WV908

Geez, I hope ICM doesn't read this. They might make it their next diorama set after that field toilet.... I wonder if that particular cockpit (or pilot) got any nicknames afterwards? I hope the Nav got councelling... Incidentally, with the aircraft (presumably) not being a Twin sticker with it being on an exercise, did the Nav have any way AT ALL of flying the jet? Cheers, WV908

Whoops, finger slipped - Thanks for the tip Alan and Loren I was wanting to order the Hypersonic one, but the Revell has a set price and a set delivery date and I know I can actually get it into the country, so.... I look forward to the kit turning up regardless and I'm sure any 'issues' that are found will be nought. They certainly will be to me and most us anyway. I might even be sad enough to take it for the two and half hour drive to Duxford for some 'mini me' photos! 🤣 Cheers, WV908

Hi @Head in the clouds. I picked the current 'Leader' scheme Stalled WIP is here; Cheers, WV908

That post-war Lancaster set is a nice thing - as far as I'm aware it's the only aftermarket source for the fuselage heating intake. I've previously had to scratch build them on my Lancs. I'll take a front row seat please if I may? I have a stalled build of PA474 and this build is already instilling some inspiration to have another look at it Cheers, . WV908

Here is the current state of play with the Lightning's cockpit; It's taking a lot of figuring out just how to fit the resin cockpit in - height, angle etc, not to mention that the kit isn't really designed for an all-in-one IP and glare shield, but hey ho. Using the kit cockpit for figuring this out is essential and I'm also using the Airfix 1/48 kit as a pattern. Interestingly I have the Aires cockpit for that too (I never buy these so it must have come with the kit when I bought it and completely forgot) - it doesn't fit the kit it's meant for either haha 🙄 Slowly winning the battle with the 1/32 tub but I have only cut out the cockpit recess on the starboard side fuselage half for now. Cheers, WV908

Ooh... And that is the Tornado cockpit ordered too. These are so nice. Still on the fence with the Phantom. The other issue I have with the Tonka is that I have three of the Revell kits in the stash, plus the Italeri GR.4. The cockpit in the latter is good enough, so it means I'll ONLY need two more of these in future *gulp* Cheers, WV908

There's regular updates on the Facebook page for Brunty - They hope to be open sometime this year and all the smaller aircraft are now next to the Lightning 'Q' shed Cheers, WV908

@Max Headroom Agreed haha - I am a biiit mad. Half the madness is figuring out what step to take next, especially with the Phantom. Cheers, WV908

@spruecutter96 Yeah the Lightning shot is at Brunty I'm hoping to visit again once the new museum is open to give myself chance to bump my head on every under-surface of XR728 whilst I take reference shots haha. I do have a fairly extensive gallery of her already, but there is always something you forget to photograph Cheers, WV908

@Anthony in NZ You are too kind about my saw work - clean? Err not quite haha. I did mess up the belly a bit but the fuselage cut is straight as a die...ish. The inner wall sides on the bays are horribly thin as I was trying to preserve as much of the central under-belly attachment point as possible. I'll need to rescribe the fasteners but the rest has survived. Not looking forward to re-scribing the engine door hinges either haha. I'm really looking forward to seeing those decals so thanks again The Tornado decals are a pain as I know I'm going to have to draw up the squadron markings. They're not much trouble to do, just time consuming and expensive if you want professional printing done. Cheers, WV908

Yellow are the same size as the black sadly Cheers, WV908

@Alan P eBay is your friend here (sadly) Mastercasters still have a few of X32-013 for Lightnings in stock - I picked up a set on the off-chance the letters and numbers were the correct size for Tornados and Phantoms and well... Just the ticket. Too small for GR.1 tail letters, but big enough for F3's. The small white codes are the right size for the serial letters / numbers too but you'll need to do a bit of butchery for that Z. If you want shut of the sheet afterwards I can happily provide a home for it haha For anyone else thinking along the same lines as me, the larger white letters at the bottom of the photo are slightly too big to butcher into Tornado GR.4 tail numbers, well they are if the Italeri decals are right anyway. Cheers, WV908

For the first build update we'll have a look at XV408 so far. I've started with moving the underwing (auxiliary air intake?) doors. I know these are supposed to be a little larger on Spey Phantoms but this aircraft is not going to be on a mirror base and there's enough work as there is in this conversion so I've elected to move what was already supplied. Now, I suspect there probably is a better way of doing this, but this was my approach to the problem. As it's an FGR.2 I've also filled in the catapult hook recesses; I've only actually fitted in the modified piece this evening, held in by three tabs - one fore and two as waist gunners. Once they are set I'll tweak the fit to the belly and shim the gaps with plastic card. Other work so far is the first saw cut in the fuselage. I have a two year old who has a reasonable bed time, so my modelling time is once he's asleep - naturally sawing plastic at 9pm with a sleeping child not very far away is frowned upon by her indoors so sawing is limited to weekends. I'll make the other three cuts required in the upper fuselage then and plan out the cuts on the lower fuselage. With this in mind I've spent a good chunk of this evening removing BDR panels. There will be a slight stall on certain mods to both the Tornado and Phantom as I'm waiting for the new jet pipes and afterburners for the 'Toom and I have very kindly been offered a surplus radome and afterburner section from the old Revell F.2 - I am aware that the fuselage on this kit is not wide enough but I'd much rather widen a plastic rear section than bulk up a resin one and if the radome fits well enough I may try and hinge it and make a Foxhunter radar. This, obviously I cannot do with the resin radome as it is solid. For now though, I'll leave you all with a first glimpse at the Lightning fuselage halves; Cheers, WV908

Sorry was half asleep when I wrote that haha - I meant to say you could almost stick it on the back of a mini Spey and light it up Cheers, WV908

@Alan P Thanks for the nose detail list - I see how you've attached the nose now and will try something similar Cheers, WV908

Cheers @Troffa Thanks for info - so yes it's the maxi-skirt from the Revell kit that attaches onto the radome from the Heritage conversion to achieve the right length but there is still a lot of fettling needed to achieve the right angle. The radome in my kit wasn't even circular 🙄 Cheers, WV908

No worries at all haha, we all do it Looking forward to seeing the finished articles, but what more tweaking is there to do? I think if any more was done to the burner cans you could actually stuck them on the back of a mini Spey haha Yeah I'd definitely make use of what heritage provides and graft it to the Aires cockpit - just need to remember what was actually supplied with the conversion haha. I'll wait to see what you post before I butcher the Revell Tonka any further Cheers, WV908

@Alan P Just given your Tornado thread another read and I've decided against the avionix cockpit due to the undersized seats, the GR.1 style elements and the fact I'm building an F.3T so the mid cockpit section with TV displays is all wrong for me. I'll either just get a pair of seats and mod the kit cockpit, or go full hog and buy the Aires GR.1 set to modify. What are your thoughts? Cheers, WV908 Edit: as an aside on your observations about the F3 conversion nose cone, I did a scaled up measurement from the Revell 1/48 F3 and it took the entire radar connecting ring thing (err, anyone know the technical term for this?) from the kit added to the nose to make it the correct length. It doesn't even remotely help the angle though haha.

Hi @Alan P Thanks, funnily enough it was the Phantom cockpit I was most unsure about getting. The Tornado cockpit certainly will be helpful and looking at the Echelon kit the cockpit for that is a must so I'll be going for the Lightning cockpit as a certainty. I want to have a better look at the Tamiya Phantom cockpit before I put the money down on that one. Gear wells are not much of a necessity for me - completely unnoticeable on the Phantom unless I stick it on a mirrored surface and not too obvious on the Lighting (apparently they are a pig to fit anyway) and I'll be happy just doing a layered representation in plastic of the upper gear wells. The Tornado may be an issue, though I suspect the gear doors and the drop tanks will hide them, even in 1/32. The Tornado is a funny one with nozzles as the rear fuselage extension piece just does not fit at all, so I might be binning that that off and creating a new extension out of plastic. If I went for aftermarket nozzles on this then I could build the extension up around them and Italeri will release an F3 just as I've finished it haha. I'm gonna guess that the Flightpath Lightning set I need is the OOP one that goes for silly money? Unsure about the nozzles on this as I feel the vacform ones will be easier to paint. I do have a set of 3D printed Spey cans for the Phantom but they turned out to be underscale. I have figured out how to modify them to make them useable but a friend of @Anthony in NZ is drawing up some new ones and intake ramps which I'm hoping to get a set of. I would like to do these in 'action poses' - F3 going vertical, Lightning pulling it's gear up straight off the deck and '408 doing this https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PVah6K9ayuc/WQt4QHA7whI/AAAAAAAAZ5M/j0-hDKrnZ6oUXGK4CWBGOhUvU3juSXSHwCLcB/s640/XV408takeoff.jpg But... I'm hopeless with pilot figures and wouldn't know where to start with doing anything accurate. I'd lose all that cockpit detail too and wouldn't be able to pose the canopies open. Lastly for now, I've stopped deliberating and I've ordered the Lightning cockpit whilst writing this out Cheers, WV908

Eh? Long day haha? Thanks for the words of encouragement so far everyone - I do intended to see these through and it might give me a bit of a push to carry on with the HK Lanc WIP too - that stalled when I realised how bad the kit cockpit is, but that is going to be a walk in the park compared to the mods on the Phantom. One thing I am unsure about with these kits is do I put the money in for aftermarket cockpits, exhausts and gear bays? It's a significant sum for all of those so I may just go for the cockpits. Cheers, WV908 / Joe

So... Lightning, Spey Phantom, Tornado F3. Not easy aircraft to model in 1/32 by any stretch My choices of kits for this are the Echelon vac form Lightning F6, the Tamiya F-4J Phantom and the Revell Tornado GR.1 with heritage conversion. I wasn't going to post WIP's for these as I'm a serial starter, but @Anthony in NZ requested I do a WIP of the FGR.2 so I thought, why not put them together in one insanity fueled series of builds. There may also be a Typhoon FGR4 added to this at some point. I do have the kit but it might be a bit too much to add to this thread. So, onto the subjects - the Lightning is an easy one; I've seen the LPG Lightings do a few full reheat runs and XR728 is my favourite of the pair. For the Phantom it's going to be a lot of work doing this conversion so instead of a standard scheme it's going to be XV408 in the 92 squadron blue special scheme. The Tornado is going to be ZE340 - the first F3 I photographed and a former 56sqn bird. She'll be done in Firebirds colours one side and the current 43sqn the other side. If I add the Typhoon (Revell Kit) it will be ZK353 in the 29sqn 100th anniversary scheme. I'm hoping to update the thread with progress photos and aircraft histories in the coming week. Cheers, WV908

Oh go on then haha, I'll put a triplicate build up of Lightning, Phantom and Tornado F3. Might bung the Buccaneer on the back, not sure yet. Two IM kits, one vac and one resin. Dear oh dear haha. Quite tempted by the Tigger Models Jaguar too, but I'm yet to find a build thread or indeed any photos bar those on the website. With the Phantom I'll widen the intakes, finish those up and add the air doors before I do any horizontal cuts and post photos on here to see what you all think. Cheers, WV908

@Anthony in NZ Thanks, yeah I've just had a read back through the thread and that hump is going to cause more issues than I thought - I considered for a brief while just widening the intakes and then laminating some plastic card on top and shaping that, but later realised it would muck up the contours of the shoulders. I will still be modifying the shoulder section behind the intakes though as the hump's absence is very noticeable in this area, mainly due to the fact of how far back the height discrepancy extends - almost to the rear of the main gear bays on the standard Tamiya fuselage! I'm not wanting to have to modify the upper fuselage behind the main gear bays at all contour wise if I can avoid it, so all the work will be in front of / below this section. I could start a WIP thread but I'll never finish it haha Cheers, WV908

@Anthony in NZ Wow, the detail on those is insane. What's the cost looking like for those haha? (I almost hesitate to ask) There was kind a catalyst for me trying again with this and it's that I've just picked up an Echelon Lightning and with a Tornado F3 on the bench too I need something to fill the gap between them Did you end up having those decals for XV408 spare? I'm not a dab-hand at either riveting or rescribing so I'm going to have to decide just how much the panel lines will or won't bug me. I'm yet to figure out exactly how I'm going to sort the lower rear fuselage but what I have done is cut off all the areas that 'dig in' and have left myself with flat, even edges. I'll still be grafting plastic onto compound curves but I have at least made it slightly easier for myself. Cheers, WV908

Great progress @Anthony in NZ - I've eventually got the mojo back for mine but hit a huge stumbling block when comparing the plans I have with the Tamiya kit - although the shoulders of the intakes keep the same contours, the spine on the kit does not even remotely match that on the drawing. Anyway, with this in mind and looking how the rest of the kit is to be modified I've elected on opening out the intake width from the main gear bays forward. This means that the rear fuselage will (shock horror) be 2mm too narrow, but this plays into my hands as it means I can clad the exhausts in just 1mm thick card, not muck about with an extra layer of 0.5mm and they will be the correct diameter for my fuselage. I've already cut out the auxiliary air doors on the underside and shifted them forward - I haven't lengthened the bays for the doors so I've simply set them on the Centreline meaning there is a length discrepancy both front and back, but it's on the underside of jet so I'm not too fussed. The first cuts have been made in the fuselage too - I'm going to widen and set the intakes and then cut out two horizontal sections to 'pitch up' and form the hump in the shoulder that the FGR.2 has. I think I may go and modify the intake louvres, but I know I'm not looking forward to cutting out the aft air doors on the fuselage. Still planning on XV408 at this stage too. Cheers, WV908