Phantom FG.1 RAF***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

Over the years starting in around 1965 I have built numerous Phantoms starting with the original Airfix  kit which I still have, the later re-boxing, the Frog and Matchbox offerings which are all gone, and 7 Fujimi including an RAF FGR.2 in grey. When I saw the latest Airfix kit was due to be released in 2017 I pre-ordered, saving 10%. As it was due out just before my birthday I suggested to my family that they might like to buy it for me, but due to a misunderstanding, instead of just giving me the money as I intended, my wife bought another kit, but then you can never have too many Phantoms!😄 I built one as a late RN FG.1 and the other will be built as one of the "surplus" F-4K's operated by the RAF when it was decided only to fly them from HMS Ark Royal, HMS Victorious having been written off after a fire, and HMS Eagle being considered too expensive to refit for Phantoms after all.

 

 

As you can see, I bought a sheet of decs to enable me to do it in the markings of 43 Squadron.

 

Pete

Edited August 18 by PeterB

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello and Welcome Peter. 

[Jabba]

Nice to see the checkered rudder of a 43 Sqn aircraft.

[PeterB]

This has been on hold whilst I complete what was intended to be a quick build of 3 WWI tanks in the Armour WIP. Needless to say it got a bit complicated and the third build, instead of OOB, has become a major upgrade of not 1 but 2 tanks kits and a refurbishment of another. However, with luck I can make a start on the Phantom within the next week or two.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

So, I have eventually started and have painted, assembled and got the decs on the cockpit and glued it into place together with the intake trunking and the bits that hold the tail in place. 

 

 

As this is a pretty well known kit with at least another 3 or 4 in this GB alone, I will not bother with photos of every stage of construction. Not sure if it will have the chequered rudder Jabba - I thought I might do the early version without the RHAW fin, and I am not sure when they started putting the chequerboard on the tail - possibly not until after 1980 according the the article in Scale Aircraft Modelling from June of that year where there is no sign of it.

 I will do some more research later.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

I glued the fuselage halves together and added the upper insert.

 

 

I then added the jet pipes and the fans to the rear of the intakes.

 

 

I then got a bit carried away and put the lower fuselage and wings on, together with the tail stabs and the canopy.

 

 

When I built the first of these about 4 years ago I commented on the poor fit (by modern Airfix standards) of the upper and lower fuselage inserts and the air intake assemblies, and if anything it was even worse on this one as were the flaps, so some filing and filling was called for. Curiously, the canopy was a good fit, unlike the first one., but since I took the above photo it has fogged up, probably due to condensation as some water probably got in when I washed the model. Hopefully that will clear up, otherwise I will have to take it off and clean it.

 

So far the only modification I have had to make to "de-navalise" it is to fill in the recesses for the catapult cable attachment hooks. There are of course replacement parts in the RAF boxings for that, but as far as I can see the only other dedicated RAF bits I am missing are for the centreline gun pod, which I could fit using Hasegawa weapons set parts, but am not going to bother.

 

Pete

Edited October 1 by PeterB

[Ray S]

That's quick! It's looking good from this side of the screen. All the best for the rest of the build 

 

Ray 

[PeterB]

1 hour ago, Ray S said:

That's quick! It's looking good from this side of the screen. All the best for the rest of the build 

 

Ray 

Perhaps too quick Ray - I probably should have spent more time dry fitting and adjusting.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Most of the painting is now done.

 

 

The vertical tail is just a push fit at the moment, which will make putting the decs on the underside a bit easier. As I am using the RN boxing some of the stencils may be wrong but I will see what I can manage rather than buying a dedicated set for an RAF machine. I expect many of them will be identical and I do know that those FG.I that were supplied new to the RAF still had the "traffic lights" on the nose door, but did not have the tail incidence scale. They also do not seem to have had the grey walkway patches on the fuselage spine though Hannants have included them on their RAF stencil sheet I think.

 

The dedicated RAF FG.I boxing has decs for XV573/L from 43 Squadron in 1974, but I will be using the Xtradecal sheet which is for XV579/R allegedly in 1979. Neither have the RHAW fairing on the tail, and as far as I can make out, though these started to be fitted in around 1976, some planes were still without them as late as 1980 so it seems to have taken a while. In the mid 1970's the national markings changed from the old D type roundels and fin flashes to the so called "tactical" type without any white, so whilst the Airfix boxing has D type, the Xtradecal sheet has tactical. It also has the black and white rudder, though I have yet to see any photographic evidence for this feature - I have seen a few complaints over the years about the accuracy of Xtradecal research but I think I will go along with them in this instance, rightly or wrongly.

 

When I built my other "new" Airfix Phantom it took about 5 days to get all the decs on so this could take some time.😄

 

Pete

Edited October 3 by PeterB

[PeterB]

I have made a start. 

 

 

Unlike the kit decs, the underwing serials are not pre-cut on the Xtradecal sheet so I had to do it the old way - tacking the doors in place and putting the numbers on. then carefully cutting around them With a bit of touching up it has worked pretty well.  The red in the roundels seems a bit "bright" to me but then I am more used to the dull red of the WWII ones. So, only another 200 plus to go!😄 With only a couple of exceptions the placement on the RAF instructions I have downloaded seems identical to those on the RN sheet, though I suppose the wording on some may not be the same. Hopefully they will be all on by the end of the next week. I am not quite sure how Airfix decided on the numbering of the stencils - probably to do with the layout on the decal sheet, but it would have been nice if they were grouped so that for example all the underside ones were in a sequence. However, they are all over the place and given the sheer number of them the only sensible way to my mind is to start at the beginning and work through them, even though it means they are all over the airframe.

 

Pete

Edited October 4 by PeterB

[PeterB]

Progress is slow but steady, and except for around the vertical tail, which I will do later, the upper surfaces are now completely stencilled.

 

 

Now I just have to do the underside.

 

Pete

[Jabba]

A good start with the decals. Yes it is annoying the scatter gun approach of Airfix and other kit manufacturers deal with stencils. Only once have made slot where the stencils have been applied to the model in a logical process.

[PeterB]

24 minutes ago, Jabba said:

A good start with the decals. Yes it is annoying the scatter gun approach of Airfix and other kit manufacturers deal with stencils. Only once have made slot where the stencils have been applied to the model in a logical process.

Hi Jabba,

 

Looks like you are still using Imgur so unfortunately I can't see the pic you tried to post! If you have missed out on the news that it is no longer useable in the UK, you may find Pete's thread interesting - at the moment there is a red banner at the top of this and presumably other threads which will take you to it.

 

Pete

[almac]

Looking really good with the decals. Like you I’m using an Xtradecal sheet for a 43 Squadron plane and I’m not looking forward to cutting those underside serial numbers.

 

Cheers Allan

[PeterB]

12 hours ago, almac said:

Looking really good with the decals. Like you I’m using an Xtradecal sheet for a 43 Squadron plane and I’m not looking forward to cutting those underside serial numbers.

 

Cheers Allan

Hi Allan,

 

I see you are using a Fujimi kit. My Airfix one was not too bad as the optional open doors were a good fit and a little blu-tac held them in place reasonably well so I could place the decs. I used Micro Sol on them, then a coat of varnish, and when that was dry I used a new scalpel blade to cut them out. I did need to do just a little touching up with black paint but it was fairly straightforward.

 

Pete

Edited October 7 by PeterB

[almac]

Thanks @PeterB. I’ll try that out with mine and hopefully the doors will fit well enough.

 

Cheers Allan

[roy107]

11 hours ago, PeterB said:

Hi Allan,

 

I see you are using a Fujimi kit. My Airfix one was not too bad as the optional open doors were a good fit and a little blu-tac held them in place reasonably well so I could place the decs. I used Micro Sol on them, then a coat of varnish, and when that was dry I used a new scalpel blade to cut them out. I did need to do just a little touching up with black paint but it was fairly straightforward.

 

Pete

 

+1 for this approach, I've done it on Phantoms and Hunters before, mostly successfully. Of course if there's any play in the door it makes sense to make sure its moved towards the side that the serial number is located, but there's usually not much play so it's a moot point.

[PeterB]

All the underside decs are now on, together with the ones for the missiles, tanks and pylons.

 

 

I did manage to lose 2 in the whole process - one for an inboard pylon and one of the little "hooks" for the lifting points. Given how small some of these are, it would have been nice if Airfix could have included the odd spare for them but then I suppose it would be difficult to decide which to provide them for I guess. For anybody building this kit for the first time a word of caution about the decs for the missiles - Airfix have included 2 of the coloured bands on each dec which does help getting the spacing right, but it also makes them a bit "stiff" when it comes to getting them to settle round the missile bodies. The ones for the Sparrows are not too bad but those for the Sidewinders are a bit of a pain and it does not help that they are the same length as those for the thicker Sparrows. I abandoned the Sidewinder ones on my first build and used stock lines, but I did eventually manage to get them on this kit, having first shortened them a little, and using varnish to help them grip, followed up with a dose of Micro Sol to get them to settle down.

 

So, the only decs I have still to apply are the ones for the vertical tail and the area at the bottom of it, and the 8 broken yellow lines that go on the cockpit frames - the latter will need very careful handling. I am still debating whether to put the tail on before of after I fix the undercarriage and underwing stores.

 

Pete

Edited October 8 by PeterB

[Jabba]

Good going with those decals. It maybe even more helpful if Airfix grouped some of these smaller decals together.

[PeterB]

Hi Jabba, 

 

Don't know what image you posted as Imgur is refusing to show it to me - "content not viewable in your region".

 

Pete

[PeterB]

The tail and all the rest of the decs are now on.

 

 

As I mentioned previously I have yet to see a photo of a 43 Squadron plane at around this period with the chequered rudder but I notice the Xtradecal sheet provides what seems to be a Squadron Leader's "flag" for the nose so wonder if that has any bearing?

 

So just the undercarriage, stores and auxiliary air intake doors to go on.

 

Pete

[dasmithers]

This is coming along beautifully. Congratulations on completing the stencil marathon.

 

Andy

[PeterB]

1 hour ago, dasmithers said:

This is coming along beautifully. Congratulations on completing the stencil marathon.

 

Andy

 

Just like my last one it took about 5 days and I was glad to get the last one on!

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Undercarriage and missiles on.

 

 

I have since replaced the damaged roundel under the port wing - ruddy CA on my fingers I suspect. As the designation implies, the FG.I was used both as a fighter and a ground attack machine, but 43 Squadron were tasked with the defence of UK airspace so normally the would only carry air to air stores. The kit comes with 4 each Sparrows and Sidewinders, possibly AIM-7E and AIM-9D, though sources are a bit vague. From 1978 onwards the AIM-7's were gradually replaced with the modified Skyflash which was essentially a Sparrow with a new and improved seeker head, though later versions included more changes including to the finlets, and from about 1982 the AIM-9L version of the Sidewinder became available. The RAF also sometimes fitted a SUU-23/A 20mm gun pod on the centreline and Airfix include one in their RAF boxing. I could have fitted one from my Hasegawa weapons sets but would have had to scratch build a suitable pylon, and I am unclear how they were painted on RAF machines so I did not bother.  Just for a change I left off the large central drop tank.

 

Here is another view.

 

 

 

And now one with all the bits on.

 

 

So, it just needs a coat of varnish to finish it off.

 

Pete

Edited October 9 by PeterB

[Jabba]

On 06/10/2025 at 19:59, PeterB said:

Hi Jabba,

 

Looks like you are still using Imgur so unfortunately I can't see the pic you tried to post! If you have missed out on the news that it is no longer useable in the UK, you may find Pete's thread interesting - at the moment there is a red banner at the top of this and presumably other threads which will take you to it.

 

Pete

 

Pete, now back in the living after been on my holiday for the past 2 weeks. This thing with Imgur blew up just as I went away, so I have been unable to anything about the photo storage host. Been able to add some replies to peoples projects, but that is it. Hopefully over the next day or so I will sort out a new host and from what I have read Hobby Photo Host is the way to go. This thing with VPN I do not understand so I will go with the easier option. Strange thing is that in another of my modelling threads the photos are still there.

 

A very good job with getting the decals done, plus adding the armament and U/C. I have also just found a photo of XV579 (R) with a chequered rudder in one of my books whilst landing at RAF Mildenhall in 1976. I will give more details later, but I am that your model covers them.