Revell Phantom FGR.2 (04962) - British Legends Revell 1/48

[Julien]

Phantom FGR.2 (04962)

1:48 Revell

 

 

Following a period of cancellations and upheaval in the UK aircraft industry the Royal Navy & Royal Air Force found themselves lacking capability in the 1960s. The decision was taken to purchase the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom already in use in the US. An F-4K (FG.1) version was developed for the Navy and an F-4M (FGR.2) for the Air Force. These aircraft were not the same as the US ones as it was agreed that larger and more powerful Rolls Royce Spey engines would be fitted and the radars would be built under license by Ferranti. While the F-4J was the basis for the UK models the fuselage was redesigned by BAC to accommodate the larger engines. These changes would mean that the unit costs would more than treble over the F-4J. Due to changes in the Navy 20 aircraft originally ordered were transferred to the RAF, then in 1978 following the loss or HMS Ark Royal all remaining Naval aircraft were turned over to the RAF.

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing of Hasegawa's kit from the 1980s. this is still the only injected plastic kit in 1.48 scale of a British Phantom. Despite its age this is still a good kit.  Revell last reboxed this kit in 2004 and it has always been sought by modellers for its better price and better decals than the original Hasegawa kits. The kit comes on 7 sprues of grey plastic and one clear sprue.

 

 

Construction starts in the cockpit. The seats are made up first. These come without belts and are fairly simple as they are designed to be used with the kits pilot figures. The cockpit tub is then built up. Instrument panels, bulkheads and side consoles are fitted to make a complete assembly. The front wheel well is also fitted under the cockpit. Once this is made up it can be put inside the fuselage, and the fuselage closed up. On each side then the intakes can be assembled.

 

 

Next up construction moves to the wings. The lower section contains the centre section, and the left & right uppers contain the folding parts at the ends of the wing. Separate flaps are provided which can be modelled up or down. The wings can then be attached to the fuselage. At the rear the engine exhausts and tail top fairings are then added. The auxiliary inlet doors are added along with the tailplanes. At the front the nose cone is made up and added. 

 

 

The landing gear is then made up and added. The front has twin tyres while the mains one large one. Each gear leg has its own retraction struts and doors to add.  On the underside the air brakes are also added. Moving back to the top sides the intake ramps are added along with the 4 part canopy. The main canopies can be open or closed. 

 

 

For stores the kit supplies the main centre line tank and both wing tanks. Also for the centre line there is a 25mm gun pod and the large EMI reece Pod. Sparrow/Sky Flash missiles are provided for the fuselage, but while sidewinder rails are supplied for the wing pylons there are no missiles in the kit.

 

 

 

Markings

The new decal sheets which looks like it comes from Cartograf by the serial number features 3 aircraft wearing different schemes.

 

1. XV470 - No. 56 Sqn  RAF Wattisham, 1992 In the Later Grey Scheme.
2. XV408 - No. 92 Sqn  RAF Wildenrath, 1991 In the overall Blue anniversary scheme.
3. XT898 - No. 2 Sqn RAF Laarbruch 1974 In the Grey / Green over light grey scheme.

 

 

 

Conclusion

It's a great to see this kit back in Revell's line up. The same plastic with much better decals, and dare we say at a much better price point.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

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[BerndM]

Good to see this one coming back.

While shopping around in Japan i have seen that Hasegawa has discontinued much of their standart 1:48 scale F-4 kits.

[benskipper]

Hmmm looks very interesting. 

[BadKarma75]

Good review

Bought this one a few weeks back, looks really nice just have to finish the too many started kits before I can make a pigs ear of it.

 

[Redstaff]

I bought one of these a few weeks ago to increase my 56 squadron flightline

It will be good to see how it compares to the original Hasegawa Hi grade FG1 in the loft gathering dust, awaiting it's turn like so many other kits 😂

 

Ian

[Kwad]

The kits wheels are wrong,  Hasegawa added correct metal ones in their kit.

[janneman36]

9 minutes ago, Kwad said:

The kits wheels are wrong,  Hasegawa added correct metal ones in their kit.

The metal ones from the Hasegawa kit are nice to look at in the box..

Those rubber wheels don’t fit the rims as their widht isn’t the same and the only solution is splitting the rims..and how do i know😉

I bought the reskit set for my kit and they look the part..

 

cheers, Jan 

[stever219]

Apart from the points above this kit really benefits from the Alley Cat replacement intakes, which are scale depth back to the engine compressor faces and have proper backs to the intake ramps rather than Hasegawa's voids.  Also avoid the Aires resin afterburners: they're sized for a J-79-sized rear fuselage (Why?????) and will just disappear into this kit's rear fuselage.  Other "tweaks" for a late Spey Phantom, I.e. the 56 and 92 Squadron options, include the long-range "periscooe" which will need to be added between the canopies on the port side and wing reinforcement straps across the belly and below the outer wing panels at least.  From the box you can produce a very good replica of an early or mid-life RAF Phantom.

[RMP2]

Really pleased to see this re-released but would like to know:

 

Are the decals really any better than the originals?

 

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by RMP2

[Julien]

12 hours ago, RMP2 said:

 

 

Are the decals really any better than the originals?

 

 

To my eye they are, the original Hasegawa decals were thick and sometime hard to use, and dont mention white was never really white. These look much better in the box, tho they do look a little matter than other sheets I have seen. 

 

Until we see them used we wont know exactly how good they are.

 

Julien

[RMP2]

On 3/30/2019 at 11:11 AM, Julien said:

To my eye they are, the original Hasegawa decals were thick and sometime hard to use, and dont mention white was never really white. These look much better in the box, tho they do look a little matter than other sheets I have seen. 

 

Until we see them used we wont know exactly how good they are.

 

Julien

 

The old Revell boxings were different sheets to any of the Hasegawa and not at all Hasegawa like, didnt have much trouble with either though to be fair, but preferred the old Revell. Just wondered if they had changed at all really for better or worse.

[Boman]

Revell and Hasegawa never used the same decal makers/printers, so no wonder. Cartograph have been the favoured decal printer of many companies the last few years, Revell too

[BushBrit66]

Are all the parts (sads DECALS and slatted stabilizors of  course) in this boxing to do a Navy FGR1? 

[SallysDad]

Are there engraved panel lines on this kit?

[stever219]

12 minutes ago, SallysDad said:

Are there engraved panel lines on this kit?

It’s the (getting quite) old Hasegawa kit so, yes.