1:48 AIM-4D Falcon missiles with launch rails for F-4D/E (4 pcs)

The Falcon D version with launch rails

The set joins two things that belong together: a late-generation heat-seeking missile and the rails on which it hung under the pylon. It is the rails that set this set apart from sets with the missiles alone, because without them the armament cannot be attached to a model faithfully. The figure (4 pcs) comes from the name of the item.

Service on the Phantoms

The D version came about by adapting an interceptor missile for maneuvering air combat and lived its best-known chapter on McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II machines, which carried it on the inboard underwing pylons. Its use over Southeast Asia showed that a weapon designed against large targets behaves differently in a turning fight, and it contributed to the later return to gun armament.

Recommended procedure

First seat the rails on the pylon and let them cure, and only then insert the missiles. That way you avoid the whole assembly hanging crooked. The rails tend to be darker than the missile, so paint them separately, and pick out the joint between them with a thin dark line. Check the symmetry of both sides by looking from the front, because that is where any deviation shows most.

For which builds

• models of Phantoms in a late 1960s configuration
• builders who put stores together from period photographs
• a demonstration of how armament is attached to an underwing pylon
• anyone interested in a comparison with later guided missiles

The set is used to fit out the stores of a finished airframe. Neither the aircraft nor fixings will be found in it.