71chally

This is the thread I'm thinking of, hopefully it helps

I seem to remember @canberra kid posting some very good Victor wing drawings from AP here a while back, hopefully he can oblige

Nice work going on, I hadn't realised that the Xtrakit was the old Matchbox kit. With the NF.14 nose length issue, I think it was a case that old original references were ignored, as the manufacturers publications and 'Flight' for example always had it right, but then a newer publication was wrong and Matchbox went with that. At least it's very easily correctable though.

This is another Matchbox classic that I have built plenty of when I was younger, I particularly remember entering one in an ATC competition. The Phantom is one of my all time favourite aircraft and so this build will tick a couple of boxes. This is one of those odd very late Matchbox boxings, which was actually released in 1998 by their then owners Revell. The box art and overall style is no where near as nice as the first two boxings (1975 and 1986), however it does have the advantage of being molded in one light colour and the decal sheet appears to be very sharply printed. Options for this release are, FG.1 XV568 R-002 892 NAS, Ark Royal June 1977, FGR.2 XV498/E 2 Squadron, Laarbruch August 1977 FGR.2 XV421/F 1435 Flight, Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands November 1990. Sadly this jet was lost in the following year along with its crew. The kit is actually quite reasonable overall and looks good when built up, though the surface detail is heavy (only a bit more than the recent Airfix kit I would say!) and detail is simplified such as the shallow undercarriage bays etc. It is well known that the canopy has the wrong shape in profile, and the main wheels aren't at all right for British Phantoms. Anyhow, unlike my Canberra project I am going to add some aftermarket to this build, I have a resin cockpit set and jet pipes to use as I see these items as needing the most attention, I will also add a more accurate canopy from one of my Fujimi kits. My favourite era of RAF Phantoms is when FGR.2s served in the ground attack and strike role, from 1969 to 1977, and it's that period I want to represent here. I love the two tone dark sea grey & dark green camo look, especially with full red, white and blue roundels. I want to model it in flight with the massive EMI reconnaissance pod fitted under the centreline and I have two quite different schemes in mind. XV437 was pictured with 54 Sqn carrying the recce pod with 2 x AIM-7 Sparrows, 2 x ballast shapes, 4 x SNEB rocket pods and the underwing drop tanks and wearing the full colour roundels, it was unusual for the pod to be carried with such a large and varied weapons load. 54 Sqn only operated with the pod for a very brief and limited period in the early 1970s before 41 Sqn equipped with the Phantom during 1972 in the ground attack/recce role at Coningsby. XV498 / E of 2 Sqn with RAFG at Laarbruch with only the recce pod fitted. This is based on a photo of a 2 Sqn FGR.2 carrying the pod, stbd fwd bay ballast shape and the port fwd bay strike camera but with absolutely nothing else fitted, not even underwing pylons or tanks, it has the two tone roundels and fin top RWR fitted. I'm kinda drawn to the latter scheme as it's unusual to see a Phantom modelled in such a clean a configuration and it's faithful to the kits' own decal sheet. Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr Spot the spelling mistake here! Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr The box is a different style being lift off lid type, but exactly the same size as the old Matchbox Red Dot kits boxes. It's great to see the earlier boxings, PK-404 & PK-412, of this kit being built here aswel.

The most obvious and hardest modification required would be the buldged bomb bay door, will also need the addition of nose leg mounted landing lamp, there was also a modification to the arrestor hook and bay at some stage but unsure if it affects things in regard to this kit and GW jets.. This boxing will cover the S.2D as it has Martels included, so the pylons will be in the right positions for Gulf War S.2B jets, I'm guessing that the later style wing tanks will be included and it looks like both versions of the wing mounted wide band homing pods and the later style fin top RWR are included, which also helps. Will need to source TIALD, ALQ pods and Sidewinders etc, and their are probably other small minor changes to aerials etc, worth checking references for sure. All doable in the world of modelling of course, but I think I would wait until Airfix does it for me, as per their 1:72nd kits.

My understanding is that it was known as BANA, Blackburn Advanced Naval Aircraft, in the companys' literature while the project was progressing and before it was announced as a strike aircraft.

I wish I had the kits for these wheels, they look superb!

Brilliant work @J.C. Bahr, your superb mixed build is precisely what I was referring to earlier in this thread, and this one Thanks for taking the time and trouble in reinstating it here.

I just missed the Frog era sadly, and when I started building in the late '70s early '80s the local shops to me were mainly Matchbox with some Japanese stuff, even Airfix stuff was seemingly further away and at that time their box art and subjects didn't really excite me. My local store in Newquay was the superb Toodees, and Jenkins a general stores had a lot of Matchbox in. I 'discovered' Frog by accident in the mid '80s when I couldn't believe that someone had done a Shackleton and so I ordered one from TJ (Tony James?) models in the London area, dead excited when that rocked up in the post! In some areas the Matchbox Canberra is better than the recent Airfix kit, especially in regard to surface detail and some of the shapes, the curve ahead of the fin and the whole tailplane junction is way off with that kit. Anyway, I used to be dead excited with my Matchbox purchases and gifts, my dad would give my multiples of them for Christmas, from the big 1:32 Sea Venom, Puma, 1:48 Prowler, Seasprite, to the 1:72 Victor, Canberra, Phantom, Helldiver, P-40 and Harriers.

I built loads of these as a kid as we had Canberras based nearby, they were TT.18s but what the hey I thought the Matchbox Canberra PR.9 kit was the best in town. There was something about Matchbox kits, from the stunning Roy Huxley artwork, usually variations of which appeared on the box sides, and the '70s bright colours of the logo and swish lines on the box top. The slightly unusual topic choices, coloured plastic and window to the rear of the box only enhance the browsing, and hopefully, buying pleasure. The PR.9 kit was released in 1978 in the Red Dot range. I think it was one of their finer offerings especially in regard to surface detail which is very fine raised type, the control surfaces and access doors etc are engraved, the decals are also quite nice, offering two camo aircraft of 39 & 13 squadron and an all over silver painted machine of 58 Squadron. However as I have got older I realised that there are some big errors aswel, the overall fuselage length is slightly too short and nearer the bomber length, the engine nacelles shapes are way off in plan view and not big enough at the engine faces, the tailplane has too great a chord (in fairness copied from an RAF AP error), the nose cone has the wrong profile and is slightly to long (making the whole length of the aircraft correct again)and the canopy isn't bulky enough - but still I love it! For this build I am keeping it on the nostalgia route, so I intend to build it from the box pretty much, I might try to correct some of it and I may put on some aftermarket wheels, but I really want to remain faithful to the original kit. I'm definitely going to build a camo one, as I have done plenty of silver ones, and I think it will be XH133 in camo with the full red white and blue roundels. Unfortunately the canopy transparency is missing, so I have appealed for a replacement one which hopefully @canberra kid can sort for me. Anyway, here is the box and contents, PK-408 Canberra PR.9 by James Thomas, on Flickr PK-408 Canberra PR.9 by James Thomas, on Flickr PK-408 Canberra PR.9 by James Thomas, on Flickr PK-408 Canberra PR.9 by James Thomas, on Flickr PK-408 Canberra PR.9 by James Thomas, on Flickr PK-408 Canberra PR.9 by James Thomas, on Flickr

It was of one of the prototype NA.39s Blackburn NA39 Buccaneer S1 XK488 Yeovilton 6-9-69 by Chris England, on Flickr

For anyone that can't access Facebook, this is the Laci webpage, https://laci-ltd.uk/en/ Lovely looking work, I'm hoping that they will do 747 flap set sometime.

Superb work! This actually looks like one of Matchboxs' better 1:48th kits, they always seem to be rather basic blank canvasses for adding work and detail - not a bad thing if you're expecting it of course.

Apologies John, it was the browser at work (which also my phone switches to - unknown to me!) which was blocking the images. I can see them them now I'm home, thank you for your help and the info!

Weird I can't see either set of images from a computer or phone? Thanks for trying again though.

A medium grey colour with a bit of blue tone, unsure what the equivalent paint is, perhaps one of the admiralty greys? I always mix up my own. de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW.1 XJ481 by James Thomas, on Flickr

Hi all, apologies that I haven't started my Canberra build yet, I managed to extricate it from the stash but have found that it's missing its canopy. I have appealed for a replacement one on the 'wanted' section. Also, is it possible to add two kits to the build? I have a late Matchbox Phantom (40421) which I forgot about and would like to add to the GB. Also I have the Auto Union and Tyrrell P34/2 kits and would like to build one but undecided which yet.

That explains, it thanks Dave, tried looking at good images of museum aircraft and I can't spot the detail at all.

Superb and meticulous work as usual Bill, only just seen this thread. I love the Fujimi Phantoms, probably my favourite kit of all time. I actually like the white plastic, I'm still at the brush painting end of the evolutionary scale, so it helps alot with aircraft with large areas of white. The FG.1s retained their catapult hooks, even in RAF service, though XT597 never became a regular service aircraft of course. '597 was used for the initial carrier trials aboard USS Coral Sea in mid 1968, so did use the hooks. Keep up the good work!

Superb build and finish!

Good question, on the new kit they seem over represented, would love to see a clear image of the vortex generators on the wing.

I'm aware of the classic undercarriage door picture (often wondered if that was deliberate!), and I don't mean that deep.

Good shot emphasising the different sizes of the pylons here, these are the the fully faired examples. There were more agricultural looking affairs before the use of these, I think you see these in the above picture at Rio on stb'd station. Vin LK Flickr

The main wing pylons are different to each other and the stb'd one is shallower. There was an option for a single ALQ pod mounted on the stb'd pylon via a deep adaptor fairing, I wonder if that is why the stb'd pylon was shallower to leave sufficient room under the aircraft with that fit.

Is it possible we are talking about different pylons here? The basic Vulcan Black Buck underwing pylons were indeed home produced as aerotech describes, but I think CT7567 is describing the double Shrike mounting pylon to fit the main pylons.