FH-1 Phantom [1/72 Special Hobby]

[Rémi]

With the end of my P-51D Mustang, one place is free on my desk

 

I choose this time to exit from my stash a 1/72 kit.

I decided to make the FH-1 Phantom from Special Hobby.
 

Special Hobby has several boxes of this plane. I have the "Demonstation Teams and Trainers" box

 

 

 

Test fit show me that this kit need some adjustement and certainly the help of your best friend : the putty tube.

But nothing impossible to fix

 

[Ptmvarsityfan]

Looking forward to seeing a build of this very attractive little fighter!

Cheers, Paul

[Rémi]

Let"s go

 

I started the kit

For this kit my strategie is "test fit" "tes fit" "test fit". Have you tell you "test fit" ?

 

To resume the probleme of this kit is that all interior details are too big for the fuselage/wing

 

The cockpit :

 

- the front and rear bulkhead are too large.

- the rear bulkhead is too thick

- the cockpit floor is too long

 

For all little world enter in the fuselage, I proceed like this

 

I glued the front bulkhead and adjust it to close the fuselage

After, I adjusted the rear bulkhead but not glu it. I sanded the rear bulkhead until I can close approximatly the fuselage

Now I can adjust the cockpit floor to two bulkhead space

 

 

The main wheels bay

The wheels bay have four parts.
But if you follow the instruction, the assembly part is too large too.

I follwed these steps

Glue two part on the under wing

Glue the two other parts together. Adjust the second step to the first step by cutting the parts as needed.

Reduce the high of part near the fuselage because this part is too high.

Now you have finish to adjust the wheels bay

 

 

The rear engine parts

 

I didn't follow instructions too.

I assembled the rear section and add the ignition chamber

His engraved is little too large and you must sand it for adding the last part of he rear engine section

 

But now with these works, you can start the paint

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jackson Duvalier]

Thank you for sharing this.  I want to build this kit and it is good to be aware of potential problems before they arise.

 

Your dry-brushing on the cockpit details is exquisite!  How do you do that so well?

[Rémi]

Hi

 

I use the classical technique but my brushl has almost no paint.

I prefere to pass several time with a lighter mouvement. The brush touch barely the piece. And I stop when I'm satisfact with the result

If I see that my brush has too paint, I dry it more.

Before start I test the brush on a black paper.

 

[Rémi]

With all preparation works, I can insert the cockpit in the fuselage

Don't forget the weight in the front noise. The instruction give a little weight of 3 grammes but I prefere add aroubd 6 grammes weight

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I can close the fuselage and go to the next step : the wings

 

 

The wings are another major step who requiert some attention

I glue the air intake on lower wing.

The intake must be adjusted by sanding/cutting it for place the upper wing

On right wing I have a gap who must be filled with plastic card

 

 

 

 

Now you can assemble the wing and the fuselage and see the last problem : the gap between wings and fuselage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tailspin Turtle]

Before you fill the gap between the wing and the fuselage, I suggest that you check the dihedral: http://www.alternatewars.com/SAC/FD-1_ACP_-_1_March_1946.pdf

 

Thanks very much for the build notes so far.

[Terry1954]

Nice choice of subject and excellent start. I love these early service jets, and I'm also a fan of Special Hobby. You have to put a little more effort in, but I find most of their subjects are nicely finessed.

 

Will follow this one for sure.

 

Terry.

[Rémi]

Thanks Tailspin Turtle for your documentation

 

I follow it and saw that if I didn't force the wing on the fuselage, the diedral is wrong.

I will choose to not fill the gap but force the wing and glu it on the fuselage

[Rémi]

The wing is in his place

I added the fins

The engine is in place only for the photo

 

 

 

[Rémi]

The paint !

 

I bought two reference for the paint of this early US jet : The AK Dark Sea Blue and the Gunze C365.

None of them convince me.
I think the AK reference is for WWII plane and the Gunze paint didn't look to be blue I like him

 

This blue is my own interpretation.

For this I use my own paint a mix of tamiya paint and gunze paint

Yes it is not really advise to mix paint from different manufacturer, but I have these paints in my stock

I use a mix of Tamiya X3 and Gunze H326 (50-50) and add H2 for having a darker paint

 

I decided to make the aerobatic team scheme

I painted all decoration even if Special give some yellow stripes on the decals sheet. Why I didn't use the decals ? Because it is difficult to have the same tint when you use the decals for a part and the paint for other

I painted the US insignia too.

 

 

 

 

 

[Terry1954]

Looking superb, and a very nice paint job especially those markings and the yellow areas!

 

Terry

[Navy Bird]

It sounds like a typical Special Hobby kit. Which is not a bad thing, by the way, I have more Special Hobby kits in my display case than any other brand. You're doing a great job so far, and your build notes (as well as the document from @Tailspin Turtle) will really help when I build mine. I've always wanted an original Phantom in my collection, but all I could find way back when was the MPM kit (which was one of their earlier efforts). Luckily Special Hobby came along with the new tool, and the old MPM box went the eBay route. I'm anxiously awaiting your next installment!   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Rémi]

It finished

 

 

 

 

 

[Marklo]

Oh I was expecting the other Phantom. Pleasantly surprised lovely build.