McDonnell Douglas FG.1 Phantom A&AEE 25th Anniversary (Fujimi)

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January 5, 2022
The premium super ultra version of the old Fujimi kit.
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January 5, 2022
I hate white plastic. I'll have to paint it grey before I paint it white...
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January 5, 2022
I think every British Phantom phanatic has built this kit at least once.
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January 5, 2022
It's a fairly basic kit, with not a lot of parts.
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January 5, 2022
The premium version of the kit includes whitemetal gear legs (which I won't use), vinyl tyres (which I won't use) and a photoetch fret (which I will).
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January 5, 2022
And, most important, is the special radome used on the A&AEE bird. Fujimi provide both closed and open canopies.
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January 5, 2022
The Fujimi decal sheet is thick, and has that "Hasegawa" cream-coloured whites...
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January 5, 2022
...so I'll use the Xtradecal sheet.
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January 5, 2022
The CMK resin cockpit is designed for the Airfix kit, but I'll hammer it into submission.
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January 5, 2022
Very nice resin exhausts from Aires - a big improvement over what's in the kit.
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January 5, 2022
FOD covers from Quickboost are a lazy way of covering up the lack of intake trunks in the Fujimi kit. Resin tyres and wheels are from Res/Kit.
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January 5, 2022
The CMK cockpit fits with only a bit of sanding (the floor and the top of the nose gear).
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January 5, 2022
Some mods will be necessary on the instrument panels. Front coaming fits perfect!
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January 13, 2022
Cockpit ready for insertion into the fuselage. Seats will be removed until the end of the build.
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January 13, 2022
All side consoles hand painted.
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January 13, 2022
Instrument panels are film/photoetch and decals. Top half of front panel is part of the coaming and will be installed later.
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January 13, 2022
Harnesses and face curtain handles are photoetch that came with the CMK set (yellow/black stripes hand painted).
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January 16, 2022
A quick slice of the razor saw and the Phantom has no nose.
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January 16, 2022
The front wall of the nose gear bay needs to be sanded flush so it doesn't interfere with the resin cockpit.
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January 16, 2022
I added a spreader to keep the fuselage sides at the correct spacing prior to gluing on the lower front fuselage.
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January 16, 2022
The resin cockpit fits like a charm.
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January 16, 2022
Even though it was designed for the Airfix kit.
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January 16, 2022
I cut off a piece of the kit cockpit to fill in the spine and create the two slots for the canopy hinges.
24
January 16, 2022
I'll use this bit of photoetch to cover it up.
25
January 16, 2022
The fuselage is assembled and the unique A&AEE radome is attached. She looks like a Ghost Phantom.
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February 5, 2022
Resin exhaust will interfere with auxiliary intake bay, so I'll have to short the jet pipe.
27
February 5, 2022
Hey, that's more like it!
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February 5, 2022
Oxford Blue and Signal Red from MRP and White from GSI Creos. Decals in progress!
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February 7, 2022
Stickers are on!
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February 7, 2022
I really like this scheme, and the Xtradecal stickers work well on the Fujimi kit, even though they're designed for Airfix.
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February 17, 2022
A good view of the fancy FOD covers on XT597.
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February 17, 2022
I designed the FOD cover stripes in Corel Draw and printed out (a few too many) decals.
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February 17, 2022
The handles on the FOD covers came from the Island of Misfit Photoetch Bits (i.e. leftovers).
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February 17, 2022
She is finished and the FOD covers look pretty good in place. They hide inside of the Fujimi kit nicely!
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February 17, 2022
Raspberry Ripple time!
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February 17, 2022
It really is a striking scheme.
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February 17, 2022
The HUD was made from photoetch and film.
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February 17, 2022
Canopy latches (hooks) and rear view mirrors are all photoetch that came with the kit.
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022
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March 2, 2022

Comments

24 5 January 2022, 23:43

Patrick Hagelstein
Looking very promising! Always a pleasure to tag along during your builds, Bill. 🙂

5 January 2022, 23:50

Bill Gilman
Wow, you guys are quick. I hadn't even finished my captions yet! Yup, this should be a fun project. I've built this kit many times in the past and it goes together nicely. I love the Raspberry Ripple scheme and anniversary markings with all the country roundels. I've just about finished painting the cockpit and ejection seats, hope to have some photos up soon. Cheers, Bill

5 January 2022, 23:58

Patrick Hagelstein
I was surprised too to see no prior comments to this build. 😉

6 January 2022, 00:13

Bill Gilman
The cockpit is finished and ready for the fuselage, which should go together quickly now. The photoetch details that came with the CMK set are unusual - the harnesses seem a bit underscale and the face curtain handles a bit overscale. I guess it all averages out at the end of the day!

13 January 2022, 21:22

Maciej Bellos
Grabing a seat!

13 January 2022, 21:30

Bill Gilman
I've finished the assembly of the fuselage and am checking seams and panel lines prior to priming. Shouldn't be too long before we see some paint on this baby. Everything fit extremely well, and I've not used any filler at all (yet). There are a couple of spots that will need it but that's a far cry from my recent Privateer build. The Aires exhaust tubes are too long to use as they interfere with the open equipment bays on the sides of the rear fuselage. I'll have to shorten them considerably. The same thing happened with the exhaust tubes on my recent F/A-18C - I can only assume that Aires never actually tries to use their own products. What else could it be? Cheers, Bill

16 January 2022, 20:43

Bill Gilman
Raspberry ripple time! The red, white and blue paint scheme is on, and now it's time to add all those fancy markings.

5 February 2022, 00:39

Bill Gilman
Hi mates, the decals for the Phantom 25th Anniversary scheme as seen at the International Air Tattoo in 1983 are on the model. I really like this scheme, and I think the model came out pretty good (so far). Still lots to do, but the finish line is in sight. Cheers, Bill

7 February 2022, 15:58

Bill Gilman
The model is now finished, and I'm quite chuffed on how she turned out. I love this scheme, and have wanted to do it for some time now. The last bit of work was scratchbuilding the FOD covers (to hide the fact that the Fujimi kit has no intake trunking). Photoetch details were added for the HUD and the canopy mirrors and latches (hooks). I made a mistake and left the external mirror on the rear canopy on (XT597 did not have this). However, it's not too noticeable so I'm not going to worry about it.

So there she is - what a fun project. I'm leaving tomorrow for ten days floating around the Caribbean (it will be good to get away from the snow) and will be back on March 1st. I'll try to post more photos then. In the meantime, enjoy these few pix that I posted today. Cheers, Bill

17 February 2022, 00:26

Augie
Wow Bill, really nice work !

17 February 2022, 01:32

Neuling
Beautiful build!

17 February 2022, 10:13

Vincent
Great work on this scheme. It doesn't look easy to do.

17 February 2022, 10:37

István Szücs
I just love it!

17 February 2022, 10:38

Bill Gilman
Thanks mates! I appreciate the nice words. The scheme wasn't too hard to do, you just need to be careful with the paint demarcation. The kit decals were trash but the Xtradecal sheet was great.

18 February 2022, 19:20

Es-haq Khosravi
Excellent job!

18 February 2022, 20:08

Bill Gilman
More pix! Cheers, Bill

2 March 2022, 02:34

Album info

This is the first of two Commemorative British Phantoms, using the venerable Fujimi kit. Of course, several aftermarket items will be used to tart her up. Rather than use the kit decals I've opted for the Xtradecal sheet.

McDonnell Douglas FG.1 Phantom A&AEE

52 images

1:72

Completed

1:72 British Phantom FG.1 25th Anniversary (Fujimi 34001)

1:72 FG.1 British Phantom exhaust nozzles (Aires 7179)

1:72 McDonnell-Douglas FG.1 Phantom (Xtradecal X72296)

McDonnell Douglas FG.1 Phantom II

Royal Air Force (1918-now)
Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) XT597
July 1983 Royal International Air Tattoo - Greenham Common AB
FS17875 BS381C:537 BS381C:110 25th Anniversary

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