Lord Riot Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 I’ve been thinking about adding more heavy metal to my USAFE collection, and what better way than a classic 80’s Phantom. Despite numerous holidays to East Anglia and bases such as Lakenheath, Mildenhall and Bentwaters, I never did manage to get over to Alconbury, so I never went to the apparently legendary ‘Owl End’ to see the Aggressors and Recon Phantoms. The best I can do, therefore, is to try and recreate one of the latter in its halcyon days, hopefully to look like this: This is what I’m starting with. Not ideal apparently but about one third the price of a Hasegawa kit! It looks like I’ll need to change from these slotted E stabilisers to flat ones. Anyone able to confirm? Two different camera noses in the kit though. Sloped or angled? I’m guessing either is possible … Aftermarket decals ready. 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gondor44 Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 Looks interesting so I will follow this if you have no objections. As to which set of camera ports, all dependson the aircraft and when in it's service life you are depicting it. My suggestion is to pick an aircraft and then find pictures of it, Airliners.net is a good refference source as you can put the aircraft serial number into the search and it should produce pictures of that aircraft. Do bear in mind that some, but not all aircraft had different modification at different times of their lives which will get very confusing about camouflage, operator and modification state of the airframe which will include its RWR suite as well as the camera ports. Gondor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 You will also need the shorter afterburner exhaust for a RF-4C. Regards Robert 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted February 8, 2022 Author Share Posted February 8, 2022 A search through the Britmodeller archives revealed this very interesting and useful thread! https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235040743-alconbury-rf-4c-paint-schemes/ Having already got a Euro I camo F-4 built, I thought I’d go for the SEA camo for the RF-4. Ideally I’d like to do one with the light grey undersides, though following some research it looks like they were all wraparound by 1983. Anyone know any different? I’ve ordered Tamiya AS-15 tan and AS-16 light grey spray cans. I’ll use the two greens from the F-4G above for the green camo patterns. I’ll probably have to file down the burner cans to make the shorter version. I have spares but they’re long ones too! And fill the stabiliser leading edges. Unless anyone has spares they’d sell? 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 I’m in, I always think the recce noses look more interesting. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted February 8, 2022 Author Share Posted February 8, 2022 First job, get rid of the huge sink marks inside the intake walls. They probably won’t be that noticeable in there once sealed, but I couldn’t leave them just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 I was stationed at RAF Wyton and regularly took day trips to Alconbury where on a back road you could get to the other side of the airfield and be able to take photos even with the base guards not being too far away (even with TR-1s in the vicinity). In fact only got told off once and that was for sitting on the wooden fence there. Anyhow I have looked at some of my photos taken from 1982 and there were still some aircraft with Lt Grey undersides. I will be honest and say that these are not brilliant photos, but I am sure that I can make out the tail number on one of them. I will try and post on here in the next day or so if you can wait that long. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullac2001 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 love a phantom , will be following if you dont mind 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted February 8, 2022 Author Share Posted February 8, 2022 Thanks @Jabba, that would be brilliant. Can’t have too many reference photos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bar side Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Do they include the short C burner cans in that kit? I know they do in the older one. Nice if you get the curved later nose option though. There seemed to be a better choice of airframes in wrap around or Euro One with the curved nose. The chisel nose seemed to start disappearing around the end of SEA with grey underside. I did do a list of Alconbury tail codes at one time - will see if I can find them. Same decal set I used I think. Can’t have too many Phantoms either. I have three in the stash and still have that resin nose set to use as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted February 8, 2022 Author Share Posted February 8, 2022 @bar side there are only the longer burners for an E unfortunately, but I’m assuming I can just sand them down until they’re shorter? It does look like there are two nose options though, so I could do the curved one with light grey undersides, I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bar side Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Bit more curved in rather than just shorter. The left vs later E style Might have a spare set from the old kit somewhere. They are not great but ok 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bar side Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Compare these to the earlier Italeri kit burner cans, and another set I dug up. The larger ones are the Es 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted February 9, 2022 Author Share Posted February 9, 2022 Those resin (?) cans in the first pic look very different to the Italeri ones, especially the ones in the kit. Looks like I’ll have a bit of work to do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bar side Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 6 minutes ago, Lord Riot said: Those resin (?) cans in the first pic look very different to the Italeri ones, especially the ones in the kit. Looks like I’ll have a bit of work to do! Yes, I think the light grey ones are nearest. They should come out as a cylinder then close in nearer the end like the resin ones. Not straight through like the E types Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLC1966 Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 20 hours ago, bar side said: Barside, totally off subject, but I went and saw the U's at Mansfield last night. Had to laugh, the boys were still singing about being in the Barside, unfortunately most of them singing were about 16 or 18, and Layer Road went in 2008 !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bar side Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 3 minutes ago, PLC1966 said: Barside, totally off subject, but I went and saw the U's at Mansfield last night. Had to laugh, the boys were still singing about being in the Barside, unfortunately most of them singing were about 16 or 18, and Layer Road went in 2008 !!! 🤣🤣🤣 Still singing ‘I was born under the Barside stand’ I wonder? Good times but the football hasn’t got any better! At least I was a Barside season ticket holder for a good few years 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLC1966 Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 Mate, check out Facebook Site 'Colchester United Retro', might bring back some memories. Sorry all for the thread drift. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted February 9, 2022 Author Share Posted February 9, 2022 No worries, as long as it’s not Manchester Utd it’s fine with me! 😂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bar side Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 37 minutes ago, PLC1966 said: Mate, check out Facebook Site 'Colchester United Retro', might bring back some memories. Sorry all for the thread drift. Sure does - just joined it. Deffo no Man U! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 Some good news in that I have uploaded the photos to my computer. The bad news is that they are absolutely uselass. I think that main reason for this is because I uploaded the mas a PDF thingy. So I have reuploded them as a JPEG and they are much better and I will hopefully post them tomorrow. I have blown all of them up a little when I was looking at them and they are definitely with a Lt Grey undersides. There are sevral different aircraft and some I can get the big number on the tail, but not the year number if you know what I am on about. My computer threw a wobbly eariler and I had to reset it so that is the main reason that I will post tomorrow. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted February 9, 2022 Author Share Posted February 9, 2022 Cheers @Jabba, that sounds brilliant mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted February 10, 2022 Author Share Posted February 10, 2022 I added a couple of bits of plastic card to the cockpit walls to cover up more moulding holes, and give it a bit of detail. I’ll see how it looks once the cockpit tub is in. All sprayed with light ghost grey. The business end - cameras painted. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bar side Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 (edited) That’s nice. No cameras with the old kit, had to scratch build an inside for the nose Edited February 10, 2022 by bar side 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 I hope that these photos are of some use to you. I am not a computer wizz, so I have not been able to crop or do anything with them apart from just scanning them in. As I mentoned above I have blown them up just after I scanned them in and I could make out the Grey undersides and the larger part of the Serial Number. The first 2 are from the air show at RAF Wyton in 1982. Although the first one shows an F-5E it does include the underside of the wing of the RF-4C Phantom displayed there which is shown in the photo below it. The rest of the photos are taken n various visits in 1982 to the far side of the airfield. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now