Airfix 1/72nd Phantom FG.1 Completed (ish) page 3

I'll be following for sure.

My Wife wants me to build an F-4 and this scale looks less intimidating, so I am anxious to see how this one builds in you capable hands.

Will be watching this for sure! 

As an F4 lover I will be watching this one. I’ve been wanting to get this kit for a while. I do have the 1/48 Hasegawa FGR2 in the stash.

Jay, get any of the Academy 1/48 F4s. They are a pleasure to build, better than Hasegawa and have a ton of weapons and outstanding decals. The only am parts I would add would be resin seats otherwise it’s an exceptional kit.

Thanks Ernie for the heads up, I am a fan of Academy for sure, but Bobby has an MPC he's bringing to the show for me for free.   and that's a better price than I could get even at the show.

I know the F-4 is a big chunk of aircraft. They used to have an FGR.2 on static display outside the terminal at Mount Pleasant on the Falklands.

Airfix are due to release an FGR.2 next month and i can deffinetly see them following this with none UK versions. Would be silly not to make the most of the molds and get more sales from the none UK market. They certainly made the most of the Harrier, i can see the Phantom getting the same treatment.

Jay Jay

Thanks Ernie for the heads up, I am a fan of Academy for sure, but Bobby has an MPC he's bringing to the show for me for free.   and that's a better price than I could get even at the show.

 

I love that price!! Great deal.

I seemed to have jumped the gun a tad but i did finally get started last Sunday. But before the build pics, a couple to show anyone who may be thinking about getting this kit of what they have to look forward to. You can see from the decals that the kit does include one or two stencils.

But no problem, there is a nice handy location guide.

Easy peasy.

Now for the build, pit first of course. Pit is not bad OOB, with decals for instrument panels. But of course i had to enhance it with some Eduard PE. Unfortunatly i neglected to take builds while putting it together. But one nice feature is that each seat is in 3 parts, one of which is the cushions so these can be painted seperatly before fitting them into the seat.

Also got the air intakes installed into the fuselage halves. One nice touch is the length of the intakes.

The intake pipes are each made up of 2 pieces with a 3rd being fitted to the outside after the pipes are in. You can see that this pieces joins at some very fine recessed rivet detail. To that end i added this parts earlier than the instructions indicate so i could apply the glue to the inside.

With the cockpit fitted i got the fuselage halves together and these joined up well. But you can see that the fuselage halves do not join up along the top, instead there is a seperate piece which fits in there, i am woundering if this indicates other variants to follow. But the fit of this part was not perfect, it did need to clamping.

And inside with the induction fans, which here has come away on one side and was fixed after, along the the internal part of the exhausts.

And then to fited the lower portion of the fuselage which includes part of the lower wings. Again, there were fit issues. I always worry when i have a problem with fit woundering if its somthing i have done or the kit, especially when i can't find anyone else with the same issue.But after checking a checking i could see what was stopping the lower portion going into place at the front and this needed clamping as well.

There is a slight step where the lower setion joins just behind the intakes, i thought i had a close up but seem to have deleated it. Again, not sure what the issue is. There is some engraved detail tehre and its not huge, and it is underneath, so i plan to do a bit of sanding without removing the detail and trying not to creat a curve.

Thats it for now. A bit of sanding and seam sorting to follow.

My goodness, Bish!  It looks good so far, but you obviously don't have to paint it as it will be completely covered by decals! 

Gary

Wow, that pit is very nice. Hard to believe it's 1/72.

Hello Bish!

Looks like you're doing all right! Phantom sure does have a complicated geometry, so far nobody came up with the perfect partition of it to make a kit, as it seems...

I hava a question: in the designation of the British Phantom, what does the G stand for? Is it ground attack?

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Glad you're doing an WIP of this to keep me entertained, thanks.

Looking good so far, Bish.

Why have you avoided Airfix? I've been wanting to try my first one for a couple of years now.

Cheers for looking in and commenting guys.

Pawel, yes, the G stands for Ground Attack, but it seems the system has changed over time as GA iwas also used for Ground Attack. buit was changed to just G. Wiki has a good list.

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

Greg, i have been avoiding Airfix for a number of years, i suppose i was getting used to high detailed kits. But since they were bought out by Hornby in 2006 they seem to have had a re-birth and after reading a number of reviews on different kits i started buying them and have built up quite a selection. I have just been waiting for the right chance to build one. Certainly a vast improvment over the kits i grew up with in the 80's.

gary, ye, your not wrong. makes the canberra i did last year look like a piece of cake.

Phil, also hard to believe its Airfix, i am certainly impressed with the detail, the fit issues are a very slight down side but nothing that can't be over come.

She's looking good Bish.  

I'd be dreading those decals.    

Thanks redle. I am trying not to think of those at the moment

That is looking so good Bish! That little fella packs a lot of detail. That pit looks awesome.

Hey I went to a local model show today and as I was about to leave one of the vendors spotted my Phantom T Shirt and asked me if I wanted to buy his FG.1 kit. He had a hasegawa 1/48 (kit #09331) FG1 brand new and sealed for....................$10!! Man I grabbed it so fast that you never saw my arms move! 

Thanks for filling me in on various things Airfix, per my question, Bish.

Bish

I did notice somthing on ther box i have never seen before that i found interesting. Official licence from Boeing.

Unfortunately, we've been seeing that little tag on a lot of kits here in the USA for years now. Boeing has to get their share of the money, too. Which, I guess, is only fair, as it is their copyrighted, proprietary designs that are being copied for use my the modeling comanies. So far, and I know I'm probably wrong about this, I've only seen Boeing licensing stickers on models. I can't recall seeing any other companys' sticker on a kit. Anybody else ever see another company's licensing sticker on a kit?

Looking forward to seeing your completed Phantom, Bish! Don't forget to apply the decal with the official license to the Phantom.......... heeheeheeheehee!

Gary Mason

Devil Dawg

Unfortunately, we've been seeing that little tag on a lot of kits here in the USA for years now. Boeing has to get their share of the money, too. Which, I guess, is only fair, as it is their copyrighted, proprietary designs that are being copied for use my the modeling comanies. So far, and I know I'm probably wrong about this, I've only seen Boeing licensing stickers on models. I can't recall seeing any other companys' sticker on a kit. Anybody else ever see another company's licensing sticker on a kit?

You ever wonder if the manufacturers that supplied all these parts that Boeing slapped together to make this aircraft get a cut of those royalties?

Gary

plasticjunkie

That is looking so good Bish! That little fella packs a lot of detail. That pit looks awesome.

Hey I went to a local model show today and as I was about to leave one of the vendors spotted my Phantom T Shirt and asked me if I wanted to buy his FG.1 kit. He had a hasegawa 1/48 (kit #09331) FG1 brand new and sealed for....................$10!! Man I grabbed it so fast that you never saw my arms move! 

 

Cheers PJ, ye, there is a lot there, its a good sized box and its pretty crammed.

I saw your post of the little haul. Maybe i should start walking round with a 251 or Stuka T-Shirt

Greg

Thanks for filling me in on various things Airfix, per my question, Bish.

 

Your welcomew Greg, and if your interested, i plan on running an Airfix GB next year to mark 80 years since the company was formed. A good excuse for me to build a few more and make up for all these years i haven't built any.

Devil Dawg

 

 

Bish

I did notice somthing on ther box i have never seen before that i found interesting. Official licence from Boeing.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, we've been seeing that little tag on a lot of kits here in the USA for years now. Boeing has to get their share of the money, too. Which, I guess, is only fair, as it is their copyrighted, proprietary designs that are being copied for use my the modeling comanies. So far, and I know I'm probably wrong about this, I've only seen Boeing licensing stickers on models. I can't recall seeing any other companys' sticker on a kit. Anybody else ever see another company's licensing sticker on a kit?

Looking forward to seeing your completed Phantom, Bish! Don't forget to apply the decal with the official license to the Phantom.......... heeheeheeheehee!

Gary Mason

 

 

 

So this is somthing your used to. I have not noticed it before, i do have an F-15 kit in the stash, i will have to check that now. Though thats an older hase kit so it might pre date this. Its not somthing i have ever noticed.

And ye, i will have to check the decal sheet for that, wouldn't want Boeing chaseing me for copyright infringment.

GAF

 

 

Devil Dawg

Unfortunately, we've been seeing that little tag on a lot of kits here in the USA for years now. Boeing has to get their share of the money, too. Which, I guess, is only fair, as it is their copyrighted, proprietary designs that are being copied for use my the modeling comanies. So far, and I know I'm probably wrong about this, I've only seen Boeing licensing stickers on models. I can't recall seeing any other companys' sticker on a kit. Anybody else ever see another company's licensing sticker on a kit?

 

 

 

You ever wonder if the manufacturers that supplied all these parts that Boeing slapped together to make this aircraft get a cut of those royalties?

Gary

 

Thats a good point. Wounder if those ejection seats are copyrighted.

For those who may be interested, a review of this kit is now up on the site and will be in next months mag. I am glad to see he did somthing i neglected. Paiting the inside of the air intake dark grey before putting it together will be a lot easier than trying to mask in there after assembly.

Guys, i am looking for some advice here. Does anyone have any suggestions for the colours to use for the bare metal areas at the rear of the Phantom. There appear to be 2 shades from what i can tell.

Airfix suggest silver and gun metal, but of course they are stuck to useing Humbrol colours. I did some looking and found some people suggesting titanium, but not sure if thats the lighter or darker area.

I would mainly use Alclad for bare metal but am open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

I used a variety of colors from Alclad and AK Extreme Metal. For the darker areas I used Alclad steel and the lower nmf subject to the afterburner heat I banded burnt metal and clear blue for the heat descoloration. The top areas got AK Extreme Metal Aluminum and picked off panels with duraluminium.

Colors are approximate and differed from each aircraft depending on weathering, etc.

I took a couple of quick shots of one of my Phantoms :

I thought you would now this PJ, thats just the look i am going for. I have the nessacery Alclad colours,so that won't be a problem.

Cheers PJ.

From the pictures I have seen no two Phantoms have the same nmf effects so one is pretty open to variation on this. The center panel on the elevators appears as darker on most mictures and the larger panels look much lighter. Those afterburners and the smoke stains on that metal really did a number in that area. I have even seen pictures of Nam era F-4's having staining on the lower part of the elevators from the turbine smoke. 

The F-4's were also nicknamed by their pilots Old Smokey for that reason.