Colonial Navy

Sergej I
Funny scheme 😄 Watching 👍

Augie
i'm in watching

David H
I'll try to make it an interesting ride !😉

Nathan Dempsey
Watching 👀 Great idea 🙂

Dave Flitton
Watching!!!!!!!!

Maciej Bellos
In!

David H
The more I look into this the more work I find. The tail decals are too large and are going to need some "creative adaptations " 🤣

David H
Oh, and welcome to the the party guys !!

Gareth Windsor
Pulling up a seat David. I love the story behind this aircraft. I spoke to someone who was there and apparently the Commanding Officer blew his top when he saw what the Americans had done to one of his aircraft.

Augie
Well 892 had done the tail of a US Marine jet earlier.;..

David H
😆😆if you look carefully at photo 5 , you'll see that all 3 were in various stages of , how shall we say, adornment 😂

Augie
This

[img1]

Maciej Bellos
Augie I think this Marine Phantom was disguised as a British one because the Royal Navy carrier it was on, had to dock in Malta. There would be a diplomatic incident if there where to be an American plane in Malta. So it was a necessity, hastily and crudely performed.

Augie
Yeah I know Maciej 🙂 I'd heard the plan was they were going to stick it below decks.. couldn't fit it so sprayed it.. much to the Marines surprise.

One of those banter stories that over the years that it was a tit for tat zapping.

Like this one [img1]

Which resulted in

[img1]

Augie
And Maciej, I fouind the story behind the US Marine phantom with the 892 sqn tail..

"Ark Royal cross decked with USS Forrestal in the Med about 1973, and had a couple of F4's from VMFA-531 operating for a few days. Came time to go into Grand Harbour and one F4 went U/S, and went U/S and went U/S as we came very close to Dom Mintoff's anti-USA dominion. The only solution was to strike the offending machine into the lower hangar away from prying eyes whilst we were in Malta.

After a couple of days it was snuck into the upper hangar and repaired by 892, who had this really nice tail fin colour scheme. A few days before we departed Valletta a light grey RN F4 appeared on deck to carry out ground runs, with brown paper stuck just where USMC markings might have been

Within 2 hours of clearing the harbour, VMFA-531 CO's personal airplane was returned with one of the best zaps: so good, he took it all the way back home"

Sorry for thread hijack.. 🙂

Mark
Great anecdote @Augie. 👍

David H
Anecdotes like this are always very welcome, and are one of the great things about this hobby.😎 👍🏻

Robert Podkoński
Thank you, Augie, for sharing this story...and these photos, I believe (and I hope) there will be someone to paint a Harrier model in this "special" livery 😄

Dean Harpster
That is a great story, never heard that one before!

Jos Jansen
Interesting stories(s)...watching this one David, great start! This Revell, a Hasegawa rebox is fun to build with almost no problems, only some intake fitting issues.

David H
👍🏻 No real issues so far apart from I think mine is a poor pressing, with plenty of flash and very soft to non existent and variable surface detail..

Thomas Bischoff
I join the show as well! Would like to build this also one day - hoping for a new mould however

David H
I'd love a new mould fg1/2 but sadly I don't think there's enough interest. But I could be wrong 🤞

Gareth Windsor
There's a whole conversation right there David. I think there is a want for the FG.1 (F-4K/M) which is why RAM and Master Decals produce the after market decals and newer companies like Reskits are making detailed Spey exhaust cans. The problem really is that almost every Phantom has the same airframe, so produce a regular Phantom and you've created and covered a lot of subjects. The Spey is just British (the Canadians almost bought it) and you might not get a big enough profit margin to warrant your efforts. Thank goodness Revell love a good re-box.

David H
The problem as I see it, whilst there may be interest , there's not a lot of variation in what can be done with markings etc, so it becomes a bit of a one trick pony… sadly, never mind thanks be to Revell for at least keeping this going

Gareth Windsor
I posted the question of a FG.1/FGR.2 on a "Models for Manufacturers" page. Apparently Zoukei-Mura SWS are looking into it as part of their Phantom series. No doubt driven by Tamiya's new 1:48 offering.

Sergej I
Technology and virus work hand-in-hand in favor of modelers! 👍 😄
So many new and top quality models that are coming out... no doubt that also a FG.X will see the light of the day... I mean, I would consider Avro Anson a far more niche model...

Augie
My only grumble, is that there are soo many that have not been done yet and yet we keep getting new molds where there aleady existing kits.. 🙁 I know seems ungrateful, but there are some really great aircraft everyone would love that just have not been done.

Sergej I
Augie, 3D printing tech is improving monthly. I could imagine that there will be business in selling 3D data for such airplanes. We already have that with scale figures.
Imagined in Australia, designed in Vietnam, downloaded and printed in Slovenija 😄
No more stash 😮

David H
And those that have tried (good on them for trying) have, unfortunately, made a right royal pigs ears of it with poor research. Luckily I got my cougar before kitty hawk went belly up ..

Dean Harpster
Amazing work on the cockpit, very impressive!

David H
Thankyou Dean , that's very kind.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Looking very nice 👍

Neil
I agree! 🙂👍 Following from here 👀

Vincent
Great work until now!!!

Guy Rump
Looking good 👍

David H
Ok, I swear this model is jinxed. I'm now onto my third set of decals and third respray of the rear end. They have just not settled properly. I've now decided to spray the red and just add the omega as a separate decal.

David H
I've decided this one's going to the shelf for a bit. Let's start something new as this is killing my mojo

Michael Kohl
sometimes a rest on the shelf is necessary. We are looking forward for the final steps

David H
Cheers Michael. I'll give a couple of weeks 👍🏻

Gareth Windsor
So frustrating mate. I'm having a similar issue right now with one decal position on a wing. Grrrr 😖

David H
Thanks for the support mates 👍🏻 Much appreciated and will definitely help with fg1 part2 , return of the mojo ..

tyu
ResKit instructions are in my experience far from complete unfortunately. Just fit any ResKit item before completing kit assembly is my advise. I don't get what is wrong with the tail decoration size in pic 22/23: painted area seems the same as decal area. Are the Xtradecal items oversized? Or a case of decal application going wrong?

David H
Hi tyu, and welcome

The decals come as one piece with red white and omega and are way oversized. What you see is the decal AFTER I have cut it into 3 pieces and resized the individual parts by trimming the edges , then aligning them so they match each other again. When my third set arrive I'll upload a comparison picture.

tyu
Thanks for the answer, confirms my feeling about Xtradecal: most of the times they seem to be not quite correct, proceed with caution.

David H
So , this has been staring at me across the desk now for a while and I think I have enough desire to restart it. I've added photos comparing the fin decals as they come as as they should so you can see the mess that xtradecal have made of these.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Your work on the tail really paid off. 👍

Thomas Bischoff
Glad you fixed it! Your experiences with the Xtreadecals made me buy yesterday from an IPMS mate the Aeromaster Decals.
Now I only need a nice FG kit 😊

David H
The rest of the decals aren't that bad with good opacity and register, but these tail flashes really are a deal breaker. Just shows poor research. TBH I have the hasegawa set for the Marines F4, and they "look" oversized as well, but I won't know until I try to use them.

Gareth Windsor
This popped up on FB today. We know the story by now, but a better colour picture of the "zap" CO's aircraft.
m.facebook.com/NavyW..type=3&source=48

David H
Yup, that's going in my library .. thanks for pointing it out 😁

Dean Harpster
I love this unique subject! Beautifully done, those exhaust cans look great and the colors are very striking. Glad to see your frustration with the tail worked out looking great in the end!

David H
Thankyou Dean, that's very kind of you. I've got my enthusiasm back a bit.. just finishing my lanc, then back to this properly

bughunter
Oh yes, looks nice 👍

Andreas Lux
This is a beautiful bird and a very beautiful model! Great Job👍

David H
Thankyou Andreas. Unfortunately over a period since these photos were taken the paint developed some serious crazing and cracking which I couldn't ignore any longer. Soon to be the subject of another thread..

Andreas Lux
This effect of paint is definitely annoying, but that doesn't detract from the great result of your work!

Guy Rump
Great job, sorry to hear about the paint issues afterwards. 👍