Royal Navy Phanton FG1 893 Squadron HMS Queen Elizabeth

[Thorvic]

As you may recall i built the CVA-01 in 1/700 scale some years ago for the Project Cancelled display, so after the last year or so doing AEW types i have decided to do some of the Airgroup for the CVA-01 and with the obvious continuation of the Royal Navy Carrier Force through the 70s and onwards instead of the actual drawdown that culminated with HMS Ark Royal serving until 1978.
This would have meant the Royal Navy would have received its intended quota of Phantoms, to fill the airgroups of Eagle, Ark Royal and Victorious, Hermes was originally intended for the Phantom but proved to be too small for safe Phantom F-4k operations and she would have carried on with Sea Vixen into the early 70s. CVA-01 would replace the Victorious and the Ark Royal in the early 70s as the Ark was tired and the Victorious was smaller and the oldest hull of the lot despite the upper hull being replaced during rebuild. Thus 893 Squadron Sea Vixens and 801 Buccaneers would have stood down from Victorious and fromed up as the new CVA-01 airgroup on HMS Queen Elizabeth in the mid 70s.








The kit is the later tooling Fujimi Phantom FG-1 with a mix of decals from Model Alliance, Model Decal and the Airfix Sea Vixen. Shown fully armed to highlight that it is operating off a CVA-01 class carrier without the safety restrictions imposed on the Ark Royal Phantoms which are never seen on the carrier with anything more than disposable Air to ground weapons as they couldn't bring the AAM's back aboard in standard safe flight operations.

Note in the background are some of the other Fujimi Phantom kits in the stash for my theme build.

NB the 892 squadron Phantom in the background is a real world model for comparison, i will do an 892 with the appropriate tail markings as part of the theme build.

It anybody has the Model Alliance Senior Service Phantom sheet, the Superscale RN Phantom sheet or spare markings from the Revell Matchbox last issue Phantom going spare please let me know 

[Captain Canada]

A couple of real beauties Geoff ! Love the RN Phantom...makes me want to go build one right now !

[NARSES2]

Nice ones mate

[TsrJoe]

very nice modelling indeed, subtly different too, def nice to see an RN. bird with 'winders too

joe

[sandiego89]

Looks great    Jack up the nose gear to give it that real FAA look. 

[Thorvic]

Looks great    Jack up the nose gear to give it that real FAA look. 

That will be a different build, as also have the Wolfpak set to drop the flaps and slats so i can do a scene sat ready to launch

[kitbasher]

Spey Phantoms.  Proper aircraft!

[lancer]

Now those are bloody brilliant!!

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Nice clean build(s) Geoff 

Ian

[Gondor]

Nice build. I agree with the use of the 1/48 scale squadron marking as the fin area is way to large for the 1/72 scale version. I lok forward to seeing your next build.

Gondor

[Mossie]

Nice looking builds Geoff, looking forward to seeing more.  Any plans to arm any with Red Top?

[kitnut617]

Could a Phantom carry a pair of Red Deans Geoff ?

[Thorvic]

Could a Phantom carry a pair of Red Deans Geoff ?

Weight wise possibly but i think it was cancelled in 1956 and the Red Hebe in 1957 with the F155T interceptor. Its quite possible had it gone into service it might have been seen as an alternative to the Sparrow when the Phantom was selected for the RN, but i imagine they would have stuck with the Sparrow.

More likely to see the CF-299 Sea Dart based missile coupled with the RN Phantom than the earlier Red Dean !