lightning770

Hi everyone got a bit more done I've glued together the wing halves together incorporating the Aries undercarriage bays. photo below The Aires sets are superb the fit is good too. All it needs to set it off is a top paint job and dry brushing to bring out the detail. After I'd finished these I decided to glue together the fuselage halves but first the engine needed to be fitted inside, Care was taken here so it was placed in the right position . see pic I was happy with the fit so I added the glue. Once the glue had gone off the two fuselage halves where brought together taped and glued with liquid glue. Hope this build is inspiring others to get out their Trumpeter Lightnings and have a crack at it Cheers Dave.

That finish is brill tell me how did you do the chips? I noticed you put USAF insignia on it is that on purpose as the USAF never flew GR3's. Only us brits. Still a crackin build tho.

Hi Fellow modellers Another Trumpeter 1/32 Lightning F6 thread but this one is slightly different . I'm opening up the number 2 engine bay to reveal the Avon engine. Using an J79 from a Hasegawa F104 as a base I studied photos and with abit of artistic licence attempted to create a passable rendition of a RR Avon engine. see below Its amazing what abit of paint does isn't it. After it was finished would it fit in the fuselage of the model? Yes it does. A bit of extra detail in the bland exhaust tubes has helped in that area too. Thanks for looking all comments are gratefully received Dave.

Hi fellow Modellers Got a bit more done to the RR Avon Its amazing what a bit of paint does and a bit more fiddling with bits and bobs. There is a lot of artistic licence here but quite a bit is modelled on the real thing .I'm quite happy with the result but still abit to do yet. and the other side Ok let me know what you think . Constructive criticism is the name of the game. Dave

Hi Kagemusha No the aires resin detail set were'nt available when i build the Echelon kits, but the silver Trumpeter Lightning has the cockpit and wheel wells added. As a point of interest tho I'm in the middle of giving a Echelon lightning a face lift (thread elsewhere on this website) and i've added the Aires engine Exhaust's and they fit pretty much perfectly. Also in the stash is two more Echelon Lightnings that im going to add all the Aires resin sets too. cheers.

Hi Keith No they are a mixture of both XR770, XS904 & XS935 are all Echelon the rest are Trumpeter. Dave

Hi below are some photos of my 1/32 Lightning display that i did at Newark Air Museum's Lightning tribute event. I had a brilliant day and chatted to many Lightning pilots that came to view my display. Thats me with from left to right XR770 AA 5 sqdn, XR749 DA LTF, XS935 AK 5 sqdn, XS904 BQ 11 sqdn & XS903 BA 11 sqdn. And from the other end of the table XR773 N 56 sqdn . Hope you enjoy looking at the pictures Cheers Dave.

Just an a addition to this thread. While building an Hasegawa F104 an idea came into my head with what to do with the J79 engine that wasn't going to be used with this model. I've got lots of photos of RR Avon lightning engines and thought it might be a good idea to use this engine as a base. good Idea eh ! With a bit of head scratching and artistic licence i'm quite happy with the result so far. what do you think? Thats one side now the other Just a few more pipes and a paint job and i think it will pass as a Rolls Royce Avon Engine. Just need a Lightning to put it in . Now wheres that Trumpeter kit?. Cheers Dave.

Hello fellow modellers I'm just in the process of giving my 1/32 Echelon Lightning F6 a make over. This particulate model started out as XR769 BE of 11 squadron the last lightning to crash in RAF service. As said many times on this website the Echelon Lightning is by far and away the best 1/32 lightning ever. I've made over 10 of them in my life and at least 4 trumpeter efforts. But now after many years of taking them out to show and such some of the Echelon models are looking tired. So now is the time to do something about it. First a picture of it when it was XR769. Next step was to strip off the paint with Mr Muscle oven cleaner. Its so easy if its painted in enamel paint. As the next picture shows most of the paint come off first go. Next step after a couple more Mr Muscle experiences it was fully stripped. At this point I had a set of Aeries burner cans for the Trumpeter kit but if anyone has tried to fit them to that kit you'll know they just dont go. So i removed Echelons cans and with a bit of modification to the model i fitted the Aeries sets and they fit very good indeed. Here's proof So upto now I've stripped all the paint and added new engine exhausts. Abit of filling here and there as Mr Muscle sometimes removes filler as well as paint. and this is what i'm left with . I'll keep you updated on this Lightning Facelift as i go. cheers Watch this space. Dave.

Hi its the revell monogram F4E mig killer kit.

Hi Now that this project is finished i thought i'd put photos on the ready for inspection area of the site, Hope you enjoy , any comments are very welcome. Cheers

Thanks for the kind words tony. I'm going to start a new thread for the Lightning F3 when i get round to it. . I think its going to be a 56 sqn machine. Also while I'm at it, I'm doing a F6 at the same time. The cockpit for the F6 is all done and in place in the fuselage already. The F3 as its already been finished once will be a quick project. Its been stripped of its paint, undercarrage, canopy,flight refueling probe ect ect. just touching up the joints that mr muscle has attacked.getting it ready for the gloss black undercote. Exellent Dave.

Hi Mr B you are realy cracking on with this build are'nt you. I take it you have used Alcad II paint for the natural metal finish? Is it polished alluminium you have used over gloss black.? Ive just finished my 1/32 F4E so i'm now putting some attention to the Trumpeter F6 that i'm doing . Keep up the good work Dave

And finaly its done The canopies and windscreen are added, Boarding ladder and a pilot figure to add the finishing touch. Also added are the intake blanks as the detail inside the revell intakes is rubbish. I hope you've enjoyed reading this thread as much as i've enjoyed building this exellent Revell F4E kit. My next project's are respraying a trumpeter F3 Lightning and an F4G conversion all in wonderful 1/32 scale. I love this hobby . See you all at Telford Dave.

Hi all Some more done to the F4E , The ejector seats are now added to the pit. see below. Also the red line below the national insignia is now completed. A long distance shot with all the model in view. All done bar the canopies and windscreen . Also (as can be seen in the bag just under the burner cans) I'm adding a boarding ladder to the front cockpit. ( The lightning F3 in the distance is stripped of all undercarriage, canopy, etc and is going to be resprayed into natural metal.) The fin detail. I'm happy with the decals they settled very well, Not too heavy with the weathering either as these jets where always kept very clean. A shot under the wing, Missiles in place , lances on wing tanks , large belly tank too. At last its almost finished , It's been along time in the making for one reason or another but the light is now at the end of the tunnel. Just a few more bits to add. The canopies, an ECM pod, FOD guards & the ladder that is just hung on so is optional. Also I'm painting a verlinden pilot figure to add to the display at shows. Still a lot of painting and detail to do on him . Well many thanks for all your replies to this thread I've enjoyed this build immensely. The Revell F4 kit has its critics but i think its well worth getting hold of from your local hobby shop and building it goes together without much fuss, With fine recessed panel lines and slatted wings Ive enjoyed it from first opening the box to hanging on the canopies. I'm at Scale model world at Telford this year with 580 modellers along with this F4E Phantom AF66 330 of 57th FIS Keflavik, Iceland. Please come and say hello have a chat I'm a friendly guy. I look forward to seeing you Cheers Dave.

Hi Tony many thanks for your comments Yes I'm definitely up for another 57th FIS F4 phantom, I do fancy doing the later scheme's with the multi coloured intake ramps with extra badges and using the tamiya kit this time. My F4E is now almost finished, been doing the bang seats this evening and I'm quite impressed with them although they are very fiddly. Will post some photos of the finished model as soon as its done. I can E-mail Kelvin to see if he has the last file i sent him if he dosnt i still have one on my laptop. Unless you still have one you can forward to him . Great to hear from you buddy Dave.

Welcome to my world. More work done over the last few nights. Its moving along fast now its almost done . As can be seen from the pictures below the wheels are now in position so is the burner cans and the three fuel bags.The wheels are weighted ( the kit has two sets of the wheels weighted and of course non weighted). The next step is the bang seats I'm using eduards super detailed seats they are fiddly but the detail is very good. Also the missiles need gluing into position. A small problem has arisen while adding the sparrows I've noticed that the missile recesses in the nose section are different lengths to those at the rear !!!!. Never mind they are underneath. As can be seen from the photo , The red line near the national insignia needs finishing i haven't added the red line below the Insignia yet. Also the pitot probe needs adding but i think that will be the last thing to be done. This is the other side, Again the red line is missing below the high vis national insignia . Thanks for staying with this build all comments will be greatfully recieved Dave.

Hi I'm also just starting a 1/32 Trumpeter lightning F6 inbetween waiting for my main project an F4 phantom to dry after adding the od bit. My subject matter is XP693 natural metal finish maybe in 74 or 56 sqdn marks . I'll watch this build closely. No doubt some one will let you know how bad this kit is . But keep with it ive built 3 up to now and they all look good to me. Dave

OK got some more done this week, I've got the undercarrage legs completed and attached allso the missiles finished but temp attached to see location. (see photo) Looking good so far Will post more as i get it done Cheers Dave.

OK chaps and chapasas more work done on this F4E Build. Firstly the national insignia is now in place and the next step is to weather down the paintwork to make it look more realistic. Firstly the dirty wash, I use Flory models excellent washes all you do is paint over all the recessed panel lines and put aside to dry As you can see it looks pretty awful until its wiped off then it looks .. well alot better The under side got the same treatment Its looking so much better , Next step is the undercarrage and the missiles Hope you are liking this build . Dave.

Hi glenn i use hannants xtracolour enamels all the time as they are gloss and decal ready, no need to gloss varnish before applying decals. Hope that helps you. Dave.

A few more photos Burner Cans sprayed with Alcad II. Just abit of dry brushing to do to bring out the detail.

Hi Tony The company is called Red Firecracker model restoration ( look him up on the net) the guys name is Kelvin pope his decals are very thin and settle so good with little effort. Brilliant. Send him an email and explain what you want and what type of file you are sending him to print from . The F4G in the background is having the cockpit re-done i started it awhile ago and wasn't too impressed with my effort so i put it away.Then I bought a great decal sheet off e-bay recently, so a brought it back out to sort out the cockpit. I've opened up the two front cockpit halves successfully without damage. now the cockpit tub is in a bag with some mr muscle oven cleaner. I'll then respray the tub, finish it off and pop it back in. Cheers for now Dave Another evenings worth of decaling .... Cheers