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"Are 'Friends' Electric?" The English Electric Lightning F.1 by Airfix 1/48


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Oh my gawd! Seems like forever since I did an update. It’s only been four days but I’ve done heaps since then. Not necessarily on the Lightning but heaps of life stuff. I’ve had the kids since Thursday as Mrs S has been away, myself and Milo my youngest have been away on a boys weekend until this afternoon too. I’ve got some bits and bobs done in between so I thought I’d share.

first up I wasn’t sure how to mask the pit so I decided to use the canopy itself and stick it in place with a small amount of gators grip, I’ll pop it off later on.

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After all the final bits were in place I gave the whole lot a good final prime.

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lookng good. Against all the advice I think I might do the air breaks open. It’s my model so there. :hobbyhorse:

A day later I woke up took the kids to school took the wife to the station drove home got a cup o’ tea some biscuits

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Andcspent a short while with the Lightning.

I was just about to start painting when I realised I’d forgotten the pylons for the missiles. So on they went.

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After thinking which way around to mask the wheel wells, they are aluminium and the underside is silver, I decided upon free hand spraying the wells then masking them with foam to do the rest. So I cut a mask using an old spray board.

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and set to work on the wells.

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that’ll do. I made sure the other pylon got glued in straight.

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Then cut my foam masks using a brass rubbing method to male the template.

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Time was up so I had to call it a day. Friday was busy and I had to get ready for the big weekend away so nothing got done on the lighting. We had a blast in Stratford however.

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I even struck a bargain with the local and very nice antique dealer to gain another wall hanging for the cave.

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50 Original cigarette cards framed for £26. I got it for £23. Great addition to the wall I think you’ll agree. :penguin:we got back today and I managed a little more bench time.

pylons dry and base paint on.

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The masks are working well. The flaps and legs got a blast too.

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As you don’t pre shade silver I did a post shade. Subtle as I want to do some panel stuff later on.

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And the flaps and legs.

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That is where we are. I have to top coat with Vallejo metal varnish. I guess that can wait till tomorrow. Right then that’s me done. Thanks for popping in, it’s been lovely. Until next time, Happy modelling.

 

Johnny Electric. 

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Nice work Johnny :)

I noticed the 'Bremont' logos - thanks again for trying that out for me.

Nice picture cards too. Of course you'll have to model them all now!

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Heck of a progress, Johnny! :clap::clap:

 

Also glad to hear you had a great time over the WE :thumbsup:

 

I think I'll steal your idea for foam masks, if you don't mind :)

 

Ciao 

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53 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

Love the wall hanging, and a bargain price too!

Oh, and the Frightening is coming along nicely as well!

Thanks. I couldn’t resist. :hobbyhorse:

40 minutes ago, CedB said:

Nice work Johnny :)

I noticed the 'Bremont' logos - thanks again for trying that out for me.

Nice picture cards too. Of course you'll have to model them all now!

No probs Ced. Yes I was wondering if I should go for the big fifty.:o

38 minutes ago, giemme said:

Heck of a progress, Johnny! :clap::clap:

 

Also glad to hear you had a great time over the WE :thumbsup:

 

I think I'll steal your idea for foam masks, if you don't mind :)

 

Ciao 

Steal away. It’s what it’s sll about right. :lol:

and Thanks.

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She comes along nicely Johnny

 

Looks as if you had samples of Stratford's finest with the lad, have you taken him to the Stratford Armories just up the A34 from the ringroad island to the North?

 

If not you should, they have lots of stuff for the kids to interact with and there's the remains of a Wellington that crashed during a training exercise from Snitterfield which is where he museum is

 

My wife and I enjoyed the trip, we intend taking the grandkids soon

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Good evening gents. Thanks for all the positive comments. :lol: A little more done tonight and a quick question. I was going to mask and filter but I decided to brush and filter some panels in smoke instead. They turned out ok. I’m not 100% happy with the metal really as I wish I’d have put gloss black down first, but I’ll be darned if I’m doing it again. :hobbyhorse: It’ll look fine once weathered and it does look a lot better after some Vallejo metal varnish. 

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The question is about the varnish. I don’t know if anyone out there has used it but I’m airbrushing with it and it’s great for the first 5 minutes or so, It is supposed to dry after 5 mins. But after that it really begins to clog my Iwata and then stops it up altogether. I’ve given it a good clean now with various thinners and it’s fine again but I don’t like putting the varnish through my best AB. I’ve just ordered a cheapo brush to spray varnish with but my other two cheap airbrushes were killed by varnish. :( I don’t think the Vallejo stuff but I’m wondering if I should or if anyone else has had a better/ different experience with it?

thanks for any feed back. I’m off to have a looksie at the Float plane gallery.

take care chaps aaand Happy Modelling.

 

Johnny boy.

 

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It seems to be Vallejo paint specific Johnny, works well but to be honest it seems a bit weird when you use it, all milkyish

Probably explained by me using it just after I came back into the game and discovered Vallejo paints which are still different paint to everyonne else's

I was used to old style Humbrol Authentics and normal enamels (which you cannot get anymore) and the new fangled Tamiya Paints and all this acrylic stuff came along and shocked me

 

Apart from brush touch ins I try not to rely on Vallejo any more because it detests handling after it is on the model

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Dandy stuff Johnny. Just enjoyed a lovely catch up here on a snowy evening. Some great painting as usual, and looks like you and Milo had a fine trip out together. Watching your metallic escapades with interest given my own baptism of fire on the Box lies in the future...

Rock on,

 

Tony

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5 hours ago, perdu said:

It seems to be Vallejo paint specific Johnny, works well but to be honest it seems a bit weird when you use it, all milkyish

 

Do you mean their retarder, Bill? I have that, it's similar in appearance and texture to thick white glue. The Vallejo acrylic thinners I have are, well, thinnerish.

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I still have the little jar in the garage, though I dont use it any more

 

Its a milk like thinners, dont think it says retarder anywhere, now I am going to have to go down into the fridgidaire and find out

 

:(

 

doh...

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4 hours ago, Ian said:

Keeping an eye on this project as I'm planning on building the 'original issue' F1 later this year. Great work so far, all looks very promising.

 

 

Ian.

Thanks, I hope this’ll be of some use. :hobbyhorse:She’s a great aeroplane.

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Dandy stuff Johnny. Just enjoyed a lovely catch up here on a snowy evening. Some great painting as usual, and looks like you and Milo had a fine trip out together. Watching your metallic escapades with interest given my own baptism of fire on the Box lies in the future...

Rock on,

 

Tony

Thanks Tony, The weekend away was awesome. I hope the snow isn’t too bad over yonder. I can highly recommend the acrylic metallics. I just need to get that thinner sorted.

3 hours ago, amblypygid said:

 

Do you mean their retarder, Bill? I have that, it's similar in appearance and texture to thick white glue. The Vallejo acrylic thinners I have are, well, thinnerish.

Well now here’s the thing. There are a few Vallejo thinner type things. 3 types of thinner, well 3 numbers (71.161, 71.061, 71.361) but I hope that is just the size of tub and not the contents. There is also a “medium” thinner? And a flow improver. :christmas: who knows? I bought the airbrush thinners so we will see how that goes.  Thanks for your help Bill @perdu and @amblypygid , much appreciated.

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Busy day at work today so I needed some serious distraction in the form of some plastic fantastic! I poped some choice Jethro Tull on the old turn table and settled down in the grotto. Thanks @Procopius I love that name. :rambo: 

Some major mojo was had for some good ol’ Masking action.

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it looks fine under there. Well that’s my story. :angel:. I changed my mind again and decided to have the sir brakes closed. Not a bad fit off the bat.

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I know it’s not everyone’s cup o’ tea but it’s mine so pre shade ahoy. Flaps first.

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then the body, I love free handing this part.

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I added tonal variation with the squiggle method.

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I’m going to add some white to the middle areas too but I need that to dry. I’m getting paint tomorrow for the Camo. Does Tamiy XF81 and XF82 sound right? 

Oh by the way the Chinese AB turned up. Works well, I’ll wait for the thinner to arrive and see how it goes. Not bad for a tender.:violin:

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Thanks for dropping by. It’s been a lovely evening clearing my head. I hope you all get some good modeling action yourselves. Have fun and as always, Happy modeling.

John.

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8 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

There is also a “medium” thinner? And a flow improver. :christmas:

 

And a retarder, to boot (which is the gloopy stuff I was referring to earlier). Though I see that Vallejo themselves discourage the use of this in airbrushing (or, if you must, they recommend using no more than 5% of the total. Given that it comes out in big drops, that's going to need a lot of paint...) The mediums aren't thinners in the sense that they thin the consistency of the paint, they reduce the opacity 

Interestingly, in their FAQ, they recommend against using water as a thinner as it affects the adhesive qualities of their paint, which I think is the #1 complaint about Vallejo paints.

 

Those Chinese ABs are good value, though I managed to destroy two nozzles on mine last weekend. Beware over-tightening!

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25 minutes ago, amblypygid said:

Beware over-tightening!

Ha. Funny you should say that. That night before last I was trying to salvage my two old airbrushes that came with my compressor. I tightened the end of one and POP! The tread snapped off inside the tip, :huh: . Never mind at least I have spare parts now. :christmas:

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Hot diggity! You work both fast and properly too!

Tamiya XF-81 and 82 are for Spitfires in Dark green  and Ocean Grey though. Lightnings are painted in Dark Green and Dark Sea grey. I guess you could use the Dark Green but you need something else for the Dark Sea Grey

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