1/72 Phantom FGR.2, 1453 Flight Mt Pleasant, 1991

[Mick Drover]

Hi all.

 

With the Spitfire complete, I've changed scale, era and propulsion method and have gone to the recent 1/72 Airfix FGR.2 Phantom with a few extras. It'll be built with kit decals of the white tailed aircraft while it was working out of  RAF Mount Pleasant. I'll replace the kit lumps that are supposed to represent Sidewinders with the much nicer versions from Eduard.

 

I love Adam Toobey's artwork.

 

 

 

 

I've got a bit done on it already however I've hit a bit of  an 'ugh' moment. The cockpit is fine out of the box as the cockpit will be closed however the intakes are annoying and fiddly. The left and right halves of each intake are okay, it's the outside fuselage shoulder piece that is frustrating.  

 

 

 

 

The ejector pin marks have been filled with talc and CA. You might be able to see in the image where I've removed some material to help it fit. It needs a little more but frustrating to do nonetheless. Has anyone else had problems with the fit in this area?

 

 

 

 

The fiddly fit of the intake shoulder

 

 

 

 

The lower wing section also has part of the forward lower fuselage which has an awkward seam that needs to be to cleaned up. This will have to be done after the intakes are installed. Sadly there's no swapping assembly steps here.

 

 

 

I'm unsure if I'll get a resin replacement set for the burner exhausts as the sprue attachment points are smack bang in the middle of some nice rib detail....

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

 

[billn53]

Great to see another Phantom in process!

[Billy54]

I agree, it is great to see another Phantom in process and remember you can never have too many Phantoms in your stash.

[Mick Drover]

Back to the Phantom while the paint on the RF-5E settles.

 

I've managed to get the intake shoulders onto the fuselage in a "best fit" kind of way.  I removed some material from the small shoulder of plastic that sits below the turtle deck of the rear canopy. Doing this produced a much better fit, but on the other hand I didn't want to remove too much material that would cause the part to sit too high. The clean up involved some liquid putty, sanding and re-scribing. I've yet to re-instate the rivets in the area but I'll get to that once I prime the kit to better see the results of my handy work.

 

 

 

 

The wing to fuselage fit was reasonable. Here I removed some material from the underside of the intake trunks that allowed a much more snug fit of the wing. For some unknown reason the underside panel of the forward fuselage is narrower that than the fuselage side walls for the forward fuselage. I opted to leave this section unglued while the rest of the wing joins dried. Since then I've glued and clamped the join. Some panel detail will be lost in the clean up so I'll have to re-instate it. I'll put some pics up once I've cleaned it up, however I'm pretty happy with it looks after gluing it.

 

 

 

 

The rest of the assembly was focused on getting the wing ready. I've left off the inboard slats and the trailing edge flaps to aid in painting. There's still a bit of pane line clean up to do around the exhaust panels but that won't take to long and the seam below the exhaust needs to be tidied up too.

 

 

 

 

One thing that has annoyed me is the out of round gun muzzle. I've rounded it as best as I can but i need to redo the tiny muzzle holes which although small are characteristic to it. Any ideas on how I can redo those would be greatly received!

 

 

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Pappy]

 G'day Mick,

 

I am so glad I never sold my Fujimi F-4s, I think I prefer them over the Airfix kit but you seem to be bashing it into shape!

 

The cockpit looks good, as you say with the canopies down it will do the job but I would consider replacing the upper ejection handles as they look like donuts,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Mattlow]

You're doing some good work here and your blow by blow account of the issues and your fixes is useful and appreciated.

 

Matt

[Mick Drover]

8 hours ago, Mattlow said:

You're doing some good work here and your blow by blow account of the issues and your fixes is useful and appreciated.

 

Matt

Thanks Matt.

 

More than happy to share what I find, though I'm sure other builders of the kit will find different ways to achieve similar result.

 

Thanks for checking in.

 

Mick

[Mick Drover]

9 hours ago, Pappy said:

 G'day Mick,

 

I am so glad I never sold my Fujimi F-4s, I think I prefer them over the Airfix kit but you seem to be bashing it into shape!

 

The cockpit looks good, as you say with the canopies down it will do the job but I would consider replacing the upper ejection handles as they look like donuts,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

G'day Pappy.

 

I've never had a Fujimi version of the FGR Phantom though I do know they've got a good reputation and build into a nice model.

 

The ejection ring pulls certainly look like donuts. One issue I came across when test fitting the one piece canopy was the ring pulls on the forward ejection seat foul the canopy and prevent it sitting properly on the cockpit sill. I'll have to remove a mm or two of material from its underside to drop it down. I'll certainly replace the kit donuts with something less 'donutish'!

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Pappy]

9 hours ago, Mick Drover said:

G'day Pappy.

 

I've never had a Fujimi version of the FGR Phantom though I do know they've got a good reputation and build into a nice model.

 

The ejection ring pulls certainly look like donuts. One issue I came across when test fitting the one piece canopy was the ring pulls on the forward ejection seat foul the canopy and prevent it sitting properly on the cockpit sill. I'll have to remove a mm or two of material from its underside to drop it down. I'll certainly replace the kit donuts with something less 'donutish'!

 

Cheers,

Mick

The UK hantom 'Phamily" is very nicely done. They lack the drooped L/E flaps and hook but the cockpit tub and panels are rendered with raised details (not a decal) and have nicely rendered seats. The only real shortcoming is that the kits do not feature the large underwing re-enforcing strap. IIRC this was a retro fit so early UK F-4s did not feature this along with the ex USN F-4Js that werre delivered.

 

If you use something like fuse wire or lead wire they will have a more scale-like appearance and you can bend the wire down slightly at the front to clear the transparencyas the real items droop a little with time anyway. The yellow also tends to fade a little to a cream colour but that is a matter of personal choice,

 

Pappy

[Mick Drover]

20 hours ago, Pappy said:

The UK hantom 'Phamily" is very nicely done. They lack the drooped L/E flaps and hook but the cockpit tub and panels are rendered with raised details (not a decal) and have nicely rendered seats. The only real shortcoming is that the kits do not feature the large underwing re-enforcing strap. IIRC this was a retro fit so early UK F-4s did not feature this along with the ex USN F-4Js that werre delivered.

 

If you use something like fuse wire or lead wire they will have a more scale-like appearance and you can bend the wire down slightly at the front to clear the transparencyas the real items droop a little with time anyway. The yellow also tends to fade a little to a cream colour but that is a matter of personal choice,

 

Pappy

Sadly there's no sign of raised details in the cockpit. The kit does supply two different wings, one with and one without the underside reinforcing strap.

 

I'll dig out the fuse wire and find something suitable over the weekend. I'll post some piccies with the result and thanks for the info on the colour too, I might err on the side of older.

 

Mick

[alt-92]

On 3/11/2020 at 11:47 PM, Mick Drover said:

I've never had a Fujimi version of the FGR Phantom though I do know they've got a good reputation and build into a nice model.

There's a recent rebox of Fujimi plastic in the Italeri UK F-4 box (the one with the Greenham Common Air Tattoo scheme box art).

[Mick Drover]

Hi all.

 

I hope everyone is keeping well in the current situation.

 

The Phantom is well advanced since the last update, to the point of painted! All of the greys have been done in Mr Color Lacquers and the white on the tail in Tamiya Laquer.

 

I'm not convinced of the Light Aircraft Grey underside. I've used Mr Color which is the equivalent of the suggeste BS361C/627 colour. In the few photos that I've found of XV466, the contrast between the underside and topside grey is quite noticeable. This isn't the case on the model, it's barely perceptible on the drop tanks; I think I'll go back and lighten it. I'd be interested to hear some opinions on this.

 

(I need to fix the fuselage gap forward and below the windscreen.)

 

Cheers,

Mick