuselage well is a Sparrow or Sky Flash, I seem to recall the black circular mark was a distinctive sign of telling them apart, but can't remember which missile had it and which didn't! I'm sure somebody else will have the answer to that one. It's difficult to date pics of the F-4J's in RAF service as they changed so little throughout their career. I do remember that the first 14 arrived without black fins, and then the final one turned up with a partial black fin (leading edge was still grey). Over the first year they all then gradually gained a fully painted black fin. Hope that's some help.

Gary

Edited September 5, 2009 by gary1701

[deadmeat]

Hi Deadmeat,

You can't go wrong with the AIM-9L's in the first pic, as I'm pretty sure they were carried by 74 from the start of F-4J operations (October 84), and I think they were a standard fit across RAF F-4 units by then. I'm not sure if the missile in the fuselage well is a Sparrow or Sky Flash, I seem to recall the black circular mark was a distinctive sign of telling them apart, but can't remember which missile had it and which didn't! I'm sure somebody else will have the answer to that one. It's difficult to date pics of the F-4J's in RAF service as they changed so little throughout their career. I do remember that the first 14 arrived without black fins, and then the final one turned up with a partial black fin (leading edge was still grey). Over the first year they all then gradually gained a fully painted black fin. Hope that's some help.

Gary

One other question if you gents could...the instructions for the F-4J kit say to sand off the slime lights from the sides and tail, but the pics clearly show the jets with the lights intact. Were these painted on or a part of the structure like the USAF birds? The decal set includes them as decals.

Thanks for the info folks!

[Rhino53]

One other question if you gents could...the instructions for the F-4J kit say to sand off the slime lights from the sides and tail, but the pics clearly show the jets with the lights intact. Were these painted on or a part of the structure like the USAF birds? The decal set includes them as decals.

Thanks for the info folks!

I heard that the slime lights were added as the rework was done at the same time as the 'S' models were reworked, and were fitted. These J's were the only non test J-s that had them as far as I'm aware.

The structure is the same as the USAF slime lights.

[Andre]

The first pic seems to show the Phantom loaded with Sparrows and what look like AIM-9Ls (?).

If by "first pic" you mean Rhino53's shot of ZE353: those are Sky Flashes, not Sparrows. The black circle on the forward fins is a dead giveaway.

The Sky Flash was a British development of the AIM-7E2; shapewise they are identical, so for modeling purposes you can just add the black dots to an AIM-7E and presto - Sky Flash!

The Sidewinders are indeed AIM-9L's.

HTH,

Andre