I had know about the different scheme but the story had more details that I wasn’t aware of.
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Interesting. They do look like MK4 pods. Wonder where the Marine F-4 was at the time?
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Going by the reinforced holding wall behind it, it must be Vietnam, so Da Nang or Chu Lai if Wiki is correct - see below.
The Falcons were re-designated Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 334 (VMFA-334) on 1 August 1967 and again transitioned airframes to the F-4J Phantom II. The Falcons departed MCAS El Toro on 20 August 1968. The squadron arrived at Da Nang Air Base on 1 September and combat operations began almost immediately. VMFA-334 relocated to Chu Lai early in 1969. VMFA-334 remained in Vietnam until September 1969 when they were relocated to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. From there they flew air support over the US Navy intelligence ship the USS Pueblo, which had been attacked and captured by North Korea.
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You might this podcast episode interesting.
Was listening to it yesterday again when this sheet arrived.
So many great choices.
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I have that sheet and it is indeed difficult to decide, very difficult…
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Talking of decals. …
It’s that time … We all love to hate …
Potentially 149 generic service decals, no step, etc etc
The 24 I have already put on the missiles,
And the 48 Jolly Roger ones from the AM decals set I got … 
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Upper and lower wing decals are on.
Also added Sidewinders to their mounts.
Will make a start on the forward decals around cockpit tomorrow.
Annoyingly, I lost the front V part (D9) that goes on the front side of the forward landing strut, so need to make up one of those somehow…
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Not sure if I still have a Hasegawa kit but I will get some pics and measurements from my Tamiya kit to give you something to go by and hopefully that can get you something close.
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Thanks Ryan, That would be helpful mate.
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For the length about 6.5mm for each side. Might be easier to have strip 13mm and bend in half.
I have heard it referred to as the oleo linkage, not sure if that is the correct nomenclature or not.
HTH
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Yeap, that’s perfect Ryan. Thanks dude. Much appreciated 
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Sooooo the “oleo linkage” has been scratched… As best as I can get it…
It’s by no means perfect, but it looks ok and it’s better than not having one there …
.
Thanks again Ryan…
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Looks great. Honestly would not have known it was a scratch replacement.
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Out freaking standing.
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Thanks Stephen and Ryan … It was quite satisfying making that… It only took about 10 min … Definitely needed to be done though
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Going to call VF84 Phantom done.
It was the Hasegawa 1/48 Sundowner Phantom… But I got the AM Eduard decal set for a Jolly Rogers bird.
The kit itself was ok, it was cheap, but bang for buck, it’s not bad. It went together well apart from one small piece which I will explain later. Didn’t need any filler when joining the fuselage together or the wings.
As said it was a cheap kit so in some areas the detail was a bit soft compared to say a Tamiya Phantom, but, for that, you are paying another 50 pound if not more. It came with an AIRES resin cockpit but to be honest, the best parts of that were the seats which I did use. The rest was cut up and used to enhance the kit parts.
I used AK RC paints for the final scheme.
The decals did give a few issues, but oddly on the right hand side only for some reason. The tail AG skull decal creased up when it went on, and took ages to reset, but still had a very small fold in it. The crew name decals for right side of canopy completely fold in on themselves and they just could not be used which was a shame, and the USS Independence decal moved slightly when I was applying micro sol and just would not move, so it’s got a bit of a bend in it, but not very bad.
Relatively happy with it, and at the end of the day, it looks like a Phantom … So job done…
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She’s turned out great John. Congratulations on finishing!
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That looks great!
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Congratulations John, it’s a phabulous phantom.
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Thanks Ryan, Phil And Stephen. It was a fun build and glad I did a Jolly Roger one. I forgot to say about the dodgy fitting part. It was the pilot canopy. For some reason (age or maybe it was being forced against in the box ? ) It had splayed out slightly and only one side would sit flush on the fuselage, it also bowed out a very small amount at the top, but again, it is only just visible.
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