Touchstone42

Sorry this is late to the party, but similar experiences. Paid through PayPal in December, no replies to emails, etc. PayPal refunded my money last week. Shame, as the products were really good. I note you can’t get them for love or money now anywhere.

That’s going to be a mighty smooth surface - looking really good!

Paint scheme…. Grrrrrrrrrr?

Good job all-round, especially with the cowling. I too wimped out and bought the Barracuda one and it’s sitting with the export version in the stash. Yours is good inspiration to actually retrieve it and get started!

Hmmm, not heard of that film before, but it sounds good on the web site. I’ll invest in some and give it a try - thanks!

Well-spotted! This gets to the heart of any T4 - the NMF. After a disappointing time with the Voodoo, I did a bit of research and devoured anything I could on how to get a finish that was appropriate for an OCU machine left out in the scorching sun of an arid North-East climate... Matt of someone's model ( https://youtu.be/pMjuSZdHayE ) did a good job of experimenting with creating bare metal variance, and Plasmo ( https://youtu.be/9qJ6Q-mSaeQ ) did a great P51 with NMF and THEN added weathering with light grey oils for panel lines and chipped varnish, so I got out a P51 (hence the canopy) to try out both ideas before committing to my T4. Best results for me were gloss black primer, Tamiya AS12 (alclad aircraft aluminium worked just as well), marbling with near-black inside the panels (on the left, below) blend coat of nato black, top coat of aircraft aluminium. just what I was after... speckled metal finish. My issue was the translucency of the Alclad, (RF-101 below)... ... showing the undercoat of black primer when viewed at an oblique angle, I think. First coat of primer on, masked the spine and tail, white-coated prior to some MRP red lacquer and just the trainer-yellow fuselage and wing stripes to go then it’s NMF. Question though- I’ve had mixed results so far with masking NMF- what have you guys found? I tried masking first, over the primer, then applied the blue stripes for the Sun-Run RF-101, then added NMF but the NMF picked up on the adhesive on the primer and it dried a darker stripe where the masking tape had been. Other times, I’ve applied NMF first, then added a mask for insignia, only to find the adhesive “cleaned-up” the NMF underneath the mask, which was totally unacceptable and required some creative and frustrating free-hand spraying to rectify. The air was as blue as the insignia. Do I need to remove nearly all the adhesive from the tape THEN apply to NMF or is it better to mask first, stripe, then NMF?

Canopy masks done, after the obligatory floor-wax dipping. “Hang-on! That’s not a T4 canopy there!” do I hear you cry?

Really enjoying this and taking loads of notes! The seat is outstanding and I feel your pain with the wheel wells - I really struggled getting a resin set fettled for my T4. Keep up the good work! Steve

I have a cockpit tub ready for the T5 version, as that one is going to be modelled in a hanger, undergoing servicing, so it’ll have a few panels open. Good luck with yours!

Funnily enough, the only place I could source the decals for the OCU was a model shop in your neck of the woods!

... and a bit from today... A bit of research here and there seemed to indicate some fishing weights were required to avoid this becoming a tail sitter, which fitted neatly in the intake before temporarily adding the nose cone. A word of advice - DON’T stick the cockpit or nose wheel bay/intake in at this stage! I’d recommend dry fit and taping the fuselage halves together first, then test fitting the wings. The locating slot and “wedge” aren’t too positive, so you may have issues getting these to sit right if you glue the fuselage together first. I checked the fit, made a temporary jig to get the right dihedral and laid the fuselage half flat, then glued the wing in place so it sat vertically with the temp jigs holding it at the right angle(ish). Once dry, I turned it over and reinforced the join with some superglue from the inside. Ditto the other half, then once happy, I added the tub, intake/NGB and buttoned things up, small sections at a time (thanks #propforward for the tip!) I was quite happy with the fibreglass effect of the nose-cone. Thinned white primer, then some dark green Ammo acrylic slapped on by brush and dabbed at with kitchen paper. Several sessions later, it looks dappled and worn - result! Tailplane was a butt-join in which I had little faith, so I drilled through the join from the stbd side and just in to the port tailplane, temporarily held in place, more to make a mark than a hole. I removed the port tail plane, drilled out the hole, and threaded the drill through from the port side to mark a mark on the stbd tailplane. This was drilled out, a 1mm rod superglued in place, put through the holes in the fuselage, cut to length and the port tailplane skewered onto this rod. That should hold things nicely in place.

More progress from last night (I couldn’t keep away!). Added the resin wheel wells from CMK. Not designed for the Sword kit, seemed to fit the opening but not the thickness of the wing. Needed a fair bit of scraping the inside of the wing with a scalpel, plenty of sanding of the back surface and a tad shortening of the vertical walls once in place to produce an acceptable result. I then added some rivet detail. Once it’s had a couple of coats of paint, all I wanted was a feeling of panels, rather than anything agricultural or obvious like airfix’s panel lines, so these were subtle, as shown in the go-to book.

Good idea about the foil, though I guess I’ll have to drink the contents to avoid waste... I’ll fill and fix as suggested during final assembly and before the seats go in.

Hi all! Bear with me, this is my first WIP post. Sword’s 1:48 T4 lightning. All the usual comments about “short-run” kits apply - no locating pins, some flash, occasional fit issues, etc., but overall, I’m impressed. I bought a few goodies to go with it, the best being Danny Coreman’s book, but there were a few diorama bits I couldn’t resist, like tow bar, FOD cover (covers a multitude of sins!), tow-tractor... I took inspiration from #propforward’s build, so all the same comments apply as to fit, filling and finish! Natural metal finish on an earlier one-oh-wonder (KH RF-101c, Sun-Run #2) gave me some practice with Alclad and highlighted a few things I wanted to try with this T4. More on that as I get nearer to colouring the plastic. Anyhow, on with the show. I must confess at this point that I’ve progressed a bit before starting this thread, so the progress may appear a tad faster than it actually was. Intended subject was a September ‘63 dated T4 of the OCU, at RAF Middleton St George. Scratched a few bits for the bulkhead, using “Uncovering the Lightning” book and a cockpit tub from CMK, intended for a T5 in the stash. Used Evergreen rod, some solder for the cabling for the canopy and some wires from a short length of 3-core cable. The holes in the bracket at the top I struggled with - how do you guys get them in such a straight line? The drill bit kept slipping offf-line and I made a bit of a bodge of it. Here’s hoping the canopy/bang seats will cover most of it! Side consoles were busied up a bit, but I apparently have fingers too thick to make separate throttles and Airpass radar controls. No matter, I intended to do a canopy-down scene anyway...! ... and all dry-fitted in... Blast! That bracket isn’t covered by Martin Baker’s finest. I may not be able to live with it. The kit seats are pretty good though, as is the IP. especially when some of Airscales fab decals are added... That’s it for now. Wings next. Luckily, there’s a good stint of a few days uninterrupted plastic destruction coming up!

They are huge suckers - you’ve done well to blend them in so smoothly! Good luck for the rest of the scribing! What will you use? Needle? Scriber?