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1/48 Airfix Lightning F.6


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Recently rescued this one from the shelf of doom. The reason I abandoned such an icon? Well I was a bit hasty in my enthusiam and didn't know about the nasty warping on one of the wings and asembled them in ignorant bliss.

A few days post wing bodging, i read an article regarding this issue and sure enough mine was warped. :unamused: Once i knew about it my heart just wasn't in it anymore and so it was boxed and shelved.

 

A couple of weeks ago I decided to give it another go, I think I'm going to have to live with the wing warpage as i think if i try to separate the wing halves I'll do more damage than good. Hopefully it won't look to obvious.

 

Anyway here's where I'm at...

 

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Goodies I'm using for this, although she was going to be dressed in 23sqn colours, my favourite. I'm now having second thoughts as I don't think the finish is going to be up to the standard for a NMF, so maybe going for XS901  (BA) with 11sqn.

 

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Neomega's excellent resin cockpit

 

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Painted with Humbrol enamels

 

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Canopy detail

 

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Eduards Reheat petals, not to shabby

 

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More eduard detail, not going to go mad with the wings for obvious reasons.

 

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Rivet detail and white metal nose ring from Aeroclub, I think?

 

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Lastly Airwaves ladder, which is a little wonky, but will hopefully pass muster.

 

So far, all I've done since I rescued her from the scrap heap is clean up the seams, add a bit of filler and rescribing. Hopefully she'll turn out fine ;)

 

More to follow shortly...

 

 

 

 

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great work so far!
 

lots of detail here!

 

love the cockpit :)

 

what do you think abut the metal intake ring? apart from being hard to get, you recon it necessary or useful? 

 

thanks and good luck with the rest!

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Thanks Exdraken, glad you like it, really wasn't sure if I should restart this one.

 

My intention was not to use the Metal intake ring, it was orginally for a Aeroclub T.5 conversion, but i found Airfix's rendering a little to wide for the rest of the fuselage, so out came my course sanding stick. I was a tad too keen and ended damaging the front of it so I really had no choice.

 

One nice thing about it is once its cleaned up and polished it really is shiny, just like the real thing!

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it looks too good to be sacrificed to the modeling gods I 'd say.... and it is a Lightning! would not be accepted anyways ;)

 

any pictures of the wing warp?

nearly everything is somehow fixable with a razor saw, plastic card putty and superglue...

it is only plastic after all :P

Edited by exdraken
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Working away from home at the moment so I don't have access to it at the moment, Its not that bad really, just looks off when you look head on.

 

As I mentioned before, I think its too late to repair now, either that or its me just being lazy!

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Thanks for the interest guys  ;)

 

Still plodding along with this. A few more goodies arrived from the big H and ebay, Danny Coremans Lightning book is well worth the money for those that want to add more detail to their model...

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Added the QMT intake blank, the retaining straps were made from plastic rigging wire I've had for years, to say it was fiddley would be an understatement.

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Finally stuck the wings on, the wing warp is not that bad really, but I won't be taking any head on shots as it is quite noticable from this angle. Looking through countless photos of Lightnings i noticed that some have a 'strengthening strap' on the inboard wings, To save me filling the wing join I added this using evergreen 0.13mm sheeting.

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I decided to add a bit of detail to the ventral tank, There are 4 holes along the centreline of the tank, these are here on the kit but are not greatly represented. I drilled these out and added discs punched out of plastic stock, i then added plastic rod to the centre of these discs and drilled out the centre, these were then cut flush with the skin of tank.

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Detail added to the arrestor hook.

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Lastly I've modified the Redtop missiles to represent 'drill rounds' often seen on Lightnings, I cut the wings off and added the fixing points with plastic stock and drilled 4 holes  for each fixing. I have started the dip the heads of the missiles in Mr surfacer 500 to represent the seeker covers that protect the delicate glass when on the ground.

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Thats all for now, next up will be buttoning up the cockpit ready for painting, oh and detailing the undercarriage legs.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

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Nice save! From what you have posted so far, it was well worth ignoring the warpage and pressing on. Your cockpit painting is ace. 

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On 3/10/2017 at 5:56 PM, propforward said:

Cockpit looks beautiful - what did you use to make the radar screen rubber boot?

Thanks prop forward, the radar screen boot was just some wine bottle foil wrapped around it then folded, simple but effective.

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Very nice detail work there, lovely build.

Didn't realise that there was a metal nose ring available.

 

Great kits these, I got a handful of these when they came out in 1997/98 and had warped wings in my F.1A boxing, Airfix replaced them though.

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