Restoration of a 1/72 Monogram Phantom

[Brigbeale]

With the Patrouille de France Alpha Jet and Magister now complete, I felt it was time to restore another cheap eBay purchase (99p) which has been looking forlorn on the to-be-restored shelf.

It was as you see it in the photos - just the fuselage and main wings with the cockpit, but no canopy.

It took me a bit of a search to find out it is a Monogram Phantom F4-J kit.

 

I downloaded the instructions and printed a set off.

 

The intention is to turn it from this -

 

To this using some spares from my Airfix ‘Yellow Bird’ Phantom build

 

Heres the two Phantoms in their current state with the spare Airfix canopy on the Monogram Phantom (some surgery is required to get it to fit though)

 

The reason —- who doesn’t love a Phantom build??

Edited December 13, 2021 by Brigbeale

[billn53]

Following along because, who doesn’t love a Phantom build??

[Brigbeale]

After leaving the Phantom in the freezer overnight, I took it out and disassembled it to this stage.

 

Then it was into an old roasting tin for its Dettol bath to remove the paint

 

After 4 hours

 

And I have these Matchbox decals for it.

 

So it’s going to be a ‘Heinz 57’ restoration by the time I’m finished with  Monogram, Airfix, Matchbox, 3D printed parts

Edited December 13, 2021 by Brigbeale

[bigbadbadge]

Very much looking forward to this Brian , we are being spoilt with Phantoms at the mo.  This is great.

The made up model looks lovely fella.

Chris

[Brigbeale]

Late this afternoon, I took cleaned off the then wrinkled up paint. 
White paint was still left in the detailing on the underside which would seem to suggest the bottom has had at least two coats of paint.

The parts were washed off with warm soapy water and dried.

There were still some stubborn bits of paint to remove but these were mainly in corners,  in spots on the raised panel lines and around the previously glued areas eg under missile/fuel tank rail mountings etc.

 

The tail fin had a small section missing above the rudder and the actual tail fin broke half way up - which didn’t bother me in the slightest as I had the appropriate spare from the Airfix ‘Yellow Bird’ Phantom build with the long antenna/sensor on the top. The simple plan for that is to cut the tail fin off and fit the Airfix replacement in its entirety, but I will still need to keep the original rudder (or 3D print one).

I used  a pointed knife blade to remove the offending white paint in the detail parts of the underside - once I separated the upper and lower wing parts as both uppers weren’t lined up properly on the lower half.

 

I then started to re-scribe the panel lines starting off on the starboard upper wing. The raised detail was ok but excess glue marred the surface detail. Once the lines are scribed section by section, i sand the area and brush out the scribe lines to admire my work. I have to admit, I’m not looking forward to the fuselage though

 

[bigbadbadge]

Excellent start Brian you've certainly got the rescribing bug now!!!

Great work 

Chris

[heloman1]

Oh! I think I need to follow this build, Phantoms, what else...

 

Colin

 

 

[Brigbeale]

The re-secribing and sanding of the wings was pretty straight forward.

As predicted the fuselage isn’t - what with the triple curved shape to it. The main problem is holding the fuselage steady while also holding the straight edge in the correct position and keeping it there while scribing the line with the pin vice. 
I’ve got the mid top and side fuselage lines re-scribed. The ones near the nose have a fair amount of detail but there’s not too much in the way of gluey finger smudges so I may leave them be. at the tail end, it appears the rear stabilisers were either glued on with far too much glue or they’ve been fitted, snapped off and refitted a number of times as the area around the fitment area is a bit of a mess. The problem there is the simulated plating for the heat shielding is also partly affected. I’ll look at that tomorrow.

 

The tail fin was removed with the re-scribing tool to cut through it. The area was then sanded flat. With the fin out of the way there’s a couple of lines requiring re-scribing as well.

 

I also looked to see how well the Airfix canopy would fit to the Monogram fuselage. A light run over with a file at the rear of the opening allowed the canopy to sit in better. the front will need cutting away as the fuselage opening has a step whereas the canopy has a straight bottom edge. It’s only plastic - what could possibly go wrong??

 

The Phantom with the fuselage taped together and the re-scribed wings dry fitted into position.

Edited December 20, 2021 by Brigbeale

[Thom216]

Looks great. I am sure to peak in through the door a time or two.

[opus999]

Great start on this one!  Looks like it will be fun.

[Brigbeale]

Tonight it seems there’s not much that I’ve done. I’ve not been lazy (SWMBO might have a differing view on that matter!) - just more tidying up of the underside of the lower wing section.

Mr Surfacer 1000 was painted onto the stabiliser positions to fill the divots once the excess glue had been sanded smooth.

While the Mr Surfacer was drying, I set about the surgery to get the Airfix Canopy to fit.

I started by fitting tape under the canopy opening. More tape was placed over the nose. I placed the canopy in position to find where it touched at the front. It was the IP coaming, so that was removed and saved to put back in later. The step was the next obstacle so that was sanded down. Then it was a case of file a bit and recheck the fit and so on.

The canopy fits in its new home now - just a little light sanding to get the front to sit flush on the port side. I got a bit carried away with the front corners though and filed a little too much away, but I can fill that back in later.

The Mr Surfacer was dry enough to sand back. It’s going to be a case of paint, sand, paint, sand to fill the divots. More tape was added over the heat shield detail to save sand it away. Another coat of Mr surfacer was added to either side.

Mr Surfacer was also painted into the outer underwing store pylon mounting area to again smooth out the divots.

 

While typing this, I had YouTube running on the tv and a video cropped up from 1975 Ark Royal Deck Operations showing Buccaneers and Phantoms being launched and recovered. Amongst the Phantoms was 013. Whether it’s the correct serial number aircraft - I don’t know.  

 

Also another video followed showing a Phantom in a Green/Grey camouflage. Hmmmm. A possibility of a change of plan may be in mind

Edited December 15, 2021 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

Tonight, further work was done to the canopy to get a better fit. Two small strips were added to the canopy to fill in the recesses which were present for the Airfix kit. the front of the canopy itself was sanded to allow the front to sit fully in the opening.

Some shrink marks were found on the top of the fuselage. These were filled with a dab of Mr Surfacer 1000. Once they were dry enough, they were sanded. Another is needed to fill them completely. Also a flat spot was found on the simulated heat shielding on the tail.

The replacement tail fin was freed from the sprue and offered up. The big square lug was removed as it will be surplus to requirement in this instance. I will need to hold the fuselage with a vice while I mark out the area to be removed to insert the replacement tail fin.

To finish off tonight’s session, I did some more re-scribing to the lower wing section.

 

Also, the more I think of a camouflage Phantom, the more I feel inclined to do it

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

Tonight’s exercise primarily, was for fit the tail fin or at least make the slot for it to fit in.

I started by sticking a piece of tape to the flat underside of the fin itself. A knife was used to trim the tape and a centre mark was made at each end. The tape was then transferred to the fuselage and the ends marked. A series of 1mm holes were drilled by allowing the drill bit to go between the two fuselage halves and while pinching the two sides together, rotating the drill allowing the sides of the drill bit to cut away at the sides making the 1mm hole centred along the seam. The same method was used for 1.5mm, then 2mm, 2.5mm and then finally a 3mm drill bit.
The drill bits up to 2.5mm were my Aldi Workzone set which range from 0.6 - 2.5mm in 0.1mm increments (I still don’t get why there’s a set each of left and right twist bits though)

The 3mm bit was from a cheap set from Home Bargains which have 1/4 hex drive shanks fitted which range from 1.5mm to 6.5mm in half mm increments.
I have a Ryobi 4v electric screwdriver which is handy especially with the above mentioned drill bits.

The fuselage halves were separated and the waste was sanded away to where the edge of the drilled holes. The fuselage was then taped back together and the slot filed until the tail fin fitted. 
In all that turned out just as I expected.

The cockpit tub was further cleaned up and given a coat of grey paint. 
It’s odd that Monogram moulded the ejection seat bases in the tub but the sat backs are separate (and in this instance, missing - so I’ll have to make replacements by copying some from another kit (a Revell Tomcat should do it).

Some other stubborn marks were removed from the fuselage nose area using airbrush cleaner on a cotton bud.

 

Dry fitting parts together.

 

I was looking for a picture and appropriate decals for use it’s ILS equipped Phantoms (the rectangular secy=toon on the replacement tail fin) and I also found something called Mod 28 - the re-enforcement plates added in the late 70’s/early 80’s, to the folding wing tip area following the loss of a wingtip when a Phantom was pulling a 5G turn . This kit doesn’t have simulated Mod 28 plates - but the spare folded Airfix wing tips do. They should be a simple swap - right??

 

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Brigbeale

[bigbadbadge]

Wow this has really come on Brian great work on the canopy fit and the tail plane too, that drilling method sounds very handy indeed.

If I am not too late  I  have a recommendation for the rescribing, I use Fineline tape, tge type for pinstripes on cars, it's wicked stuff, comes in various within and is a vinyl tape that is great for scribing and will go around all curves and bends, wicked stuff. I saw it on a fellow BMers bud and used it myself for masking pinstripes on a couple of my cars.

Chris

[Thom216]

Fantastic progress, and quickly done too! Already looks like an entirely new bird.

[Brigbeale]

Thanks for the tip Chris.

My son works for Halfords do I’ll see if he can get me a roll to try it out.

[bigbadbadge]

4 minutes ago, Brigbeale said:

Thanks for the tip Chris.

My son works for Halfords do I’ll see if he can get me a roll to try it out.

Excellent,  it's good to have contacts it's great stuff, I use the thinner widths as easier to get to confirm to the different shapes etc.

Chris

[Brigbeale]

I had a look at the Revell and old Airfix Tomcats’ ejection seats. Neither were appropriate for the Phantom.

I remembered I had a Soviet style ejection seat which I have 3D printed and trimmed parts off and used on one of my previous restorations (A Tornado if I remember correctly). There’s no Martin Baker seats on Thingiverse, and I couldn’t be borthered to wait for a resin one off of eBay - so I imported the Soviet one into Tinkercad and altered it to look a bit more like a Martin Baker Seat. All I need to do is add a plate to the top and then add the pull handles to that. The bases can then be taken off and the backs glued into the Phantom’s cockpit. With some seat belts added, they should look ok.

 

The two seats shown in Cura. My redesigned one on the left with the Soviet style on the right.

[Deano353]

Great project. You going to 3D print all the missing parts?

[Brigbeale]

14 minutes ago, Deano353 said:

Great project. You going to 3D print all the missing parts?

Yes, that’s the plan. I’ve got spare Sidewinders and bombs and the stabilisers will be from styrene card.

[Deano353]

I have photos of a RN Phantom being restored if you want any reference photos, not that you can't find them online I'm sure but I got cockpit, seats, underneath etc if you think it would help I'll share them sure.

[Brigbeale]

Thanks Deano. As the canopy is going to be closed on this one, there’s not that much detail which will be seen from the outside, so I’ll not go overboard with over detailing the interior of the cockpit.

Edited December 19, 2021 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

Sorry for the late post, but I had another interruption after my modelling session.

 

I 3D printed the modified ejection seats. They looked quite good for the scale. I will print another and edit it in this post - it won’t go to waste as I’ve got a T1 Hawk for restoration which needs seats - where do these things go???.

The seat bases were detached from the backs and the bottom end was sanded. The two backs were then fitted in position with sprue goo. They were then painted black on the surround (as well as the cockpit tub control panels), and the cushions painted Tamiya Olive Green. Seat belts were made from Tamiya tape and fitted in a more convincing looking way rather than just straight lines. 
The tub was then white-tac’d back into the fuselage to test the height with the canopy on. Looking ok so far. 

I then went in the hunt for the replacement seat top with the emergency pull handles that I requested from Airfix as on the Yellow Bird Phantom, one of the pull rings had short shot’d. At the time, I thought Airfix had just ignored me, so I used a piece of stretched sprue to fill the gap. Shortly after that, the replacement part showed up. Literally just the one part in an A5 Jiffy bag. I just put it in my spares box.

Anyway, last night I copied it.

 

This morning, I 3D printed two of them. Considering the size of them, they’ve printed quite well. Just a little fuzziness to clean off and they can be fitted.

 

Also, yesterday I found a set of Xtradecal ummm - decals on eBay. I decided on this set because of the tail fin and nose decorations and it’s got the stencils for the airframe - thankfully not the 200 ones Airfix did!

 

Inspired by this image

 

I’ve got to make that SUU-23 gun pack - it looks mean!!

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Brigbeale

[bigbadbadge]

Great idea for the Seats Brian.  They are looking good.   It all progressing well.  

That image does look awesome .

Great work.

Chris

[Brigbeale]

Firstly, here’s the promised photo of the 3D printed seat and it placed in the to-be-restored T1 Hawk. There’s a strange line which shows about half way up which didn’t appear in the other two seats that were printed. It seems a little narrow in the Hawk cockpit but they fit the Phantom perfectly.

The work on the Phantom proceeded at a pace tonight with more progress than initially expected.

To start with, the emergency ejection pull ‘caps’ were fitted to the rear seat with a slither of white tac at first. The canopy was trial fitted. Ah - it touched. A simple modification was called for by trimming the bottom off the cap. Another trial fit and it was good. The front one was trimmed in a similar fashion to make it look the same even though it fitted anyway. The two caps were then glued in.

While they were setting, the removed front instrument panel shroud was refitted - albeit in a slightly different pose from the original fitment. 
The pull handles were painted the usual white before yellow. The caps themselves and the shroud were painted matt black.

 

After a quick check with the instructions to make sure I’d not missed anything so far, it was then time to fit the two fuselage halves together. A back of a blade was put across the seam to line up the two haves without a step as there was a little movement either way. Then Mr Cement S was run along the seams. The two halves fitted back together very well. The only slightly distorted part was the middle of the arrestor hook. A small bulldog clip held that for about 5 minutes while the glue went off.

 

Rightly or wrongly, I got a bit carried away and fitted the lower wing section to the bottom of the fuselage. It went on quite well at the front but the back which formed the engine exhaust ring housings needed a bit of persuasion to line up. I got there in the end. 
This was then a thought popped into my head. ‘What if the wing tops won’t fit if I let the glue dry completely?’

So I fitted the upper wings as well.

The starboard wing fitted where it was initially fitted prior to dismantling. The inner front end still overhung the lower one so will need sanding back.

The port one fitted in it’s intended position but it had broken section of the lower wing still firmly fitted to the underside from when it was dismantled. Despite being held with a strong clamp, the break was still highly visible. Once the rest of the wing had set enough, I simply scraped the high spots down for filling later.

 

Mr surfacer was painted over the seams and will be allowed to set fully for more work tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Brigbeale