A 'Treble-One' Squadron FGR2

[dasmithers]

Like many others, I'll be contributing one of these to this particular party :

 

 

 

The Phantom has to one of the meanest looking beasts of a cold-war jet, so I've been wanting to build one for quite a while now.

 

To my mind, the British Phantom looks best in RAF grey & green camouflage when it was in front line service in the 1970's, so that's going to be my choice of colour scheme for this build. Specifically as XV406 whilst in service with Squadron 111 (the treble-ones), inspired in large part by the fantastic repaint job in progress on the original over at the Solway Aviation Museum. 

 

 

I was over there earlier today to collect a load of detail photos and be generally inspired. They are still in the process of completing the unit markings and have yet to get onto the stencilling ! 😁

 

The plane now supports the RWR box on top of the tail, which it acquired in the 1980's. Fortunately Airfix have supplied both tails in the box, so my build will be without it. 

Of course Phantom's look meanest when fully loaded, so I'll be adding as much as I can get on. To that end I've already bought a bunch of aftermarket goodies with that aim in mind. Not sure how much is going to be appropriate for this rendition, but will look for as many excuses as I can for a fully loaded Phantom.

 

 

 

The Xtradecal set has markings for a 1970's Sqn.111 Phantom - admittedly another plane (actually an FG.1), but I can use the Squadron markings from the set and a little bit of surgery on the numbers will yield the registration XV406 without too much difficulty. The only obvious missing items are the 'D' code in yellow/tan for the tail.

 

Marching up to the starting line and waiting impatiently for the gun now.

 

 

Andy

 

Edited August 23 by dasmithers
‘Treble’, not ‘Triple’-One

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello Andy .. Welcome to the build with my favorite Squadron, Treble one. 

[dasmithers]

Bit of a slow start to this one. Of course, it starts with the cockpit. Airfix have given us some nicely moulded seatbelts to the Martin Bakers, which is nice of them and would normally be welcomed. However, I have the Eduard cockpit set of etches for this build, so sadly the belts need to be surgically removed.

 

 

I’m still slowly working up the seats and cockpit, should have some some photos of those very soon.

 

After a week of fiddling with tiny pieces of PE I am feeling the need to start gluing bigger bits of plastic together.

 

Intakes together.

 

These show a bit of a seam deeper into them, so those are going to get some white Mr Surfacer applied. I don’t think it’ll require anywhere near as much effort as the intakes on the Vulcan, indeed the joint nearest the nose end - which will be most visible - doesn’t look particularly problematic. I’d like to get it right whilst I have the chance though.

 

Also to be sorted at an early stage is weighting the nose. Airfix don’t mention any need for this and several of the builds I’ve seen on these pages haven’t needed any either. But, like @Enzo the Magnificent I prefer not to take any chances in this department, so I’ve packed the nose with some Liquid Gravity, sealed in with Rocket ‘Hot’ CA. You’ll note some new plasticard bulkheads added to keep the little Liquid Gravity balls inside the radome until the glue sets..

 

Slow progress, but at least I’ve started.

 

Andy
 

[Jabba]

A nice start. I have made 3 Airfix Phantom and have not put weight into any of them and they sit on their nose wheels. But it is better to be safe than have a tail sitter.

[dasmithers]

Looks like we’re building the same kit, and to a similar scheme @Jabba. Going to be interesting to see the paths we take in this build. I’ll be watching yours with interest.

 

Andy

[dasmithers]

Injector seats are now complete, along with most of the cockpit. I’m liking the way this is turning out.
 

 

Next part of the job is installing the seats in t’pit. The front one put up a bit of a fight, I suspect that the bulkhead between pilot and navigator isn’t in quite the right place. With a bit of ‘careful’ surgery on the underside and back of the seat, it’s in. Leaving well alone for now whilst the glue sets.

 

Andy

 

[dasmithers]

Not a lot of time at the modelling bench over the past couple of weeks has meant slow progress, but at last I got the cockpit to a state where I felt it was ready to assemble into the fuselage. Of course, one of the downsides of slow progress is that I forget to put the throttle controls in place. They live sufficiently deep into the side of the cockpit that I now have no chance of fitting them retrospectively. On the plus side, given how tucked away from view they are, I’m hoping the omission won’t be too noticeable. There are a few other pieces to go in which I’m planning to leave until the build is more complete - the chances are high that I’ll subsequently forget about those too when the time comes.

 

 

 

I’ll be sticking the full cockpit canopy on with some PVA to protect the detail whilst I finish the build. I’m planning on an open cockpit at the end, the PVA should allow me to easily remove the closed canopy later. 
 

I’ve got a bit of a gap to sort out on the radome. I’m not blaming the kit for this, rather I think all my poking about filling it with weight has probably disturbed something - still it’s an easy thing to sort. I do like what Airfix have done with the fuselage spine though, proving a separate piece to avoid an awkward seam along the top. It was a bit of a snug fit and will need a little bit of fettling, but at least that’ll be along natural panel lines.

 

Before I can get the fuselage lower on I’ll need to complete the Reskit exhausts. A trial fit of those suggest they ought to be clipped into the upper body before the undersides are attached. I don’t think they’ll want to slide in afterward.

 

Andy

[Jabba]

Good work in getting the fuselage together. I too like that spine panel. It is strange though that when Airfix did this a few people said that it was not that good an idea, yet when Fine Molds did that same on their Phantom series these people then said what a good idea that it was.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Incredible work on the office. 

[dasmithers]

9 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Incredible work on the office

Thanks @Corsairfoxfouruncle, the Eduard set does make quite a difference to the office, although the visibility of some of it is less than I’d hoped for. The IPs for example are angled for the pilots to look at (of course) and presumably designed to be shielded from glare, so not so visible from above the cockpit. It does all add to the general air of busyness in the cockpit which is what I’d hoped for. I particularly like the way the ejector seats have come out.

 

Andy 

[dasmithers]

I've finally got the Reskit exhausts to a state of completion. They are lovely resin items and a vast improvement on the moulded items in the kit, but they have put up a bit of a fight. The fit of the various parts has been extremely snug to say the least, and being resin they are quite brittle so cannot be forced together. Then the PE sheets deep in them have been a real pain to fit. I ended up having to add some more support strips from fine plastic strip behind them and then using dollops of clear PVA to grab hold of the PE whilst I delicately put them into position. I made a real mess of the first one until I hit on this method, the saving grace being that they are quite tucked away, so hiding all trace of my butchery. I can see how it is intended to fit them, but I found the reality rather more challenging - being so light, the PE has a life of its own. 

 

 

and the completed items. On the whole, I'm more than pleased with the way they've come out. 

 

 

Next task is to fit them into the fuselage and close that up. 

 

Andy

[dasmithers]

Exhausts are in and the underbelly on. I pre-painted the metal blast panels under the tail before assembly, figuring that it might not be so easy once the exhausts were on. These were first brush painted with Ammo MiG metallic steel and gun metal, followed by some Vallego metallic jet and burnt exhaust colours. The Vallejo metallics are quite thin, so build up to a weathered finish nicely. I still want to apply a pin wash to pull out the rivets and panelling, but that can wait until later in the build.

 

 

Once I got it all together and was busy admiring my handiwork I realised I’d goofed up. The exhausts, although being cylindrical, do not in fact have circular symmetry. The inner plates which had caused me so much trouble earlier are asymmetric. Memory says that the Reskit bodies do in fact have TOP marked on them to ensure that they get installed with correct orientation, something I had completely forgotten about in my enthusiasm to get the fuselage together.

 

 

Whilst it’s blindly obvious when looking into the exhausts, the saving grace is that when it’s complete and in the display case this is not a view anyone else will have. I will know it’s there though - drat! Not much I can do about it now so I’ll have to move on.

 

With the wings and tail on, it is beginning to look plane-like at last.
 

 

I’m representing XV406 as she was during active service with Treble-One during the 1970’s - the phantom was a proper cold-war jet after all - so before the RWR box was fitted to her tail.

 

Andy

[Jabba]

Nice work on the "Black" end. It is coming together very well.

[dasmithers]

1 hour ago, Jabba said:

Nice work on the "Black" end. It is coming together very well.

Thanks @Jabba. I've reached a phase of sticking bits of plastic together and watching an aeroplane emerge - which I find very satisfying.

 

Andy

 

[dasmithers]

A small update - I’ve got the first two stencils done ! These live inside the intakes and turn out not to be too visible. They do need to be applied before the outsides of the intakes are fitted though.

 

 

Delaying fitting the outside pieces until after I’d fitted the wings was however a bit of a mistake. The snug fitting of parts in recent Airfix kits mean that the build order they give in their instructions is no mere suggestion, you mess with their order at your peril. They were a struggle to retro-fit and even after I persuaded them to clip into place there were some awkward gaps which were not meant to be there. I’m not blaming the kit for this, just my own incompetence in not being able to follow instructions. Cue a bout of filling, sanding and re-scribing to blend it back together again. 
 

Meanwhile, I’ve been prepping up the Reskit gun pod. I’d initially got a SUU 16 pod for this build, before deciding that a SUU 23 was more appropriate. With one of the latter back in stock in the Big H, it’s been bought and is a lovely piece of resin. A comparison with the kit offering shows how much finer resin can be over injection plastic. Parts have been dry fitted and the gap at the front is just that I haven’t dared push those two parts fully home yet as I need to separate them again to be able to paint the innards.

 

Fast reaching the paint shop stage now.

 

Andy

[dasmithers]

Two shades of grey. The underside has been painted with Humbrol 166, masked off (so not visible here) and the upper surfaces painted with Ammo-Migs version of BS638 Dark Sea Grey. 
 

 

Next up is a masking session for the green camo. Although XV406 uses different markings to those in the box, the camo is the same more or less. I’ve scanned Airfix’s painting guide, scaled it up by 6% and printed a copy - this is now the same size as the model, so with the aid of a light-box can transfer the camo markings onto sheets of Tamiya masking paper.

 

Andy

[dasmithers]

And now masked, 

 

 

Andy

[Jabba]

Looking very good. Yes the camo pattern was very similar from aircraft to aircraft.

[dasmithers]

And now in colour…

 

 

The Xtracylic rendition of BS241 looks a bit dark to me, but I think some weathering later will hopefully tone it down a bit.There is a bit of touch up needed first though.

 

Andy

 

[roy107]

Looking good Andy!

[Ray S]

I agree, this is looking very nice Andy. I like the way you did the camo masks, one for my memory bank if there is any room left inside my bonce. Good luck with the rest of the build

 

Ray

[dasmithers]

12 hours ago, roy107 said:

Looking good Andy!

 

11 hours ago, Ray S said:

I agree, this is looking very nice Andy. I like the way you did the camo masks, one for my memory bank if there is any room left inside my bonce. Good luck with the rest of the build

 

Ray

Cheers guys. Transferring the camo pattern from the painting guide to the actual model does involve a little bit of ‘interpretation’. It’s easy for flat surfaces like the wings, but does require a little bit of creativity for three dimensional structures like the fuselage. On the whole it works quite well though. I do have to work a bit at a time otherwise I tend to get lost in what goes where.
 

The supplied guide has the rudder as grey only, whereas the period photos of XV406 I’ve found show that the green continues across it. Also, Airfix for some strange reaso,n continues the demarcation between lower and upper colours across the intake splitter plates, whereas all the pictures I’ve seen show them to be the same colour over their full depth - this does make painting them easier.

 

Andy

[Jabba]

For the rudder, this may have been a replacement one which may have been only painted the Dk Sea Grey, waiting for a time period so that the Dk Green can be painted. I did notice this on my build and I am leaving it like that as per the story I have just said.

[dasmithers]

7 hours ago, Jabba said:

For the rudder, this may have been a replacement one which may have been only painted the Dk Sea Grey, waiting for a time period so that the Dk Green can be painted. I did notice this on my build and I am leaving it like that as per the story I have just said.

That sounds entirely plausible @Jabba and I'm sure is correct for the plane that Airfix have provided markings for. So, always worth checking your references if you have them, when modelling another airframe.

 

Andy

 

[dasmithers]

I don’t seem to have made much progress on this for a while - real life throwing enough distractions my way to leave much time to spend at the modelling bench. I have however finally started the decalling. The phantom had a quick coat of Humbrol gloss enamel varnish applied from a spray can, then onto the unit insignia. I’ve gone for enamel this time after using acrylic based varnishes on my last two builds, which then reacted with the micro-sol & set used to help the decals bed in, leaving a milky white finish it was tricky to remove. This time so far things seem to have worked. There are no sets of decals I could find for my chosen prototype - XV406 - but the Xtradecal sheet X72290 has sufficient of the right numbers and letters to extract the necessary serial numbers, plus of course the Treble-one squadron insignia.

 

 

 

I don’t know for sure where the underwing serials were placed on this plane during its service in the 1970’s. Underside shots of any plane are rare and you can’t see the undercarriage covers on ground based shots as the drop tanks obscure them (this would have given clues as to whether or not the serials overlapped them). I do know that she carried red, white & blue roundels underneath as the one photo I have found on-line has the outer wings slightly pointing up, so the underwing roundel can be seen.

 

Next up the stencilling - I’m going in, I may be some time….

 

Andy