Lightning T.5--Now a T.4 and nearly finished ;-)

[chrisrope]

Hi Chris, Your cuts to graft the Airfix belly onto the Matchbox fuselage are exactly as I did with mine.

Unfortunately no construction photos - this project pre-dates my digital camera.

I used the Airfix wings. Just trimmed the very forward inner edge to match the slightly wider fuselage.

Thanks for posting these, that looks brilliant. I think this is the scheme i'm going for, though I do have decals for a NMF T5.

Cheers

Chris

P.S.- Can anybody who happens to have this decal set confirm it has the letters and the roundels on the sheets. There's no mention of the roundels and fin flashes in the description

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72092

Ta.

Edited April 15, 2013 by chrisrope

[theplasticsurgeon]

Decals for my T5 were all from spares.

I've made a lot of Lightings - so loads of leftovers.

[snipeboy]

Brings back memories. Now my main era is ww1 aircraft, however many, many moons ago, Lightnings and me stood shoulder to shoulder ready to hurl back the Bolshavik hordes from sweeping down on Tyneside. One point I notice that no one has pointed out is the F2 had short cable ducts but the modified F2A had the longer ones. To make a 2A from matchbox kit you need to shorten the ducts which are correct for the F6. Not Rocket Science of course but overlooked by Matchbox. Matchbox do have the best rendition of these ducts however as FROG/Hasegawa/Revell and both the Airfix 72nd issues are far too enemic. Best and easily replaced. I only hope Airfix; should they issue their new light'ning as alternative F2A and F6 versions, supply the cable ducts as seperate parts (.useful spares to use for the older F1/3/6s.) Come Christas looking forward to down gradeing (or upgrade ??)t from 32nd scale Sopwith Snipe to a 72nd Frightning,

best wishes all.

[snipeboy]

Sorry beer gogles off, I meant the F2A retained short cable ducts while tail fin, ventral tank, and wings modified to F6 standard. Thats why I said reduce length of Matchbox cable ducts for mor accurate model. Snipeboy

[chrisrope]

Check it out, a long overdue update. Many problems with filler cracking but all good now. It was to be a T5 but a chance purchase gave me an early tail so now it is a T4. Another purchase gave me the decals for a 74 sqn aircraft so it's painted as such

It's a bit rough round the edges but it just passes the 4 foot test so it will do for now

Lastly with another Matchbox conversion, a cobbled together T7 Meatbox using some Aeroclub bits and a Matchbox NF kit

With Sword's T4 and T5 imminent, i'm glad I won't have to do this ever again

Chris