Book Description

Sadly I'm not an engineer, nor did I serve with the RAF unfortunately, but I am an enthusiast who began working as a volunteer with a local museum after developing some health issues. I joined Tangmere Military Aviation Museum near Chichester in West Sussex England around seven years ago (November 2012)I began as a guide and then turned my hand to the dark side with the engineering team, something I am familiar with having restored many Land Rovers and Armoured Vehicles in previous work, now I get to play with military aircraft 1:1 ScaleThis publication is my account of our F-4 M Phantom FGR2 XV408 that I began to restore back in March 2015, the book is more reference and more likely to be of use to modellers for some authentic views of the ins and outs of an RAF Phantom II, and of course for any budding enthusiast also embarking on a similar road of restoration, and I might suggest DON'T it will hurt youI use the term restoration which of course really it is not, we might normally refer to restoration as ready to use, but unfortunately our air frames are too far gone, cut about to be moved by road, and pillaged for their instruments perhaps to fill holes in other air frames or to sit on a shelf with a collector, our planes will sadly never move under their own steam let alone fly and will remain on static display onlyTo me, XV408 is more preserved and should be seen by our museums visitors, inside and out where possible, experience what it must be like to work on such a beast back in the height of the Cold WarI have around 2500 images so this really is a shortened version, 'thank heavens' I hear you cry, but the process completed over three plus years includes most of the external sanding and repaint, and around thirteen months of research and re-installation of both cockpits, instruments and seats with some items replicatedSome items are just too difficult to get in any time period either being expensive or simply not available, so some parts have been replicated as authentically as possible, that's where my graphical, modelling and limited engineering skills come in I have also included a few low res images found in the public domain of 408 during her service with the RAF, unfortunately I have not been able to locate all the owners of their images, if they still exist, so first apologies if I have not credited you but do get in contact, a few images have come from Google images and others from the likes of David Gledhill and Bob Daniels via FacebookAnyway, please enjoy or just laugh at my efforts and if you require more images, just let me know via email which is [email protected] you can also find me on Facebook or feel free to visit myself and the museum, part with some hard earnt cash and perhaps get up close and personal with 408thanksPete MacKean