The story about 3 copies of WS774 is at http://www.britmodeler.com/forums/index.ph...61&start=61.
Here are the boxes and their contents, after I have painted all the cockpit bits black.

If anybody has spare decal number 7s for this kit, then please PM me - I'm going to need them.

Just remember to throw away the NF14 nose!

Whats wrong with the NF.14 nose?

Too long - at the time MB made the kit it was widely beleived that the NF14 nose was longer than the NF12. In fact both are exactly the same. It's down to an optical illusion due to the shorter windscreen and a mis-interpretation of the nose of the 12 being longer than the 11, and the 14 is also longer, being translated into the 14 being longer again than the NF12

Thanks Dave, I knew that already.
Both my previous NF-14 builds actually use the nose parts for the NF-12, and these will be no different.

Ahh interesting info, thanks for the heads up.

Construction commences!

3 cockpits assembled. All those bits to the left are scrap - anybody able to use them?

Product of another happy evening's modelling:

Fuselages mostly assembled. Those medium length noses are push fitted so far - but full of lead.
The 3 kits are all from different batches - so Matchbox 3 colour kit gives me 9 different shades of raw plastic to work with. Each model will be a mongrel of all 9 shades!

Another evenings modelling - and 3 airframes are assembled.

Those photos are of my visit to the real WS774. One with me driving, another with my son steering - whilst I pedal in the back!
The Battle of the Gaps is about to commence!

Joseph & his amazing multicolored Meteors! Quick progress... did you put much work into the cockpits? Hard to tell from the dinky pics so far

Not much - even I will admit these are being rushed.
Seat belt from thin slices of Tamiya masking is the only addition to what's in the kit.
PLUS everything is painted black in there.

Filler filler everywhere!

Resuts of an evening with putty and liquid paper - ain't looking forward to the next bit.

Aye Carumba! That's like my worst nightmare!!

After an evening of wet'n'drying we have this formation:


And after a quick coat of silver paint on the seams.

A bit more work is required - as can be seen on the cockpit surround of the front 2 planes.
BUT not tonight!

Your completed 85 sqn Meteor looks a bit good.

Ah - thankyou. Here's a closer look

And here it is again - trying to keep up with the triple-header, after another hour's sanding.

I'll check those seams again tomorrow.

Seams given a quick brush with Silver.
A lot better - and as good as these are going to get.

Next out with the airbrush!

Now can anyone tell them apart? Finishes unified with brush painted Silver.

This follows a bit of a disaster with airbrushed Revell Orange paint this morning.
The silver is more of an undercoat in preparation for another attempt, and is not intended as a final finish.

You must have huge biceps from all that sanding by now... that silver coat will show up any remaining imperfections too

Looking sharp Tim. Silver really does a good job of showing up 'work required'. I have finally made it passed that stage and am now onto the black and yellow undesides.

Looks like you should have 3 happy customers there.

cheers

Grant

All that got me inspired, I designed the instruction sheet for this kit and I did the research with Maurice down at Duxford where I actualy fell into the T-7 pit so I picked up a load of shots before the kit came out and Aeroclub gave me a set of each of his conversions so in all I had seven different meteors to build and they have been in a box ever since. Well they are out again now and I have built some up and sanded all those seams and fills, don't know if I'll finish them all this session but I have Hannants meteor for review so maybe an article there perhaps.

Cheers
Ted

Really glad to have been of assistance Ted. Other Britmodellers have helped me with this project - so I'm really pleased that it has inspired another modeller.
I hope to be able to meet you at SMW and see some of these Meteors.

Cheers, Tim

Ah where were we? Yes I've just returned from a VERY enjoyable week in Tenerife - did anybody miss me?

Following a spectacular failure to get Revell Orange paint through my airbrush, I tried Humbrol today - with infinitely more success (by my terms).

The orange patches roughly equate to the dayglo stripes on WS774, when they're THOROUGHLY hard, I'll mask the stripes and airbrush the hulls silver.
The real WS774 was aligned with her nose facing East at Quedgely. This resulted in the sun beating down on the starboard side all day, and NEVER getting round to the port side. The effect was faded dayglo striped on the port side. This is how I plan to park the models until I airbrush them silver.

back! I'd forgotten you were on holiday, but was wondering where the updates were

Return to modelling - after doing nothing for the past couple of weeks.
Must have worn out YouTube, Ebay, and watched every TopGear re-run!
Started masking out those dayglo stripes - and plenty more left to do!

Time consuming - but I'm pleased with the results. Just hope the airbrush doesn't bleed underneath at the weekend!

Yet more progress towards AIRBRUSH day!
masked the leading edge stripes with 6mm tape along the wing leading edges, and marked them at 3mm intevals.

Then I cut the tape with 1mm gaps by rolling the scalpel around the leading edge. What a job - and aiming for tails tomorrow.

A thankless task... keep up the good work though

And another night of slicing masks. This time I measured and marked the masks before putting them on the models.
That graduated piece of masking on my cutting board is about to go onto the the tail of the model pointing away. The other 2 models have similar already applied.


And one episode of Sharpe's Challenge and several glasses of wine later, I had removed the shaded bits from the tail masking, and done similar for the fuselage stripes.

Enjoy - I didn't!

Since, I've masked out the anti-dazzle panel, and put some selotape over the cockpits.
There will be a Day of the Airbrush this wekend.

Bet you're glad THAT'S over!

This 3 at a time lark don't look too bad.....

Fingers crossed for no bleeds! I got a sore back just thinking about doing all that fiddley masking.

Grant

The day of the airbrush was today - pressure turned right down, to hopefully avoid bleeding. They're all out in the shed setting now, whist we go to my mum's for tea.
See you all later.

Here's wishing you all the best that the airbrushing turns out OK.

3 at once you have my respect, I rember trying that kit a number of years ago, it won and made a perfect landing - in the bin.

I only have one bit of advice. When they come for you, go quietly.

Looking forward to seeing the end results.

Cheers

MarkC

Today was The Day of the Airbrush.
And here is how it turned out. I mixed some grey with the silver - for a dull finish.


Masking was removed MUCH quicker that application!


2 minor areas where masking removed the orange - being repaired by brush.
Here is a close up of a single model for your examination.

I'm VERY pleased

Scary! Bet there was a large sigh of relief at your house when all that lot came off

There was a HUGE sigh of relief as the masking came off!
Now for some closeups of the airframes - I've just masked and painted the radomes on each.

This model unmasked perfectly - requiring no correction afterwards.


This model has a correction to the centre stripe on the nearest engine.


This model has a correction to the 2nd strip down on the empenage


To paraphrase Churchill - this is the end of the beginning.
Now for the finishing off.

Proper little production line! What's next then?

Don't they look the biz?! Nicely done Tim. You'll have some very happy customer with that little lot.

Cheers


Grant

Results of an evening doing decals:

Namechecks for John, Grant and Dad'sLad for sending me their spare decals - enabling this build of WS774 - thank you all
I'll put the numbers under the wings tomorrow night - maybe.

On reflection I'm really rather pleased with the colour of these models.

A little more progress - but no photo this time.
Underwing numbers have been applied, as have the D letters on the tail.
Last night I painted the intake lips black, and the
boundary over the canopy. Hoping to get canopy on tonight - and more photos!

I've just painted the canopies - and plan to fit them after The Bill.
Then another photo!

You tease!

Just for Grant - there you are.

Not fully finished yet, but enough to be getting on with. I will do photos of individual models once the undercarriage is fitted.

Intending for completion tomorrow.
Another evening of intense modelling effort tonight, (after watching Kirsten Dunst in Wimbledon) - I've applied the 3 cockpit decals that lead down to the kick-in footholes, and painted the undercarriage tyres.
Here's the final incomplete photo:

Next for the finished project!
You might have noticed from some of the earlier background photos, WS774 didn't have the belly tank or drop tanks when I saw her. I'll probably assemble the drop tanks and put them with the models - but not the belly tanks.

Well they've come out looking really nice - would make a nice dio all lined up on a pan.

They're all on their undercarriage. Superglue is setting - whilst I go to Tewkesbury Medieval beheadings!
More progress and photos later tonight.

Undercarriage! Just the pitot tubes left now

Bit more tidying up before photos of individual models.

Declaring completion!
Here's the line up of groupbuild models - and even I can't tell them apart on this view:

Now 2 photos of each model, starting with the one at the left, and moving right.
Left model:


Centre model:


Right Model:


It's been fun - but this is Tim signing off for the time being.

Are they all identically serialed Tim?

Yes - story is at posting 1 of this thread, or here
http://www.britmodeler.com/forums/index.ph...61&start=61