Speaking of the Academy Phantom
Here is the cockpit, not the greatest pictures, but you can see how I modified the left hand RIO pit to more closely resemble the real thing, the front pit is pretty close. One thing that I noted and corrected in the back, but not as much in the front, the instrument panels seem to be designed to fit at a slight forward angle. The front panel if I make it straight up and down does not fit under the glareshield correctly when I test fit it all and is still not quite right. Oh well, so far the kit is light years ahead of the Monogram Phantoms and more accurate than the Hasegawa offerings. Does seem to be a little over engineered though, did they consult with Eduard 🙂
I agree with you regarding the "over engineered" comment. I found the same fit problem (and a plethora of others, I might add). To be frank, I personally wasn't impressed with the Academy offering at all. Others have had good results and have produced an outstanding build - I guess they're simply more talented than I...I KNOW they must have more patience.
Nice work, Rob. I guess I need to play catch up with the Phantoms. The last one I did was a Testors kit. Now if you all can decide which is the best one available now, I'll start saving my pennies...
tamiya 1/32
I think the Academy kit from builds and what I see
in the box is the best B model, I imagine the newly released C is as well, but much like how the Eduard FW 190D kits are the best Dora kits Academy has some errors and has made it so you have to follow directions exactly and test fit everything before committing to glue. The cockpit seems to be more like a J version out of the box, or perhaps a Royal Navy version since it looks like the online pictures of both of those birds. One glaring error on the RIO instrument panel is the "joystick" mount is molded vertically on the instrument panel like the pictures in NATOPS (pilots manual) show it since NATOPS has it as a separate picture NEXT to the panel when it sits IN the panel. From what I can get online it seems as if it stowed by pushing it forward into a spring loaded door, then you pull it out and the door closes flush behind it. The Detail and Scale book shows it (the pic is of an N rear pit) stowed with maps and pamphlets tucked in next to it.
keep us posted rob...nice painting
Nice tease, cant wait to see the finished model!
Thanks guys, I also have to figure out what markings. I had originally decided on a Sundowners 1972 Vietnam cruise scheme (not the mig killer though), then I saw a picture of a VF 84 Jolly Roger Phantom with the black tail aboard the Independence on her war cruise in '65. I posted that pic here a while back. Love the sunburst, but I have 2 1/2 years of underway time abaord Indy, and VF 84 was in my first CAG when I was a young-un in VAW 124. I have decals for both, probably have to do one of each I suppose!
Well, Rob, whichever scheme you choose, it's going to look good judging by the cockpit pictures.