The Water Fountain

[Pete]

Ah, didn't see you then. But that's not surprising, among 100,000 people. :D

[phasephantomphixer]

All nice shots, Thanks guys!

[phantom]

Great shots Ron, hope someone does those decals in the bigger scales, not just the 1/72 as announced.

[phasephantomphixer]

So the Topic states to tell an F-4 story. I collected a few from four years as (you might guess from my member name) a Phase dock mechanic (Tactical Aircraft Maintenance technician they called it) at George AFB, Calif. '87-'91. During one week the base was having "Combat Exercise" base wide. Fortunately we were exempt since we were backlogged at the time. But a bonus was there were other bases (Edwards is close by) supporting it which means a variety of attacking aircraft could show up. My friend and I were to take one of our service trucks to the North end wash rack to get it prepped for "Top Wheels" inspection. We were accompanied by a Buck Sergeant supervisor. About half way into the task, the Sergeant saw some exercise players using a radio nearby and told us he figured an aircraft was about to attack. Once he said that, I saw a dot moving through the tree behind him which turned into an F-4C in Full Burner cracking directly over us. My friend almost fell out of the truck, and I turned in time to see him split left, then right over the flight line (like he was blasting all our F-4's in defiance) towards the small town near the base. He made a tight turn (tight enough while still in burner!) then went back the way he came-still lit up and MOVING! We were stunned to say the least. Turns out he blew out windows in town, and unfortunately put an old lady in the hospital. I heard he was a retiring Colonel and it was his last Hurrah. Never found out the penalties he sustained, but it sure was a Kick ### moment! Still awake?

[bashace]

Great shots Ron, hope someone does those decals in the bigger scales, not just the 1/72 as announced.

The actual WMD guys were there selling the decals, they will have 1/48 scale sheets available for all 4 schemes that were flown in the event within a few months.

V/r

Ron

[bashace]

So the Topic states to tell an F-4 story. I collected a few from four years as (you might guess from my member name) a Phase dock mechanic (Tactical Aircraft Maintenance technician they called it) at George AFB, Calif. '87-'91. During one week the base was having "Combat Exercise" base wide. Fortunately we were exempt since we were backlogged at the time. But a bonus was there were other bases (Edwards is close by) supporting it which means a variety of attacking aircraft could show up. My friend and I were to take one of our service trucks to the North end wash rack to get it prepped for "Top Wheels" inspection. We were accompanied by a Buck Sergeant supervisor. About half way into the task, the Sergeant saw some exercise players using a radio nearby and told us he figured an aircraft was about to attack. Once he said that, I saw a dot moving through the tree behind him which turned into an F-4C in Full Burner cracking directly over us. My friend almost fell out of the truck, and I turned in time to see him split left, then right over the flight line (like he was blasting all our F-4's in defiance) towards the small town near the base. He made a tight turn (tight enough while still in burner!) then went back the way he came-still lit up and MOVING! We were stunned to say the least. Turns out he blew out windows in town, and unfortunately put an old lady in the hospital. I heard he was a retiring Colonel and it was his last Hurrah. Never found out the penalties he sustained, but it sure was a Kick ### moment! Still awake?

Great story! Got me thinking about the old "Corker" exercises we had to do because of the Phantoms.

V/r

Ron

[bashace]

This bird has a few strange stores hanging on it.

[Pete]

This bird has a few strange stores hanging on it.

It's one of the WTD61 F-4's, the Luftwaffe test unit. I took some pics of the stores:

On the left outboard pylon is an infrared sensorpod, adapted for the IRIS-T test program. Hence the IRIS-T missile on the launcher rail. The inboard pylon also has a travelpod on it.

On the right inboard pylon is a Russian ECM pod, which came from a former East German Su-22. WTD61 checked out a bunch of former East German planes after the reunification. I have no idea what that big pod on the centreline is, though.

[Pete]

The actual WMD guys were there selling the decals, they will have 1/48 scale sheets available for all 4 schemes that were flown in the event within a few months.

V/r

Ron

Can't wait to get those. Really want to do the Schortens one. But, I must admit, I have never heard of Wingman Decals before. Are these the ones on this site?

[bashace]

Can't wait to get those. Really want to do the Schortens one. But, I must admit, I have never heard of Wingman Decals before. Are these the ones on this site?

Yup, those are the ones, I guess these are the same guys from AIRDOC.

V/r

Ron

[bashace]

This pic makes for an awesome PC Desktop Background.

[rustywelder]

Hey guys, I have a 1/72 Fujimi F-4G in the mail that I my jump in to this Gb with. I would like to do it as a bird from Desert Storm. Is thwere any airframe changes between the G as they were in 'Nam and Dstorm( the kit is for a vietnam G)? Also is anyone aware of any currently available sheets for Dstorm F-4Gs in 1/72 all I can come with are all OOP.

Cheers

[Pete]

The F-4G wasn't introduced until well after the Vietnam war, but they did fly in the SEA scheme, if that's what you mean. Externally, they changed very little over the years. In the early years you could still see them with the old style centreline tank, while during DS, the HPC (F-15 style) tank was used. Early on, their weapons of choice would be the AGM-45 Shrike and AGM-78 Standard Arm. During DS, the AGM-88 HARM was the most important one used, along with AGM-65 Mavericks.

[rustywelder]

Thanks Pete!