cloggydog Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 Having recently bought and moved into our own house, I was rather taken by the remaining Victorian fireplace in the front (spare) bedroom, complete with mantelpiece and chimneybreast. Initial plan was to source a vintage mirror, but in a flash of inspiration I recalled the 3 flying ducks that my nan had over her fireplace, flying in echelon across the chimneybreast and growing in size from small, through medium, to large. Hmmm.... Could I recreate something similar, but with model aircraft? HMMMM.... A quick search of various threads on here and elsewhere, along with a well-known auction site (and my remaining kit stash) produced 3 BAC Lightning F6 kits - a F-Toys/Gashapon 1/144 F6, a Tamiya 1/100 F6 and a Hasegawa 1/72 F6. Perfect. Plan is to build them pretty much OOB 'in flight' (as this is a 'fun' project, I'm not going the whole hog with aftermarket stuff, that's all saved for the 'serious' and growing stash of Airfix and Sword 72nd Lightnings). The trio will need to be slightly modded to enable fixing across the chimneybreast in a suitable formation (smallest lower left diagonally up to largest top right). Basic construction started last evening, with the cleaning up/fettling of parts, filling of superflouous holes and slots for the unrequired overburgers, dry-fittings and working out the best was of displaying/fixing to the wall, which entailed the decision to leave off/remove the left ventral strake and file/cut a slightly angled flat into each belly tank. One outstanding decision is colour schemes... different on each, or the same repeated thrice. I'm minded to go with different, 1 camo and 2 variants of air-superiority grey, all from the final years of 5sqn, 11sqn and the LTF (as I remember them). Current faves would be a camo 5sqn machine (XS921 AB is a contender), XS903 as 11sqn 'BA' (black fin and large eagles) and lastly XR728 'JS' with LTF markings. I'll chuck some pics up in due course, if the phone plays ball. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 Personally, I would've gone with 100, 72, and 48th scales, but then I don't have to justify Lightnings to anyone... As for colours, have you considered doing them all in shiny chrome, as an art deco feature? Great idea BTW, if I ever have a fireplace I'll unashamedly nick it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloggydog Posted November 29, 2017 Author Share Posted November 29, 2017 20 minutes ago, Rob G said: Personally, I would've gone with 100, 72, and 48th scales, but then I don't have to justify Lightnings to anyone... As for colours, have you considered doing them all in shiny chrome, as an art deco feature? Great idea BTW, if I ever have a fireplace I'll unashamedly nick it! Thanks Rob. Scales - I did consider going larger, but decided that the 48th one would stick out just a bit too much and be at much higher risk of being dinged and clobbered. Colours - I saw the 1:1 chromed Jag at the Tate Britain a few years back and it was tempting... however Nan's ducks were 'realistically' coloured and I just prefer to finish them in proper schemes. Of course... there's the second 1/144 one in the box and I know I have a Novo F6 or two still in a stash box somewhere, so I might give an all-chrome one a punt. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 Okay....MY popcorn is ready as is the soft comfortable seat. Looking forward to your Trio .. Any updates and pictures.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloggydog Posted November 30, 2017 Author Share Posted November 30, 2017 Okey-dokey, the basic airframes have all been put together - of the 3 I have to say my fave is the little 1:144 F-Toys one, the finesse of detail and the overall shape, not to mention fit, is just lovely. Next job is to tidy up the joins, fit the airbrakes to the big 'un (and I vaguely recall from the last Hasegawa one I did some 30 years ago what a pita that will be), missile rails to the big and little 'uns, then a thin primer coat to check if anything needs titivating further before I make my mind up about which scheme each will carry. Ducks by Alan Monk, on Flickr and their eventual 'home' ('scuse the detritus on the mantle...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Lyttle Posted December 1, 2017 Share Posted December 1, 2017 I like your style in home decor!! Now, full on chrome may be a overly"Deco", but there could be some middle ground between... Little bit of buffed up Natural Metal Finish perhaps? 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurrantBunbury Posted December 1, 2017 Share Posted December 1, 2017 I love this idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloggydog Posted December 1, 2017 Author Share Posted December 1, 2017 7 hours ago, rob Lyttle said: I like your style in home decor!! Now, full on chrome may be a overly"Deco", but there could be some middle ground between... Little bit of buffed up Natural Metal Finish perhaps? 😉 Ta! The problem with NMF is that, personally (and other than BAC/BAe's XP693), I never saw Lightnings in it - by the time I started doing airshows and taking an interest in them, live Lightnings were all camo/ASG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloggydog Posted December 4, 2017 Author Share Posted December 4, 2017 (edited) A slight 'Oh b....r' at the weekend when I noticed that the Hasegawa's main canopy was a short-shot, thus incomplete. As this kit has been sculling round my stash for about 25 years, I'd not noticed the flaw previously. Somewhere, I know I have half-a-dozen Aeroclub vacform canopies for the single-seater Lightning, so I'll need to rummage through the many, many crates in the shed and find the box with all the aircraft detailing bits in. Said rummage will also hopefully turn up the decal stash. Edited December 4, 2017 by cloggydog speelong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 What a superb idea! I’m stealing this one! Does anybody do 1/100 and 1/144 Vulcans!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F111Fan Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 14 minutes ago, Lord Riot said: What a superb idea! I’m stealing this one! Does anybody do 1/100 and 1/144 Vulcans!? Either Great Wall Hobby or Cyberhobby do one in 1/144 IIRC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
propforward Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Great idea! I love it. Looking forward to seeing the project progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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