AAbshier

Thanks Bill, and everyone else! I'm not building one of these Trumpeter Lightnings again in a million years, but it was good experience! Andy

Thanks, Matt. I have info from another contact that says the exact opposite on the AAMs--Pythons on Stations 1/9, AIM-9Ms on stations 1/8. Plus I did track down the Israeli ordinance you mentioned (Delilah, Spice, etc.) but Skunk Modelworks doesn't include the datalink pods, so I guess that's out. Andy

Hi folks, I've been given the Kinetic 1/48 scale kit plus an Eduard set for a review build, which I'm planning on finishing as an IDF example, and had a few questions for everyone: 1. What are the paints that have the best color matches for the upper surface camouflage colors? 2. A friend sent me some loadout notes, but I would like to know some specific loadouts for the aircraft. The Kinetic kit comes with enough stores to start a small-scale war, but most of them are U.S. manufacture; I would be interested in what Israeli-manufactured stores these jets carry. 3. I'm well aware of the controversy over the "nose droop" on these Kinetic kits--I'm not going to address that directly--but are there other changes that need to be done to make an accurate model? Thanks everyone! Andy

Completed as of one hour ago, the 74 Sqn. Lightning F3: More and better photos will be published on Modeling Madness in due course. This was one bear of a project, and I'm glad it's behind me. Thanks to everyone for watching. Now we can all cheer Bill Clark's F6 to the finish line! Andy

I've put decals on the right side of the fuselage and canopy, using mostly Xtradecal markings, but using the kit decals for the canopy. For those of you moving ahead to this stage, there's a few things you should know: 1. Trumpeter's yellow canopy frame decals don't fit the canopy very well! Cut off the "chop here" lettering, because there's not near enough room on the canopy frame for it; there's smaller "chop here" stencils on the Xtradecal stencil sheet. 2. The "hash marks" (#77 on the Xtradecal sheet) that go around the aft fuselage (aftermost panel line perpendicular to the line of flight) should be applied in sections. I did it in one go on the right side, and had quite the merry time aligning the hash marks on the lower fuselage. I would suggest cutting 7 hash marks off from the bottom, applying the top half first, then the bottom. 3. A number of the panel lines on the Xtradecal instructions are not on the Trumpeter fuselage! In those cases I either fudged it or left the stencils off entirely. 4. The roundels will snuggle down over the front of the cable conduit fairings; just be patient and use plenty of Micro-sol, and they will settle down nicely. On the left side, you do have some stencils superimposed over the roundel, so apply the roundel first. 5. Neither Xtradecal nor Trumpeter provided striping for the small ventral tank; I made mine up using leftover wingwalk striping decal stock (I painted my wingwalk stripes on). Still in sprint mode! I'm hoping to have it finished just before the turn of the year in the Pacific Ocean, to try to claim last completion of 2009 honors! Andy

I've noticed that too. I'm doing a "putty smash" on the wing to fuselage joins to make sure the wings are set correctly. BTW, did you notice how crowded the scoops are on the aft fuselage of my model? Looks like that's where Trumpy shortened up the fuselage; that would also explain why the ventral tank is too short, too low, and too bulbous! Andy

Well, our former colonial masters DID build and fly the Blackburn Blackburn, after all! Andy

Yeah, they turned up a bit after I put the halves together. I decided there wasn't anything to do about it, but at least it goes well with the other outline inaccuracies on the fuselage. I've already started on my Eduard/Airfix Lightning F1A--now there's a real model airplane! Andy

Hi gang, I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Mine wasn’t so good, but that’s neither here nor there. I haven’t updated my build lately because I’ve been busy with my regular work and I’ve also been very focused on getting this project done by the end of the year. It looks like I’m going to make it: The wings and landing gear are finished. I decided not to attempt the brake lines from the Eduard exterior set and just drove on with mounting the gear. The main gear strut doors barely fit onto the shortened struts; if I had shortened them up any more, I would have had to re-make the strut doors, and considering that this project has already gone into overtime, I’m glad I stuck with the 2.5mm shortening. Here’s how she sits on the shorter struts: It’s definitely better than it would have been on the stock landing gear, but she still looks too tall. Oh well, not much that can be done for it now. I have a 3-day out of town job starting on Monday. I’m saving decaling the fuselage for then, because decaling is something that can be done easily in a hotel room, as compared to other modeling jobs. I’ve just about completed all of the other ancillary bits (missiles, pylons, probe, fuselage spine dilectric panel) and all of those should go on quickly once I’m back on the 30th. Next time you see this model, it will be completed. I’m publishing a full-build review of it on Modeling Madness, so I will withhold my photos until it gets published there--but once it is published, you’ll see it here on Britmodeler also! Andy (EDIT: I just realized I have the wrong color wing lights on the wings! That will teach me to put the lights on with the wings upside down. Fortunately, they're white-glued, so popping them off and resetting should be no problem.)

Sounds good! Can we dare hope for a 1/72nd VC-10, in civilian and RAF tanker versions? Andy

Hi folks, I've been working on a Hunter F6 for my 74 Sqn. collection. I have a KMC MB Mk. 2H resin seat on hand, plus a resin part for the upper rear bulkhead. The seat is painted up and came out real nice, so I obviously want to use it. The problem I'm having is that it sits up a little more erect than the kit seat when it is positioned correctly, so that the ejection seat rails don't mate up with the part they are supposed to mate up with. Any ideas? I can run down to my LHS and pick up a resin replacement cockpit (ex KMC I believe) so that everything fits, but I've already worked up the Revell parts so I don't want to waste my effort. Also, did anyone find that the forward and rear cockpit bulkheads seemed to be too large in diameter? I'm having a hell of a time closing up the fuselage on my test fits and given that every build review I've seen on this kit has never mentioned this as a problem, I'm assuming it's something I'm doing wrong. Thanks Andy

All right then--I'll just have to see if I can find one relatively cheap; retail on the F6s here in the states is US$45.00 or so; you can get FGA9s for half that! Andy

Forgot to ask: do we need the FGA9 or F6 to use as the base kit? I'm hoping FGA9, because they're a lot cheaper here in the States than the F6s. Andy

Oh goody, something else to spend my money on. If I didn't have outstanding medical bills still, I could buy a Sea Fury to go with the T7 set! The 74 Sqn. markings makes it a keeper for me--I already have a 74 Sqn. Lightning F3 and Hunter F6 underway, and a trainer would go well with both! Andy

I see it's time once again for me to reconsider changing over to stamp collecting. Holy crap, that's beyond gorgeous work! Andy

Would you be willing to sell me an Airfix F2A/F6? Yes, I know, a guy can dream..... Andy

I'm thinking MAI took the "diplomatic" route. Since the landing gear is way too tall, metal gear doesn't help at all; I used the plastic gear, cut down to something approximating the correct height. I will agree that this kit has the look of a rush job--the totally screwed-up intake trunk placement looks like a big failure to communicate between Trumpy's designers. I am working on an Eduard/Airfix Lightning F1A for review, and that is going much, much easier. I'd say spend the money on that instead of battling Trumpeter's big beast! Andy

I may have been away, but I have also been busy with my F3! This installment covers applying paint to the painted parts of the fuselage. Since I was building a Lightning F3, Xtradecal’s Lightning F1 markings had to be adapted for the later type. In particular, the fin flash and roundel bars were changed when 74 Sqn. transitioned to the F3. Since no one has made decals for the 74 Sqn. F3s in 1/32nd scale, I had to paint these things on. First, I applied primer to the vertical fin, fuselage spine, and the areas on the forward fuselage where the roundel bars would go: I used Floquil Reefer White, and ended up priming twice because, as invariably happens with primer coats, I found a number of things I had to fix. Nothing like primer to teach a modeler humility! Then came the fun part. I made photocopies of the markings I needed, and used the color copies as templates to cut out masks for the fin flash and the roundel bars. I stuck the photocopies to Tamiya tape that was stuck to an old mirror, and then used a straightedge and #11 blade to make the cuts. It was a lengthy and non-photogenic procedure! Here are the completed masks for the fin flash next to the fin. The field has already been masked off, using yet another decal photocopy for sizing and positioning: One color at a time, I painted the fin flash, starting with white, then red, then blue. I finished with the yellow border, and when I painted this, I also painted the base coat for the roundel bars. The fields for the roundel bars were set using copies: Then the fun really began! Even having made the masks ahead of time, using the same method as the fin flashes, masking for the roundel bars about gave me a nervous breakdown. The results, though, were worth it: The fin flashes also definitely didn’t suck: (Looking at the photo, I can see a bit of white just above the yellow on the fin flash. I should be able to fix that using a black decal.) I have to say, there’s something about a black-tailed jet; no wonder everyone and their dog builds “Jolly Roger” U.S. Navy jets! But I’ll put my 74 Sqn. Lightning up against them any day! Andy Alton IL

Wow, this SE-5A is getting expensive! Kit, Pheon decals for 74 Sqn., Eduard set, turnbuckles......yikes. But I will do it, one of these years. Andy

Thanks, everyone. Roden it is. Now to contemplate rigging. Andy

Hi folks, I have sort of a 74 Squadron history project going, with two models underway (EE Lightning and Hunter F6, both a long way from WW I!) and thought it would be good to have one of 74's SE-5As in the collection as well. I don't know the type all that well so I would like to find out which SE-5 kit would be most appropriate for 74 Squadron. I seem to recall them flying later SE.5As with the Hispano engine, but don't know for sure and my WW I references are paper-thin! I hope the correct answer is the Wingnut Wings kit, because I've been itching to order one of those. :-) Also, are there decals, either in the kits or aftermarket, that give markings for 74 Sqn.? Thanks in advance. Andy

Just a small update this afternoon. I was feeling discouraged about this project, but took the blank to a local model club meeting where I got quite a bit of encouragement. Now that my motivation is back (positive reinforcement is a powerful thing), I'm finishing up paint on the AMS ejection seat, and once that is installed, I'm sticking the canopy on and getting the fuselage paint started. Here is the blank with the finished wings on: It's only a coincidence that the model is perched on a trash can. No, really. :-) While I was waiting for paint to dry on the ejection seat, I made some color copies and size-tested the 74 Sqn. roundel bars with one of Xtradecal's roundels: Spot on, according to my photos--so that's done. I'll be cutting masks and painting on the roundel bars on my model--I needed to do color copies because the yellow disappears on a B&W copy. Andy

"Repeat, please" (as he breaks right). (BTW the Polish squadron was in Hurricanes in the picture.) Andy

I’ve finally managed to get a computer that has working photo editing software! My laptop’s software is still on the fritz, but I’m home now and can provide an update. As I mentioned previously, I am building my Lightning so that the wings can be removed for easier storage. The separate wings also make painting easier. After applying Mr. Surfacer 1000 gray to the wings, fixing the bad spots, then reapplying Mr. Surfacer, I did a base coat of Alclad II Aluminium. : The wheel wells were treated as their own little painting/weathering project after the wings got their base coat. I masked off the wheel wells, applied a base coat of Floquil Old Silver, then applied a heavy wash with Tamiya Black: I then followed by painting dissimilar panels with various shades of Alclad; you can see the results in the first picture. After finishing the paint, I planned on applying the walkway decals, letting them dry, then applying the rest of the wing decals. Of course, another problem had to manifest itself: Oy oy oy. So back upstairs to the bench, to get the walkways masked off for painting. I used Floquil CSX Black, a gloss shade from their Railroad Colors series: They came out well: I’ll use the decals for the little fill-ins that are required; I could have masked it all off and painted, but was lazy! Meantime the landing gear struts and doors are done: So there you go! I’ll have more updates as the week goes on. Andy Alton IL

Wasn't AU-U one of the choices for individual aircraft sheets you were working up? Is that project off now? The decal looks good. Will it include stenciling? Andy