MD530F

What an amazing job you've done there. They really were a fantastically hideous aircraft but one worth replicating in kit form. Well done

Very nicely done. I've got one in the stash to do myself so this is encouraging. Your comments about fit and the instructions seem to be pretty common with Sword kits.

Thanks for all of that. I'm not as focused on markings right now as this isn't a 'tomorrow' project but I've added those decals to my wishlist at Hannants. Good thinking on the armament, I would never have thought about that. I do have an Alley Cat gun pod on the way with an FGR2 recon package. All good informatoin, thanks.

Thanks everyone for the input. I wasn't aware of the Finemolds offering but they do seem to be a bit hard to get right now. The Fujimi F3 boxing might be a good option with it coming with the correct markings already and you know what you're getting from that kit. The Academy one is an interesting thought but it's quite expensive for a snap together kit. Can't go wrong with Hasegawa generally either. I'll have a think on how to proceed. Thanks again all

I found the undercarriage the same with the F1 I built. Here's my build thread of that if you hadn't seen it and are interested.. That Meatbox looks lovely. I built the old Matchbox one as the NF12 but I have the Special Hobby NF11 and NF14 to do. I do want that Lego Saturn. I have a Bandai 1/144 scale one which is lovely but yeah, a Lego one would be cool too.

That's looking pretty damn good there. How did you find the undercarriage to put together? Which paints are you using? Looks like your theme is very similar to mine with the night fighter Meteor and JP4 in the background. Which Saturn is that?

Hi all, I'm pretty sorted for FG1s and FGR2s with the Fujimi kits but what do people recommend for the F4J UK / F3 variant? The Revell J looks good as does the Academy one but I also know that they were brought up to F-4S standard so would the Italeri S kit be a better base?

That's looking good. Well done

Use an old ATM card. Plastic card tends to be a bit thick. I would rather build these than try to use resin conversions on Airfix Lightnings 😄

Looking great. The F1 kit that I completed not that long ago suffered from similar fit problems and you've done a good job correcting it. Interestingly, the gap between the flap and the fuselage seems to be present on all of them on that side only... I've got another six of them to build or something like that so it's always good to see how other people get on

Hopefully in a few years, I'll end up with a whole heap more. Got two T7s, the prototype and F3 plus another two (at least) 79 Squadron FGA9s. Then there are the F1s, F4s and the other F6s I want to build. Finding the kits is the hard part

Thanks very much. The flags were a bit of an experiment to see if I could do it but yes, they do add something special.

Thanks. I have more conversion sets than kits at the moment. They're becoming a bit hard to find here. But there will be many more Hunters in my future...

Started this right after finishing the Sword Lightning. The more observant Hunter enthusiasts will notice plenty wrong but despite that, I'm happy with how it came out. XG228 was the last Hunter in squadron service with the RAF belonging to 79 Squadron 1 TWU. Added the ejection seat handles and the IFF aerial from the spares box, scratched the seatbelts, pitot tube from Master and the RBF flags from Airwaves.

Thanks chaps. I'm actually pretty happy with how it came up. Got another eight Lightnings to do... I think it's eight. Kind of lost count 🤔

Very nice indeed. Anything to watch out for during the build? I have three of them in the stash.

I'm aware of the traps now, the next one will be easier

Build thread HERE

Well, it's finished. Battled the ladder today. Submerged the ladder in hot water and put weight on it to try to get it to be the right shape. It was partially successful. I won't be buying any more of these. Anybody want to print some accurate ones?

Lots more small jobs over thelast few days mean the Lightning is edging closer to being finished. All the bits to put on. The seat was finished with Kitsworld 3d seat belt decals. Avoid these if you can. I found them terrible and they all have this white border around each piece. The difference between the kit supplied pitot tube and the brass aftermarket one. I think it's worth the work... Hanging the main gear. Not an easy task as they don't really want to sit at the right angle. Superglue was used in the end. Gear hung and waiting on gear doors and a few other bits and pieces. Weathering was done with Vallejo weathering wash. I've since tidied it up a little. Completed Firestreak missiles ready to be mounted to the rails.

Not great. They literally came off the paper within 5 seconds of being in the water and are very fragile.

Decals mostly done. Just got to do the small ones on the gear doors. The Xtradecal wing walk stencils are wrong for the small wing Lightnings, I possibly should've just used the Sword decals. No matter.

It's just brush painted acrylic. The second kit i built after getting back into this caper a couple of years ago so I'm pretty chuffed with how it came out. Also, I built it while we were all under house arrest and down here we weren't 'allowed' to order hobby supplies. I had to paint with a small brush and no retarder. Be careful too, I've found out during my current project that the enamel version is a different colour... go figure that one out.

My go to for HSS is Tamiya's XF16 Acrylic as seen here on my old Frog Meatbox My complaint with Hataka's take is two fold. First off, it looks too 'bare metally' so depending on what reference material you're using for the Kestrel it might actually be OK. The second issue I noticed is that it has a very large pigment size. Now, that might be a Blueline thing so I'd at least try your Redline stuff out.

I've built all three of these kits. Found the Vampire atrocious in terms of fitting the booms into the wings, the Gnat wasn't much better in terms of the gear and belly panel but the little JP was a delight, so much so that I've got another to build. I use Hataka Blueline and I echo your thoughts on the fragility. However, I find that I can work around that until I can put a clear on and then they're no problems. Not a fan of their 'High Speed Silver' but other than that, I think they're pretty good.