UK Phantom Reference

[Enzo the Magnificent]

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[Enzo the Magnificent]

A Wikipedia overview of British Phantoms

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_Phantom_in_UK_service

 

The Thunder And Lightnings Phantom page.

 

https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/phantom/index.php

 

The Britmodeller walkround pages.

 

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

A bit of a heads-up for those of us who are building the 1/72 Fujimi kit.

 

The kit was originally issued in 1987. Unfortunately the auxiliary intake doors on the fuselage sides were in an incorrect position: too far forward and too low down as well as being too shallow.   In 1988 Fujimi fixed their moulds to have the intakes in the correct position.  This is what the retooled parts look like.

 

 

If you do have an early boxing, the mistake is easy to rectify, especially if you represent the doors as closed.  Just fill the joints and rescribe.

 

The FG.1 and FGR.2 boxings have different sets of parts for the tailplanes and nose gear.  The FG.1 has a slatted tailplane and double oleo nose gear. 

 

Fujimi also later retooled their moulds to have the fintip RWR fairing so if you have one of these and want to build an early sircraft, a certain amount of sanding is required. 

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/fujimi-7a-h6-british-phantom-fg1-silver-jubilee--132082

 

[Stormcrow]

Hope these are ok to share, I had a trip up to the Morayvia museum yesterday, located next to the former RAF Kinloss. I got to have a good look around XV586 and took some photos 🙂

 

 

 

 

[Jabba]

Some pictures of Phantoms being readied for/after post major flight tests at RAF St Athan, note the nice new shiney paint. There are also a couple of the aircraft flying past us on its delivery flight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

43 minutes ago, Jabba said:

 

 

 

What a superb shot.  It brings back memories of my passing out parade from basic training at RAF Swinderby.  Each flight had a flypast on their passing out parade.  It wasn't a big deal.  There were no special flypast flights. This was the early 80s.  There was always something spectacular in the air which could be redirected at short notice to provide a flypast.  On my parade it was two Phantoms.

 

Our flight was stood to attention facing the dais with the VIPs and the stand with families behind.  I could see two dots in the distance which were growing rapidly.  The order to present arms was given and these two dots suddenly resolved themselves into two Phantoms going very fast indeed!  Even from a head on view I could clearly see the afterburner glow.  Then they did something that I thought was very professional indeed.  They could have continued in reheat at low level over the heads of the unsuspecting families in the stands.  It would have caused consternation!   Instead, they cut reheat and throttles and just whispered over the parade ground, but still incredibly fast.   They looked just like this photo.  Once they had overflown the parade ground there was the sound of thunder as reheat was re-engaged and the two aircraft pulled up into an unlimited climb.  Of course I couldn't see this as I was too busy presenting arms with eyes front but I was told about it later by my Dad who was mightily impressed by how quickly the Phantoms disappeared into the sky.

 

 

[Jabba]

   Some more photos from Saints. The first one is very unusual, as it went for flight test before it went to paint. Paint was a strange thing and it was set in stone. So if the aircraft was ready to fly before it went to paint, it was flown in the state that it was. If the aircraft was not quite ready for paint it was panelled up and sent over to Pickerston to be painted, then worked on again afterwards. In the time that I was at Saints the latter was the usual, whilst I think that being early was a first, even personnel who had been there a long while could not remember this. The other unusual thing was the Nav. The station Nav was on leave and there was no-one else to carry out this duty. So it came that Paul Roberts, one of the longest serving members of our team was volunteered to be the Nav. This is before one of the flights and the Pilot is at the top of the stairs leaning onto the Navs position making sure that all was fine.

 

 

A more sedate flypast for us. I think that this was flown by the aircrew that brought in our new aircraft. I think this is also and aircraft where we found the makers plate and found out that the aircraft was 20 years old whilst on its major servicing. So when it came to be delivered back to its unit we had a birthday cake with all the trimmings, which the aircrew also joined in with.

 

 

[RMP2]

A bit on 74 Sqn

 

 

 

Longer version

 

 

[Ol' Scrapiron]

I know there are a lot of images readily available online, but I'll share some examples that I have personally photographed over the years. Of course these most likely have undergone some level of restoration for display, so bear that in mind. Anyway, here is a small sampling of photos of some of the British Phantoms I have pointed a camera at... use as reference or inspiration.

 

I'll try to limit the pics per plane, but I have more if there's something that would help on a build. Also, if any of the US Phantoms would be helpful I can post some other images (but only if I get word that it's OK and would be beneficial) ... I know there are some differences, but I'm not up on what they would be.

 

 

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F-4 Phantom FGR2 XV424

RAF Museum

 

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F-4J 155529

Imperial War Museum Duxford

 

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F-4J 153077

Patriots Point

 

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Oddly enough, there were different markings on each side of 3077 (I did not notice that until just now looking at my photos taken more than 10 years ago)

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F-4J project

Yanks Air Museum, Chino

 

 

 

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F-4J 155563

Valiant Warbirds Museum

 

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That's all for the British and J models... Let me know if some other variants of Phantom would be useful as reference. I've also photographed a few cockpit/training modules that might help with superdetailing a build. 

 

 

I look forward to keeping up on some of your builds, even if I never seem to find time to personally apply glue to plastic these days.

 

 

[Marlin]

Hi.  

These are my picture of a Phantom FGR.2 (XV424) I took at the RAF Museum in London when I visited earlier this year

I hope you'll like them.
/Bosse

20250419_124812 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124830 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124835 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124849 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124902 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124905 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124912 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124927 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124930 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124952 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

And the Rolls Royce Spey Mk.202 engine.
20250419_124548 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124519 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124521 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124528 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124530 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124600 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
20250419_124625 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

[Flyingdutchman]

This one popped up on Youtube:

 

 

[Retired Bob]

37 minutes ago, Flyingdutchman said:

This one popped up on Youtube:

Some nice nostalgia scenes.  Notice the early Mk.5 ejection seats in the Phantoms, black metal shroud round the canvas parachute pack. 

[RMP2]

Some good shots of the LAU-7 launchers in the FG1/FGR2 walkaround - 

 

 

@Julien Thanks!

 

[Retired Bob]

Here is a photo of the Mk,7 ejection seat.  It's from later service with the RAF, with blue/grey seat pad and parachute cover.  Earlier seats had olive green coloured pad and cover.

This seat is in the earlier colours, though the green cover over the parachute pack has been tucked inside, it should be covering the metal strip around the parachute pack.