Revell 1/48 Phantom FGR.2. Small update Wed 30th March 2022

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

Hi everyone

 

I've still to finish my other Revell/Hasagawa Phantom FGR.2 build but I received my other kit in the post and at the same time I also received the Aires resin cockpit. I've read and heard that the fit of the Aires cockpit isn't the best and you essentially have to preform major surgery to get it to fit, well, well I couldn't resist having a look at it and I kinda got carried away this morning and I've managed (without too much real effort) to get it to fit very, very well, yes I had to remove a heck of a lot of resin and plastic but it was more time consuming rather than anything else. Here it is (its only dry fitted for now)..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the photo's you can see that the cockpit tub it actually a little loose!

 

Cheers

 

Iain

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

And here it is with all the major resin added...

 

 

 

Happy with that.

 

Iain

 

 

 

[franky boy]

Nice work Iain

 

Aires cockpits always look great in the box but I’ve never had the courage to try one as their reputation regarding fit always seems to proceed them. 

 

Well I’ll done for making it work   

 

James

[Antb]

You've done very well to get that to fit iain, it looks awesome.

 

I cant be doing with aires resin as I find it a royal pain, but it does look lovely. Its a shame really as detail wise its great. 

 

Whats the scheme you're going for with this one? 

 

 

[bar side]

Nice fit there.  I am always concerned that they fit a Hasegawa kit & I usually end up with ERTL or Italeri, and the kit cockpit space does vary so they are not all exactly 1/48 throughout.

Is there a good reference website for Phantom instrument panels?  Just to check differences between C, D, FGR2, RF-4 etc.  Including FGR2 dual control, periscope & non periscope.  Never fully certain that the panel is quite right when I fit it.

[JeffreyK]

I think you need to position your resin pit quite a bit further aft. Please have a look at the turtle deck aft of the rear seat. There is a recess for the canopy actuator. That bit of flat deck needs to replace the bit of flat deck on the kit where in the same position there is a hole for the canopy actuator as well. The half-hexagonal or half-moon shaped vertical bit that the turtle deck blends into (the aft-most part of the resin item) needs to blend in with the rear canopy fairing, which is a separate piece on the Hasegawa kit. 

Cheers,

J

[Biggles87]

I think you've done a pretty good job there Iain.

I've just about stopped using Aires resin cockpits for the reasons stated above. I confine myself mostly to Eduard Zoom sets and the occasional LooK or Yahu instrument panel and ejection seats for jets.

 

John

[HOUSTON]

Iain, 

Stellar  work. Very  Good .

[Dr. Quack]

Oooooh....another Spey Phantom!

love what you're doing with the interior design.

Q

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

3 hours ago, bar side said:

Nice fit there.  I am always concerned that they fit a Hasegawa kit & I usually end up with ERTL or Italeri, and the kit cockpit space does vary so they are not all exactly 1/48 throughout.

Is there a good reference website for Phantom instrument panels?  Just to check differences between C, D, FGR2, RF-4 etc.  Including FGR2 dual control, periscope & non periscope.  Never fully certain that the panel is quite right when I fit it.

http://aviation.watergeek.eu/f4m-panel.html
 

This site looks interesting 👍

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

5 hours ago, franky boy said:

Nice work Iain

 

Aires cockpits always look great in the box but I’ve never had the courage to try one as their reputation regarding fit always seems to proceed them. 

 

Well I’ll done for making it work   

 

James

 

4 hours ago, Antb said:

You've done very well to get that to fit iain, it looks awesome.

 

I cant be doing with aires resin as I find it a royal pain, but it does look lovely. Its a shame really as detail wise its great. 

 

Whats the scheme you're going for with this one? 

 

 

Hiya

This one will be XV466, 1435 Flt RAF Mount Pleasant circa 1991, with as much AM as I can throw at it 😁  

3 hours ago, bar side said:

Nice fit there.  I am always concerned that they fit a Hasegawa kit & I usually end up with ERTL or Italeri, and the kit cockpit space does vary so they are not all exactly 1/48 throughout.

Is there a good reference website for Phantom instrument panels?  Just to check differences between C, D, FGR2, RF-4 etc.  Including FGR2 dual control, periscope & non periscope.  Never fully certain that the panel is quite right when I fit it.

Thank you. 

2 hours ago, JeffreyK said:

I think you need to position your resin pit quite a bit further aft. Please have a look at the turtle deck aft of the rear seat. There is a recess for the canopy actuator. That bit of flat deck needs to replace the bit of flat deck on the kit where in the same position there is a hole for the canopy actuator as well. The half-hexagonal or half-moon shaped vertical bit that the turtle deck blends into (the aft-most part of the resin item) needs to blend in with the rear canopy fairing, which is a separate piece on the Hasegawa kit. 

Cheers,

J

Hiya 

The tub is just sitting between the fuselage half’s at the moment, nothings fixed and when I was putting the seats in the whole thing shifted forwards, I have quite a lot of wiggle room, but when I finally come around to fixing it in permanently I’ll make sure it’s placement is right. 

1 hour ago, Biggles87 said:

I think you've done a pretty good job there Iain.

I've just about stopped using Aires resin cockpits for the reasons stated above. I confine myself mostly to Eduard Zoom sets and the occasional LooK or Yahu instrument panel and ejection seats for jets.

 

John

Hey John

They are unnecessarily fiddly but they do add a certain something once shoehorned in and hopefully once painted and permanently fitted this will do likewise.  

1 hour ago, HOUSTON said:

Iain, 

Stellar  work. Very  Good .

Thank you

3 minutes ago, Dr. Quack said:

Oooooh....another Spey Phantom!

love what you're doing with the interior design.

Q

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

16 minutes ago, Dr. Quack said:

Oooooh....another Spey Phantom!

love what you're doing with the interior design.

Q

Hi Q

 

Cheers buddy. This one will be put away for now I’m going to concentrate on getting my other build finished first.

 

Thanks everyone for you kind words and observations.

 

Iain

[Antb]

Nice mate. Looking forward to seeing the progress as always. 

 

Working on one at the moment and really enjoying it. Nice little kit and you can't beat a phantom. 

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

2 hours ago, Antb said:

Nice mate. Looking forward to seeing the progress as always. 

 

Working on one at the moment and really enjoying it. Nice little kit and you can't beat a phantom. 

Ain’t that the truth 👍

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

12 hours ago, franky boy said:

Nice work Iain

 

Aires cockpits always look great in the box but I’ve never had the courage to try one as their reputation regarding fit always seems to proceed them. 

 

Well I’ll done for making it work   

 

James

Hi James

 

sorry it looks like I didn’t reply to you earlier, thanks for the compliment buddy, those pesky Aires cockpits are a hand full, but if you’re happy to chop and grind away some plastic they can be made to fit!

 

Cheers Iain

 

 

[JeffreyK]

...I think I didn't explain it very well so here's a picture:

 

The recess with the hole in the middle in the aft turtle deck of the resin tub is where the aft canopy actuator goes. The is exactly the same hole in the kit plastic in the middle of the area I marked in the above picture. The plastic needs to be cut out and the tub slid back and nestled against the aft canopy fairing (best take the part from the sprue and tape in place to test fit)...

Cheers,

J

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

8 hours ago, JeffreyK said:

...I think I didn't explain it very well so here's a picture:

 

The recess with the hole in the middle in the aft turtle deck of the resin tub is where the aft canopy actuator goes. The is exactly the same hole in the kit plastic in the middle of the area I marked in the above picture. The plastic needs to be cut out and the tub slid back and nestled against the aft canopy fairing (best take the part from the sprue and tape in place to test fit)...

Cheers,

J

Jeffery thank you for pointing that out, I did wonder looking at the kit parts and resin replacement why there were two holes for the canopy jack? I honestly didn't put two and two together and all I can say is thank the lord for Diall instant glue remover (yes it actually works!)..

So after Jeffreys timely observation we have this..

 

 

Happy days!

 

Iain

 

 

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

Hey everyone

 

After advice from @JeffreyK I rejigged how the resin tub fits into the Revell/Hasagawa plastic and I'm happy to report that it fits like a glove! I've glued the side consoles onto either side of the fuselage with the tub and instrument shroud being a press fit at the moment..

 

 

Happy days!

 

Iain

 

 

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

Hey everyone

 

So what have been doing to this.....well other than spending a small fortune on AM (I'll list it all in a bit) I adapted the box to make it a flip top  lid rather than that horrid open ended box...I've been cutting, sanding and grinding to get the AM to fit...

Tada!!

here is where the model is as of now...

The front bulk head was removed to accommodate the resin radar..

..panels were cut for the avionics bays (port and starboard) and the air to air refuelling prob was opened up..

 

And here is most of the resin fitted into the plastic (nothing glued just dry fitted)..

 

 

 

The AM...

Allycat seamless intakes (they arrive tomorrow)

Aires wheels

Aires Cockpit

Aires aux intakes

Aires Exhaust nozzles

Aires Electronics bays

QB mirrors

QB RBF covers

QB FOD covers

QB RWR

QB arrestor hook

QB air intakes

QB refuelling probe

QB MB Mk.7 Ejector seats (incase I don't like the seats in the cockpit set)

Master pitot and AoA probe (Brass)

Xtradecal stencils

Xtradecal FG.1/FGR.2 Part 4

Eduard Phantom FGR.2 ejection seat British (Etch)

Eduard radar

Eduard AIM 9L

Eduard canopy masks

Flightpath aircrew ladder/step

 

Well thats that..

 

Cheers

 

Iain

 

[Antb]

I had to give you a like as there is no "holy cow thats awesome" option. 

 

This is going to be something special iain. 

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

14 minutes ago, Antb said:

I had to give you a like as there is no "holy cow thats awesome" option. 

 

This is going to be something special iain. 

Hey Ant

 

The sad thing is I’m just hacking away at plastic and can’t take any credit for the fabulous AM..I hope everything works out as planned and my painting can do it justice, I have seen a built up kit with very similar AM and it looked great.

 

cheers buddy

 

Iain 

[Anthony in NZ]

I agree with Ant...that's going to be awesome!

 

I replied to your PM a short time ago

 

Cheers, and love the updates...keep em coming.  Just what I need too

[martinBK]

Quick Boost MK7 seats are for US jets (USAF, not USNavy), surely not RAF.

Edited December 7, 2020 by martinBK

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

40 minutes ago, martinBK said:

Quick Boost MK7 seats are for US jets (USAF, not USNavy), surely not RAF.

Hiya

 

Umm I'm not sure (I assumed they used the same seat - I'll do some digging)

 

Cheers buddy

 

Iain

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

1 hour ago, Anthony in NZ said:

I agree with Ant...that's going to be awesome!

 

I replied to your PM a short time ago

 

Cheers, and love the updates...keep em coming.  Just what I need too

Hiya

 

Email sent! And thank you!

Cheers buddy

 

Iain