Hobby Master 1/72 Air Power Series
HA19021
McDonnell Douglas F-4B
200, VF-111 "Sundowners", USS Coral Sea, 1970s
 
True 1/72 scale
Professionally painted
Great attention to detail
All markings are Tampoed (pad applied)
Option to display the model on a stand that is provided
Model can be shown with the landing gear in the down or up positions
Canopies can be displayed open or closed
Crew figures
Extremely heavy metal with a minimum of plastic
Highly collectable
 
One of the most famous and easily recognized fighter aircraft of the post-WWII era was the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II. This aircraft was developed as a private venture by the aircraft company but was soon ordered by the USN as a carrier-based attack aircraft. Its first flight took place on May 27, 1958 and it entered active service in December 1960. It wasn’t long after the F-4B appeared that a fly-off was set up with USAF front-line fighters. It was no contest, the F-4 performed so well that the USAF ordered their own variant, the F-4C. As time went on, the F-4 evolved into well over a dozen variants.

VF-111 “Sundowners” re-equipped with the F-4B Phantom II in early 1971. In November 1971
VF-111 returned to the Gulf of Tonkin onboard the USS Coral Sea where they spent 148 days. 29 F-4s were loaned to the USAF when they were planning to acquire the Phantom as their primary fighter. These aircraft had USAF tail numbers and FJ-170, FJ-171 etc. on the fuselage. One of these 29 was VF-111 NL200 151000 CAG given tail number 62-12184 FJ-184 and when the USAF acquired their F-4Cs these 29 aircraft were returned to the USN.