Got a little more done to the Phantom today. Sanded all the fuselage seams down. That came out pretty well, but there will be a lot of rescribing needed to restore all the detail I wiped out. Half an our over a pot of boiling water got the fin back to where it should be. It's not perfect, but it's much better than it was. I found myself wishing that Monogram had molded the nose cone and tailhook separately...Ought to be able to get the wings on soon.

Looking good Jamie, I had the same fit issues on the 1/72d version. Which is why mine has been sitting on the "shelf of doom" phor-ever..:-)

The modeling gods have smiled upon me. Late last night, I got the intake splitters and intakes installed. I was pretty proud of myself until this morning when I noticed that I hadn't painted the insides of the intakes! Fearing the worst, I managed to pop the intakes off without doing any damage. I used liquid cement, which I think didn't quite set up because it got pretty cold last night. Fit there is really bad. There will be another long session with the putty in my future.

This is the first jet I have done in ages and I already miss propellers...

Intake covers sound like a fine idea! If you can't fix it with skill, hide it! 🙂

We actually had winter here this year and it's putting a huge crimp in my modeling. Finally had a nice weekend, so I was able to get some more done on the Phantom. The big project was the intakes, the main sections of which are molded as separate parts from the fuselage. The splitter plate is glued to the fuselage, and the intake mates to that on the top and to the forward end of the wing at the bottom. The top join was pretty good, but the lower edge that meets the wing was horrible, ending up with a pretty sizable gap. This was filled with sheet styrene secured with thin liquid cement. The excess was then trimmed off and sanded smooth.

Next came the stabilzers, which required a lot of trimming and sanding to get them to fit. And even that wasn't great, requiring some thick superglue to attach them and filling the seam between the stabs and the fuselage. But the airframe is now complete, and after a little polishing to get rid of the scratches, will be ready for paint. That will have to wait until I get my compressor replaced, hopefully in a few weeks. Guess I'll just have to start another kit off the stash to kill some time...

Things are shaping up nicely Jaime…..nice work on the camp. Is it a hard edge or very tight airbrush work?

Decals went on this weekend, so the Phantom now has her identity. Need to add a few more service stencils, then she'll be ready for the flat top coat. After that, final assembly...