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At the moment I'm getting a bit fed up with kit builds taking forever, and seemingly requiring lots more attention than I thought possible (or can justify to the family!). I therefore wanted to build something quickly, and out of the box. I don't want to spend any more money on it, I don't want to nip out to get something for it, I don't even want to clear the desk for it, I just want to build it, preferably within in a week and to the best of my ability. I also want that childish satisfaction of seeing a finished model on my shelf, just to gee myself up for the other builds. A quick glance around the stash and a couple of options sprung to mind for this build, but settled on the newer Airfix 1/72nd Lightning F.2A kit. I've always had a soft spot for the 2As, something about that classic era of RAF Germany being just across the wire from the Rooskies, their unique colour schemes, and tales from old controllers about them scraping in on fumes. They only ever served with 19 and 92 Squadrons, based at Gutersloh. Years ago I knew an ex Chief Tech who showed me some fantastic slides of 92 Sqn Lightnings from his time with them, very inspirational. Initially I was thinking of doing one of my 'foil delights' builds, by depicting an earlier 92 Sqn bird in natural metal with the blue fin & spine, but the kit I'm using is one of those gift set versions and only gives decals for one aircraft, XN793 A of 92 Sqn in the unique dark green finish. I really like this finish as well, so a silver one can wait. The Gutersloh spotters site is an absolute treasure for anyone that appreciates the Cold War RAF, the Lightning pages in particular are superlative. I cant recommend the site enough for modellers and enthusiasts alike, http://sg-etuo.de/Squadrons/No92SquadronF2A It has over fifteen photos of XN793 so I'm using it as reference for my build. 032 (1200x799) by James Thomas, on Flickr This is how it comes, on inspection it looks a really well engineered and finished kit 042 (1200x799) by James Thomas, on Flickr Starting off by painting and making up the intake, and radar /undercarriage bay assembly. I removed some of those molding 'circles' from near the front of the intake trunking, but left the ones further back, I don't want to waste time on things I won't see at the end. Humbrol 11 silver mixed with some satin black to give a natural metal look, then coated in Kleer to give a glossy appearance. The front part of the lower splitter/ uc bay is painted black (deicing?), the gun camera hole will be filled with Clearcote to look more lens like. 034 (1200x799) by James Thomas, on Flickr Next up, jet pipes assemblies. The the inner, and outer jet pipe ends were thinned down by twirling a scalpel around inside then (pencil sharpener like) to reduce the thickness to nearer the scale of the actual pipes. Here we have the holy trinity of Humbrols 11 & 85 and Airfix G7 (at least 20 years old that pot!), joined by some finely ground pencil lead. I use the colours as a palette to mix for the various shades seen on jet pipes. All the parts are painted in satin black, I then mix the other colours for the desired shades and apply over the black before it has dried. The pencil dust is used for inside the pipes to give a matt dirty look, and still looks metallic. 036 (1200x802) by James Thomas, on Flickr This is how it all ends up, the room stinks like the Devils own paint factory at this stage! 046 (1200x801) by James Thomas, on Flickr The jet pipe assemblies ready to go. This thread could possibly bore the pants off you, but thanks for looking and any input is welcomed!