USAF Phantoms F-4C & Candy Canes of the 58th TFTW Luke AFB

House of Phantoms Decals, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by David Couche

Luke Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located 7 miles (11 km) west of the central business district of Glendale, in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is about 15 miles (24 km) west of Phoenix, Arizona. Luke Air Force Base was named after Second Lieutenant Frank Luke (1897-1918).

Lt. Luke is a posthumous Medal of Honour recipient and the number two United States ace in World War I. He was born in Phoenix in 1897, the "Arizona Balloon Buster" scored 18 aerial victories during World War I (14 of these German observation balloons) in the skies over France. Lieutenant Luke was shot down at Murvaux between Verdun and Stenay, France, on 29 September 1918, after he had destroyed three enemy balloons. Surviving the crash of his Spad, Lieutenant Luke drew two pistols and fired on German soldiers, killing several of them before he was killed.

Luke AFB is a major training base of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC), training pilots now in the F-16 Fighting Falcon. On 31 March 2011 it was announced that the F-35 Lightning II would replace the F-16 as the primary training aircraft at Luke, although the date of deployment of the new aircraft to Luke and reorganization plans were not announced. On 16 July 2013, the Air Force announced that Luke AFB will house a total of 144 F-35A Lightning IIs .

The 58th Tactical Fighter Training Wing replaced the provisional 4510th CCTW on 15 October 1969. Although Luke remained under the jurisdiction of Tactical Air Command, the HQ USAF-controlled (AFCON) 58th TFTW gave the wing at Luke a permanent lineage and history that the TAC provisional wing could not carry.

The 58th Tactical Fighter Training Wing replaced the provisional 4510th CCTW on 15 October 1969. Although Luke remained under the jurisdiction of Tactical Air Command, the HQ USAF-controlled (AFCON) 58th TFTW gave the wing at Luke a permanent lineage and history that the TAC provisional wing could not carry.

In the summer of 1971, the 58th TFTW received F-4C Phantom IIs, and the wing assumed the F-4 pilot training role that was formerly done by the 4453d CCTW at Davis-Monthan AFB.

Who are House of Phantoms I hear you ask? This is a new branch of the Airdoc and Wingman brand and this set of F-4C decals is their first offering. As with all of this companies prior products, the quality and the depth are certainly there.

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The decal sheets are printed by industry leader, Cartograf of Italy, which ensures top printing quality and ease of application. There are schemes for 18 different aircraft including 7 different Candy Cane schemes, 2 of the Sabre schemes, a Bicentennial aircraft, 2 Mig Killers, a full wrap around scheme and 5 line birds with varied tail tip markings. Several of these schemes are for the same aircraft at different times in their service. You are spoilt for choice here. This set also includes a full set of stencils for the ‘C’ version Phantom.

The decals come on 3 sheets, a full A4 sheet, a sheet just bigger than A5 and a small addendum sheet. The instruction sheets, all 10 double sided A4 pages, are just photocopied sheets with fairly grainy profiles. I presume they are trying to keep the cost to us, the modellers, down. There a full detailed notes on each of the pages and FS colour standard callouts for each of the schemes.

The18 schemes for these aircraft in this set are;

1. F-4C, Block 19-MC, 63-7584, Flag ship 58th TFTW, Luke AFB, Arizona, April 1975

2. F-4C, Block 19-MC, 63-7584, Flag ship 58th TFTW, Luke AFB, Arizona, July 1975

3. F-4C, Block 19-MC, 63-7584, Flag ship 58th TFTW, ‘Black Candy Cane’, Luke AFB, Arizona, March 1976

4. F-4C, Block 19-MC, 63-7550, 550th TFTS, ‘Orange Candy Cane’, Luke AFB, Arizona, May 1976

5. F-4C, Block 16-MC, 63-7426, 426th TFTS, ‘Sabre’, Luke AFB, Arizona, March 1976

6. F-4C, Block 16-MC, 63-7426, 426th TFTS, ‘Sabre’, Luke AFB, Arizona, August 1976

7. F-4C, Block 21-MC, 63-7676, 310th TFTS, ‘Bi-centennial’, Luke AFB, Arizona, May 1976

8. F-4C, Block 19-MC, 64-0665, 311th TFTS, ‘Black Candy Cane’, Luke AFB, Arizona, December 1975

9. F-4C, Block 19-MC, 64-0665, 311th TFTS, ‘Black Candy Cane’, Luke AFB, Arizona, August 1976

10. F-4C, Block 19-MC, 64-0665, 550th TFTS, ‘Black Candy Cane’, Luke AFB, Arizona, December 1976

11. F-4C, Block 21-MC, 67-7693, 550th TFTS, ‘Insignia Blue Candy Cane’, Luke AFB, Arizona, June 1976

12. F-4C, Block 23-MC, 64-0816, 550th TFTS, ‘Yellow Candy Cane’, Luke AFB, Arizona, December 1976

13. F-4C, Block 21-MC, 64-0660, 310th TTS, ‘Triple MiG Killer’, Luke AFB, Arizona, September 1979

14. F-4C, Block 21-MC, 63-7704, 310th TFTS, ‘MiG Killer’, Luke AFB, Arizona, Summer 1975

15. F-4C, Block 21-MC, 64-0660, 310th TTS, Cannon AFB, September 1981

16. F-4C, Block 16-MC, 63-7432, 310th TTS, Luke AFB, Arizona, May 1982

17. F-4C, Block 18-MC, 63-7477, 310th TTS, Luke AFB, Arizona, March 1982

18. F-4C, Block 15-MC, 63-7411, 311th TTS, ‘Wrap Around Camo’’, Luke AFB, Arizona, March 1982

This is a really nice extensive set of decals for the early F-4C Phantoms. For the modellers of the USAF Phantoms as especially the “C” version then this is certainly a set for you. These House of Phantom decals are highly recommended.

Thanks to House of Phantom Decals for the sample.

Text and Images Copyright © 2020 by David Couche
Page Created 4 August, 2020
Last updated 5 August, 2020

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