1:48 Airfix F6 Lightning XR 753 - all in

[Caerbannog]

Hi,

I am going to enter the F6 Lightning XR 753 in NMF finish with white tail and spine based on the Airfix kit with tons of aftermarket stuff. I collected the kit and extras over several years and now it is time to build this.

Included are - apart from the Airfix 1:48 kit - an Aires and a CMK cockpit (no idea why I have both - any suggestions which one to use?); Aires exhausts (which I already painted once I had the airbrush loaded for another kit); CMK U/C; Aeroclub canopy, nose ring and wheels; Master pitot tube; Eduard masks and Xtradecals sheet (I did my own decals for this maschine but then Xtradecals released their sheet - so to play safe I got their sheet as well...).

I guess I have listed everything...

Edit: No there is a mistake - the wheels are part of the CMK u/c set - but I got Aeroclubs metal u/c as well plus CMK control surfaces. Here is the prommised pic which was missing in the original post:

I am really looking forward to this one

Rene

[Col.]

Nice choice of subject Rene. Sounds as if you are well equipped for this one. Not sure which of the two aftermarket cockpits is the better even though I also have both for separate kits - never got around to comparing them yet.

[Hockeyboy76]

Looking forward to seeing this build progress.

[Caerbannog]

Thanks. Here is what I have done so far.

I gave the CMK u/c set a shot with silver and sanded the u/c bays down as far as possible. I have not checked yet but suppose more sanding inside the wings will be needed. There is some filling and sanding on the intake/fwd wheelwell needed - although I am not sure what will be seen once everything is assembled.

The exhaust got a coat of Testors burned metal (Metalizer paint) and a little treatment with the Tamiya weathering set "hot metal blue". More weathering will be needed:

The work above was done solely because I had the airbrush loaded or because I was sanding some other resin pieces. I always do this which becomes quite buisy when I load interior green to my air brush :-D

Next steps will be checking the cockpit sets and working on these. I simply cannot help it but have to start with the cockpit.

Rene

[nimrod54]

This should be good and great work so far on the exhaust. They should look the business when you complete the weathering.

[Col.]

You're off to a great start on those exhausts Rene

[Caerbannog]

Thanks!

Did not do anything but wondering which cockpit set to choose:

The CMK parts are more difficult to photograph because of the tan colour. Both sets have some details which look better than on the other set. The Aires seat is better IMHO and I think the cockpit tub is nicer from Aires as well. The instrument panel coaming looks better on the CMK set - but I cannot say if this is more accurate. A plus of the CMK set is the included canopy. Both sets include PE parts and acetate films for the instrument panel. The latter one seems better on the CMK set, which includes two versions.

I need to check if I can mix the sets or or if this only creates new problems.

Fitting wise I think (!) the Aires one will be more demanding than CMK set simply because the CMK tub is less chunky.

Rene

[Hockeyboy76]

Aires set looks better I think. I have used cmk sets for my starfighter & have had quite a few fit issues with it.

[Col.]

Think you need another Lightning kit to use both

[nimrod54]

I think I would go Aries, but they can sometimes require quite a bit of thinning of the kit and the parts to get them.

[Caerbannog]

Thanks for your thoughts - yesterday I felt the urge to check if the CMK wheel well fit inside the wings and had a go with these before I turn to the cockpit.

You have to cut most plastic which is replicating the wheel well structur in the lower wing part but must keep the mounting point for the u/c as this is not part of the CMK set. Which is a good thing as you will have no trouble in aligning. Then it would be good to sand the plastic a bit more down than I did (I had to scrape some plastic for the upper wing to get th eresin inside):

The difference regarding details to the kit wheel well is quite big:

Before I glued the wing parts together I had to cut the moving surface (aileron???) to replace it with the CMK moving surface set. Frankly I only got this as it was reduced to 2 or 4 Euro - I would not bother buying it as the Lightning has the moving surfaces provided in a neutral position in most pics and the Airfix parts are nice and sharp. The set includes the airbrakes as well, which are nicer than the kit parts - but again: The pics of parked Lightnings show them mostly with the airbrakes closed. On the other hand I think a model looks sometimes more real when the moving surfaces are not 100% neutral - so I bite the extra work bullet.

It turned out that the CMK part was shorter than what Airfix provided. So I left some resin from the pouring block on the aileron (I just call it aileron now - not sure if it actually is an aileron) which will be sanded to blend in the aileron cross section.

I have a question concerning the over wing tanks. I know they were fitted to NMF machines (I have a picture somewhere) - but is it likely that XR 753 had them fitted in the NMF livery once? I only know of pics without these.

Rene

[Greased Lightning]

Good luck with this, I'll be watching with interest.

[Col.]

I can't say off-hand what reasons there are for narrowing down if an airframe carried overwing tanks or not but hopefully one of the gang will be around to keep us right.

Good work on fitting those resin parts and thanks for the detailed descriptions - sure those will be useful for others thinking of using the same bits.

[Caerbannog]

Thanks.

Will not directly work on this today - but tried to do some reseach (it is never too late to start it...). So now I know the moving surfaces which I called ailerons are ailerons. I just found one pic so far with the port aileron slightly up (about 5° - 10°) on XS904 at Warton preparing for engine runs (shown on page 85 in Warbirdtech Series Vol 28). The canopy is open but the flaps are up - as on any pic of a parked Lightning in this book. The air brakes are also closed on all parked Lightnings except one picture on which they were still open. I suppose on purpose for takeing this picture (page 39 same book) - but at least this was basically possible (which is enough for me for this build).

There is also another pic of the over wing tanks mounted to a NMF display F.6 (1967 XS903 at Boscombe Down) so I think I will mount these too as they make the Lightning look even more special.

Rene

[Col.]

The basic fact of the matter is the model will be all yours. Your purchase, your work, to be displayed on your shelf, so the end result must satisfy you.

[Caerbannog]

So meanwhile I finished both wings. I was not too overwhelmed by CMKs ailerons fit. As said they are too short but also a tad wide. So some sanding is needed. Frankly I would not decide to use the CMK ailerons again but keep the kit parts unaltered. Should I ever do another Lightning it will be with all moving surfaces closed/neutral - less hassle and also closer to reality. Maybe I get a straight wing Lightning in my hands for this... I mean - I have a cockpit set left ;-)

When I cut the aileron of the left wing I notice that it will be easier to simply bend the kit ailerons into position than to use the CMK part:

They look a bit different now (I maybe will tweak the Airfix aileron a little so it looks more like the CMK part) but as you can see it is no problem to add a bit of defelexion to the kit ailerons if you want to.

Next I started on the intake parts. The CMK part needs quite a lot of sanding to get it smooth - but take care as the resin is very thin around the u/c bay. In fact there are already tiny holes which need to be filled with super glue. The Airfix parts fit well and clean up would be minimal - but there are ejector marks to be filled and sanded.

Rene

[SleeperService]

Great work so far. Thanks for the comments about the CMK ailerons which I was thinking about getting, but not now!

[Caerbannog]

The CMK moving surfaces include the airbrakes as well - IMHO the only part inside this set which could be interesting. Although these were closed on the ground in 99.9% I would say. I heared the kit parts have a bad fit when positioned closed but I bet that CMK did not address this with their set.

So if you like to show your Lightning close to real life (and this is usually the case I think) you do not need to buy this set. Keep all moving surfaces neutral/closed and you cannot be wrong.

Rene

[Caerbannog]

Not much to show today. I assembled the intake trunking which still needs some sanding, primed the cockpit in Dark Admirality Grey (I used gloss Humbrol 5 this time to see how a wash will work on this - will be dull coated later) and decided against using anything else from the CMK moving surfaces set: I shut the airbrakes. The reason lays within the CMK u/c set. The forward u/c CMK part has some shape issues:

The radome is too small I think (I compared pictures of finished Airfix Lightnings with pics of the real thing and think the Airfix radome size is more correct than the CMK part - but if anyone thinks otherwise/knows better please let me know). But the Airfix parts have problems with the forward wheel well shape so it is no good either. Therfore I cut the radome from the Airfix part and will fit it to the CMK wheel well, which probably sound easier than it is. The wheel well continues into the blended area aft of the radome, so you cannot simply make a straight cut through the resin. Then the resin is much wider than the opening in the Airfix radome assembly so lots of dry fitting and sanding will be needed.

This made me a tad angry on CMK and so I decided to simply abandon the moving surfaces (aside form the already used aileron), which make the model maybe more interesting but also less authentic. To prevent me from changing my mind once more on this I glued the Airfix airbrake doors in place. The port door fits flush but leaves half a V-shaped groove (cannot describe it better - will try to take a pic soon) while the starboard door needed some shimming to be flush but fits nicely then.

Rene

[Hockeyboy76]

Rene,

I have had fit issues with CMK parts before on a Starfighter. Hope you get yours sorted.

[Col.]

Is there a chance you can fit the CMK wheel well inside the Airfix Radome parts. They look almost small enough.

[Caerbannog]

The CMK part will not fit inside the Airfix radome without sanding or cutting. Lots of actually:

Some more tweaking is still needed in the pics below as the radome sits too high:

But this is already sorted.

I already assembled the intake trunking so I can sand the seam line inside easily. After this the CMK/Airfix part will be inserted:

The CMK and Airfix parts are just hold together by a bit of BlueTac for adjustment. When I am happy with how the two align I will connect them with super glue, remove the BluTac and fill the radoome with lead - at least one good thing about this operation.

As visible in the bottom picture there is a huge gap between the Airfix intake and the Aeroclub nose ring. So some more dryfitting is needed.

Rene

Edit: Take a look into the Frightenening Lightning build - the Aires set used there seems to be a lot better. So if you are looking for an after-market u/c set I strongly recomment to take a closer look on the Aires set. Which is also a bit cheaper it seems...

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Been watching this one. It's not just a build - it's a lesson in modelling techniques. I've learned quite a bit from this one so far. Nice one!

[Caerbannog]

Thanks a lot Enzo

Not much done the last days due to my sons birthday. Did some more work on the intake like sanding painting and most of all dryfitting:

I will take small steps with glueing the intake parts together as I fear it will not pay to hurry here... Especially as there is a huge gap between wheel well and fuselage which will need to be closed. I will probably make use of the parts which I cut from the intake to make way for the CMK resin wheel well - but these will need some sanding down as they are too heigh now. Or I cut new parts from sheet. Not sure yet.

Meanwhile I opened the cannon muzzles of the cannon belly pack. The kit only gives you shallow molded shapes to resemble these. A common way to fix this is cutting the kit part open, install a plastic tube and sand this back to line up with the fuselage. Of course this destroys a lot of detail and frankly I tried it before but was never really pleased with the result. So I tried a minimal invasive method as shown below:

I need to find out if you see the cannon protuding or not to decide if I insered a micro tube or use Miliput.

One last thing I did was opening up the vent at the stabilizer by drilling and cutting:

Rene

Edit: I noticed that some (most) pictures of the gun pack show something like flash hiders above the muzzles, which will be tricky to make. It looks as if XR753 also has these. I suppose they were installed at some time and not from the beginning. Does anybody knows anything about these? Below are the best pics I could find:

[Col.]

Not sure about when the flash suppressors were introduced but they certainly don't appear on every photo of the F.6 I've seen.

My personal plan is to represent them by drilling through some suitable plastic sheet to form the inner hole before punching them out to form the outer diameter then gluing in place with considerable care. A long time ago in 72nd scale I did try to represent them by flattening some soft wire loops but that model died many years ago so not sure how it would look by today's standard.