New 1/32 F-4K/M (FG.1/FGR.2) Phantom kit announced by HKM

[Dave Williams]

 Marconi RWR was retrofitted to both RN and RAF Phantoms in the mid-70’s.

[Chek]

Just while the subject of the unique UK Phantoms' Marconi fintop ARI 18228 RWR fairing has arisen, hopefully these photos found on Flickr can add another small helping of sometimes hard to find detail. It's off an FGR2 but FG1s had identical units.

 

 

Note that the normally raw, brownish fibreglass covers on the leading and trailing edges have been removed, and that access to the internals is via the removable access panels on the port side only. The red and white chequers indicate the Phantom was once on the strength of 56 Sqn.

 

 

 

 

[Luca]

wow thanks for the infos and the pics guys! definitely we do need a Royal Navy 892 Sqn bird, it's sooo much beautiful.

[Cees Broere]

Thanks for posting this, I have just scratchbuilt that fin top and was looking for access panel details. Very useful.

Cheers
Cees

[Shoggz]

Tease!

[Chek]

2 hours ago, Jennings Heilig said:

Just had some good news on the HK kit.  I'll post more when I get the okay.

 

That it's good news is good news in itself!

[PhantomPhixer 892]

Lets hope the HK kit is all it's cracked up to be as we have all been waiting a long time for it. If it is likely to be soon then I won't do the F4J conversion I had planned. Do we know which squadrons will be covered decal wise? Any idea on dates and price yet, so I can put some cash by ready.

[Out2gtcha]

This is all good news to me. It may or may not be perfect, like any model, but not unlike the Lanc, I have NO problem w/them taking their time, or even re-designing things that need to be to make things more accurate. 

To me, the exterior shapes are ALL important, and things like cockpits, decals, wheels ect, ect, to me are very  secondary when compared to getting the overall shape right. 

[Dave T]

On 2/24/2019 at 3:21 PM, Jennings Heilig said:

Just had some good news on the HK kit.  I'll post more when I get the okay.

 

 

they are finally gonna introduce a spares service ???

 

[ScottsGT]

As long as it is still on the radar, it's great news! 

I cannot imagine ANY ONE OF US is sitting around with our entire stash built and an empty bench just waiting on this release.

[Tony T]

 

Sort of wanting this to happen soon — ditto the tantalising TanModel Sea Flanker. But I appreciate how much the tooling costs even once the CAD is done. 

 

Tried 1/48 as stocking fillers but it's so unsatisfying next to 1/32. Fortunately for us paraffin heads the Kitty Hawk Mirage 2000C is imminent, and I have the Revell MiG-29UB in the stash which would make a fun what-if Transatlantic Alcock & Browne Centenary edition.  

 

Tony 

Edited March 6, 2019 by Tony T
twiddling with bits

[warriormcv]

Here's an interesting vid of abandoned/saved RAF Phantoms 

 

https://youtu.be/1ipgn1o2_3c

[warriormcv]

https://youtu.be/1ipgn1o2_3c

[Chek]

On 2/18/2019 at 9:57 PM, Chek said:

 

 Sorry Cees, I did make a start on this earlier, but had hoped someone else might have posted something better in the meantime.

 

Sadly, despite having a few thousand Spey Phantom pics, this is the most informative upper aux air door one I have.

 

It's also a great photo of the Royal Navy's No7 Mk.1 36 x 2 inch three-tier rocket pods (note definitely NOT SNEB pods) which will be a unique load for Brit Phantoms. RAF Phantoms often did carry 2 x SNEB 68mm two-tier 24 shot pods on their inner pylons, but the fibreglass construction made them unsafe for carrier ops, which is why Falkland War Harriers are seen with the RN metal rocket pods rather than the SNEB pods they routinely carried in Europe. Hopefully HKM will include at least six of these and all crisply moulded in their FAA boxings. In smaller scales they can be problematic to mould. But I digress... 

 

Apart from the fuselage frames and the red interior colour, there's not much else to see.

The manual provides a bit more detail with the door position switch and actuator and hydraulic line runs in the drawings, but little would be visible from most exterior viewing angles.

 

 

 

 

What would be more visible would be the upper body of the Spey engine, just where it goes into divergent mode before the afterburner chamber.

The blue lines on the pictures below represent units of visible exterior jet nozzle length, firstly on the airframe, and secondly on the engine itself.

The red arrowed line on the second photo indicates from where the visible aft portion of the jet nozzle starts, with aft to the right.

 

 

 

The third picture below shows the continuation of the engine body, but note that I've horizontally flipped it so that aft is on the right for the sake of continuity, and the pipework and accessories on the lower side are not necessarily a representation of what would be seen from underneath.

 

 

Given the high temperature environment, I doubt there's much more to see in there.

Hope that's of some help.

 

I extracted this from a recent video but despite that it's a good clear image of the other side of the aux air door from the inside.

 

[hanna]

On 3/5/2019 at 3:48 PM, Dave T said:

 

 

they are finally gonna introduce a spares service ???

 

I was told to pound sand. My DO 335 kit had a screwed up canopy. The sprue gate was half on the frame and rest was on the window for a real high quality look. Sent message to whoever appeared to be in charge and told they did not send a replacement. Told that they only made enough parts for number of kits. Great service. Mike Krizan.