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Airfix 1/72 Phantom FG.1 in Stock at Hornby


VMA131Marine

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Hello All,

 

Thanks for all of the excellent information that's been posted in this thread! It's been quite an education and it will be a tremendous help with the Hasegawa 1/48 FG.1 I'm currently building. I don't have much to add to the discussion, other than to provide a link you all might find useful and a possible answer to the comment on p.17 about why the decal manufacturers don't include crew names.

 

First, the link: The gentleman who runs this Aviation blog (LINK or copy & paste http://aviationarchives.blogspot.com/search?q=f-4k ) posts something new almost daily. There are a lot of good references from McDonnell on Phantoms in general and quite a few for the Spey jets. Most will probably just be for nerds like me to read, but there is some info that's useful for modeling purposes, too. Hopefully, the link will take you to a page that includes FG.1 and FGR.2 aircrew manuals, fuselage cross section drawings from McDonnell, a Plane Captain's handbook, and a few other odds and ends. If you haven't visited this blog, be prepared to spend a lot of time digging around. There is a boatload of interesting documents. The only problem is that some of the web sites to host some of the docs, and they have some ads that might not be safe for work. Other hosts limit the amount of data you can download, so you might have to occasionally wait to download more than a couple of documents.

 

For the crew names, in researching crew names for Thunderbirds F-100s and 4th TFW F-4Ds and Es, I found it extremely difficult to nail down any crew names for a particular jet, except on the rare occasions where I found photos of both sides of the same jet taken on the same day. The crew names changed pretty regularly, so it was hard to say who had their names applied to what jet. The biggest problem I had was that most photos just are not high enough resolution to make out the crew names. Dennis, would you (or anyone else) happen to have crew names for any other RN FG.1s? Perhaps 004?  :whistle:  I can sympathize with the comment that Xtradecals can't seem to get the style of lettering right. They consistently botch the stroke and style of lettering on their USAF F-100 and F-4 sheets. Is it just too difficult for the artist to compare what he/she has drawn with photos, or better yet, readily-available tech orders showing exactly how they are to be applied to the airplane?

 

Cheers!

 

Ben

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5 minutes ago, Ben Brown said:

First, the link: The gentleman who runs this Aviation blog (LINK or copy & paste http://aviationarchives.blogspot.com/search?q=f-4k ) posts something new almost daily. There are a lot of good references from McDonnell on Phantoms in general and quite a few for the Spey jets. M

 

Also a lot of very interesting Harrier information!

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1 hour ago, Ben Brown said:

Hello All,

 

For the crew names, in researching crew names for Thunderbirds F-100s and 4th TFW F-4Ds and Es, I found it extremely difficult to nail down any crew names for a particular jet, except on the rare occasions where I found photos of both sides of the same jet taken on the same day. The crew names changed pretty regularly, so it was hard to say who had their names applied to what jet. The biggest problem I had was that most photos just are not high enough resolution to make out the crew names. Dennis, would you (or anyone else) happen to have crew names for any other RN FG.1s? Perhaps 004?  :whistle:  I can sympathize with the comment that Xtradecals can't seem to get the style of lettering right. They consistently botch the stroke and style of lettering on their USAF F-100 and F-4 sheets. Is it just too difficult for the artist to compare what he/she has drawn with photos, or better yet, readily-available tech orders showing exactly how they are to be applied to the airplane?

 

Cheers!

 

Ben

Hi Ben

thank you very very much ! - another two excellent web sites to distract me.  

Attached three images which may come in useful - bear in mind that, as you so correctly stated, crew names and codes changed with monotonous regularity :-

 

qhANwgU.jpg

 

eBtaBmB.jpg

 

uKhkdD5.jpg

 

I have a few more in mono, I will sort them out and post later.

 

HTH

 

Dennis 

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1 hour ago, sloegin57 said:

Hi Ben

thank you very very much ! - another two excellent web sites to distract me.  

Attached three images which may come in useful - bear in mind that, as you so correctly stated, crew names and codes changed with monotonous regularity :-

 

 

I have a few more in mono, I will sort them out and post later.

 

HTH

 

Dennis 

Outstanding! Thank you!

 

Ben

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5 hours ago, sloegin57 said:

Hi Ben

thank you very very much ! - another two excellent web sites to distract me.  

Attached three images which may come in useful - bear in mind that, as you so correctly stated, crew names and codes changed with monotonous regularity :-

 

qhANwgU.jpg

 

eBtaBmB.jpg

 

uKhkdD5.jpg

 

I have a few more in mono, I will sort them out and post later.

 

HTH

 

Dennis 

3 different sizes and placements of "004/003/007", 4's are thicker than 3's and 7's bigger than both of them, as well as all being in different positions. Along with the ejection seat triangles and rescue marks. The white band in the nose flash is different on the first two also. (Can't see the third).

 

What do the names on the splitter plate refer to? LAM? Red, white and blue squares?

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13 hours ago, roym said:

What do the names on the splitter plate refer to? LAM? Red, white and blue squares?

 

I think that these are the names of the maintainers, LAM etc referring to their rank. Being ex RAF I am not sure what the ranks are or what the coloured squares refer to.

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In searching RN FG.1 images on Google, it looks like having the pilot's names on the port canopy rail wasn't very common. Were they usually only painted on the starboard rail, as in Dennis' photos above?

 

Thanks,

Ben

 

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26 minutes ago, Ben Brown said:

In searching RN FG.1 images on Google, it looks like having the pilot's names on the port canopy rail wasn't very common. Were they usually only painted on the starboard rail, as in Dennis' photos above?

 

Thanks,

Ben

 

Ben, I never saw any names on the port side of the aircraft.  I was once told that they were on the stbd side as that was the side nearest, and in view of, the carrier island where Flyco was.  But that may have been a bunch of Fish-heads trying to wind up a Crab !!.

7 minutes ago, canberra kid said:

I've never come across this store before, I'm guessing it was intended for the Navy?

 

John

John, the Navy had refuelling pods but I believe that they were Flight Refuelling items.  Used on Sea Vixens and Buccaneers.  I never saw any form of pod in the tank bay at Leuchars or for that matter fitted to a Phantom.  Looks like it went on the centre line station.  Interesting in that it is in a British Tech Pub.

 

Dennis

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38 minutes ago, sloegin57 said:

 

John, the Navy had refuelling pods but I believe that they were Flight Refuelling items.  Used on Sea Vixens and Buccaneers.  I never saw any form of pod in the tank bay at Leuchars or for that matter fitted to a Phantom.  Looks like it went on the centre line station.  Interesting in that it is in a British Tech Pub.

 

Dennis

That's what I was thinking too Dennis, apart from this illustration I've never come across it, it's in the illustrated parts catalogue AP, so it must have been something they had an intention to use? 

 

John

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That refuelling pod is a US Navy type, seen them fitted to A-6s etc.  I wonder if McDonnell Douglas tried selling the system with the Phantom to the UK?

 

I've never seen references to Royal Navy Phantoms providing buddy refuelling, though they would take on fuel from Buccaneers in the tanker role using the standard Mk20 buddy pods.

A number of the Mk20 pods ended up at St Athan when the Ark Royal stuff pitched up in Nov 78,  I'm guessing they were returned to stores and later scrapped?

Edited by 71chally
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3 hours ago, sloegin57 said:

Ben, I never saw any names on the port side of the aircraft.  I was once told that they were on the stbd side as that was the side nearest, and in view of, the carrier island where Flyco was.  But that may have been a bunch of Fish-heads trying to wind up a Crab !!.

 

Dennis

Thanks, Dennis! Two of your three photos illustrate how crew names changed pretty often. Note that F/O T Newby's name appeared on both 004 and 007. 

 

Ben

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3 hours ago, 71chally said:

That refuelling pod is a US Navy type, seen them fitted to A-6s etc.  I wonder if McDonnell Douglas tried selling the system with the Phantom to the UK?

 

I've never seen references to Royal Navy Phantoms providing buddy refuelling, though they would take on fuel from Buccaneers in the tanker role using the standard Mk20 buddy pods.

A number of the Mk20 pods ended up at St Athan when the Ark Royal stuff pitched up in Nov 78,  I'm guessing they were returned to stores and later scrapped?

James perhaps the FR refueling pod wasn't compatible with the plumbing in the Phantom so they had to use the American one? if they ever did use it? 

John

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