O , I'm going to type up the summary of my "pylon notes" here for you,,,,,,It'll include things you don't care about for your C, but, I will put the whole thing up here in case anyone else needs them also,,,,,,,also, my notes are "biased towards Navair" because of my Jarheadedness, but I did need some AF stuff for that part of my Phantom collection
If anyone notices anything that needs correction, please just say so,,,,,,and this is based on the plastic needed to build with, so, if I say "no adapter",,,,,there might still be one, just not visible when assembling a model
first the Innerwing (I/W), here are the types
B,,,,this is the naval pylon in the early days, with or without Sidewinder rails (these couldn't carry both S/W and bombs at the same time),,,,,,these are seen with or without the adapter that the TER mounts to
J,,,,,,this is the naval pylon with the "long S/W rail bolts",,,,,,they could carry S/W and Mk 82's on TERs,,,,,,also seen with or without the adapter for the TER,,,,,but on J's they are almost always seen with the adapter
C,,,,,this is the naval pylon with S/W rails that are different than the Naval rails, but they couldn't carry both Bombs and S/W at the same time
D,,,,,this is the AF pylon with the same S/W rail type as the C, couldn't carry both bombs and S/W
the Navy and Marines tended to leave the S/W rails on the I/W even if they were empty,,,,,,,,the AF took the rails off when loading bombs and/or TERs,,,,,,exceptions can be found though
the weapons sets come with the 2 different S/W rail sets (AF or USN)
the story was that the longer mounting bolts for using S/W rails and bombs together were machined on Carriers, bootlegged throughout Navair, and later on were fleet approved and issued to the squadrons, which could explain why the AF didn't have them
Outerwing,,,,,,,,,these were based on the "favorite" bombs of Navair and USAF before the Snakeyes came along
there are the AF pylons with the tanks mounted on them, 90degrees from the wing
the angled AF pylons for clearance of M-117 750# bombs
the Naval pylons configured for tanks, 90 degrees
the Naval pylons configured with the MER adapter, still at 90 degrees, because they used Mk 82's with conical fins,,,,,,,,this is easily seen in a pic of 145310 from head on, with 22 red Mk 82 for a weapons demo
the AF swapped pylons depending on if they were using tanks or weapons on them,,,,,,,,the Navy kept the pylons and swapped tanks or the MER adapter
both angled and non angled pylons were based on the AF needing clearance for the 117's, and Navair carrying Mk 82's,,,,,,,except some land based Marine units using 117s in addition to the Mk 82
the UK aircraft were "J-based",,,,,,and followed the same pattern as the Navy
the other foreign aircraft were AF based, and followed the same pattern as the AF (if there are exceptions to this,,,please let me know what country)
only other pylon can of worms are that there were a pylon for the early Centerline tank, the F-15 tank, a weapons pylon,,,,,,,and the fact that some Naval stores would mount directly to the Pylon Mount (PBER's come to mind here)
we could sure use a Phantom weapons book, because this doesn't even touch what was wired for what, or the various missile options at all (and all the associated LAUs to load the missiles onto)
hope this is of help
Rex