RAF FG.1 XV571 WILD HARE Phantom Conversion

[Anthony in NZ]

8 minutes ago, IainM said:

She is looking really marvelous @Anthony in NZ Your methodology to getting those shapes correct is really interesting to watch!!! I might have given up a long time ago!

I'll hopefully be starting up soon again - just bought and moved here to Goon - most of the essential items and wife's wish-list sorted out, now I can eventually get around to sorting out the bench.....

See you around!

Thanks buddy!

LOL, I should change my settings on my profile as that's where I live too!

[Greg W]

Ok, a little aviation fine art by Antonis Karidis for inspiration.  

 

 

Ohoooo, can you feel the mojo flowing? Ha!

 

Never mind me... just excited about probably the best Tamiya Phantom build EVER!

 

Heres to another round of awe inspiring modeling, 

 

Later

[AlbertD]

She's looking sooooo good. Coming back after a few months and seeing your build just seems right.

[Anthony in NZ]

9 hours ago, Greg W said:

Ok, a little aviation fine art by Antonis Karidis for inspiration.  

 

 

Ohoooo, can you feel the mojo flowing? Ha!

 

Never mind me... just excited about probably the best Tamiya Phantom build EVER!

 

Heres to another round of awe inspiring modeling, 

 

Later

Oooh LOVE that painting!  Great inspiration, thanks! I do like the RN scheme...

 

4 hours ago, AlbertD said:

She's looking sooooo good. Coming back after a few months and seeing your build just seems right.

Great to see you again Al, This has been a long road hasnt it....

 

 

PHEW!  That was close, I nearly fell off the wagon and went back to the 24th Mossie! Lol

 

Here's the scheme I am planning.  I am not a big fan of Anniversary schemes (the odd one I do like) but the overall grey is a little drab too.  So XV571 at this point in her career is the scheme I am planning.  The big black and white checkers down the spine got painted over but it left a little interest with a different tone of grey, I like the checkered fin and dont mind the black around the canopy left over.  But also by now she had the 'Cock' painted on the nose (both sides I believe) and the paint was getting tatty in places.  You can see the streaking and blotchy finish and where crew walked over her.  You can just make out the lower section of main gear doors and they look oil streaked too.  I will need to 'bang up' the fuel tanks and note the rear section is a replacement from another tank.  But I am going to have to be REALLY careful how I paint this or it will look awful.

 

Photo credit is via Rick Godden, but I cant remember who he got it from....sorry.  I will ammend as soon as I go through our emails and figure it out.

 

I'm working on the lower wing at the moment as there is a bit of bashery still to go and I dont want to be wrestling with it with the cockpit in...oh yeah...cockpit, must get onto that.

 

Actually the BAPG got back to me last week with some great images of the rear cockpit of FG.1 Black Mike, who served alongside XV571 with 43 Squadron. So I am running out of excuses!

 

Cheers

Anthony

 

 

[seiran01]

That’s a great choice of paint scheme, I’ve not seen her with the spine painted over. Also I never noticed the fin flash on the tail sits atop the checkers and follows the same angles - very interesting!
 

Combined with all the subtle and not-so-subtle weathering, you’ve got a stunning bird on your hands, and that’s before you even start to appreciate the billions of hours of extra effort you’re putting into the build itself. 

 

 

[Anthony in NZ]

On 10/13/2021 at 3:43 PM, KiwiZac said:

I can't believe I've only commented on BM and not here. Be aware I read your updates on both sites Ant, and I thoroughly enjoy them. You're mad and it's not at all a project I have any interest in replicating, but it is so fascinating and exciting to see what you - and Kerry, for that matter - have been coming out with.

 

Also looking through past Classic Fighters photos I realise we are well overdue for a catchup!

Hi Zac, yes mate we do need to catch up!  I will keep you updated on seeing the P-51, with our new COVID cases here things are a little uncertain again

 

As far as the cockpit goes I think I now have enough to make a start properly, although I am going to wait and see what the Quinta Studio 'J' cockpit looks like when it comes out shortly.  I think I can use much of it.

 

I have to confess here at this point that whilst the upper fuselage was going well and the shapes are sorted etc, the lower fuse was an issue I tried to ignore...thinking it would just 'fix itself' when I got the upper done.  It didnt!

 

So the issue I had was this:

When I first assembled the complete resin fuselage and wing they seemed to line up pretty good.  But once I started to splice in the original Kit parts to the upper section I found I had to reset datums and alignment.  Knowing now my fuse upper was true and correct, I spliced the engine section into the Tamiya lower wing, and reset alignments etc.  I found that the lower wing insert wasnt a brilliant fit and needed some work to fit properly (originally when I offered the resin wing up to the revised upper fuselage there was a slight twist and banana shape to the lower wing).  Now with both corrected why was I getting this 'bow in the lower shape?  See below

 

So that I didnt split the resin insert out of the kit part (because it now needs a serious bend to fit the lower fuse) I decided I better beef up this lower section so have glued in the wheel well sidewalls and plastered JB Weld around the interior joins.  This should stabilise the lower wing with all it's new joins.

 

 

I decided at this point that I might strap the lower wing up to the upper fuse and align the flap/trailing end of the wing up to the correct place, which I did.  This made a big difference already to the 'bowl shape' I had in the lower wing.  I now needed much less force to pull it up into alignment.  All epoxied in place but I have not glued the rear half by the flap as I can fine tune when I have it glued on. 

 

This is what it looks like epoxied in

 

I have yet to detail up the wheel wells with some extra plumbing etc.

Next issue is that whilst examining the slightly different underpanel arrangement of the Spey engine I found that although my Aux air door was moved forward one bay, it was too short, hence my access panels not lining up

 

 

Thats better...

 

Now, I know my can diameter and orientation is exact, and this is the basis for setting up the back end.  I have started grinding out the rear end to get things closer to where they need to be.

 

I am getting close now, and this is with virtually no pressure to pull up into alignment, only to hold it in place. Still a bit more hackery to go though...

 

And as a side point, I have the part up by the intake mods fitting well now.  Remember the intakes were shortened and the corresponding piece out of the lower wing.  This just 'clicked' nicely into place (such a satisfying sound).

 

Interesting to see the differences in width at this point, this matches overlayed drawings etc.  I am pretty happy with how this shaping up.  Although I am coughing up resin dust again LOL! You can see why I didnt really want to deal with this with a nicely painted cockpit and insides of aux doors until I had this sorted.

 

Thanks for looking in as always and as always wish I was moving faster to show you all more

 

Cheers Anthony

 

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work as always, Anthony!

 

Kev

[Anthony in NZ]

1 minute ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Excellent work as always, Anthony!

 

Kev

Thanks Kev!  I have a CT-4 on it's way so I am keen to wrap this up and make a start on that.  But I dont want to compromise the build to do it.  Big push today for me!

[MDuv]

Always happy to see an update on your build Anthony.

And what a nice one, things a really shaping up. Nice assembly with the inner can in. 
Cheers.
Mathieu

[Anthony in NZ]

Just now, MDuv said:

Always happy to see an update on your build Anthony.

And what a nice one, things a really shaping up. Nice assembly with the inner can in. 
Cheers.
Mathieu

Thanks Mathieu...means a lot coming from a master like you!  I'm getting there

[Anthony in NZ]

I quickly snapped this.  I think she will accurately portray the 'droopy bum' back end due to those stonking big engines fitted!

 

 

[Maxim61]

Nice progress on a difficult build.

 

[Greg W]

Nice update!

 

Solving that whole lower wing thing is a big jump ahead and the picture above shows you've accomplished dialing in the lines of the FG.1 fuse.

 

Looking very correct from top and bottom.

[KiwiZac]

Wow, talk about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! Fantastic photos!

  

2 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Thanks Kev!  I have a CT-4 on it's way so I am keen to wrap this up and make a start on that.  But I dont want to compromise the build to do it.  Big push today for me!

Oooooooh you lucky devil. I need to save my pennies for when the 1/48 version comes out.

 

  

3 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Hi Zac, yes mate we do need to catch up!  I will keep you updated on seeing the P-51, with our new COVID cases here things are a little uncertain again

Understood completely. COVID scuppered my hopes of seeing her before she was disassembled, too. At least she and her hangarmates live fairly close by!

[Anthony in NZ]

7 hours ago, Maxim61 said:

Nice progress on a difficult build.

 

Thanks very much!  yes trickier than first thought, and welcome to LSP!

 

7 hours ago, Greg W said:

Nice update!

 

Solving that whole lower wing thing is a big jump ahead and the picture above shows you've accomplished dialing in the lines of the FG.1 fuse.

 

Looking very correct from top and bottom.

Thanks buddy, I think so too!

 

6 hours ago, KiwiZac said:

Wow, talk about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! Fantastic photos!

  

Oooooooh you lucky devil. I need to save my pennies for when the 1/48 version comes out.

 

  

Understood completely. COVID scuppered my hopes of seeing her before she was disassembled, too. At least she and her hangarmates live fairly close by!

Yes pretty pleased to get that kit in 32nd, I will keep you posted on when I go.

 

Well 2 updates in one day...whatever next??

 

So the final major area of the shape that I wanted to sort is the nose, especially the lower profile.  Notice on short nose Phantoms how pronounced the lower line of the radome and area forward of the NLG bay sweeps down

 

 

 

Now, see the Tamiya kit....see how much flatter it appears.  If this is your model, I am sorry and will remove it asap, I am just wanting to illustrate something and I had saved this cropped image some time ago.

 

This is the kit part, although it dosent look too bad, maybe I am overthinking it?  But when I put it up to the upper fuse it just looks too flat along the bottom even to my eye

 

I put a cut down vertically in front of the NLG bay and inserted a piece of 10 Thou plastic card in the top to 'tweak' the lower line down a bit.  I shimmed the upper edges to fill the gap when I filed it down to the panel line

 

 

The result

 

Not convinced I even got it right myself I overlayed another image to see. 

I am pretty happy with the final result and think it will look much better than the kit shape in my opinion. I can still fine tune down the track if I need to and the nosecone will need to be modified too.

 

I know it's not very scientific, but to my eyeball it now looks right.

 

Cheers and thanks for tuning in as always

Anthony