Airfix 1/72 Phantom FG.1, previewed by Scott Van Aken

The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II was one of the principal combat aircraft of the United Kingdom (UK) from 1968 to 1992. The UK was the first export customer for the US-built F-4 Phantom, which was ordered amid political and economic difficulties that afflicted British designs for similar aircraft. The Phantom was procured to fill several roles with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Air Force (RAF), including air defence, close air support, low-level attack and tactical reconnaissance.

Most Phantoms operated by the UK were built as a special batch containing British technology, an effort to support the British aerospace industry after major project cancellations. Two variants were initially built for the UK: the F-4K variant, designed from the outset as an air-defence interceptor to be operated by the Fleet Air Arm from the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers; and the F-4M version, operated by the RAF in tactical strike and reconnaissance roles. In the mid-1980s, a third Phantom variant was obtained when 15 second-hand F-4J aircraft were purchased to augment the UK's air defences after the Falklands War.

The Phantom entered service with the Fleet Air Arm and the RAF in 1969. In Fleet Air Arm service, it was primarily intended for fleet air defence, with secondary conventional and nuclear strike roles; in the RAF it was soon replaced in its initial tasks by other aircraft designed specifically for strike, close air support and reconnaissance, and was moved to the air-defence mission. By the mid-1970s, the Phantom had become the UK's principal interceptor; it continued in this role until 1992, when it was withdrawn as part of a series of post–Cold War defence cuts.

THE KIT

I put off getting one of Airfix's recently released British F-4s for a number of years as I already had a selection of Fujimi Phantoms in this scale. Since then, I've read a number of glowing reviews of this kit and since I had a fair amount of 'cash back' rewards, decided to go ahead and get one. Sort of a 'free' kit.

I has been many decades since I last built an Airfix F-4 and that was their 1970s release, a decent kit for the time, but greatly overshadowed today by more recent releases. Besides, that older kit was not a British F-4. What really surprised me when this one arrived was the size of the box. One could easily fit two of any other F-4 kit in this scale into the box. The size is due to the size of the sprues and the fact that it has 177 pieces.

The kit also offers a serious number of options. Let me list those for you. You can have the nose radome swung aside (a requirement for the Navy's smaller elevators). The elevators have two inserts, one for level and the other for canted forward down. There are optional open and closed lower fuselage auxiliary air intake doors. Also provided are alternate fins, one with the later ECM antenna and the other without. You have a choice between closed or lowered speed brakes. Also level or lowered flaps/ailerons. You can also have the flare dispenser doors open or closed. The kit provides closed gear doors should you choose an in-flight disaplay. There are separate parts for a closed or extended in flight refueling probe as well as open or closed canopies. For things under the fuselage you can have either live or training Skyflash rounds as well as a centerline gun pod in place of the usual fuel tank. Finally, then it comes to the folded back nose radome, you can have it as normal or with the radar set pulled out for maintenance.

Undoubtedly all these optional bits is a good part of the reason for the parts count and the size of the box. The rest is fairly standard fare for F-4 kits. The interior uses decals for the instrument panels and side consoles. To have the nose radome open you need to cut off the one on the fuselage halves. There are full engine intakes. You have to drill holes for the wing pylons. There are inserts for where the catapult strop attachments are in the lower wing. The upper fuselage is a separate insert so no worries about dealing with a seam up there. The lower fuselage includes the inner wing section. Though the outer wings are separate though the instructions only show a lowered position.

I like that all the attachment points are fairly large, which should enhance the construction process. From what I could see, there are some parts not mentioned. For instance, you can build an FGR.2 out of this kit. The FG.1 has slotted stabilizers while the FGR.2 does not. Both are in the sprues. Also in the sprues are folded outer wing pieces. The reinforced lower wing center section typical of later FGR.2s is also provided as are bombs and probably their pylons. Other different bits are undoubtedly in there, so if you have FGR.2 decals in your stash, you can do that later version with the bits in this kit.

Airfix has some of the best instruction books on the market. The construction steps are clear and show left and right items as separate construction steps along with the fit of optional parts. For markings options, separate painting and stencil placement guides are provided. One is the box art plane with 111 Squadron in its special scheme. The other is a 23 Squadron aircraft in the initial camouflage scheme. This scheme was glossy so save your matte paints when doing this one. It wasn't until the two color roundels that the scheme went matte. The decal sheet is fairly large and most of it are stencils. Unlike some other model companies, all the stencils are individual so putting them all on will be tedious.

It is great that Airfix decided to do these Phantoms. While the Fujimi kits are eminently buildable and look great when done, the Airfix offering offers a much nicer cockpit and options not available when the Fujimi kit was done. It is also nice that you can do an FGR.2 (even though the instructions are mum on this) as the FG.1 was only with 23 Squadron, 111 Squadron and the OCU (along with the RN version). Frankly, I picked this one up from a US retailer now before tariffs (a truly stupid idea when it comes to low cost items like this) made those from overseas too expensive.

KIT #:	A06019
PRICE:	$32.00 delivered
DECALS:	Two options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	2019 release