1/48 FG.1 & FGR.2

[fu_manchu]

Hello

Time for my entries, appear to be in the majority here at the mo, in that I will be building the British versions...

This is my first entry in a Britmodeller Group Build. As originally intended it is going to be a Phantom FG.1 of the Royal Navy, using the Hasegawa 1/48 kit. However, I have also managed to obtain a reasonably priced (£23!) Revell rebox of the Hasegawa FGR.2 at Newmod this year. Therefore, this will also be my first attempt at a parallel build to see if I can get two built in the time. I am aiming for 3 months for these as my current work contract ends then so I will likely be travelling more with less time for modelling

I will be using some aftermarket on the kits, so the breakdown is as follows:

1/48 Hasegawa FG.1; Dmold Seamless Intakes, Aires Cockpit, Two Mikes Wheels - Markings to be determined

1/48 Hasegawa FGR.2; Aires Cockpit, Two Mikes Wheels, Two Mikes Intake Covers, Eduard AIM-9L (when they are released) - Markings to be determined, but it will be a later Barley Grey aircraft

The FG.1 will only be built with tanks, the FGR.2 will be fully loaded with tanks, gun pod, Skyflash and AIM-9L's.

No box shot of the FGR.2 as I binned the Revell box before I considered taking a pic. So this is where we are to start with:

Step 1, preparing the parts.

Going to be spending the first couple of days preparing the parts, getting the Intakes and Aires pits to fit (hopefully) and generally as much as possible done before glueing and painting. I find this way I am less likely to rush some of the smaller parts at the end.

The kits seem nice, but the plastic seems very hard/brittle. But this may just be me because the last two kits I have done have been a vac form and an Airfix Bucc, both very soft plastic.

Fitting the Demold intakes:

All went ok, nothing too tricky and the join looks pretty promising. The splitters are a bit disappointing, with lots of air bubbles, so it looks like I will be using the kit parts.

Hopefully some updates regarding the pit in a couple of days.

ian

Edited July 19, 2011 by fu_manchu

[fu_manchu]

Hello again

Onto the pits!

Initial assessment indicated they wouldn't be too bad to get fitted, the last Aires pit I did was on a Tomcat, and that wasn't great, especially as I was trying to leave the inset for the step on the fuselage, so I spent some free time today making them up and painting them. The fit really wasn't that bad, it looks like I took a bit too much off the sidewalls at the rear as I hadn't allowed for the pit curving in more there. But other than that it went ok. I left off painting and fitting the top part of the coaming as this will probably get mucked up during the filling once joined.

Rough fitting of the FGR.2 pit, I have fitted some slivers of plasticard to pack out where I took too much plastic off so that the canopy support rod is central in the fuselage:

The FG.1 pit, again some packing required. The fuselage isn't pulled flush, when it is the gaps disappear:

if anyone is interested you can see a side profile of my pit fitted to see where you will need to ensure you leave clearance for the wheel bay. One of the pits I overdid it a bit in that I thinned the whole base until I realised that it only touches at one point:

Looking at the gear, I'm not sure they will be that strong, as all the gear assemblies seem fairly flimsy, I can replace the FGR.2 for metal, but it doesn't appear that you can get replacement FG.1 gear. However, as I don't display my models on their gear (no room, they just get put into storage) I will store them supported off the gear, so they will only take any load at model shows, so it should all be ok.

I have decided my markings, for the FG.1 it will be an early 892 sqn aircraft, prior to getting the RWA on the tail tip

The markings for the FGR.2 will be 52 sqn, as I might end up with a bit of a theme, having already built a lightning with this squadrons markings.

Next step fitting the pitting and joining the fuselage together.

Ian

[c.smith10]

nice start there,your cockpits put mine to shame

[fu_manchu]

Hello

I have to say, having never built a Phantom before, it is a bit smaller than I figured it would be, after building a 1/48 Tomcat these seems quite small, which is a good thing, i guess, from a storage perspective! The kit also seems fairly simple, once the fuselage halves and the wings are on, it should go pretty quickly.

My next step was to build the fuselage 'halves' adding any components that I think would be easier to do whilst the fuselage sides are still apart. On this kit, that seems to be the intakes, the nose cone halves and the refueling probe covers. Annoyingly one of them was missing the front half, not sure why, I quickly made up a replacement from plasticard and will fill and sand it once the fuselage halves are joined. I have also added the nose weight, which I hope is enough. These are held in place with white glue:

For the FG.1 this has also meant painting the blades on the seamless intakes and once fitted supergluing and epoxying the resin intakes in place, no pictures, but it isn't very exciting and the fit seems to have gone quite well. I have also attempted to mask the demarcation line on the intakes but it wasn't the easiest job, will have to see how well it turns out…

I have also tacked the wings together and fitting the little triangle parts to the underside, I wouldn't want to do that after the wings are on in case they got pushed in too far during the process.

Next step will be to join the halves.

Ian

[Peter W]

Ian,

They're both taking shape but a few things that seem awry, the cockpits look too far forward. I'm sure that the step at the back of the cockpit needs removing from the kit fusealge halves, that will then bring the raised section of the resin sidewalls in line with the kits corresponding part. I'm probably not being very clear but I hope you can understand what I mean.

I have also never needed to add any weight to a Hasegawa Phantom and especially with a resin pit.

Great work on the intakes though and I know what you mean about pitting in the Intake Splitters, mine suffered the same but a little super glue filling soon sorts them out and they do look better than the kit parts.

Hope you're having fun with it though as that's the main aim.

Regards

Pete

[pte1643]

I'm sure that the step at the back of the cockpit needs removing from the kit fusealge halves, that will then bring the raised section of the resin sidewalls in line with the kits corresponding part.

Jeepers... I'm glad you said that... I just been crying in my tea, coz I took them off mine and saw this and panicked.

[Calum]

Have a look at my build of a FGR 2 here

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=57691

I agonised over the position of the cockpit as well. But eventually found enough info to get it in the right spot

finished build

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=67039

Edited June 1, 2011 by Calum

[fu_manchu]

Cheers for that, I was clearly having a Brain Fart when I dry fitted it :shithappens: . I even looked at the two cockpit ram holes at that back without considering the implications. Now adjusted, and hopefully the fuselage will all be together by tomorrow morning.

Ian

[Rich F]

Hi Ian, pits looking good yep I know all about the Aires pit for the F-4, instructions not very clear are they, unfortunately I had already glued my pit in place before it was pointed out to me than it was in the wrong place.

Edited June 1, 2011 by Rich F

[Peter W]

Ian,

I'm just glad that you hadn't got too far with it, I'd have felt awful telling you if it was too late.

I remember fitting one into an FGR.2 and spending ages trying to work out where to cut. Aires really would benefit us modellers by giving us a clue with some of their sets.

It should allow you to remove some of the extra plasticard that you put in as well.

Good luck with the rest.

Pete

[fu_manchu]

That's fine; swings and roundabouts with posting a blog I guess, feel a T**t for making the mistake, but at least it got fixed before it was an absolute nightmare. And yes, the plasticard is now removed

Cheers

Ian

Ian,

I'm just glad that you hadn't got too far with it, I'd have felt awful telling you if it was too late.

I remember fitting one into an FGR.2 and spending ages trying to work out where to cut. Aires really would benefit us modellers by giving us a clue with some of their sets.

It should allow you to remove some of the extra plasticard that you put in as well.

Good luck with the rest.

Pete

[fu_manchu]

Bummer, but we are not alone, I had bookmarked at least one other building and looking at it in detail last night, you can also see that they didn't cut the back off either.

Hi Ian, pits looking good yep I know all about the Aires pit for the F-4, instructions not very clear are they, unfortunately I had already glued my pit in place before it was pointed out to me than it was in the wrong place.

[kspriss]

oooo, these are looking fine

steve

[fu_manchu]

Hello again

Had a fair bit of modelling time over the last few days so made quite a bit of progress. Firstly, I addressed my Brain Fart whereby I failed to cut the fuselage back far enough to fit the cockpit, no major issues as it was a fairly quick fix. Thanks to Peter for spotting this before it got too serious….

I then fitting the pit into the fuselage with a combination of Epoxy and superglue to pull the sidewalls to the fuselage.

Once I was happy with it all I taped and glues the fuselage together and left for an hour to dry before final manipulation of the the parts to ensure they lined up as best as possible.

I did the final adjustments on the cockpit coaming and superglued it into place. I then applied a little Tamiya White filler to blend the joins between the resin pit and the fuselage, cleaning it off with Cellulose thinner and touched up paintwork.

I then attached some of the final 'firmly fixed' parts to the fuselages; the rear canopy to fuselage piece, the tail tips, the parachute housing and the antenna on the side of the FGR.2 tail and then the wings.

The join for the wings is fairly good, although the D-Mold intakes were initially stopping one set from fitting nicely, a couple of adjustments and it is more acceptable. It looks quite a complex joint to fill. The wing joint at the rear wasn't great so some filling, sanding was done, some rescribing will later be required to restore the panel line. I found that the starboard side join for the engines is worse than the port on both kits,

it required a lot more filler to be able to shape a nice curve at the joint. The join underneath is also quite complex and will require some significant rescribing.

I then proceeded to do a little fine filling of the fuselage joins and the wing roots using a combination of Tamiya White for acute joints and my favourite filler for seams of Superglue and Talcum powder, including the repair for the refuelling probe. In the main it is all going ok, the intakes were a little proud in places, but a quick swipe or two with a sanding stick seems to have sorted that, mostly the rivets and panel lines are still visible so will be fairly easy to re-scribe back in.

Some overall pictures:

I have also built up the fuel tanks and gun pod and (hopefully) filled the seam lines

All the other parts are also progressing:

The glass is also drying from their coat in Klear.

Looking at the fit of the exhausts, I may well end up fitting and filling them before painting, which will leave a better joint but more work to mask etc.

Next step is to finish work on the cockpits, including the seats and the canopy interiors, that is probably about a weeks work for me,

Ian

[Peter W]

Nice save Ian, looks a whole lot better and some good progress made. The bottom wing joint is really a horrid one isn't it, no substitute but some heavy sanding and scribing.

Good luck with the rest of the build.

Pete

[fu_manchu]

Hello

Minor update today; first I have started priming the small parts, mostly to check the filling I have done on the sink marks and also the seams on the tanks etc:

I have also primed the PE parts that will go inside the canopies, later i will be painting and adding these pieces

The PE seatbelts are fitted and the seats have had their coat of primer, they dont look too bad, but I didn't enjoy the FGR.2 ones at all, much prefer all resin seats!

FGR.2 Seats:

FG.1 Seats:

Finally for today, the canopy glass is masked up:

Cheers

Ian

[fu_manchu]

Minor Updates this time

Firstly, the seats painted up, just a couple more touch ups to do on these but that can happen in the coming month or so:

I then fitted all the PE inside the canopies and fitted the front and central canopy parts to the frame. I haven't fitted the inside of the periscope on the FGR.2 yet as it will get in the way of the masking tape:

Once done, I masked the pits and gave them their first coat of primer. Spent my modelling time on Saturday correcting errors in my seam filling etc. Mostly went ok, the spine of the fuselage took a couple of touch ups. Sadly the D-Mold intakes were completely mottled with tiny bubbles where the detail was, it wasn't noticeable when I built it, but the primer showed them all up. A couple of coats of Mr Surfacer has sorted it, but it will mean all the detail will need re-adding. This is where I am now. Both kits fully primed and ready for marking up for scribing:

Ian

[fu_manchu]

Update time!

I have been working on this, but at a phase of the builds where lots of time required for seemingly little progress

Firstly my Eduard sidewinders arrived, very nice product. The fins are very thin and the attachment to the pouring plug makes getting it off without damaging the fins tricky. I have painted them up along with the sparrow/skyflash to hopefully resemble the latter:

My Two Mike Resin intake covers and resin wheels also showed up, so these were cleaned up and painted along with all the other small parts, very time consuming!

I also started the base coats, firstly the bottom coats on both planes and associated small parts, so now all small parts have at least one half painted:

Bottom of the FGR.2:

Bottom of FG.1 (not the best photo of the white), I certainly don't get on with spraying white, it has come out relatively well and at least it is all done for this kit.

Hopefully over the next few days they will both be fully painted so I can move on to decalling.

ian

[zero]

Stunning work mate, I did thing about building two side by side, but I just got probem after problem (not working with new kits, but left overs and rejects, so I'll do them one at a time and come back to multiple builds in time.

Weapons look awsome, as does the cockpit.

Dave

[Calum]

Looking really good there

[fu_manchu]

Cheers guys, fatal last words with regards to having finished the white... I have painted the main colours now, but on de-masking the white (and the red tail), it seems the tape has imprinted itself on the (apparently) still soft paint. This is despite me leaving both to dry for 3 days in the airing cupboard before doing so, :shithappens: So just in the process of gently cutting back the red and white, respraying and touching up. Hopefully this will all be done by Monday and I will put some more pics on then.

Ian

[fu_manchu]

Some progress again!

Finished all of the painting (baring any touch-ups). As mentioned, had some issues when de-masking the white and red which has required some touching up, but seem to mostly be there now. I will be leaving them for a day or so before applying some Klear and then applying decals. I have already applied Klear to all of the small parts.

The FG.1:

The FGR.2:

Ian

[pte1643]

Lovely.

Might I ask what paint you use for the FGR2 Please? (make and codes)

EDIT: To Clarify...

Just the Greys I mean... L.A.G., M.S.G., and Barley.

Edited July 4, 2011 by pte1643

[ZX10RDavid]

WAtching with interest ,as I have a couple of Brit Phantoms in the loft to be built

David

[fu_manchu]

No probs, they are all Humbrol Enamels, which seemed the easiest access way of obtaining the colours:

These are the 'official' matches from their range

LAG - 166

MSG - 165

BG - 167

The nose is BG mixed to the eye with Humbrol 103

They are post shaded with added Humbrol white and black

Regards

Ian

Lovely.

Might I ask what paint you use for the FGR2 Please? (make and codes)

EDIT: To Clarify...

Just the Greys I mean... L.A.G., M.S.G., and Barley.