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

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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I am getting close to wrapping up my Lowe and getting ready to start my next build which will be my first new tooled Airfix kit. After spending years avoiding Airfix i have been buying lost over the last few years so its way over due that i actually built one. This kit was realsed in the UK earlier this year and i have been really looking forward to working on it.

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

As well as some Eduard PE, resin wheels and metal pioto, i will be useing an Ark Royal carrier base from Costal kits and from F4 models a resin 1970’s RN deck tractor.

The one thing i am missing is figures. From what i can tell, no one has ever done 72nd RN deck crew, so i will probably take a couple of figures from the Fujimi USN deck crew set and hopefully they will work.

I hope to be starting on this in the next few days.

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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.

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Will be watching this for sure!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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I love that price!! Great deal.

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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.

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This looks like a great kit Bish, your doing a great job on her too.

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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! [:D]

Gary

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

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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

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

Looking good so far, Bish. [Y]

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

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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.

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She’s looking good Bish.

I’d be dreading those decals.

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Thanks redle. I am trying not to think of those at the moment [:(]

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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!

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

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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

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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