IN FOCUS
Modelling ideas can come from a variety of sources, here Kev Baxter provides the photographic inspiration behind his Fine Molds F-4EJ Kai build.
Above: Head-on shot of the updated AN/APG-66J radome, with its additional lightning condunctor strips.
Gate guardians are a readily available source of material, and the airframe featured in Retired Rhino (see here) is located at the entrance to Misawa Air Base in Japan, where it forms part of the Aviation and Science Museum.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries F-4EJ Kai 57-8375/375 was the 62nd of 127 Phantoms built under licence by that firm and one of 24 aircraft ordered by the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) in Fiscal Year 1975, denoted by the first number 5 in its serial code.
The second numeral identifies the aircraft by type: 7 – Phantom. The third: 8 denotes its tactical fighter role. Squadrons and aircraft allocated within the JASDF led something of a peripatetic life in some cases, #375 having been noted in references belonging to the 305th, 303rd, 306th and finally 8th Hikotai (Tactical Fighter Squadron), respectively. The last unit, based at Misawa, replaced its Mitsubishi F-1s F-4EJ Kai airframes released from the 306th Hikotai as they re-…
