Restoration of a 1/72 Monogram Phantom

[Brigbeale]

@opus999, @billn53 and @bigbadbadge,

I thank you for your appreciation on the camo scheme on the Phantom.

It turned out a lot better than I’d hoped for even if the preshading partly disappeared in places, which makes it more random and therefore more lifelike imo.

The plan for tonight is to paint the nose-cone and make a start on the replacement landing gear.

[Brigbeale]

I varnished the camouflage and underside with Humbrol Gloss Cote yesterday to lock in the paint and prepare it for decalling.

The varnish was dry by the time 6.00pm rolled around, so it was out with the decalling tools.

Unfortunately, I’m running very low on Micro Set (mainly because I knocked the bottle over about a year ago).
Recently I bought some Mr Hobby Mr Mark Setting Solution. It was a milky colour but I thought ‘Oh well - I’ll give it a go’.

I started with the red/blue roundels on the side of the air intakes. The decals moved freely from their backing paper and with some setting solution applied, they were easily manipulated into position. A roll over with a cotton bud and they laid flat ti the surface. More solution was applied to the surface and left (although it did pool into small blobs rather than an even coat over the surface). A cotton bud was used to mop up the blobs as they were in a vertical surface.

The upper wing roundels were next following the same procedure. Again the solution pooled on the surface and that’s when I got another interruption.

 

My stepson had got a puncture and ‘didn’t know how to change the wheel himself’. . When I got there, he did have the jack and space saver out but couldn’t locate the jacking point. I pointed out the arrow on the sill and showed him where the jack fits to. I hate those Ford Focus scissor jacks. Once I’d got the wheel off the ground (he’d removed the wheel nuts before the wheel was off the ground so I told him to put one back incase the jack failed), I got hold of the tyre and it was fairly warm despite it being about 20 minutes between him calling me and me getting there. Apparently, he’d hit the kerb with the tyre which punctured up and he’d driven at least two miles on the flat tyre - which was now completely wrecked as the side wall had at least 8 holes in the it and I was surprised he hadn’t damaged the alloy wheel. Any way the space saver went on and he drove off even before I’d put my tools back in my car as he had his 17+ year old kids with him. 
 

I got home, washed my hands and after taking a few minutes to get back in the zone, recommenced decalling. 
The setting solution applied on top the upper wing decals had set into a jelly like puddle and on the starboard wing, had done the same on the surrounding paint. 
The only thing that would remove it was Micro Sol with a cotton bud although it did affect the paint on the wing. 
So I switched tactics and used water to apply the decal and Micro Sol on top - which applied in a thin even film over the decals themselves.

All if the larger upper decals are on - just the stencil decals to go.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

I re-read the instruction again on the Mr Mark Setter earlier today. 
It turns out it was me at fault or partly my stepson so I’ll blame him!

The instructions say to put a drop where the decal is going to be placed and smooth it out with a cotton bud. If required, more can be added on top of the decal (al though it doesn’t say for how long), and then wiped off again with a cotton bud.

It appears I did the air intake roundels correctly but in my disappointed state on being called out to sort that tyre on my stepson’s car, I should have wiped the wing ones off as well.

I wonder if I got it mixed up with the Humbrol Decalfix?

[Brigbeale]

In tonight’s episode…….

The stencil decals were applied, but thankfully not the 200+ that went on the Yellow Bird

The Xtradecal set just supplied the No Step, No Push and some pictograph decals for the upper wings and the fuselage. I used the Yellow Bird as a reference for positioning the decals.

Next up were the large serial number decals for the wing undersides. they had to be cut to individual digits and lined up by eye. I managed to get them about equal on both sides although it did mean white-tac’ing the intended replacement gear doors in position as the digits do go onto them. I’ll cut them free once the decals are thoroughly dried.

I had to paint that nose cone, so a thin strip of Tamiya tape was wrapped around the seam line and it was brush painted with Mr Color Aqueous Flat Black. The tape was removed immediately afterwards. 
Something was missing from the front sides. again looking at the Yellow Bird, it dropped that the ejection seat warning triangles were missing. A root through my decal box came up with 6 from the Eastern Express Canberra. 4 were applied. I still need the rescue decals so I’ll take a close up of the other Phantom’s decals and re-print them. I could simply cut them from the Matchbos set, but if another cheap Phantom shows up on EBay, then that will become the Ark Royal based Phantom I was going to depict earlier before I changed my mind to this one.

 

Oh, and I nearly forgot. I’ve been playing with the design for the landing gear. The main gear is taken from the Airfix instructions and the nose gear is a Revell version from a sprue map. I’ve no idea if they will work with each other yet, but I can play with the heights and print replacements if needed.

[Jonners]

Looking good, BB! Always good to see your model 'recycling'. 

 

5 hours ago, Brigbeale said:

partly my stepson so I’ll blame him!

I would - if only because he clearly has no idea about the most basic concepts of automotive self-help! My father-in-law once called me to ask for my assistance with an identical 'crisis': he didn't even know if his car had a jack, never mind where it might be stored. Astonishing.

[Brigbeale]

Progress was virtually halted last night on the Phantom as I needed to print some decals for the underside as, apart from the roundels and serial numbers, there’s nothing to apply. Only thing was, I’ve only got a small sheet of clear decal paper left (I could have sworn I had another A4 sheet. I’ve ordered 5 more sheets so I guess I’ll have to wait until they arrive. 

I contented myself with putting 1mm styrene rod in the gear legs for the axles, which took all of 5 minutes!, and that’s about as far as any physical work went last night.

 

What to do next??

I know. I’ll design the replacement wheels. I found a decent image of some resin wheels and scanned it to the design program, sketched over the top of the image and sent it to Cura. I adjusted the width of the main wheels as I’d got the hand sketches mixed up and made them too thin. They’re currently 3D printing.

 

I also used the same method to design the fuel tanks. It’s a lot easier when I’ve got an image to work to. I used the Yellow Bird again to get the approximate size for the parts. Once the wheels are done, I can start printing the fuel tanks.

 

 

I also need to design the Sidewinder/Bomb pylon as well.

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by Brigbeale

[Deano353]

Wow the restoration is going well, it looks like a new kit!

[Brigbeale]

Not much more has happened to the Phantom build wise.

The fuel tanks were 3D printed and I sanded them to a smoother finish. Weather permitting, a coat of plastic primer will be applied.

 

A trial offer-up of the main gear legs showed them to be the correct length. I decided to amend the design by adding a small triangular plate to the top for a slightly larger fixing area in the wheel bay.
The nose gear was a touch too long, so a redesign was called for. Also the axle hub was a little too wide so that was altered as well.

I was intending to fit the four Sidewinders and 4 bombs, but then I saw this image of XV416 in flight. It appears to be carrying just the 4 Sparrows - it’s hard to tell if any or what sort of missile is on the inner pylons, so I’ll just fit the Sidewinders.

 

I used my new found method I gleaned off YouTube to sketch over an image of a Revell pylon and, using some artistic licence and the dimensions of the Yellow Bird pylon, I designed and 3D printed a pair. (More sniggers from the back, I hear).

 

The re-designed landing gear were 3D printed, cleaned up, and dry fitted. They appeared ok so they were then sprue goo’d into their respective positions. while that was setting, the wheels were cleaned up a bit and painted. I need to airbrush the centres white using my circle template to tidy them up. 
They were dry fitted to the landing gear to see if the heights were indeed correct.

I placed the two Phantoms nose to nose to see how they compared. I think I’ve more or less nailed it.

 

And finally for tonight, a photo of the Phantom on its wheels with its 3D printed fuel tanks and missile pylons.

 

Edited January 2, 2022 by Brigbeale

[Johnson]

Looks great Brian, what a transformation.

 

The port inner sidewinder rail looks to be carrying a dummy, maybe for CG purposes? The others look as if they are carrying, but don't look like sidewinders - no fins. Possibly training units for targetting?

[Brigbeale]

I’ve just been looking to see what missiles the RAF Phantom would have carried. 
It appears they would have had Skyflash (or Sky Flash) missiles which were derivatives of the Sparrow missile.

[Brigbeale]

In tonight’s modelling session I started by repainting the wheel wells as I didn’t fell the off white I’d bought was the right colour. The landing gear legs were also treated to a coat of Tamiya gloss white. I used a brush on purpose knowing the Tamiya paint would streak when gone over again in the same area. This would break up the uniformity of the white paint. Some home made panel line accent should also help - hopefully.

 

The stabilisers were revisited and fitted in position. A knife was taken to the slot upper edge to carve away the inner edge to assist with the angle required to get the angle on the stabilisers themselves. Each was left for around 2pm minutes to set up and they now hold their own weight.

 

I made the nose-gear doors out of 0.5mm stryrene card. An antenna was added to the forward flap/door and the whole lot was painted the same grey as the underside. as the card is white, I didn’t need to paint  the other side. Once the paint had dried, I added the ‘416’ decal to the forward door. They were then superglued into position.

 

The main gear doors were the spare closed doors from the Airfix kit. I used my Tamiya Scriber to score the already present panel lines and separated the three parts. the main door was sprue-goo’d to the main gear legs and the other two parts fitted in their respective positions.

 

The weather here has been foul - almost constant rain/showers so priming the fuel tanks is on hold again.

I feel I need to re-do the underwing air brakes as I forgot to add the small triangles (hinges) to the leading edge. It’s only a small detail but one that will need to be done. also I could add some interior detail to the brakes as well.

 

 

[Brigbeale]

The reprinted air brakes with some internal detail.

[Johnson]

2 hours ago, Brigbeale said:

The reprinted air brakes with some internal detail.

Great work Brian! It's looking really good, excellent camo scheme!

[Brigbeale]

I painted the outside of the air brakes with the same grey as the rest of the underside. Once that had dried, I painted the inside with an acrylic crimson red. I felt it was ideal as it would appear as a well worn, grubby, faded red. A light coat of my home made wash was applied. It could have been darker but due to its position I don’t think it would be seen that well anyway. I’ll give it another try later anyway. They were sprue goo’d in position.

 

The wheels were airbrushed white through my circle template so they look better now. They were also glued in position.

 

I dug out the Sidewinders, which were among spares from a Revell Tornado I purchased off eBay when I did my two Tornado restorations. I gave them a brush coat of white, but they will need a proper coat from the airbrush to look anywhere near half decent.

Also in the spares were a few pods which look like suitable items to make the gun pod. I assemble 2 of them and decided the larger one would be more suitable for the size of the gun pod - even if it is a slightly different shape (but I never said it was going to be an exact copy!). I cut the front off and sanded it square. Tomorrow, I’ll design the business end of the pod (the gun and shroud) and fit it on

Edited January 3, 2022 by Brigbeale

[billn53]

I'm curious -- what is that white plastic stand you're using? It looks like something I'd like to have...

[Brigbeale]

45 minutes ago, billn53 said:

I'm curious -- what is that white plastic stand you're using? It looks like something I'd like to have...

It’s one I 3D printed from a design on Thingiverse (although I have just had a quick look and I can’t find it now).

[Brigbeale]

7 hours ago, Brigbeale said:

It’s one I 3D printed from a design on Thingiverse (although I have just had a quick look and I can’t find it now).

I have now found the model stand here

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2953544

 

and also a slightly more complex one.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3131786

Edited January 4, 2022 by Brigbeale

[bigbadbadge]

Great job on this Brian, just caught up and its looking rather splendid fella, all these 3D extras , you will be doing whole kits soon !!!

Good to see the height of the undercarriage is good, you should be really proud of this as you have taken a model in a terrible condition and it now looks like a state of the art model.

Great work 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

Thanks Chris for your comments.

I am indeed proud of the way this one is turning out. Despite the missing and damaged parts, it’s being a pleasant (re)build.

This morning, I designed the gun muzzles for the gun pod who’s morning and printed it out. Being so small it took two attempts to get a half decent copy. It was sprue-goo’d in position and left to dry for the day. 
Tonight it was lightly fitted to remove unwanted blemishes and then the whole thing was given a coat of ‘underside’ light grey.

I airbrushed the sidewinders and painted the nose-cones with Tamiya Gun Metal. The gun pod muzzles were also painted the same colour.

Once dry, the Sidewinders were fitted to their pylons. 
The gun pod was fitted to the centreline position underneath (obviously). 
The Sidewinder pylons were then fitted to their respective mounts.

It is now being left for the glue to set incase I knock them off again.

Tomorrow, I plan to fit the two wing fuel tanks.

 

The Phantom now tooled up!

 

[Brigbeale]

The clear decal sheets were delivered today, so I immediately resized the decal images I found on the internet and printed them off. They were allowed to dry and then they were coated with a lacquer based matt spray varnish. They were bought into the house to dry quicker as it was only 6 degrees outside.

After a late start to tonight’s session, I found they were dried so I could work with them.

Instead of being individual decals, they were grouped together, so it was easier but still took a while. 
Anyway, I started by painting the upper grey surfaces on the fuel tanks. To get a straight line, I used a pencil laid flat on the cutting mat and while holding the fuel tank upright, offered it up. It was slightly too low so I wrapped some tape around it and drew the line all around both tanks. It was then a simple case of following the line with tape using the magnification headset. Tamiya XF-66 light grey was then painted on. The tape was removed to leave a nice straight demarcation around the tanks. The pylons were left white as they were apparently left like that on the real aircraft from their Navy days.

 

Also, earlier today I copied the Skyflash/Sparrow missiles on the Yellow Bird. It took about an hour and a half to print them. Once cleaned up, they look like this. I need to cut some decal strips and paint the tips grey to finish them off to fit them in their locations under the fuselage.

 

The grouped decals were applied to the wing undersides and left to set for a bit. Once the setting solution had done its job which was quite quick on these decals, I decided to go for it and fit the fuel tanks. 

 

[billn53]

She’s really looking great! Looking back at the start of this project, it’s hard to believe this is the same model. 

[opus999]

That gun pod is fascinating.  I've never seen one of those before

 

Nice job with the demarcation line on the tanks,  I wouldn't have thought of using a the height of a pencil to draw the line.

 

I have to agree with @billn53, It's really hard to believe it's the same model.  It looks wonderful.  Are you sure you don't have the old one under the table?  

[Johnson]

Great stuff Brian. A fascinating build! I agree with the others, an amazing transformation.

[Brigbeale]

3 hours ago, opus999 said:

Are you sure you don't have the old one under the table?  

Damn - busted!! I would have got away with it, if it hadn’t been for them pesky kids!

 

 

[Brigbeale]

No truly - it is the same Monogram Phantom that was looking forlorn on the shelf begging to be restored.

 

This afternoon, I went searching through the spare decal box for some black and yellow lettering/coloured panels to make the bands for the missiles. Some letters were cut to make the forward bands and a yellow block was cut to make the yellow bands. The tips of the missiles were simply dipped into light grey paint to make the tips.

The missiles were then fitted to the fuselage.

 

i did add some grouped stencil decals to the upper surfaces but they turned out to be just visible - but I know they’re there. 
 

This evening, I added some brownish staining underneath as in the image and some black over the rest of the fuselage for general dirt.

The Phantom was then given a coat of Galeria matt varnish to knock the sheen off.

The canopy was unmasked as well.

 

And with the Airfix Yellow Bird Phantom.