F-4D Phantom questions

Part of the gray difference is the lighting in the photo. If you notice in one photo, the sky is overcast, while in the other it appears to be cloudless. The direct sunlight will make a difference versus diffused sunlight, in addition to any fading.

Ha! You got me! Actually I've built a couple now. An F-4S Navy bird earlier this fall and Eduard's Mig 21 earlier last year. Finishing up an F-100C right now! Lots of Jet A being burnt at the bench now.... thanks for your help.

I still can't believe you're building a jet

Yes there was two versions. Hill grey and Egypt one. Can never remember which one is which. One is two tone where gunship grey wraps around to the bottom. The other is light gray on bottom

Thanks Tarn and Commander John. Tarn- Thanks for the background info on the different models and radomes. good info on kits and I am actually using Hasegawa's J model in 1/48 and making it a D, as I don't feel like rescribing the whole old Hase kit. I did do just as you said, and used the J radome. I did cut off the entire D radome to save for future F-4C/D builds that had the IR sensor. The Hase J kit is a great starting point to make a recessed lined C/D model, without shelling out 70 bucks for the new Academy kit.

Hey John, Does it look like the faded D has the light gray undersides, and the top pic has gunship gray undersides? There was some variation like this in the Hill Grays, correct?

I believe that the gunship gray faded rather quickly.  If you look at mothballed hill gray aircraft you can see the fading.  Possibly the lower pic is an older airframe

I can only answer the radome part for you.

At the time of the introduction of the F-4D, there was a radome without any IR sensor on it.

These went onto the Iranian F-4Ds, the early F-4Ds in USAF service, and some of the late build F-4Cs.

They also went into the F-4K and F-4M production, and were used on the Blue Angels F-4Js that had no radars in the nose, just ballast weight.  Later on, when other "expansions" were made in the RHAW suites, a fairing was added back into this area, just as a place to fit it.

For model building, you will get better results from using an F-4J radome and slicing off the lower antenna, than you will by "stripping an F-4C, D, B or N" radome,,,,,,,because most of those radomes included some sort of flat spot to mount the IR onto if it is a separate part. If they have this "dip" on your kit, just fill it with putty, etc, and sand it to a uniform shape.

F-4J,K,M radomes in model kits wouldn't have that flat spot on them.

I think the box is the Gross weight box, but, I am not positive on that.

Rex