Lord Riot

FAW1 underside at Cosford museum …

Incredible build. The paintwork is so neat.

Looking good! You’ve done well beating that nose into shape. Disappointing it’s such a bad fit, not sure I’ll buy one now.

Gorgeous model of possibly my favourite aircraft. Very nicely painted that.

@Col Walter E Kurtz thanks Andy, yes I did hope the steps would add a degree of realism. I like how Airfix include those and the intake blanks, same with their new tool Buccaneers.

Thank you gents for the kind comments! Glad the old Javelin still generates some interest. @TeeELL, thanks mate, I’ll remove that ladder decal - Airfix included two but you’re absolutely right, there shouldn’t be one on the right. With the ailerons, they do move but in my rush to get photos on here I forgot to angle them, I’ll flip them slightly up. I’m tempted to make more Javelins.

This is a fabulous kit by Airfix, very little filler needed and slots together really well. This particular Javelin was originally built as an FAW.7, and subsequently converted to FAW.9 standard before being one of the first pair of the latest version to be delivered to 25 squadron in December 1959. XH768 went on to serve with 11 Sqn after 25 disbanded and this airframe is now preserved in Italy (marked as XH707), having had a recent restoration: https://www.museoaviazione.com/en/gloster-javelin-faw-mk9-restoration-2021/ All comments and discussion welcome as always …

Come on Dambusters, you know you want to!

After quite a bit of searching through images, aircraft histories, etc I finally settled on XH768, one of the first pair of Javelin 9s delivered to 25 Sqn in December 1959. Between the kit decals and aftermarket ones I cobbled together the underwing serials. As the Xtradecal codes have red borders, I ordered some plain white 10mm high stickers for the fin codes. They look fairly reasonable once applied, not as thin as a decal but I don’t think it’s that noticeable. Not to me anyway! Tailplane finally added. Almost done now, just a couple of small decals then I need to add the Firestreaks, canopies then intake blanks and ladder. Oh and the red & green wingtip lights need painting on. And some little aerials I need to scratchbuild from thin wire.

Thanks @Mikey-1980, I was thinking how good the cockpit was looking on yours, so nice that you think my seats are ok! It’s mostly just the Tamiya tape that can bring them alive. To be honest I didn’t weigh the noseweight, just sort of guessed well over the 25g in the instructions. It’s quite a tailsitter without plenty in though, I’d be inclined to at least double what Airfix say just to be safe. Latest update, most of the stencils are on. I used the kit decal for the fin flash as it’s a good shape and fit whereas the Xtradecal one is square so would be a pain to cut. Need to be careful applying those black walkway lines, they’re quite thin and bend out of shape easily. Also, the front belly tank decals are very slightly too wide, so best cutting each in half and overlapping in the middle. Not looking forward to trying to line up the wing roundels with all those vortex generators!

Lots of stencils included on the decal sheet. I may be some time.

A bit more progress today, mostly on the canopies and Firestreaks. The decal sheet doesn’t include the white lines around the canopy frame and even with a posca pen I’m not sure it would have looked neat enough, so I used some spares. The canopies are just dry fitted for now. I decided on a full load of Firestreaks.

That Alley Cat radome is correct - the nose plan view bottom left shows the angle quite well. Same with the FAW6 and 8.

I’ve got some more stuff done on the Javelin today, with the wheels added and various bits of tidying up. Ejection seats slotted in. It sits on its tail without the radome and its interior noseweight, despite the bolt under the cockpit. Plenty of weight in that big old radome though! I had to spray and mask a thin line of dark green around the radome as there’s one that goes all the way around on the real thing, including underneath despite that being silver. Airfix do have a panel line around the circumference though so it was a reasonably simple task. The radome fit is good, no filler needed at all. Happy with the stance. Even with the tailplane dry fitted it doesn’t tailsit now. I painted the burner cans with liquid chrome, then the rear nozzle rings were painted with gunmetal, followed by a thin wash of Humbrol brown followed by Flory dirt wash for that burnt metal look. Hopefully it’s fairly realistic?

Looking absolutely brilliant!