canberraman Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Some of you may recall I’m in the throes of building all the last remaining Meteors in UK military service as the type was progressively withdrawn during the 1980s. My latest 1/72 Meteor off the bench is Meteor NF.11½ WD790 of the Royal Radar Establishment (RRE)/RAE. This is the old but still generally accurate Matchbox Meteor Night Fighter kit, with both Alleycat resin needle nose conversion and after market decals. WD790 - the 39th production NF.11, was the longest serving radar research Meteor. (It became unofficially known as an NF.11½ following the addition of the extended leading edge tailfin from an NF.12/14). Allocated to the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) in 1952, It was initially engaged on ‘Red Garter’ ECM trials for the new V bomber force. In 1958 it went to the Ferranti Flying Unit as Turnhouse where it assisted in AI Mk 23 development for the Lightning, and later trials with Red Brick/Indigo Corkscrew radar for Bloodhound and Thunderbird SAMs. Upon its return to what was then the RRE at Pershore, it undertook radar trials for the TSR.2 and in 1966/67, received the AIRPASS/AI 23 pointed nosecone from Canberra B(I)8 WT327. It was later transferred to RAE Bedford as a testbed for radar being developed for the Panavia Tornado and whilst at Bedford, gained the RAE house ‘raspberry ripple’ livery. WD790 ended it’s flying days in 1981 at RAE Llanbedr where it flew with other manned target Meteors. After grounding, she was transferred to RAF Leeming to become a source of spares for the CFS Vintage Pair Meteor T.7s. She was partially recovered from complete dereliction and destruction when the North East Aviation Museum bought and refurbished the forward fuselage section which remains to this day on display at Usworth. Full credit to the NEAM, but it is a sad reflection of this country’s disregard for its aviation heritage, that this famous and historic airframe was not preserved intact by one of the national museum collections. This was a straightforward OOB build without any real dramas or vices. The only difficulty was aligning the horizontal top front fuselage component with the vertical lower fuselage halves as a large gap remained that took a lot of filling. The one piece undercarriage main legs/wheels lacked detail, and are hard to paint, but I added wire to the mudguards to make them a little more life-like. The Alleycat needle nose was mated to the Matchbox fuselage with minimal effort or blending required. Much of the cockpit detail is hidden under the thick Matchbox NF.ll greenhouse transparency, so other than the addition of some masking tape seat harnessing and some scratchbuilt instruments, little else was done. The only other changes necessary were to construct some landing and navigation lights for each wing from some clear plastic that were cut and then sanded/polished to shape. The build probably took about 4 days on and off, the paint job has taken a couple of months! The model was initially sprayed in rattle can Halfords white plastic primer followed by further coats of gloss Appliance White. Considerable amounts of Tamiya masking tape were required for the red and blue areas which were brush painted with Xtracolor enamels. The model was then treated to a couple of coats of Klear before decaling and some light weathering using Promodeller dark wash. The various pitot tubes, lights and aerials were added at the final stage. WD790 is the last of my ‘last Meteors' project for now and follows on from the Vintage Pair T7s, 1 TWU F8 ‘Winston’ and Llanbedr D.16 drone which have all featured on this site over the past 18 months or so. I’m now returning to my post war Wyton sqns/types and will clear the deck for the 543 Sqn Victor SR.2 (but can’t wait for Airfix to release the Valiant PR version!) Thanks for looking, c&c always welcome. Mark
canberra kid Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Flippin' WOW!!!!! Very nice indeed. very nice line up too. John
Ali62 Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Great little model Mark, and certainly a good line up of various types and colour schemes, even if I am a little biased. Ali
Navy Bird Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Really exquisite! Beautiful job! Love the schemes and markings - sooooo much nicer than a line-up of grays... Bill
Vulcanicity Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 A beautiful and very well-done, conversion, to add to most interesting collection. Nice stuff!
woody37 Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Lovely gaggle of Meteors ! Inspired to build more now !
Archie C Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Another excellent Meteor Mark. That paint job looks fiddly and you've done really well with all that masking and brush painting. Red and blue certainly aren't the easiest colours to get a good finish with but you have succeeded. Well done! AC
Paul Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Very nice indeed A rare addition to a very fine collection of meteors!
Duncan B Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Really nice collection of Meatboxes and I like the themed idea too.
trpsarge Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Lovely collection of meteors,always found it hard to be inspired by the aircraft but some lovely schemes there.
Natter Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 (edited) Shiiiineeeeey! A corker to add to the other corkers. Meteors are good looking aircraft and you have some of the best schemes in your collection. Edited July 31, 2011 by Natter
BasicModelling Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Nice one... :) Looks like you run it through a pencil sharpener...
tonyot Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Those are all lovely Meatboxes John, but I especially like the rasberry ripple night fighter and intend to model it myself sometime, although probably not as well as yours!! Keep up the good work mate........I still like your Snoopy Herk the best though (although your Met Recce Halibag is very special too)! Cheers Tony
canberraman Posted July 31, 2011 Author Posted July 31, 2011 Tony I think you must be mistaking me for John 'Canberra Kid' but sharing the same name adds to the confusion. I just wish my models were half as good as CK's Thanks anyway for the comments! Mark Those are all lovely Meatboxes John, but I especially like the rasberry ripple night fighter and intend to model it myself sometime, although probably not as well as yours!! Keep up the good work mate........I still like your Snoopy Herk the best though (although your Met Recce Halibag is very special too)! Cheers Tony
Learstang Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Very nice, Mark! I especially like your new Raspberry Ripple one and the drone - very colourful! It reminds me that someday I need to get started on my collection of Meatboxes - I have it in my tiny mind to build the entire series, from prototype to NF.14. Regards, Learstang
Devilfish Posted August 1, 2011 Posted August 1, 2011 Beautiful Meatbox! I just bought this same kit to use for parts for a Whif I had in mind, but that's not worked out, so I now have a lovely NF sat waiting to be built. I just hope mine turns out half as good!
canberraman Posted August 1, 2011 Author Posted August 1, 2011 Fellow BM'ers Thanks very much indeed for the kind comments regarding WD790 and my 'later' UK Meatbox collection - high praise indeed for which I am truly grateful!! Cheers all Mark
tonyot Posted August 1, 2011 Posted August 1, 2011 (edited) TonyI think you must be mistaking me for John 'Canberra Kid' but sharing the same name adds to the confusion. I just wish my models were half as good as CK's Thanks anyway for the comments! Mark Ooops, Sorry Mark......yes I`m mistaking you with John `Canberra Kid', but your models are still fantastic. Keep up the good work and sorry for the confusion, Tony O Edited August 1, 2011 by tonyot
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