Phabulous Phantoms
COVID-19 Build

by Peter J K Chiang

After our successful Airfix 48 hours 48th Mustang build last year which received a lot of interest and entries, and the continued COVID-19 situation which continues to restrict people’s  movements and kept many at home, we created the Phabulous Phantom COVID-19 build event from 8th - 21st May 2021.

The idea belongs to Henry Low who decided that with the more difficult Airfix 1:72 McDonnell Phantom, more time was needed and used the Singapore timing of Stay Home Notice (SHN) as the time given. FYI - the SHN is equivalent to 2 weeks quarantine. And one of our participants, Kevin Khoo, on quarantine at a Singapore government designated service apartment for 3 weeks (Singapore government extended the SHN of people from certain countries from 2 to 3 weeks).

The rules are the participant had 2 weeks to start and build their Airfix Phantom with communications to show the start and progress via WhatsApp, Skype and Hobby Bounties Facebook.

The initial reaction from a lot of people was that it could not be done because of the number of stencils in the mode kit!

Initially, we had about 20 people interested and they started at different dates even though the official start date was Saturday 8th May 2021. The start was flagged off by Mick Stephen and Henry Low, though some excited person called in on WhatsApp at 2300hrs on Friday 7th May 2021.

Over the weekend of 8th - 9th May 2021, great strides were made in the model build, and Henry remarked that it might end up being a 5 days build. Then Thursday 13th May 2021 was a public holiday, Hari Raya, where many could continue building as Singapore was restricted to 2 visitors per house / day, and maximum of 2 visits a day.

Then we seemed to have run out of steam when the participants looked at the Phantom stencils. It become what we called ‘stencil freeze’!

As sponsor, I lead by doing a display build. I told myself to assemble and paint the main Phantom cockpit and body by day 5, and used the rest of the time for applying the stencils.

All this while all of the participants had our normal day jobs.

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Thumbnail panels:

I completed my build by day 12, and Yee soon Tuck and Razali Ahmed completed their before midnight of Friday 21st May 2021.

I allowed the participants until 5pm on Saturday 22nd May 2021 before the start of judging with Mick Stephen, Tony James, C L Kwek, Mat Irvine and myself. By this time, Andrew Rozario and Linus Chan has completed their build too!

Here are the winners:

• Best build - Yee Soon Tuck (prize - Airfix 24th Spitfire)

• Fastest build - Razali Ahmed (Airfix 24th Hurricane)

• Most colourful - Andrew Rozario (£50 sponsored by Henry Low)

• Most difficult- Kevin Khoo (£50 sponsored by Henry Low)

Model and Text Copyright © 2020 by Peter J K Chiang
Page Created 14 July, 2021
Last Updated 14 July, 2021

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