rafalbert

Be my guest, although I think you may find out the best way not to build it by my efforts! All now assembled bar the undercarriage and prop assembly with a coat of primer. The canopy is narrower than the fuselage so the fit is not great and it looks like I need to apply a little more filler to blend the windscreen into the nose. Still, all in all it looks like a Pucara.

A bit of progress made but considering there are only a few steps to build this model I have not progressed very far! There has been a lot of filling and rubbing down with most areas acceptable (it is not going to be great, my skills are rather rudimentary). The wings are attached and I now need to fill the rather huge gaps against the fuselage.

Well I have made a start, and the fit so far has been interesting. As I have read, the lack of locating tabs makes things more difficult so I took my time joining the fuselage halves. The cockpit area attaches to the bottom of the front of the fuselage which then joins to the rest of the fuselage, and the fit is not great. Out with the filler and sanding stick....

PK-12 Northrop F-5A RNoAF "The Jokers" 1977

....and finished. There are a couple of blemishes which I haven't addressed properly including one annoying one on it's belly, but it scrubs up pretty well. I quite like the finish of the Xtracolor Duraluminium for the natural metal, and there was no way I was going to attempt the different tones at this stage. It should look ok nestling on my shelf. Dave

Hi guys, I couldn't miss this GB as I was 9 when all this kicked off and still have some strong memories of all the news updates etc. I am in with the Airfix reboxing of the Special Hobby kit, which apparently is not the easiest of builds so I will probably regret it! I also have the Xtradecals Falklands sheet so I may use those instead of the kit scheme. Cheers Dave

Now painted and adorned with some of Modeldecal's finest. Just the wingtip tanks and undercarriage to be attached then a final coat to be applied.

Thank you, this is the third time so I must be insane!

Nor do I but it was easier than detailing the cockpit!

PK126 Lightning T55

...and finished. Not particularly well done but it will look ok on my shelf. Thanks again to @rossmfor the decals, I would have been lost without them. The belly tank decals came from an old Revell set, and handling it for the photos I managed to remove some of them. I also forgot to add nose weight so it is a tail-sitter (hence the blu tack on the nosewheel). Still, it the first model I have managed to complete for a while so I am satisfied with that.

My plan for the Matchbox Victor has gone out of the window as due to everything else going on at the moment (including getting married next week) time is somewhat scarce. I still want to participate but am looking to build something reasonably straight forward. Does a Mosquito qualify for this or is it not big enough? Dave

A bit more progress in that all the filling is finally done and a coat of primer applied. I need to drill out the gun ports and add some barrels as it looks wrong without them. The twins have now been separated as the other F-5 will be finished in RNLAF colours at later date, whereas this one will be a Norwegian machine.

Please accept my apologies for the terrible photo, but the decals and canopy are now on. Missiles and undercarriage to follow.

Slow progress, but the pair of early mark Mig-28s are taking shape. I am surprised how much filler has been required so far compared to other Matchbox kits but they look ok to my eye so far.

The intakes are open to where they join the fuselage: The jetpipes are however solid. Both have now been added to the fuselage and liberal amounts of filler applied. Wings and tailplane next.

Now looking very silvery. I am keeping it simple and not doing the various metal tones, basically because I am lazy.

Starting to take shape, with a little more tidying required prior to applying primer. Does anyone know if the T55s flew with the overwing tanks and/or refuelling probe. I am not a Lightning expert but I have not seen any evidence that they did. Cheers, Dave

Well, I have made a small start and painted the pilots, cockpit and assembled the fuselage (the same stage as the F-5s). Again, serious attention will be given to the seam. Bizarrely, Matchbox saw fit to put two different styles of pilot in the kit, the most obvious difference being the helmet. I guess they did not have more than one standard tooling of each available at the time.

I have made a small start and painted the pilots, cockpits and assembled the fuselages. Some serious attention is required on the seams then I can start attaching the wings etc. They are open for about 3/4 inch, I will put up a pic when I start assembling them.

Here are a few of mine from various group builds over the last few years. I now need to crack on with the ones from this GB! Dave

Hi guys, I got these on a well known auction site a few years ago, a pair of F-5s without boxes or decals. I am planning to build both at the same time, one of which will be finished as a Norwegian machine and the other to be finished in the future (when I figure out what I am going to do with it). This was one of the first Matchbox kits I built so it should bring back some good memories. Dave

Hi guys, I will be building this old girl and keeping it simple i.e. out of the box. Many thanks to rossm for kindly donating the decals! Cheers, Dave

As this will be one of my few GBs this year I will dig out an F-5A to be finished as a Norwegian machine, and if I can source some decals I will do a Saudi Lightning T55 as well (discovered long after I bought it that the decals were missing ). Dave

The first Matchbox kit I built was the Percival Provost back in 1980, with my father's assistance in applying the silver paint (he basically painted it all). As it happens, I have one of these in the stash..... Dave