Many years ago when my son was small, I tried to get him interested in modeling.
He was a big fan of the TV show Call of Duty, so when we went to the hobby store he picked out a Revell 1/48 scale Phantom as his favorite.
We built the Phantom together and I picked up a 1/32 (35?) Revell Apache which we built next.
Unfortunately that was as far as his modeling desires went. He was more of a game player / computer kid so I let the thoughts of him being a modeler go.
Fast forward 20 years or so and he’s very successful in a computer company and now is putting together small Lego kits to go on his fireplace mantle.
I recently got interested in putting together a few 1/144 kits and decided to pick up a Phantom kit and build it for him to put with his Lego kits.
I decided on the Heller kit for the decals after finding out that most of the 1/144 kits out there were the same molding with just different markings.
I got the kit in and I really liked it. A great little kit. I don’t know mucj about Phantoms and in this small scale, the small differences aren’t important to me.
The kit and contents -
The Decals on this kit are nice and pretty extensive for a 1/144 kit
The instruction sheet was a nice but also a bit humorous for me. It’s the first kit that I can recall that the kit itself is smaller than the diagram for the markings.
As in most kits build, I tend to paint as many small parts on the sprues as I can.
I also added a couple of crude seat belts on the seats. I almost got a set of Martin Baker seats from OzMods but I didn’t think they would be all that visible in this scale.
I used three different shades to get the exhaust effect on the nozzles and surfaces. I’ satisfied with how it came out after i buffed out the metalizer paint on the last coat.
Before buffing -
And after buffing. It looks OK to my untrained eye.
Some of the decals were a bit fiddely for me on this kit, mainly the gray stripe on top the fuselige that splits around the tail. For a 1/32 scale modeler like me, these little decals were a test to be sure.
Added gear and ordinance.
Seats installed before buttoning up the canopy.
Canopy installed. I took all these photos before the glue cured so it shows a bluish line.
I believe the canopy is wrong on this kit - at least it is compared to the canopy on the instruction sheet. I masked the raised lines on the canopy and didn’t worry about trying to correct it.
Last couple of pics of the phinished Phantom
This was a great little kit & really I enjoyed putting it together. If you just want to put a kit together and have fun - pick up one of these kits, they’re a blast.
I gave it to my son this past weekend and he put it on his fireplace mantle with his Lego kits right away.
Jimmy, it really is a tiny little bugger - it’s the second smallest model I’ve ever put together. The smallest is a Mini Hobby Mustang also in 1/144 that I’m still working on. It was suppose to be OOB but my AMS kicked in. I’ll be posting a few pics on it in the next couple of days I hope.
Eric, i think it’s a really cool kit also, so much so I went ahead and bought another off of ebay. Unfortunately, it’s missing a horizontal stabilizer so I’ll have to get yet another kit.
Darren, I did some checking on a number of 1/144 kits before I bought it and I found that all of the kits I checked are virtually the same. Minicraft, Academy, & Heller - same kit, different decals.
I went from building 1/32 aircraft to 1/144 aircraft borg and I gotta tell you, it was definitely a different experience .
One of the things I like about the 1/144 kits is that they are a quick, easy and enjoyable build.
I’m definitely going to do a few more n the coming months.
Again, thanks for looking in and all the comments.
I applaud your patience to deal with those little buggers. I picked my son up a little diecast phantom at Walmart. It appears to be about the same size…I’d send it into a wall at a scale speed of mach 10 because I’d be sure to mess something up!
You did a super job on that little kit.I have one in storage & hope I can do justice to it. If you’re interested in more 1/144 kits,check out Squadron.com for their monthly newsletter.They usually have a few 1/144 kits for sale,sometimes at very good prices.
