1:72 Fujimi McDonnell Douglas FG.1 Phantom A&AEE

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Mind if I tag along? sitting in the snug by the fire with a pint of Abbott Ale would be the ideal way to follow this build.

Colin

[Head in the clouds.]

I will sit next to Colin and we can sup Abbot Ale together, sounds like a good evening in the offing..😄

 

Got this in the stash so will follow like a hawk, including two of the sets of decals you mention, kit and Big H's finest......or not as the case may be!

[Fritag]

On 9/1/2021 at 7:26 PM, Gene K said:

since the hot Phantom was considered too much for a newbie to handle, you had to wait your turn to get to the front after serving in the back!

 

Well we’re all subject to the vagaries of the training regimes of our era’s - but that sounds like cruel and unusual punishment!

 

Do you think it was a good idea?

 

 

 

 

 

[Navy Bird]

Sorry for the lack of progress mates. Been on nappy changing duties the last few days...hope to have some pix up this weekend.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Terry1954]

6 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Been on nappy changing duties the last few days...hope to have some pix up this weekend. 

 

Should be interesting to see your technique on changing nappies!

 

Terry

[Gene K]

17 hours ago, Fritag said:

but [putting pilots in the back seat] sounds like cruel and unusual punishment! Do you think it was a good idea?

Absolutely TERRIBLE idea. The Air Force recognized this in about three years,  and started putting pilots straight from pilot training into front seat training ... filling front seats BEFORE upgrading all the pilots "serving" in the rear. Led to a lot of really good  (frustrated and resentful) pilots leaving the Air Force. The back seat experience, of course, was valuable, and replacing the back seat pilots with outstanding navigators certainly made the F-4 even more capable than the superior weapons system it already was. Pilots and back seaters were "crewed" and flew together as much as the schedule allowed.

 

Hope Navy Bird is done "Napping".

 

Gene K

[Navy Bird]

After grinding off the kit's cockpit ledges on the inside of the fuselage halves, there is plenty of room for the CMK resin cockpit, to which no modifications have yet been made:

 

 

I think there will need to be some more mods to the fuselage halves, especially with the cockpit sills, to allow the resin sidewalls to fit properly, and for the instrument panel coamings. But at least I don't have to worry about sanding the resin cockpit or the fuselage walls to "wafer thinness" as is usually the case with an Aires cockpit!  

 

But we'll see. There are no doubt further trials and tribulations ahead.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

3 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

There are no doubt further trials and tribulations ahead.

 

I am so prescient. I could have been an Ancient Greek oracle (except they were usually women). Anyway, I had to sand almost all of the floor away from the resin cockpit to provide enough room to 1) slide the cockpit forward more than is shown in the photo (for proper location of the bulkheads) and 2) allow sufficient room for the front instrument panel. If I hold the resin cockpit up to the light I can just about see through the floor.   

 

Onward...

 

Cheers,

Bill

[klubman01]

Nice choice of subject.

 

Before you progress too far on the fuselage, are you aware of the poor/incorrect shape of the lower fuselage below the engines? Fujimi have it curved when it should be straight.

 

 

Not easy to see on the real thing, except when they are "clean", as above.

 

I built one of these many years ago and removed the curved sections, and substituted the equivalent sections from a Matchbox Phantom (remember them?). 

 

Good luck with the rest of the build.

Trevor

[Tailspin Turtle]

On 9/5/2021 at 3:17 PM, Navy Bird said:

After grinding off the kit's cockpit ledges on the inside of the fuselage halves, there is plenty of room for the CMK resin cockpit, to which no modifications have yet been made:

 

 

I think there will need to be some more mods to the fuselage halves, especially with the cockpit sills, to allow the resin sidewalls to fit properly, and for the instrument panel coamings. But at least I don't have to worry about sanding the resin cockpit or the fuselage walls to "wafer thinness" as is usually the case with an Aires cockpit!  

 

But we'll see. There are no doubt further trials and tribulations ahead.

 

Cheers,

Bill

A bit of F4H history - there was no slanted bulkhead in the aft cockpit on which the ejection seat rails were mounted. The aft bulkhead in the aft cockpit was vertical, a vestige from the conversion of the single-seat AH to the two-seat F4H. The compartment behind the pilot (it originally contained the ammo for the cannons that were deleted and some other odds and ends of utility and other systems) was repurposed to cram in a second seat for a radar operator. The ejection seat rails were separate from the bulkhead, slanted like a ladder leaning against a wall. Not worth correcting, of course, particularly in 1/72nd.

[Navy Bird]

On 08/09/2021 at 04:18, klubman01 said:

Before you progress too far on the fuselage, are you aware of the poor/incorrect shape of the lower fuselage below the engines? Fujimi have it curved when it should be straight.

 

Thanks Trevor. I was aware of this (probably from when I built the Fujimi kit in the last century) but I don't plan to do anything about it. I like to tell folks that I'm too old to worry about the difficult things to fix! Besides, I'm building a Matchbox kit at present (the Privateer) and one of those is enough for a lifetime!   

 

1 hour ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

A bit of F4H history - there was no slanted bulkhead in the aft cockpit on which the ejection seat rails were mounted. The aft bulkhead in the aft cockpit was vertical, a vestige from the conversion of the single-seat AH to the two-seat F4H. The compartment behind the pilot (it originally contained the ammo for the cannons that were deleted and some other odds and ends of utility and other systems) was repurposed to cram in a second seat for a radar operator. The ejection seat rails were separate from the bulkhead, slanted like a ladder leaning against a wall. Not worth correcting, of course, particularly in 1/72nd.

 

Now that I didn't know. Thanks Tommy, you're the fount of knowledge when it comes to US Navy aircraft! I just looked through my Phantom references and sure enough, it's there if you look for it (especially when you find a photo of the rear cockpit with the seat removed).

 

*****

 

Now, speaking of the cockpit, the modifications required to get the CMK resin cockpit to fit were minimal. I previously mentioned thinning the floor of the cockpit down, and I also thinned the top of the nose gear well for good measure. I had to take two small notches out of the top corners of the front instrument panel, and that's it. The cockpit, with sidewalls attached, will slide in from behind with the fuselage halves assembled, and fits well. No mods needed to be made to the cockpit sills or to the coaming area. The CMK resin coaming sets on top of the Fujimi plastic with no issues (and the windscreen fits over the top nicely).

 

 

 

The only part that doesn't match well is the top of the most rearward section of the cockpit - but this area will be mostly obscured by the canopy and its actuator. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. In the photos, I have the bulkheads positioned in the same place as the kit cockpit would be. There is still some room for adjustment however.

 

Whew - I thought it was going to be worse than making an Aires cockpit fit into whatever kit is was designed for.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[giemme]

Glad to see the cockpit fits so well

 

Ciao 

[Navy Bird]

2 hours ago, giemme said:

Glad to see the cockpit fits so well

 

As they say, sometimes the piper pays you. I certainly wasn't expecting it to fit in so easily. Maybe this is a slight consolation for all the resin I've fought with over the years.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Fritag]

That CMK resin cockpit looks like an exquisite casting.

 

Are CMK the same folks as CMR?  How many Czech Masters are there?  The only resin kit I’ve built was a CMR one and that was also exquisitely cast.

[Navy Bird]

On 10/09/2021 at 04:55, Fritag said:

That CMK resin cockpit looks like an exquisite casting. Are CMK the same folks as CMR?  How many Czech Masters are there?  The only resin kit I’ve built was a CMR one and that was also exquisitely cast.

 

It not only looks exquisitely cast - it is. Beautiful work. How many Czech Masters are there? More than one, I guess, as the name is plural. I thought there was a connection between CMR and CMK but the CMK web site states "The company was founded in 1992 as a Special Hobby filial." Odd use of filial. So I guess it started as a sub of the MPM empire.

 

Anyway, yes, you are also correct that CMR resin kits are exquisite as well. I've built a few and they were very nice indeed (especially the Firebrand). When Petr retired from CMR in 2012, the kit production and distribution was taken over by Mark 1, Ltd. After that, the last CMR tooling that Petr worked on was the 1:72 Buccaneer S.1 which was sold under the name Scale Resin instead of CMR. For awhile there was a Scale Resin website, but I can't find it anymore.

 

*****

 

Oops - I forgot that I signed up for the F-14 Group Build. I'll be building the 1:72 Fine Molds F-14D in the VF-31 "Anytime Baby" Commemorative Scheme seen at the Tomcat retirement ceremony. Expect some delays on this build and the Privateer since the Group Build has a deadline. At least I'll be busy!

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Fritag]

13 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Anyway, yes, you are also correct that CMR resin kits are exquisite as well. I've built a few and they were very nice indeed (especially the Firebrand). When Petr retired from CMR in 2012, the kit production and distribution was taken over by Mark 1, Ltd. After that, the last CMR tooling that Petr worked on was the 1:72 Buccaneer S.1 which was sold under the name Scale Resin instead of CMR. For awhile there was a Scale Resin website, but I can't find it anymore.

 

That white Buccaneer of yours is one of my absolute fav’s on BM.  Just saying.

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Fritag
Link Added

[stevehnz]

I do like it when threads have a big jump toward the end & you realise you aren't as far off the pace as you thought. Quite far enough though. Now I'm up with the peleton, I'll make an effort to hang in there. Shouldn't be too hard if Bill is going to go walkabout from time to time.

Steve.

[Navy Bird]

Let's start this one back up shall we? I only have one thing to report at this time. Unfortunately, the local Beers of The World store does not sell Old Wallop. They do, however, sell Old Slug in two formulations - Porter and Dark Ale. I've tried them both, and can report that they are a suitable alternative to water.   

 

I shall now return to the subject at hand.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Hamden]

 

Nice to see this one back on the bench Bill, looking forward to watching it progress 

 

   Stay safe         Roger

[Navy Bird]

The cockpit is far enough along that it can be added to the fuselage. The instrument panels are a combination of film/photoetch and decals, whilst the side panels, walls, and other gubbins are hand painted. I'm glad I have a detail brush with only two hairs on it. Everything also has a black Future wash applied. The ejection seats are just posing for the photo - they will be added at the end of the build along with the control column. The top half of the front instrument panel is part of the coaming, so you won't see that until the coaming is added. The CMK photoetch details for the ejection seats are unusual - the harnesses look somewhat underscale and the face curtain handles somewhat overscale. Law of averages applies in such a case.

 

 

 

 

 

The silly yellow and black stripes are also hand painted. The jumble of doodads on top of the rear instrument panel was augmented with extra bits of resin and styrene. What was provided with the CMK set did not match the drawing I have. Of course what I created doesn't match the drawing either but we're not telling anyone, OK?    

 

The fuselage halves are glued together - the cockpit slides in nicely from underneath. First though, I have to cut off the radome so I can replace it with the special A&AEE version. Too much fun for an old man, especially when I slip with the razor saw.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[bentwaters81tfw]

Speaking of 'clean' Phantoms, there are no photos of this bird anywhere with the inboard wing pylons fitted. AFAIK they never were.

When she was sold off by MoD, she was parked for a couple of years on the airfield here. The SFs were fitted but no inboards, and the paint under the wings showed no signs of pylons ever being fitted.

[Navy Bird]

17 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Speaking of 'clean' Phantoms, there are no photos of this bird anywhere with the inboard wing pylons fitted. AFAIK they never were.

 

Thanks. None of the photos I have show the inboard wing pylons either, just the drop tanks. Two all-white (no stencils or stripes) Sparrow missiles are in the forward fuselage recesses but there doesn't seem to be any aft. I suspect these are dummy missile bodies.

 

Question - since XT597 was an FG.1, would it have the catapult hooks:

 

 

I haven't found any photos (yet) of the underside of XT597. If anyone has any, feel free to post. Thanks.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[bentwaters81tfw]

The forward Sparrows would have been ballast rounds. I believe it did have the hooks, I seem to remember them when I was looking it over.

[giemme]

Cockpit looking ace, Bill!  Looking forward to more of this build

 

Ciao

[71chally]

Superb and meticulous work as usual Bill, only just seen this thread.

 

I love the Fujimi Phantoms, probably my favourite kit of all time.

I actually like the white plastic, I'm still at the brush painting end of the evolutionary scale, so it helps alot with aircraft with large areas of white.

 

The FG.1s retained their catapult hooks, even in RAF service, though XT597 never became a regular service aircraft of course. '597 was used for the initial carrier trials aboard USS Coral Sea in mid 1968, so did use the hooks.

 

Keep up the good work!