airbroke

Ta Mike, no doubt you saved me burnt fingers and frustration

Sorry for jumping in but on topic and I hope of use to goose, I've some PE that needs to be laminated, would soldering by first 'tinning' the flat surfaces to be joined be the way to go? PS like the tip regards the masking tape to stop bits flying off when cutting out, new to this too and learnt quickly about bits pinging off to oblivion. Hard cutting surfaced is also a good tip, my usual cutting board has enough to 'give' in it for parts to bend whilst I cut them out with a scalpel blade.

For sure the blue/grey is oxidization. I'm wondering though if the pink tinge might be due to heating, after all it's on the flat tail surfaces of what were Mach 2+ aircraft. I'm more than happy to concede though that it is difficult to perceive the effect. My son described it as, 'if you imagine it you can see it' which is kind of how it appears, but not reflection on this well aged aluminium in my opinion, particularly there was full overcast so no sky reflection on the upper surfaces and nothing which might impart a red/pink hue on both sides of the tail. Interesting though to observe it and hear your thoughts I'll post up my attempts to reproduce it and see if people think it looks 'realistic' or just plain odd!

Since my post I've been searching for a picture that captures the effect I've observed, this is the Mystere I was looking at, very weathered indeed. I think it clearly shows the blue, strongest on the top of the nose, and the slight hint of pink on the fin and rudder: Mystere Airliners.net

I've been studying a lot of photographs of Lightnings in mid to late service with all metal finishes. I'm posting my observations and thoughts but please add yours too! As nice as a fresh coat of Alclad II Aluminium looks, it strikes me it is only representative of a factory fresh aircraft in early service. I started to look at pictures of mid to late service aircraft and scrapped airframes and have been struck by a couple of observations. Firstly the aluminium 'blues' it becomes a blue grey over time in patches. This tends to be particularly noticeable on the top of the nose and the upper surface of the fuselage (rain/wind) but adds a subtle weathered look and highlights panel lines. Some end of service and scrapped Lightnings actually look almost like they were painted blue in many photographs. The less expected observations is that particularly the fin and the rear of the fuselage sometimes take on a very subtle 'pinkish' hue. I wasn't all that sure if this was something to do with photography in the '70s/'80s or if it was an observable effect. Today I had the opportunity to take a close look a well aged Dessault Mystere and for sure the 'pink' tinge to the tail was observable as I approached the aircraft. Further on the top of the fin there were quite strong tints of a redish pink in some areas. Now convinced this is an actual effect I want to try to recreate it. My plan is to spray Alclad II and then mist with heavily thinned Humbrol Satin 128 (blue/grey) and treat the tail and couple of other areas with the same sort of mix tinted with Humbrol Satin 174 for the slight pink tinge. Test pieces seem encouraging that this will produce the aged effect. I would love to hear of others observations of aged all metal cold war jets, weathering/ageing techniques etc. Also has anyone else noted the hint of pink? Perhaps someone can even explain why it happens?

Thanks for the encouragement guys, one of those things where I got up in the morning not being sure if I could do it, ended the day with a satisfactory result so I was well chuffed with it.

And fitted to the spine:

Ta Bill, I'll look around at available sections. Spent most of the afternoon playing with copper foil. After doing some random stuff I started making some bits and bobs in around 1/48 scale which worked OK so I guessed it was time to bite the bullet and go for a 1/72 intake for the spine, here it is: The forward round section was formed around a sewing needle. For size, it is sat on the lid of a can of Mr Surfacer 1000

Agreed pictures are of an F6, different wing.

Well spotted Bill, the kit molding has the cable duct too thin and too short for an F3 - fortunately the cure is at hand, remove them and reform from sprue, I want to get all the scribing done first though then fit the cable ducts. Small intakes, on spine and various on the fuselage are I hope going to appear in copper foil but still some experimentation needed on forming the stuff.

Link to plans courtesy of Cmatthewbacon link is in post #5

Tried out the Alclad, to see how it would work out, I noticed on many photographs that the some panels appear brighter than the aluminium in some light and darker with different lighting, I got just this effect with Alclad II Aluminium as the base and Alclad II Stainless Steel as the marked out panels, here they appear darker (two panels on leading edge) when they catch the light they look brighter, so spot on for the effect I wanted: Main problem I've had with the wing is I couldn't find my P-38 filler and used Plastic Padding, big mistake, the stuff wants to keep peeling off the plastic and is awful to scribe, so the area around my hinge line for the aileron isn't as clean as I would have liked, we live and learn so for me P-38 and only P-38 for these jobs in the future

I guess I should have figured that with the tanks sat right next to it, trying to find some web references for drawings/name of the unit, still getting zilch coming up though.

PS if anyone can identify the ground equipment in the foreground of the linked picture above it would be a great help (Yellow, four wheels and a pull handle). I'm guessing a GPU of some type though possibly fuel related?

Scheme will be XP754 as she appears here: XP754 external link due to copyright. Decals are on the Model Alliance EE Lightning Part 3 sheet. I have a thing for Treble One squadron Lightnings as they helped inspire I lifetimes love of aviation. Quite a plain scheme I guess but I'm particularly after getting the 'mid service' look of the dulled aluminium, I think I might have cracked how to do it using Alclad II Aluminium over a grey primer, have to see how it comes out when the time comes. I've a feeling there is also some nostalgia creeping in with the scheme, not a million miles away from the old Airfix F1A XM192 offering and that may be in the back of my mind too!