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

[Navy Bird]

2 hours ago, ROB61 said:

There are 2 versions of the fuselage the original has shallow auxiliary air doors the Aires exhausts will fit this one, the newer boxings have deeper ones

 

Thanks - I never noticed that before. I also have the older Fujimi "Silver Jubilee" boxing and it has shallow aux door bays as you mention. Since I have an additional set of the Aires exhaust it will be interesting to see how they fit that kit. In any event the Aires exhaust for this kit have already been modified and they should fit OK now.

 

*****

 

Almost ready for stickering! My favourite part, including the stencils.  

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

So, here's what happens when you're older than dirt. You completely forget to drill out the holes for the drop tanks. Now, typically there are some little divots that show where the holes should be, caused by the marker holes that are on the inside of the wing. Guess what? No divots - and I tried every lighting method I could think of. Maybe some of that fancy multi-spectral imaging that they read the Dead Sea Scrolls with would work, but I sold all of mine. What to do? I got out my scale drawings, measured sixteen ways to Sunday, and determined where I thought the holes should be. This also involved measuring the location of the pegs on the pylons and factoring this into the equations. Ugh. Took me all afternoon.

 

In any event, I drilled the silly holes. Surprisingly, the pegs on the pylons fit right in, so I at least got the separation right. The tanks look like they're in the right place but who knows? I give up.

 

Now, where were those stickers? Maybe I can screw those up too.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[JosephLalor]

On 8/29/2021 at 8:10 AM, Hamden said:

 

Almost missed this one! the que for the bar gave it away. I'll take a seat in the corner if I may?

I've brought some of the Dorset Piddle Brewery Piddle Rouge Dorset Best bitter with me.( Piddle Brewery is a small local Dorset brewer from the Piddle Valley area just north of the county town) 

Look forward to watching work your magic on this

 

    Stay safe            Roger 

I've rung church bells in that area, on a Dorsetshire Guild open day in 1986.  Not in Dorchester itself, but in Piddletrenthide, Bradford Abbas, Sherborne and Toller Whelme.  The Master of the Guild at the time lived in Toller Porcorum.

Edited February 2, 2022 by JosephLalor

[Billy54]

3 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

So, here's what happens when you're older than dirt. You completely forget to drill out the holes for the drop tanks. Now, typically there are some little divots that show where the holes should be, caused by the marker holes that are on the inside of the wing. Guess what? No divots - and I tried every lighting method I could think of. Maybe some of that fancy multi-spectral imaging that they read the Dead Sea Scrolls with would work, but I sold all of mine. What to do? I got out my scale drawings, measured sixteen ways to Sunday, and determined where I thought the holes should be. This also involved measuring the location of the pegs on the pylons and factoring this into the equations. Ugh. Took me all afternoon.

 

In any event, I drilled the silly holes. Surprisingly, the pegs on the pylons fit right in, so I at least got the separation right. The tanks look like they're in the right place but who knows? I give up.

 

Now, where were those stickers? Maybe I can screw those up too.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

Hi Bill, yep, I've been there and I've done that. Pleased to hear that you were able to attach the tanks and I'm looking forward to the application of the "stickers".

 

[Navy Bird]

13 hours ago, Billy54 said:

Hi Bill, yep, I've been there and I've done that. Pleased to hear that you were able to attach the tanks and I'm looking forward to the application of the "stickers".

 

Another aspect of being old is that I just remembered that I have another copy of the Fujimi kit. Why I didn't recall this whilst I was doing all my fancy measuring and mathematics is beyond me - especially since a few hours before I was comparing this kit and its auxiliary intake doors. I could have saved a lot of time by copying this other kit.   

 

Anyway, I compared its wings and target holes with what I drilled and they are amazingly close. Let's say, within a millimetre. Mathematics is real.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

Sticker Strangeness:

 

Just in case anyone else is planning on using the Xtradecal sheet X72296 for this bird, I have discovered that the fuselage stripes are reversed. Those marked "R" actually go on the left side and those marked "L" go on the right side. This is especially important for the curves in the stripes to accurately represent the actual aircraft. I love scale modelling.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

EDIT: I should be more explicit - it's the fuselage stripes that go on the nose of the aircraft that are reversed. I think the others are OK.

[Terry1954]

2 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Another aspect of being old is that I just remembered that I have another copy of the Fujimi kit.

 

I was actually thinking that might be the case, but hesitated to mention the possibility, as you'd already appeared to solve the issue!

 

If it's any consolation, I have on "one or two" occasions bought superb reference publications, only to subsequently realise I already have them in the library stash. I'm looking forward to the getting old aspect that involves buying kits on my longstanding wish list, that I already have in the stash.🤪

 

Terry

[Fritag]

Immaculate work Bill, immaculate.

 

On 1/18/2022 at 11:08 AM, general melchett said:

Sadly XV428 and the same crew perished a few weeks later practicing for the Abingdon show

 

Piqued my interest Andy, and a bit of googling found this that a chap had obtained with a FOI request.

 

Redacted Board of Inquiry Report

 

Sombre but fascinating reading.

 

 

[Navy Bird]

4 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I'm looking forward to the getting old aspect that involves buying kits on my longstanding wish list, that I already have in the stash.🤪

 

Not only I have I done that (one time I purchased a kit that I already had two of) but I also bought a Big Ed set that I already had in addition to buying a Big Ed set for a kit I didn't have. Thank goodness I'm independently wealthy and wifey never looks at my charge card bill.    💰

 

3 hours ago, Fritag said:

Immaculate work Bill, immaculate.

 

Well, that was my conception of the project.    ✝️

 

Cheers,

Bill

[general melchett]

Quote

Piqued my interest Andy, and a bit of googling found this that a chap had obtained with a FOI request.

 

Interesting find Steve which as you say, makes sombre reading. Just goes to prove that no matter how prepared you are or how experienced there's always something waiting in the wings to bite us hard, very sad.

 

Lovely Ripple Bill, all that masking masochism seems to have paid off. The A&AEE radome certainly didn't exactly enhance the looks of the old beast one jot.

[Navy Bird]

4 hours ago, general melchett said:

Lovely Ripple Bill, all that masking masochism seems to have paid off. The A&AEE radome certainly didn't exactly enhance the looks of the old beast one jot.

 

Thanks. Once the radome is painted flat black, it kind of disappears into the background. If you're flying at night, of course.   

 

*****

 

Next challenge: The red stripes on the side of the main fuselage (above the blue area) are supplied in two pieces on all three of the decal sheets I have - Xtradecal, Fujimi, and ModelDecal. I am using the Xtradecal sheet as the red is almost a perfect match for the MRP Signal Red. So, guess what? Of the two bits of stripey decal, the rear portion is 2mm wide, and the front portion is 2.5mm wide (give or take a molecule or two). This results in a noticeable step when mating up the two, and I didn't realise this until I was applying them (i.e. already been in the water). So, no opportunity to trim the wider of the two. Ugh. Even worse, the fuselage stripe is curved. 

 

I decided to line them up on top, leaving the step in the blue portion. I then went through my decal stash (over 150 separate sheets plus the sheets that came with nearly 200 kits) to try and find some blue stripes that matched the MRP Oxford Blue, After three hours of searching and testing to see if the match was good, I finally used some thin strips of blue decal (from an Academy F-8 Crusader sheet) to cover up the step. If someone at Microscale (who print the sheets for Xtradecal) was on the ball I wouldn't have needed to do this. I should send them a bill.   

 

What more fun could I have? The red stripe that goes on the splitter plate wasn't long enough!! Again, on all three sheets. Back to the decal stash to try and find some red stripes that match. I think this only took an hour. Crazy, even Fujimi didn't size the decal correctly for their own kit. I had to add an extra 3mm of stripe (at the aft end of the splitter). Aye, aye, aye.   

 

The stripes (and one walkway marking) were as far as I got.

 

 

 

By the way, the reason I knew that the left/right numbers were reversed for the nose stripes were those little white squiggle things. They are only on the port side.

 

OK, now maybe I can proceed with the proper stickers.

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. You know how many different shades of blue and red are in your decal stash? A LOT.   

[Anthony in NZ]

Bill this is really nice mate, I have been really enjoying following along.

 

You are doing an awesome job, I love your persistence to get things right with the paint scheme, probably one of the most striking features of this Phantom.

 

Cheers Anthony

Edited February 4, 2022 by Anthony in NZ

[Hamden]

 

Nice save on the stripes Bill another masterpiece on the way!

 

   Stay safe            Roger

[klubman01]

Ah, the trials and tribulations of model making!  Looking really good at this stage.  Well done with the stripe decals.

Trevor

[Robert]

Looking good Bill. Thank you for taking the time to improve and inform us on what was provided regarding the decals, saves a lot of time and frustration.Regards

 

Regards

Robert

[giemme]

Great save on the decal stripes, Bill   

 

But why didn't you just mask and paint them? You don't seem the guy to be intimidated by tricky masking....  

 

Ciao

[Navy Bird]

12 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

I love your persistence to get things right with the paint scheme, probably one of the most striking features of this Phantom.

 

Thanks Anthony. My wife likes my persistence too, although she prefers to call me a stubborn old codger.      👴

 

11 hours ago, Hamden said:

Nice save on the stripes Bill another masterpiece on the way!

 

Thanks Roger. Speaking of masterpieces, a new exhibit has opened here in town - an "immersive" van Gogh. You can literally walk around inside his paintings as they are spread across the ceiling, walls, and floor. And the paintings move  - cool idea, I have got to get over there. Link here.

 

8 hours ago, Robert said:

Looking good Bill. Thank you for taking the time to improve and inform us on what was provided regarding the decals, saves a lot of time and frustration.

 

Thanks Robert. I hope that anyone wanting to use the decal sheet stumbles across this build. It will at least alert them to the issues.

 

8 hours ago, giemme said:

But why didn't you just mask and paint them? 

 

Because I thought it would save me some work - LOL.    🤣

 

Now that they're on, I think they look OK. All of the stripes except those on the splitters are curved, and what shocked me more than anything was how close my masking and painting of the blue area conforms to the curve of the stripes. Dumb luck, I guess.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[VT Red Sox Fan]

Bill, amazing work—great modeling skills and thanks for sharing—all this with great info on UK Phantoms—thanks for sharing this impressive work and journey—looking forward to more—best, Erwin 

[Navy Bird]

Teaser - the stickers are on. But it's too late tonight so I'll take some photos on the morrow.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

As promised:

 

 

 

More to come.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[giemme]

 

 

Ciao

[Terry1954]

9 minutes ago, giemme said:

 

 

Ciao

 

That's exactly what I thought!

 

Terry

[Navy Bird]

5 hours ago, giemme said:

 

Thanks Giorgio. I like how she came out, and am even more surprised that I appear to have put the blue in the correct spot on the fuselage sides. I measured the decals, in particular the IAT words up front, to make sure that I made the blue area big enough. I saw a few replicas of this aircraft online where those words continued onto the red stripe, which does not appear in any of the photos. Anyway, she do be purty.   

 

5 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

That's exactly what I thought!

 

Thanks Terry. I'm working on the ailerons now - what Fujimi provide is OK, but I'm not really keen on how they look. The Phantom's ailerons are hinged at the bottom (they have little upward movement) and do not have BLC like the flaps. When the aircraft is parked, they usually lower a bit due to hydraulic bleed, which is probably why Fujimi engineered the kit this way. In any event, I'm scrounging through the Island of Misfit Stickers again, this time in search of some properly sized "NO PUSH" stencils. Oddly, Xtradecal didn't provide enough even though their instruction sheet correctly shows how many are needed.

 

And to top it all off, Xtradecal included some stencils and other decals that are not referenced at all in their instructions. I think I know where some of them go, but I may have to fake it make an intelligent, informed decision regarding placement.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[F-32]

[billn53]