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VF-31 Phantoms with BIG Stars and Bars

I am looking at Superscale sheet 72-880, and it shows a VF-31 F-4J (I decided to Go Navy--the Air Force colors were giving me a headache!) and it features another variety of markings anomaly. Why are the national insignia on this Phantom so large (the one's on the wings are about double the usual size)??

Here's a link so you can see what I mean:

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I just wonder if anybody knows why this particular aircraft features this peculiarity. Was VF-31 flying over the middle-east or some other "hot" region? Just wondering....

Reply to
dancho
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Casting my mind waaaay back to about 1966, when Airfix first released their Phantom in 1/72 scale, the VF-31 option was the one included with the kit.

As I recall, the wing national insignia in the kit were also the very large ones, but as to why, I couldn't tell you.

Regards, Chris

Reply to
Chris Hughes

When Airfix's Phantom came out here it was wearing VF-74 insignia and was officially an F4H-1.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

In Vietnam they had the visual recognition combat engagement rule in force; was this to allow US aircraft to easily identify friendlies at a distance? It would be possible for camouflaged Air Force and uncamouflaged Navy aircraft to be working in close proximity to each other, so did they want to make sure everyone knew who the good guys were in they were engaged by MiGs?

Pat

Reply to
Pat Flannery

Hi Bill,

Which iteration had the "Felix the cat" then?

My memory is playing tricks with me! Was it the boxing where you had the multiple choice (sort of) of noses and decals?

Chris

Reply to
Chris Hughes

No, the first one available here was simply an F-4B with Sparrow-only armament and fuel tanks. The code was AJ-101 and IIRC, off the Forrestal.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

This makes sense to me. I saw a photo of a "big insignia" F-4 on a forum and so I'm feeling more confident about it. I just wanted to be sure that the size wasn't a "mix up" by Superscale. Thanks to everyone who replied!

Reply to
dancho

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