Hello all, I have the Hasegawa Mcdonnell Douglas British Phantom FGR Mk 2 1:48 kit. I like the look of the exhaust cans with the 'petals' rather than the ones suggested in the instructions, but they do not fit as well as the suggested ones. Is there a way to modify the better looking ;petal; style cans to make them fit and if so how please ? And would this be a huge inaccuracy if I built it that way ? Not that it matters 'cause I thinkg it looks cooler anyway.
Thanks for any assistance.

If I remember correctly, that kit comes with two types of exhaust. One is a fairly simple one-piece job with long, wide nozzle petals (there are two lengths, but I can’t remember which is which). The other is shorter and wider and has an inner ring of very short petals. If it’s the former you mean, I woudn’t recommend it. Those are the J79 exhausts from the standard Phantom - they’re in the kit because they come on a sprue with parts that you have to use for the British versions. The other exhausts are for the RR Spey engines that British Phantoms used and is the only correct set for the FG.Mk.1 and the FGR.Mk.2. The reason the J79 exhausts don’t fit is that the Spey was much wider than the J79 and the whole of the fuselage, right down to the nozzles, was wider as a result.

seán

pigsty, thanks for the info. I guess I will go with the correct type and try to embellish what is already there.
Cheers eh ?

As pigsty said the engine nozzles and the airframe on the Spey-engined Phantoms were very different. So much so, I believe, that even though the engines had a higher thrust rating than the J79s, the change to the airframe increased drag so much that Brit Phantoms were actually slower.

But on the other hand they accelerated better and had greater range. And maybe one or two of the parts were interchangeable with the engines on the Buccaneers that they were originally intended to share carrier decks with. From what I’ve read, though, pilots preferred the J79 version when they got their hands on it in the form of the F-4J(UK).

With good old 20/20 hindsight, building just 170 aircraft with completely different engines - and fuselages, and wings - could never have been cost-effective. Unfortunately, that’s politics. The trend at the time was for the armed forces and airlines to buy American and then have British bits built in, almost regardless of cost, to keep the vestiges of the British aircraft industry going. We’re all quite, quite bonkers.

seán