RF-4M

[Gondor]

This should be an easy build

Famous last words of course......

Take two Phantoms, one an RF-4E and the other an F-4M and "merge"



I "plan" on simply cutting the fuselages at the front of the blank intake wall and swapping over the forward fuselages. Looking at the two different fuselage half's in the above picture it's quite surprising what differences other than the contour changes due to the different engines being installed.

The idea behind the build being that the UK decided to have a larger quantity of Phantoms than they actually bought and that they would follow the proposed deployment of the TSR2 with dedicated reconnaissance squadrons which gives me the choice of the Phantom OCU and 58 Squadron for UK based aircraft, 17 & 31 Squadrons for RAF Germany with 13 & 81 Squadrons for the NEAF and FEAF respectively.

Markings will be EDSG/Green/LG with R/W/B roundels and fin flashes as per early operational Phantoms were in reality. Aircraft serial codes will be from immediately after the serials actually used.

Gondor.

[PR19_Kit]

Are you planning on keeping the Sparrow/Skyflash missile recesses under the fuselage from the F-4M or using the recess-less underside as with the RF-4E?

[Gondor]

Are you planning on keeping the Sparrow/Skyflash missile recesses under the fuselage from the F-4M or using the recess-less underside as with the RF-4E?

I will have to use the Sparrow/Sky Flash recesses as the underside will be mainly from the F-4M, the underside of the nose, in fact the whole of the nose, will be from the RF-4E kit which means the rear two recesses will be present when I stick all the bots together, just not sure yet if they will stay.

Gondor

[Gondor]

As previously stated, "this should be a quick build" and certainly swapping the fuselages forward of the air intakes is in theory very simple, so is the cutting....



I am only cutting one fuselage half, the same for both kits, at a time so that I can use the position of the cockpits on the uncut fuselage half's to align the swapped nose sections. Each join area having a nice right-angle prior to my cutting the fuselages up is a great basis for some right-angled plastic section which is ling enough on the flat areas to provide a good solid surface to join the sections together. I am also using a section of sprue/tree to help provide structural strength and alignment for the upper part of the fuselages.



With the structural support for the join in place I mocked up the fuselage for the reconnaissance Phantom with the unmodified half of the F-4M to show the difference in the nose length.



With a bit of luck I may have the fuselage half's glued into their new format which will effectively leave just a normal build which is the equivalent of straight out of the box.

Gondor

[McColm]

What scale are you using, 1/72 or 1/48?

[Gondor]

What scale are you using, 1/72 or 1/48?

God's own scale McColm 1/72.

Here are a couple more pictures of the work and the differences between the two kits which led to my method of "merging" the two together.



The differences between the front's of the two areas under the cockpits made my mind up. I appeared that swapping the whole forward fuselage would be far easier, read simpler, than attempting to change just a few components with a lot of filling and such like.



The above picture hopefully shows the reconnaissance nose against the normal nose which probably isn't seen clearly here.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Having test fitted the RF fuselage to the wings and then offered up the underside of the RF cockpit I see there will be a few fit issues. The rear of the RF lower forward fuselage is thinner and shorter at the rear that the equivalent part in the F-4M kit which could be a bit of a pain but should not be insurmountable.

Work on Monday so I shall see what I can do in the evening, hopefully basic cockpit painting and ejector seat assembly then deciding what to do with the other fuselage half's left over from swapping the noses around.

Gondor

[sandiegobrit]

interesting how the two of us came up with similar concepts at the same time but different execution , looking forward to seeing more of yours as i am sure it will blow mine into the dust

Steve

[Gondor]

I had this idea back in April at the Scottish Nationals in Perth while talking to a Phantom Phanatic about decals for the McDonnell F-110 Phantom.

Rather than use the F-4E I thought the British Government would order a Spey engined version, simple as that.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Are you planning on keeping the Sparrow/Skyflash missile recesses under the fuselage from the F-4M or using the recess-less underside as with the RF-4E?

I will have to use the Sparrow/Sky Flash recesses as the underside will be mainly from the F-4M, the underside of the nose, in fact the whole of the nose, will be from the RF-4E kit which means the rear two recesses will be present when I stick all the bots together, just not sure yet if they will stay.

Gondor

Realised that the Sparrow/Skyflash recesses will have to go Kit. The Sparrow was a beam riding radar guided weapon so needs the appropriate radar which doesn't work with the RF nose. Any to those that would say this is whif world I can do as I like, well that's exactly what I am doing  basing my whif on the real world which in this case is an RF-4 using Spey engines.

Gondor

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

OK, you have my attention 

Ian

[Gondor]

Not done much this last week other than build the ejector seats and paint the cockpit in it's base colour. I should get a lot more done over the weekend.

Gondor

[Gondor]

OK, it's a week since my last posting on this build and all I have done is to find more work to do to the fuselage as well as putting onto the cockpit the decals from the RF-4E kit. The slow progress is also due to my concentrating on my Hawker Siddeley Typhoon T2.

The extra work stems from my realisation that with all the windows in the nose that I could be able to see through into the cockpit as there is no bulkhead between the cockpit and the nose. So using my micrometer, I must replace the one I have with a digital one some time, I have arrived at a rectangular piece of plastic that will form the basis of a bulkhead. The bulkhead will be added to the top and front of the nose wheel bay and its shape will be determined using some solder wire which is easily shaped and will also hold its shape reasonably well if treated with care. Pictures to follow.....

Gondor

[Gondor]

Two posts in one day, hope Kit can keep up.......

As suggested in the earlier post I made today I duly set about assembling the parts necessary, then after cutting a smallish length of solder from the roll I have it was bent around the forward fuselage half....




the pictures tell the story, it's not perfect, but it's close enough for government work! The next step will be to place the solder on top of the plastic card and then draw around it to show the shape of the inside of the nose. So without further ado.....

Gondor

[Gondor]

Yet another posting today, got to keep Kit busy seeing he has nothing to do other than get well.....



The picture above shows the solder wire removed thankfully without distortion from the fuselage. The square of plastic card is net to the solder, I had previously scribed then used a pencil rubbed into the scribed line to delineate the centre of the card, has had the fuselage sides marked onto it. Both left and right sides have been marked after making sure that the lower part of the fuselage is the correct distance from the centre line due to the kit having a clear lower section that attaches below the grey plastic nose half's.  The picture explains that far better than my words do.

The following picture shows one half trimmed to shape and offered to the inside of the fuselage. The same was done with the other half which should be identical, or close enough.



As you can see below, it's close enough and I have checked with the other nose half and it dose look good enough. The bulkhead has been trimmed a little more since this picture was taken and glued in front of the cross piece seen in this picture. Paint tomorrow morning and adding a few items to the cockpit then the nose will be closed up and the rear fuselage will be added.

Gondor