Wooden F-4S Phantom

Found this all wood (with some metal pieces) 1/32nd scale model of a phantom in an antique store last weekend. It was alil bit of a mess, it was dusty, the rmissile fins were either missing or bent, and there were a few chips and cracks in the coating (not sure what they put over the wood, bondo?) I straightened out the fins, and replaced the missing ones with some thin copper sheets. As for the cracks and chipping, I just used some model putty, sanded it, and mixed some model paint for the repairs. There was a crack along the wing root, and a big chip in the tail near the checkered part. Its kinda hard to see the repairs I did, when the light hits them just right you can see them but its better than having a few ugly chips and cracks in it, right?

The cool thing is the model was all hand painted by someone (except for 2 tone gray cammo) Not sure if it was made by a model company or someone independent made it. The wood painted models I've seen look more professional than mine, like they're actually stenciled, this one you can see some pencil lines and marks around the lettering. and on some of the rocket fins where the paint was chipped, you can see par of what looked like a Coke logo lol Thats actually why I bought it, It looks home made to me. In the same booth with it was an F-18 with the same squadron, and pilot name..I would have bought the F-18 also, but its about $80..:/ If the price goes down I'll snatch it up later Even that one looks hand painted, and built the same way.

I did some research and found out the VMFA 312 squadron (the checkertails) were the first squadron to receive the F-4S variant in 1979, and they flew the phantom until July 1987, when they switched over to F-18's. The Pilot's name on this model, plus the F-18 model with it is 1/LT Rutt "Juice" (on the F-18 its Capt O.J. Rutt "Juice") I googled the name, and not much really showed up..

I did Google "VMFA 312 F-4S" and it came up with a photo of one of the Phantoms in the same squadron, which looks identical to his one, but the tail number wasn't a match, sadly : [link]. Just comparing the model to a pic of the real thing, you can really see how accurately made this thing is for a wood model!