1/48 Hasegawa Phantom FG.1

Hi-Grade Series

by Vino 'Shrikes' Nañagas

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Good day to you all!  My name is Vino Nañagas from Manila , Philippines. This is my first submission to ARC, though I've been lurking around for quite some time.  I must say that ARC is the first place I go to when I need help with references, detailing a kit, getting aftermarket reviews or just admiring all the great models.  Kudos to Steve Bamford for an excellent website!

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This is the 1/48 Hasegawa Phantom FG.1 "Hi-grade" kit.  It's very nice with photo-etch cockpit details, white metal bang seats, gear struts, wheels and refueling probe. It even comes with some vinyl tubing for cockpit plumbing. I wanted to build a Spey-engined phantom because they just look like they're ready leap into the air even though it's standing still and because I saw a photo of a Royal Navy FG.1 on the catapult of the HMS Ark Royal with full afterburners. Beautiful.

Except for the markings, everything is OOB. I took my time with the construction of the kit trying to eliminate the seam lines. I used plastic card to fill the void behind the panel located aft of the intake splitter plate as this is visible when viewed from the top (I didn't want to use putty for fear that it may shrink or crack). Additionally, the ejection seat pull handles were made by painting the handles yellow and then wrapping a bit of 0.7 Micron line tape around it. The real things are not bands of yellow and black as I thought, but it appears to be a spiral. I wanted to hang some bombs on it or even better, two pairs of Matra rocket launchers, but I couldn't find any, so I kept it clean except for the sparrows.

 

 

This was painted using Gunze Lacquers. Masking the inside lip of the intakes was a real challenge. I then masked off the area around the exhaust and went at it with a combination of Alclad II and Gunze Burnt Iron. I first sprayed the entire area with Alclad Duraluminum and did vertical striations with Alclad Steel and Gunze Lacquer Burnt Iron. I then used Alcald Jet exhaust (quite liberally) in Horizontal motion to simulate the flow of hot gases.

 

This Phantom depicts aircraft XV590/001 of 892 Naval Air Squadron off the HMS Ark Royal. The Phantom was the last conventional carrier based fixed-wing aircraft used by the Royal Navy, hence the large omega on the vertical fin. I used Model Alliance's decal set for this and it went on perfectly, no setting solution required. Although the decals for the same aircraft are included in the Hasegawa FG.1 decal sheet, I wanted to use the Model Alliance sent since these special markings celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth on the throne. Most interesting are the words "Colonial Navy" rather than Royal Navy. The stars on the fuselage appear to be printed in such a way that the standard Royal Navy roundel appears beneath the star as if it was painted over the roundel.

 

I sealed it with gloss, weathered it and misted a bit of dullcoat. Hey presto, a Royal Navy Phantom. Like the other Hasegawa Phantoms, this kit is a joy to build (but there has to be a better way of eliminating the seams between the fuselage underside and wing) and I would recommend it to any one who Phancies Phantoms.

 

Except for the in progress pics that I took, photos are courtesy of Theo "Doc" Tan taken during the National Scale Model Competition, November 2006.

 

Thanks for viewing and Happy Modeling!

 

Vino

Proud member of IPMS Philippines Bert Anido

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Photos ©  by Theo "Doc" Tan and Vino Nañagas. Text © by "Vino Nañagas"