At Sea

Never tried dry rubbing? Does it lead to a satisfying finish? On another note I have just gone through my kits and have 2 stbd fuselages and no port in one kit... ...anyone got the reverse problem? Lol

She's blushing!

Phabulous!

Yes, the quality of the recollections show not only the level of training these guys had, but also the impact of the events. When you think that the RAF lost 1/3 of all Lightnings, and the number of pilots who died in 'planned' ejections the whole RAF community on the East Coast must have been on tenterhooks every time a gear down failure or engine fire was reported. The Crowood aviation series book on the Lightning has been excellent background reading for this.

Hello everyone! My project for this group build is a subject that had suggested itself to me before the GB came up, but fits so well. The medium is the Airfix 1/48 Lightning F.3 made from the F.1 / 1a / 3 kit. For this I plan to keep it British, using only Humbrol paints and OOB apart from the decal option (the reason for this will become clear shortly). The aircraft I will build is XP753. XP753 was the Lightning piloted by Fl.Lt. Mike Thompson who in August 1983 was denied permission to carryout a display over Scarbrough and by all accounts proceeded to do so anyway, resulting in a fatal accident. Mike was the Lightning Display Pilot for '83 and it was a sad accident for the pilot & aircraft. http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/73801-xs937-m-crash.html#post704442 I did some digging and found that using the firestreak decal sheet I have to build the LPG Lightning F.6 I can also modify XR753 to read XP753 by the deft application of a scalpel. I can use these serials and the kit decals to make a 74 Squadron F.3 as XP753. So my plan is to build the kit as XP753 in much happier times as she was in 74 Sq in the 1960's. Part of the reason for going 'All Airfix' is to prove to myself what is still possible without Tamiya paints and eduard masks and cockpits, also it would seem a little sad to celebrate a British aircraft by building a Japanese kit with Czech finishing details etc etc. The build is also in memorial to all the pilots who lost their lives in this great aircraft.

I wish they were anyform of green grey and not 'orrible grey with soot and handprints that they are now. The barley air defence grey schemes on Phantoms and Tornado ADV's looks nice, but not the current Tornado finish. Wrap around or over LAG. Grey Green is the best. I'd change it for asthetic reasons alone. Besides, in the modern environment operating at medium altitude against insuregnts would grey green be a disadvantage? Maybe we should start one of those Downing Street petitions. Paint the Tornados and Typhoons grey green, the hawks can all go either high speed silver with historic unit markings or grey green over LAG, the new maritime patrol aircraft should be EDSG over white, as should the F-35's. Any takers? Lol

I cheat with mine, I leave the pylon mounts out of the wing all together, then very carefully cut the slotted part of the barrel off with a razor saw. I then stick this to the top of the pylon and use it to glue the pylon in afterwards. It gives quite a positive location and eliminates the fear of losing them inside the wing to rattle about forever! :-) Oh, the PE on the underfuselage pylons looks brilliant. I need this set next time I build a Tornado!

I hope the pylon mounting points are free to swivel and not fixed to the bar, because the slot in them should be in line with the airflow.

That would be very kind if you could. Edit, you did; and you didn't. Oh well, will keep an eye out and pop a post in wants. Thanks.

Found this picture, so have a reference sorted out for both high and low viz which is good enough for my standards. I will let you know how the KitsWorld low viz F-4D ones work out. Looking at the images the main F-4 specific stencils are common, such as they honeycomb no step and wing fold stencils, there are also many RAF ones common to the Tornado such as grounding points and ejector seats. I think I'll be okay, certainly up to my standards anyway. ;-)

With a magnifying glass! Shame these are only 1/72. :-)

Thank you, that is very helpful. I will of course be checking reference pictures.

^^^this is because I get another Hasegawa kit with 2 sets of very good stencils. ;-)

That would be nice. Other option is buy the Revell FGR.2 and hold onto that until the stencils become available! Lol

Sorry, forgot to mention they are the 1:48 scale Hasegawa Phantoms. I'll look for the Air Doc stencil sheet but this may be hard to find as I belive they are OOP?

^^^ Thanks for that, love getting the gen from you guys who dealt with the real thing. One of the highlights of researching the subject.

Thank you very much. :-D

Hello, I have (thanks to ebay) a Hasegawa Phantom FG.1 and a pair of FGR.2s without decals. This is not an issue as I have the excellent AirDoc RAFG Phantom and Ramodels early Phantoms decal sheets. So plenty of options to build up my kits. However I have not got any stencils. I have as a precaution ordered the Eduard F-4C sheet and the Kits World Phantom F-4 B,C,D sheet so I'll have enough to make 3 kits, one in barley grey, one in tactical grey green and one in EDSG. BUT how accurate are these for a Spey Phantom, I know the stencils for the ejector seats are different and will use some spare Tornado ones I have but are the rest nearly there or nowhere near. I did think a good get out of jail free card would be the excellent Tornado GR.1 Xtradecal set to give me correct pylon decals and plenty of No Step markings in the correct font. Another question, did RAF Germany Phantom's with 19 & 92 sq have the bi-lingual stencils like the Tornado does or is it only the rescue arrows that are in Deutches and English? Thank you.

The canopy masking is a work of art in itself! Nicely done and a very unusual subject!

Watching this with interest as I have to make a BIII to represent BM-J which was my Grandafther's mount in 1944/5. Lovely to have the connection.

Pulling up a chair for this. I am also planning an in flight GR.1 using the left over decals from my Hannants sets. I'm popping a couple of Paveways on the bottom of mine. Was thinking 9 squadron 1991.

Interesting construction sequence for the intakes, may try this next time. Looking very good!

I have the set from my GR.4

Drop Shaun (a member here) and get him to send you his resin LRMTS pod and wing gloves in resin. Alternatively use the GR.4 kit and use the early sipne as both the IDS and GR.4 spines are included. The other UK specific parts are the underfuselage pylons which comprise 4 parts and take you up to 9.

Looking good. Merry Christmas too. :-D