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40421 McDonnell Phantom FG.1/FGR.2


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This is another Matchbox classic that I have built plenty of when I was younger, I particularly remember entering one in an ATC competition.

The Phantom is one of my all time favourite aircraft and so this build will tick a couple of boxes.

 

This is one of those odd very late Matchbox boxings, which was actually released in 1998 by their then owners Revell.

The box art and overall style is no where near as nice as the first two boxings (1975 and 1986), however it does have the advantage of being molded in one light colour and the decal sheet appears to be very sharply printed.

Options for this release are,

FG.1 XV568 R-002 892 NAS, Ark Royal June 1977,

FGR.2 XV498/E 2 Squadron, Laarbruch August 1977

FGR.2 XV421/F 1435 Flight, Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands November 1990. Sadly this jet was lost in the following year along with its crew.

The kit is actually quite reasonable overall and looks good when built up, though the surface detail is heavy (only a bit more than the recent Airfix kit I would say!) and detail is simplified such as the shallow undercarriage bays etc.  It is well known that the canopy has the wrong shape in profile, and the main wheels aren't at all right for British Phantoms.

 

Anyhow, unlike my Canberra project I am going to add some aftermarket to this build, I have a resin cockpit set and jet pipes to use as I see these items as needing the most attention, I will also add a more accurate canopy from one of my Fujimi kits.

 

My favourite era of RAF Phantoms is when FGR.2s served in the ground attack and strike role, from 1969 to 1977, and it's that period I want to represent here.  I love the two tone dark sea grey & dark green camo look, especially with full red, white and blue roundels.

I want to model it in flight with the massive EMI reconnaissance pod fitted under the centreline and I have two quite different schemes in mind.

 

XV437 was pictured with 54 Sqn carrying the recce pod with 2 x AIM-7 Sparrows, 2 x ballast shapes, 4 x SNEB rocket pods and the underwing drop tanks and wearing the full colour roundels, it was unusual for the pod to be carried with such a large and varied weapons load.  54 Sqn only operated with the pod for a very brief and limited period in the early 1970s before 41 Sqn equipped with the Phantom during 1972 in the ground attack/recce role at Coningsby.

 

XV498 / E of 2 Sqn with RAFG at Laarbruch with only the recce pod fitted.  This is based on a photo of a 2 Sqn FGR.2 carrying the pod, stbd fwd bay ballast shape and the port fwd bay strike camera but with absolutely nothing else fitted, not even underwing pylons or tanks, it has the two tone roundels and fin top RWR fitted.

I'm kinda drawn to the latter scheme as it's unusual to see a Phantom modelled  in such a clean a configuration and it's faithful to the kits' own decal sheet.

 

48810142203_b0f6f08bce_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

48810638017_2f13d20c1b_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

48810638167_1e816e7b5f_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

Spot the spelling mistake here!🤣

 

48810495876_e2b08f21b1_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

The box is a different style being lift off lid type, but exactly the same size as the old Matchbox Red Dot kits boxes.

 

 

It's great to see the earlier boxings, PK-404 & PK-412, of this kit being built here aswel.

 

 

 

Edited by 71chally
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As Pat has said, I've not seen the contents of this particular box however apart from the "Panthom" spelling what's included looks quite good. A nice decal sheet included as well so all in all it looks like a lovely package. I'm really keen to see which scheme you end up going for, both sound great and deserve to be done. 

Cheers. welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't done much to any of the three builds I've got going on yet, just wanted to assemble all the right bits together and am waiting for some good time off to attend to the builds.

 

I have received the CMK Phantom FG.1 resin cockpit and seats set and this will do wonders for the old Matchbox kit, I'm building an FGR.2 of course but the few cockpit differences are not a worry for me in this scale and with closed canopies.

The cockpit falls into place within the kit fuselage, even though the set is made for the far more modern Airfix kit, I dare say that there will be some hacking about of course.

 

51860436228_dbb56526b9_b.jpg

Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 & CMK cockpit by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

I have also raided one of my Fujimi kits to donate a canopy and the jet pipes for this build, the canopy is famously wrong in profile on the Matchbox kit, and the jet pipes, well look at the pictures...

 

51860436188_8f146f6e0e_b.jpg

Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

As the Fujimi kit was out on the bench I noticed that the engine intakes were quite different between the two kits, basically the Matchbox ones are too squat and square which gives it a fat appearance, and is wrongly shaped at the lips.  This checked out with photo references.

Therefore I decided to reprofile the intakes, I removed quite a bit of plastic from the top external corners, and the bottom internal corners, this got the shape much nearer to real. 

The intalke lips themselves are complicated in shape as the top and outside edges roll inwards to the intake, where as the bottom edge and corner rolls from inside the intake.   Also the bottom part of the intake drops down a bit at it's forward edge, when viewed side on.

Hard to explain really, but half hour with references, a scalpel and some small files got me close to where I want to be.  Luckily Matchbox gave us plenty of plastic to play with!

 

51860686814_310ff03c94_b.jpg

Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

51859398182_45002b2a86_b.jpg

Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

48129136943_c52d221bf5_b.jpg

McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR.2 XV499 cockpit by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

Edited by 71chally
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Don't know if this helps but if you have a problem with the cockpit canopy the Airfix F-4K I am finishing off in the KUTA used the closed option so I have all the open option bits spare here in Pontypridd! In fact I probably have 2 sets as I will be using the closed option on my second FGR.1 build.

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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Nice update of sorts James, the AM cockpit looks just fabulous and will do wonders to this Matchbox kit. Likewise, your intakes modifications are amazingly good and will also make noticeable overall improvements. This will be a great WIP to watch. 

Cheers.. Dave  

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Phantom is coming along nicely, if a bit slowly!

 

I've cut off the molded in window arch which sits between the canopies, as I will fit the single piece Fujimi canopy, the canopy itself has been modified by removing the sills so that it fits flush on to the kit.  I also had to cut back where the canopy meets the spine at it's rear edge.  .

 

51884805555_29a248c94b_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

51884231113_362052c0a5_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

The CMK resin cockpit has been painted and fitted.  It fits quite nicely in to the existing kits' cockpit supports, but I did have to shave quite a bit of resin off the unseen parts of the molding for the forward fuselage to close properly.

 

51884805535_563516c60f_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

51884158211_6f19303bfa_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

While in that area I also modified the fairing that sits behind the canopy, Matchbox have it as slightly curved along it's top edge if viewed side on, but in reality it's straight.

The Phantoms upper nose area ahead of the windscreen is flat in reality, so I have filed flat the curved rendering of the kit, I have highlighted these modifications in pencil as they barely show up.

 

51884479849_cae9af64d1_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

51884158151_fcb61283f2_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

As you can see, the Fujimi canopy fits rather well, even the kits molded in opening canopy sills lining up with it.  This and how well the cockpit fits kind've shows how right Matchbox got this kit.

 

I have also reprofiled the wing leading edges as they weren't really the correct profile of the Phantom wing, so basically the upper leading edges have been filed down, and the dog tooth area cleaned up.

 

The fuselage halves have now been joined and I have cleaned up the mating edges and removed the spurious anti-collision beacon(?) from the spine, the wings have been assembled and I have fitted the undercarriage doors.  they were a pain as they are in multiple parts and the kit doesn't properly reflect the bulge in the gear doors, well they have on the main doors, but not on the adjoing wheel covers!

 

That huge EMI reconnaissance pod has also been assembled and cleaned up.

Edited by 71chally
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That's looking fantastic James, lovely cockpit work. It's also nice to see that the Fujimi canopy fits quite well and that the Matchbox panel lines all line up. That's got to be a safer bet then hollowing these areas out! 

Cheers.. Dave  

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5 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

It's also nice to see that the Fujimi canopy fits quite well and that the Matchbox panel lines all line up. That's got to be a safer bet then hollowing these areas out!

Yes. Shame I didn’t realise that before I went ahead and started chopping at mine… :wall:

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2 hours ago, Galligraphics said:

Shame I didn’t realise that before I went ahead and started chopping at mine… :wall:

There was a bit of head scratching before I finally chose the flush approach!

The bit that surprises me is just how much the Matchbox kit is apparently right.

 

Most of the major sub assemblies are complete and cleaned up now, my next decision is how to tackle the panel lines, leave how they are, or fill, I'm erring on the latter.

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Latest jobs, I've opened up the solid bulkhead at the rear of the kit to accept the Fujimi Spey jet pipes, they fit a treat into the Matchbox kit!

I also used some sprue off cuts to 'spread' the bottom of the fuselage so that it meets the belly panel better, these align perfectly now and they have been joined together to close the fuselage up.

 

51890163712_4fbb442fed_b.jpg

Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

51891462139_5dcb8b1278_b.jpg

Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

I wanted to do away with the RWR fitting on top of the tail as I want to depict the Phantom in the earlier period, so I used my trusty old Sandvic to munch away at that, and have carefully filed the fin top back to it's pre RWR shape.

 

51891462209_08da4dd35e_b.jpg

Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

51891213758_b228f8a3f1_b.jpg

Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

51890163667_a37bd15d56_b.jpg

Matchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 


 

 

Edited by 71chally
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The Phantom is gradually taking shape, I've been careful to clean up and adjust mating surfaces as I would do anything rather than use filler!  The parts have actually joined very nicely, but the panel lines are even more obvious, so I guess I will be filling after all!

 

51905985466_0fb51c4a02_b.jpgMatchbox Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 40421 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

 

Edited by 71chally
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Taking shape nicely James and certainly most Phantom like. It’s a good ploy to avoid using as much filler as you can, although it is a Matchbox kit, so you’d do well to leave the filler cap off during any Matchbox build. Nice progress. 
Cheers.. Dave 

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  • 4 months later...

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