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Lord Riot

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Lord Riot last won the day on January 22 2018

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About Lord Riot

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    Cheshire
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    Rugby, rowing, football, gym, nature, acting.

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  1. This Phantom was originally built for the US Navy as 153795 and served in Vietnam with VF-154 ‘Pukin Dogs’ on USS Constellation before later serving with the Marines. Following the UK’s decision to purchase 15 Phantoms for the RAF to fill the gap left by 23 Sqn deploying to the Falklands, the aircraft entered service with the RAF’s reformed 74 Sqn at Wattisham, Suffolk in October 1984 as ZE354. Along with its squadron mates, this Phantom was soon adorned with the unit’s famous black fin and served until mid-1991 when the Tigers took on surplus Phantom FGR2s until disbanding in 1992. This is the 1/48 Academy kit, and it was not without its issues, particularly the fit of the intake sections to the side of the fuselage. The nose section also required filler underneath, but although due to age it compares unfavourably to new-tool Airfix (understandably!), with some care it’s a reasonable build. I particularly like the breakdown of the tail section as it makes painting much simpler. WIP here: I used the Eduard cockpit detail set to enhance the instrument panels, and made my own canopy mirrors. Markings are from the Xtradecal ‘History of 74 Sqn’ set, plus a few stencils, etc from the spares box. I’m still looking for the crew names for the canopy rails. Paint is all rattle cans, with Mr Color 11 for the fuselage and outer wings, Tamiya AS-16 for the underside and TS-81 for the inner upper wing surfaces, plus Halfords satin black for the fin. All comments and discussion welcome! …
  2. Strangely the Eduard detail set didn’t include the canopy mirrors, so I made some from plastic card. I’ll paint them once the glue sets.
  3. Those aggressor scheme Eagles are fantastic!
  4. Amazing looking Gannet, and superbly painted. The neatness on the demarcation lines is brilliant.
  5. Fantastic! Beautifully painted and great detail. Lovely Meteor.
  6. Undercarriage all done, and it seems to sit right. Phantoms never tailsit so no noseweight needed. Any suggestions for improvements or amends required? Next stage will be adding the stencils, of which there are far fewer than on a Spey-engined one. Unfortunately though I’m not sure the USN ones in the kit are appropriate apart from the slime lights. I need to find the aircrew name decals for the canopy rails from somewhere too.
  7. The difference in shades on these is incredible, they all seem to change with different light too. It makes choosing the right greys difficult on one hand, but on the other, sort of easier as they never look the same twice anyway! I’m hoping mine isn’t too far off. I’m probably going to mark it up as ZE354/R.
  8. I’ve made some more progress with the cockpit which I’m pretty much calling done I think.
  9. The instructions called for adding the main gears at a very early stage of assembly, but I ignored that as otherwise I’d risk snapping them off, plus it would be a pain when spraying. However when I did come to fit them later it did mean I had to cut off part of the oleo base otherwise it just wouldn’t fit. Another issue is the undercarriage parts are tiny and delicate, while for me the instructions don’t seem clear enough. I did botch them together in the end and subsequently covered most of it up with the undercarriage door so it’s not so bad. I must admit, after recently building several newer tool Airfix kits, this Academy kit is proving to be a bit annoying. LOTS of filling required, mostly around the wing roots, intake joins and nose, although to be fair I do like how Academy has broken down the tail and exhaust section, it makes for much simpler painting and is actually a good fit apart from the jet pipe separator. Are the Hasegawa Phantom kits a good fit? I wish Airfix would release some 1/48 British Phantoms!!! I made a home made mask for the canopies so I can spray them the same colour as the upper fuselage. Also made the nav’s periscope from an offcut as it isn’t included in the kit. The current status:
  10. A bit more done on this today, including some dirtwash underneath and the addition of the burner cans.
  11. Loving that Q-shed set-up @bar side, and it looks even better with those Phantoms in there!
  12. This week I have mostly been spraying and sanding then respraying the intake joins. I think, at last I have finally got them to a standard I can look at without thinking it’s too unrealistic looking. I think it took five rounds in total, mainly the left join, but also the lower wing root/intake join on both sides. Just need a little touch up on the wing inner surfaces and the main spraying is done. On a positive note, I think the grey shades look reasonable. I know there’s a lot of debate about F-4J (UK) greys, but it’s close enough for me, especially as real ones seem to look different in every photo. A dry fit of the black fin … I made the seat belts from masking tape as usual. This will be the stores carried. I made the ballast missile body by simply cutting off the fins from a Sparrow. Similarly, the acquisition round is just a Sidewinder with its fins sliced off. Quite a few photos show these jets with the centreline belly tank, so I went with that rather than the underwing ones. The tank needed a bit of filler along its join too.
  13. It looks great, and a much needed type for my shelf of 50s jets. Certainly accurate enough for my standards.
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