LightningBoy

Latest update after a couple of hours work on XM995. The wings have been sanded down on the joins and test fitted to the fuselage. Getting a good fit needed a lot of work. The tabs that go into the fuselage are badly moulded and too long. I cut 4-5mm off each end and will line them up on the leading edge when I fit them. The tab was also too thick so I made it thinner and filed away some of the slot in the fuselage taking care to remove equal amounts both top and bottom to keep things equal. I have added weight to the nose area to prevent XM995 becoming a tail-sitter. I get the nut and washers in a bag from the Poundshop. I have used the fins from the Redstreak and Firetop missiles as tabs to help align the fuselage sides. They are shown angled to the fuselage sides in the photo but once the glue has dried I will bend them to the correct angle. The missiles are totally wrong, I will be using Airfix Firestreaks. LightningBoy

Thanks Andy, I forgot it played that role in RADAR, I used to drive past the aerials at Daventry on my trips up and down the country. LightningBoy

Work in progress while the paint dries Painting the glazing - not the least stressful job Various sub assemblies (tailplanes not shown) only to be fitted after the decals and final coats of satin varnish Red Top Tips To avoid some hidden traps when making Lightnings: Lightning F1s had no cable ducts along the bottom of the fuselage Lightning F3s had no guns so blank 'gun panels' in all 4 positions Lightning F1, 1A & 2 only carried Firestreaks - no Red Top missiles Lightning F2A only had a ferry tank under the fuselage - did not have a belly tank with guns LightningBoy

Welcome on board Biggles. Update as follows: Cockpit and intake fitted to starboard fuselage Alignment ensured by temporarily holding both halves of the fuselage together with an elastic band and masking tape Wheel wells painted silver Wings glued together and held in place by the clamps from the end of trouser hangers LightningBoy

Whilst I'm finishing off my Lightning F53 and waiting for several coats of varnish to dry I've made a start on one of my Sword Lightning T4s in my stash. I have made a T5 before, XM452it is elsewhere on BM , but I forgot how much of a challenge it is to build compared to the Airfix 1: 48 Lightning - I've done it before so I can do it again. I'm going to finish it in the colours of a T4 from 92 Sqn with yellow training bands and a NMF, serial to be decided. (photo shows XM995 later in it's career at RAF Gutersloh after the yellow trainer bands have been removed) Here are a few of the early sub assemblies: Nose ring - very substantially fixed to the sprue which took a lot of cutting and filing to remove and make it presentable. Intake trunking - need to line up carefully as there are few if any locating pins on the whole lit The engine front is far to far forward for the No1 engine but can hardly been seen when assembled. The central fairing which holds the radar again takes careful alignment. When putting the central fairing into the intake the instructions don't show very well how they go together. As shown in my photo the undercarriage bay protrudes in a tapered fashion. Whilst gluing, I held the 2 parts together with an elastic band The main undercarriage fixing point was very shallow on one wing and non-existent on the other - I drilled them out to accept the pin on top of each main u?c leg. I have doubts about how strong the join will be - we'll see!!! The cockpit interior is predominantly black in the T4, grey in the T5 The paint is not yet dry in this photo LightningBoy

Thanks for the feedback. It is a while since I painted it but very similar to my RAFG Lightning I carried out a lot of research and ended up with Humbrol 30 Matt Dark Green LightningBoy

Thanks for the feedback Andy and your stories of Radlett. I visited the site within the last year and couldn't really find anything left. I have seen picture of a bedraggled Halifax serving as a test airframe I think on the airfield. https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/model/Handley Page Halifax A Mk VII Puzzles me why the RAF Museum takes a very corroded German aircraft (Do17??) off the seabed and conserves it yet doesn't spend time and money fully refurbishing the last remaining Halifax? LightningBoy

Hello to the Senior Service. It used to amuse me when reporters said "A Navy Wessex was involved in the rescue of..." when our Wessex was yellow and had RAF written all over it or when they reported "An RAF helicopter was involved in the recue of..." when your RN Wessex was blue/red and had Royal Navy written on it!!!! Can't remember where our territory finished and yours started - was it around Brighton. Happy days of as much flying I wanted and volunteering for wet winching practice. LightningBoy

Thanks for the tips RMP2. Glad you like my Red Top Tips too. I have just finished the painting with 2 coats of all colours as shown below. Note that the undercarriage and tailplanes aren't fitted yet in order to make applying all those very small decals on the fuselage a lot easier. Next step is to give an overall coat of Humbrol 135 Satin Varnish to give the decals a smoother surface to adhere to. LightningBoy

What year were you flying in the Chipmunks of 1 AEF Tony? LightningBoy

I once saw a Beverley lumbering past, I imagine it would be similar. LightningBoy

Great looking F3 Lightningboy 2000. Brilliant choice of colour scheme too, I haven't done that one yet in 1: 48. LightningBoy

Great buy Mohawk. When you build it the really fiddly bit is the remnants of serial number on the undercarriage doors. To be honest, if you fit them correctly you still can't tell what parts of the number they belong to. LightningBoy

Thanks for the feedback Kapam. It is the Airfix 1: 72 kit. LightningBoy

We had Day-Glo on all our tool shadow boards and pretty much anything else that didn't move LightningBoy

I agree, some unusual topics - Stranraer Wellesley, Lightning T55 (why not a T5?)... LightningBoy

Hello Keith, great opportunity for you and your mates. Impressive to watch, challenging to work on as I found out when I was posted to Binbrook in 1982. LightningBoy

Only seen 3 hazy photos of this one in flight and I'm led to believe this was the only Lightning to carry these markings. LightningBoy

It was a bit of a challenge

LightningBoy

Built this Anson as it was one of those that my Dad learnt to become a Navigator in in South Africa during the war. Fin flas has orange rather than red LightningBoy

Always thought a big bomber looked interesting in D-Day stripes LightningBoy

Always thought this was a very interesting layout for a bomber and eventually got round to building one. The rigging wires look a bit thick to me on reflection LightningBoy

That's most of them Deano. LightningBoy

21 built and 7 kits yet to build. I also have most of the Corgi die-cast models but I'm going to sell those on due to lack of space. LightningBoy