A MODELMAKER’S LIFE: PHANTOMS FOREVER…

Indeed, this sheet is so old, it predates my professional career, these being bought the year before I started work as the editor of Military In Scale – how ridiculous is that?!

2nd September 2025

If there is one thing that will get the juices flowing, it’s a quick rummage through my collection of decals. Seemingly growing in strength with every passing week, my box of decals is an expanding collection of modelling possibilities.

Today, whilst looking for some decals for an upcoming project, I came across a sheet (or should that be sheets?) that I bought with the express purpose of use, many years ago. In fact, I can tell you when and where: 1996 from ED Models. The price label is still stoically fixed in place to the bag in which the decals were packaged, tell me they cost £10.95 at the time – a far from inconsequential sum of money back then.

I bought these decals if fading memory serves me correctly, to decorate the Tamiya 1/32 F-4C that had at the time only just been released. I can’t remember if I had the kit, or planned to buy one, just that I liked the idea of adding it to my collection and that there really was only one scheme I would finish it in: that of the Michigan ANG. So when I spied the sheet on the shelves of Ed Deeley’s modelling emporium during one of my all-too infrequent visits, I had to have it. Today, 30 years on, I still do…

We’ve spoken about this before I am sure. I may have mentioned once or twice how I have certain USAF squadrons that I love and how over time I’ve tried to model an aircraft from each one. What I may not have mentioned is that all of those squadrons were first seen in Scale Aircraft Modelling Vol. 5 Issue 5…

This was and again, I’ll temper this thought will a caveat that my memory may be playing tricks on me (frankly, I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning) the first issue of this magazine that I bought. But what an issue! Featuring a full photo report on the 1982 William Tell Fighter Meet, it formed the basis for so many models that I’ve completed over the years, the latest of which was the F-15 Eagle that I completed a while back that is not only finished from my all-time favourite Eagle squadron, the 48th FIS, but is the same as that seen on the cover of that very same magazine.

So now, amongst my other passing fancies, I’m wondering about doing a 1/32 F-4! It seems ridiculous that I have a set of decals that are over 30 years old, that are just sitting there, unused. Indeed, this sheet is so old, it predates my professional career, these being bought the year before I started work as the editor of Military In Scale – how ridiculous is that?! It’s also ridiculous to be considering a build of a kit that I have zero space to house, but yet here we are, a set of decals hardly thought about in years, percolating thoughts of something new for my workbench.

I don’t know, maybe I’ll use these decals, or perhaps downsize and build something in 1/48. I know that I have a few kits in the loft that I could use, including one from Monogram that I brought back from the States a decade or so back. Hmm, maybe that’s the theme here; I buy bits and pieces to build Phantoms, but just never get around to them. Perhaps Phantoms Forever is not so much a term of endearment for the actual aircraft, but rather one that describes my progress on these models, as I hold onto them forever without actually making a start on anything I own…

See you tomorrow.