DonH

Ooh, now that looks rather nice. Great job! I totally get your point about not wanting to mess with the under wing decals.

Wow, these look like nice kits. Probably too late now, but could you not just cut the decal to fit around the strut?

Looking good Simon @Retired Bob it's not increasing the stash if you build it 😉

Oooh, I will follow along with this one, seat 1A please. I have the Revell version in the stash which will be in SIA livery when I eventually get round to doing it. Love the idea of resin for the windows, looking forward to seeing how this works out.

Thanks, good advice. I have a paint mule I can use for that. My experience of AK Extreme Metals is that they are very close in shade and I will need to do lots of testing before I commit to it.

Hi Bob, This is my first attempt at metal. I am using AK Extreme Metals and I like them a lot. They seem to cope well with my airbrushing technique. My only concern is with masking afterward.

And now, shiny lightning... Quick snap on my iPhone. Next job is to mask random panels and paint in different shades, not looking forward to that. Talking of which, I intend to leave this paint (AK Extreme Metals) to harden for at least a week. I hear that even so, you can get tape residue when masking. What is your experience and any recommendations? I was thinking of gloss coating before masking any other panels. I really need some advice.

The primer never quite dried. I micromeshed it and that seemed to solve the issue. So, now I have a shiny black Lightning... A shiny black Lightning with a grey tail tip... This gloss black coat has had a month to cure while I was away on business. Now to turn it into a shiny metal Lightning....

Hard pass from me. They have moulded the oil tank into the bottom cowling, which is not the case as shown from the oil tank attached to their engine. So, either the oil tank on the engine is wrong or the bottom cowling is wrong. An easy fix, I guess, but why should we have to? Also, the fuselage behind the cockpit looks a bit deep to my eye and the panels and bulges on the wings? No thanks. If you want a 1/35 Vb for a diorama, enjoy. I don't.

Seems like the primer is dry now (72 hours). I have put a metal coat on the tailplanes. Pics when it has dried and the daylight is back.

Hi, I can't comment on the expense as I am in Singapore and all supplies are expensive. I got mine direct from AK in Spain. I have primed the Lightning and have loads left. This stuff covers very well, so you don't need a lot in my limited experience.

Thanks Ryan, First time using this primer. Heads up, it seems to take a long time to dry. I think it will need at least 24 hours before robust handling. I will check it later (48 hours) but earlier in the weekend I could feel that the primer was still faintly sticky.

I literally have no idea how you can do this. The skills, the attention to detail, the everything. Really not bad at all.

Some progress at last! I have primed the fuselage and wings using AK Extreme Primer. First time using it and all I can say is WOW. It just works. It is now my go to primer (until something better comes along). A couple of pics showing the primed nose area. I have marked up the changes I made that are general for an F.1 Airfix Lightning and specific for the early F.1 issued to 74 Squadron. From left to right: 1) Nose ring and gun troughs. (General issue). I have made the line of the nose and the nose ring straight by adding filler and then sanding down to a straight line. The nose ring fits well on my kit and this easy mod makes the line of the nose from the windscreen forward look a lot better and more like the real thing. I deepened the gun troughs with a piece of metal tube used like a scraper. Good enough, in my eyes. 2) Small hole missing from the kit. Explained in an earlier post. 3) Bursting disc. Again in a previous post, I explained that there are two scribed rings on the kit. Only one is required for the F1 as shown here. 4) Gun vent. On the early F1, this vent had five slotted vents which is different to the kit. The kit vent is correct for all later versions of the F1, I just made my life harder because of the version I have chosen. I lost count of the times I have filled and rescribed this area. At least it's done now! 5) I have scribed five diagonal louvres into the gun bay exhaust vent. This is required whenever guns are fitted and is missing from the kit. 6) I have removed the bumpy thingy sticking out of this panel. Not required on the early F.1, again my fault for doing this version. Easy mod with a sanding stick. On the other side, same mods to gun trough and gun bay vents. The circled vent is too far forward on the kit and I have moved it back a bit. That's all for now. Next time, there will be exciting news regarding wheel hubs and I might even have the wings attached.

Oh boy! Mine is on an airplane between NZ and me. Happy days!

Seems like all the popcorn has been purloined, so I am in with a packet of pork scratchings and a warm ale.

Yep, totally agree about the kit exhausts. They are OK but don’t look right if you stare at them for a short time. That’s why I used the Reskit exhaust parts, much better I believe. An F2 will be pretty accurate oob, depending how detailed you are with the cockpit. Good luck and I will pull up a chair and cheer you on!

I agree, an excellent reference.

In new news, the fuselage is glued together, including the addition of the nose ring. My new favourite filler is superglue and talc. Old school, but the easiest and best seam filler I have ever used. So, spending some quality time with my plastic, filling some blemishes and generally making everything nice and ready for the NMF finish. Some pics in a day or so, but before then happy holidays to everyone and best wishes for a magnificent modelling year in 2023. Cheers Don

Thanks Bob, The Airfix kit is pretty accurate if you build OOB. My "problems" have all come from wanting to build one of the first 19 F1s to enter service. It's a fascinating subject the more I dig. I am sure I am going to miss things and get a few details wrong, but hey ho, it's only modelling.

The long, winding, torturous but often fascinating (for me) trail that I am about to drag you along, all started because Airfix supplied the wrong colour decal for the tail of XM143. This is the 74 squadron F1 with a black tail. It should have a yellow code letter (A) for the tail, but Airfix supplied it as white. However, all is not lost. I wanted to build a 74 sqn F1 shortly after they were delivered to squadron service (1960, I believe). In this guise, there was no black tail or spine and the code letter was black. As luck would have it, there is a black A on the decal sheet, so that is the route I chose to go. But The first 19 production Lightning F1s that 74 squadron received have some subtle but significant differences compared to the kit plastic and were modified during their service life. As I am doing a specific plane at a specific point in time, I have been spending many hours looking at period photos, reading articles and referencing my DACO book (which is excellent, but not perfect). Fortunately, all of the mods I have identified so far are very easy to do, which is why I am still doing it... So here we go, just some of the minor mods needed to backdate the Airfix Lightning F1 to early 1960 standard: 1) No ram air intake on the spine, so the exhaust vent and outlet (D shape) need to be filled. This is true of all F1s, regardless of vintage. The ram air intake was added with the F2. 2) Holes and vents on the nose (port side): The blue circle shows the attachment hole for the nose FOD cover. Airfix missed this and it is present on all Lightnings. The green circle is a bursting disc access port which is not present on early F1s. The hole is filled, but worth noting that, when it is present, it should be lower by roughly the diameter of the circle. The red circle is the tricky one. Airfix got this gun exhaust vent exactly right for later in the 1960s, but the original vent has five angled slots instead of two slots and a hole. This has been filled with CA and talc and I need to scribe the vent louvres later. 3) More lumps and bumps to port The red oval is another gun bay exhaust vent and is correct for the F1. However, there should be five angled louvres to vent the gases. Easy fix, assuming my scribing skills work. The panel in the blue oval is correct for later time periods, but the prominent ridge was not there in 1960 and there was a small vent in the centre of the panel. I am going to wait until later to sand this off and add the vent. 4) Starboard nose details As on the port side, the blue oval shows the gun vent. Fill and rescribe as per the port side. The panel highlighted in red is present, but it is too far forward and needs to be moved backwards to approximately where the yellow line is. This is true for all marks of Lightning with guns fitted on the top of the nose. Also, I will rescribe the louvres so that there are five not four. It;s a minor thing, but I I might as well do it while I have the scriber out! 5) Cable ducts. There are no cable ducts on the F1, so the holes on both fuselage halves need to be filled. I have used some white evergreen for this. 6) Aerials. There is no UHF aerial (blade type) fitted to the early F1s in my time period. There is a small triangular aerial (IFF) fitted on the top of the nose midway between the nose ring and the windscreen. This was deleted/moved near the nose gear bay later in time. There are two triangular aerials at the rear of the aircraft behind the fuel tank. The positions are as shown on the kit instructions. 7) Arrestor hook. I don't believe that XM143 had an arrrestor hook fitted. I have a couple of video clips that seem to confirm this. Not sure yet, but I have sanded off the kit part and can reinstate it using thin card if necessary. I am 95.7% sure I am right. That's all for now. There are a couple of air scoops that are different, but more on that as the build progresses. Talking of which, I have Lightning in pieces: The cockpit is done and the nose assembly is in place. The Reskit jet pipes have been filled with liquid gravity and put to good use to stop tail sitting. The kit jet pipes are a perfect fit and I continue to be impressed by the quality of this kit. As you can see, I am using the Eduard etch set in the wheel wells. I won't bother next time, I will never look at the wheel wells once the kit is up on it's feet. The ban seat is finished. It looks good in the cockpit - adds some colour!! I am working on the top handles but they can be added at the end. That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed my rambling. Cheers Don

In new news, Plan A for the bang seat handles has failed. I am now working on alternatives. No big deal, I will add the handles near the end of the build. Matt coat on the seat now, so I will post some pics later. In other news, I am sorting out the various lumps, bumps and holes to ensure we have a moderately accurate early F1. I need to fill the hole on the port side of the spine which is an exhaust for something not fitted on the F1. I also need to move a couple of panels and add some small holes for the front FOD cover attachment points. More on this even later. I continue to be impressed by the accuracy of this kit when it comes to panels and ports. Well done Airfix! The aerial fit is bugging me and I appeal to those who know about these things. I am certain there is a small IFF aerial (triangle shaped) on the top of the canopy. That's the easy bit. However, Airfix call out three more: one on the port side of the nose gear bay and two at the rear either side of the arrestor hook. I am sure the aerial at the NG bay is not fitted, but what about the ones at the rear? I am guessing not fitted, but can anyone confirm? Finally, there is a UHF blade antenna to go on the starboard side of the nose gear bay and I am relatively sure that this should be there on an early F1. Am I right? Pictures I have ofund of aircraft in service kind of allude to this, but low res b&w photos are not always your friend.

Thanks John, Just started gluing the handles on, so we will see what they look like. I have a plan B, C and D on standby!

Hi Dan, The Airfix Lightning kits are old but still some of their best IMO. The panel lines are good, refined surface detail (only rivets/latches in certain places) and build well OOB in my experience so far. They are not without their issues (nose wheel bay, for example) but I love them.

Painting the seat proceeds at a Lightning glacial pace... Nearly there. Still have to block in the main seat colours, final touch ups, decals, matt coat, dry brush and washes. Then fun with ejector seat handles. Should be done by next year.