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Macky D, FGR2 Phantom


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Having enjoyed finishing my reclaimed Lightning recently, I just started on another old reclaim. I built this 16 years ago as an FGR2 of 1435 (Flaklands) Flt originally but set about stripping it down a couple of weeks ago.

Unlike my Lightning, stripping the paint of this one was hard work and almost every panel line has had to be rescribed, not to mention the rivet heads. Again quite limited to what I could do in the pit, because it's all assembled.

Started with the front coming and built a HUD unit (which stil needs to be finished) and added some cabelling. Then added cabeling behind the Navs seat and added some bits and pieces inside too (none of this gets seen when the seats are in :suicide:)

Lastly, I built up the Navs avionics set up as I noticed from reference images that the middle canopy section is fully occupied, and mine wasn't. A few pics.......

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Looking good so far

I did do a FGR2 But did the Blue version , I'm now wondering wether to re do it again

so I'll be taking notes on this

but I do have a question , how the hell to you re-do the circles on top of the fuselage ?

My main gripe with these hase kits is

they stick all that detail on top of the fuselage Knowing full well , its all going to dissapear once you start sanding to get rid of the seam line ,,

but looking forward to seeing more progress

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Nice work Gary, some interesting cockpit 'stuff' there which will be useful for reference.

I hope that we can see more as the rebuild progresses.

Thanks for sharing

Regards

Rich

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but I do have a question , how the hell to you re-do the circles on top of the fuselage ?

Not too difficult Sean - I have SAM's flexi metal rule thingy which has lotes of templates for squares and circles. I'm not there yet, but I'll use that with a needle to scribe them.

Sorry Bill - for every one I rework I easliy buy 20 new ones :speak_cool:

Not really sure what you mean Mike, but hazarding a guess I'd say no thanks :analintruder:

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Sorry Bill - for every one I rework I easliy buy 20 new ones :speak_cool:

Sounds 'bout right Gary!

If you have a quick butchers on ARC Galery under RAF F4's you'll see a "re-vamped" FG1 I did at least 4 or 5 years ago (with incedibly poor photo reproduction on my old Kodak 1.2 meg camara - hi tech (almost) in them days..NOT!)

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I've been scratching about for time in the evenings lately, but still managing to keep this ticking along. I've had to do quite a lot repairing on this one unlike my Lightning, so progress is a bit slower anyway.

The original model, had the RWR top of the tail, which had to come off because I'm modelling an early FGR2. The RWR put up a right old fight, and the result was an uneven break and quite a bit of the top of what was left, was all over the place - very nearly binned it at that point!

For effect, I decided to replace the 2 protruding tubes on the leading edge of the tail - cut away the old ones, drilled a couple of holes, and cut a needle up. Strange, I'm only going to cover most of these up anyway with RBF sleeves :wacko:

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Ready for pre shading next.

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More repair work was needed on the store attachment points as a result of removing them. I drilled out a couple of holes and dropped some styrene strips in instead - these will be cut down before I attach the tanks. I also added a couple of narrow strips of Tamiya tape to emphasise the seams on the Sgt Fletchers. Still visible signs of the driling on the hard points themselves, so I need to take care of these.

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Out of interest, where did you get the tubes of plasticard from? I'm getting a bit fed up with stretching sprue! Ingenious use of Tamiya tape as well ;)

Jake - Evergreen make lots of styrene/plastic sheets and also several shapes and sizes of the kind of materials that Model train enthusiasts use - track layout, that sort of thing.

Hannants supply it, but their range (in shop anyway) is quite small. Try your local Train hobby shop - guaranteed to have it. I have also seen it on Ebay, and there is an on-line store somewhere that offers it. It's really best to get into a shop though so you can see the large selection available.

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Cheers guys,

My local (well...not really local) does stock some sort of styrene but it's not rod or strip stuff. Almost like Train track lengths....pretty darn useless for an aircraft modeller.

I'll definately look into buying some of this stuff. When bending it, does it hold its shape? Or is it quite brittle. I'm thinking of using it for piping for my gear wells and cockpit bulkhead and need something which is easy to glue and paint.

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It's just like regular styrene... the thinner it is, the better it flexes. There is some memory in it when you bend it, but not that much, but the thinner stuff is plenty flexible to glue into odd shaped wheel bays. It sands & paints just like kit plastic too. The scratchbuilt cockpit on my Skyshark was mostly Evergreen rod of some sort or description.

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I'm thinking of using it for piping for my gear wells and cockpit bulkhead and need something which is easy to glue and paint.

Alternatively most hardware shops sell a small pack of fuse wire - usually the pack contains 3 different thicknesses of wire (5, 10 & 15 amp) The 15 amp is quite strong but pliable and is good for use in wheels wells and the like. The other 2 will come in handy somewhere too.

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I use lead wire that you can buy at fishing tackle shops - apparently, it's used to tie flies for fly fishing. It's malleable , easily cut, and comes in various widths from 1mm down to 0.3mm, IIRC

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Managed to get the top side pre shading done this afternoon - the underside is primed in white, and I'll give that a pre shade of mid Grey tomorrow hopefully.

Have now decided that she will represent a very early 6 squadron Toom - satin/gloss finish and those loverrrrly A type roundels.

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You may well be right main man - but I do want it fairly consistant and there are a friggin lot of panels on these older kites you know :unsure:

Nah, was just funnin' ya ;)

You should see the state of my pre-shading before I paint it... it looks like someone's rigged up an airbrush on a string over the model, jammed the trigger open & started it swinging! :shocked: Not to mention the splatters & wipe marks where I've overdone it... although with my new brush it should start to improve somewhat :)

It all comes out in the wash though... just keep laying down more of the top coat until the darkness is just a faint shadow in your mind's eye ;)

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Have now decided that she will represent a very early 6 squadron Toom - satin/gloss finish and those loverrrrly A type roundels.

Very much a wise choice - we need MORE toom Mud-shifters! AND Gary.....some Toom's in early Tacticackle Camo schemes often had WHITE Sergeant- Fletcher tanks; Tha knows.......... add a dash of brightness, with Blue Inert 1000lber's........Nice..........!!!!

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