COBI F-4F PHANTOM II Set 5898

COBI's F-4F Phantom II is a 1:48 model built from 676 blocks, 39.5 cm long, in German Luftwaffe colours. The ailerons move, the landing gear and weapons detach, and the cockpit opens. A display stand with a nameplate is included. All markings are printed; no stickers.

Germany bought a deliberately simplified Phantom

The F-4F was built for one customer. Germany wanted a large number of aircraft for a fixed budget, so McDonnell Douglas removed things: the Sparrow missile system and its associated radar electronics, one fuel cell, the folding wing mechanism the Navy needed and a land-based air force did not.

The result was lighter, cheaper and shorter-legged than a standard Phantom, and it could only fight at close range with Sidewinders and the gun. 175 were delivered from 1973.

By the 1980s that decision looked poor. The answer was the ICE programme — Improved Combat Efficiency — which in the 1990s gave 110 of them a modern pulse-Doppler radar, a new mission computer and AMRAAM missiles. The upgraded aircraft were genuinely capable interceptors, and they carried German air defence until the Eurofighter arrived.

The last German Phantoms retired in June 2013, forty years after the first one landed.

In the COBI range

Set 5897 is the USS Midway Phantom and 5899 the F-4S "Black Bunny", both at this scale.

Specifications

Pieces: 676 · Scale: 1:48 · Display stand and nameplate included · No stickers
Model dimensions: 39.5 × 24 × 12 cm (15.6 × 9.4 × 4.7 in)