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So. Here's a thing. When I first joined this forum back in March, myself and John (The Spadgent) both ended up simultaneously building Fairey Swordfishes (Swodfishii?) by pure chance - he a spanking 1:48 Tamiya build, and myself a reprise of the old 1:72 Matchbox job. Having throughly enjoyed the experience of posting two differently-scaled WIPs of the same aircraft back-to-back, we've decided to go ahead and do a synchronized dual-scale build again - this time of the venerable Meteor. It'll either be 'Butch and Sundance' or 'The Two Ronnies' - it could go either way... Cheers - John & Tony PS. You'll find John's F.1 up here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235002363-the-dual-build-diaries-a-meatbox-apocalypse-148-edition/ Of the three versions the Matchbox kit offers, I'm going to build the NF.14 variant from 85 Sqn. TBH I just prefer the canopy - the prior NF marks had that 'Edwardian greenhouse' canopy that must have played merry hell with visibility and situational awareness. And before anyone sends up a warning flare - John Aero has already briefed me about not using the NF.14 nose that Matchbox supply and using the correct NF.12 length one... Anyhoo. The obligatory deboxification of the three coloured sprues. ...come up and see my etchings... Not a bad moulding for its vintage, though that gunsight fitting and joystick look a bit on the steroid-abuse side.. I noticed that the light green sprue when held up against the daylight is astonishingly translucent: The panel lines on the wings are also surprisingly restrained so I'm hoping overall not to have to do too much filling and rescribing on this one. Just admiring the delicate baroque edge to the port aileron. Wait....What? Hmm..that wing root could double as a Somme diorama... You've probably seen the amount of filling other makers of this kit have had to do. The cockpit surround and nose area are experiencing marital difficulties.... Actually the nose is going to have a bit of cosmetic surgery as I've decided that although I'm going with the markings and paint scheme off the box, I'm going to do this build with the nose removed to show the radar. There appears an absolute lack of photos showing this NF.14 radar installation so I'm going to be working from a line drawing in the Pilot's Notes and a more detailed graphic most kindly sent to me by NAVY870 of the AI.21 from a FAW.22, as they both used the same set. Those Hispanos look a bit Wiley-Coyote here. 'One of us will have to go' as Oscar Wilde quipped... After a dry fit to confirm my fears that the UK filler industry is about to experience a golden age of prosperity, down to the first adherences...aaaand already the instructions and the parts are agreeing to disagree. The drawing shows a nice clear area in front of the joystick, whilst the model appears to include a shoeshine stand for the pilot. Actually I think it's meant to be the lower part of the IP but bears no relation to the actual aircraft: Fiddling with the PE whilst I muse over what to do with the above. Some nice detailing in this set, such as the map stowage, elevator trim wheel and rear radar console. Not sure about those gulleys for the rudder pedals though - I've bent them exactly as per the instructions, yet they look suspiciously large. Having Dremeled off that shoeshine unit and test-fitted the pedal gulleys, it's evident these are not exactly in scale. I've had to make my own from biro refills. You can see the size difference below. Even my reduced-size ones still look a tad beefy but they'll do, given how little that region of the pit is visible once it's all tucked away in the fuselage. Have you noticed how pleased that joystick is to see you? I fear that's going to have to be replaced as well on the grounds of exagerrated girth. I'm sensing some size issue building up here. The front 'shelf' and gunsight area seem too big and stand out too proud of the cockpit edges compared to photo documentation. As for that 'roll-cage' behind the pilot's seat, it's trying to be the framework behind the pilot's seat into which the shoulder straps pass. That's coming out too. Swordfish rocket racks are the gift that keeps on giving. A bit of razor-sawing and this is the umpteenth time they've been to the rescue, on this occasion to give more depth to the observer's radar console. The console is something of a compromise. In the NF.14 there is the lower unit with the CRT displays and controls for the AI.21, and then a framework holding a smaller console above it that seemed to have repeaters for the altitude and IAS instrumentation. I've added some frame work but at this scale I won't go to the length of sawing off and reattaching the top unit onto the framework I've built as it'll be the first thing I snap off. The blue bits are the PE interiors temporarily positioned with Blue-Tack so that I could test fit this whole upper assembly into the lower fuselage. The rebuilt front of the cockpit, with a gunsight built from scrap PE. Apologies for picture quality - I got all fancy thinking I'd hold a cheap magnifying lens in front of the camera to make a macro-shot. Don't. It just gives the whole thing a 'third pint of scrumpy' aesthetic... In the process of delicately gluing / clumsily bending the PE to fit the interior curvature. Actually it's not as brutal as it looks, it's just that you have to trim off some of the front of the PE as it jams up against the IP once that has the PE instrumentation on it as well. That's it for tonight. Hopefully you've enjoyed it so far. John should be on later with his 1:48 version - I'll add a link to his topic once he's got it posted up. Thanks for looking Tony

Hi all. I desperately want to undertake the foolhardy task of building a revealed nose radar for a1:72 AW Meteor NF.14 I'm about to commence. I've scoured any literature I can lay my hands on as well as searching the web, but simply can't find any images of the correct radar, either on it's own or mounted in-situ. The correct radar for this variant of Meteor is I believe the AI MK.21 set (the modified US Westinghouse AN/APS-57). I've even looked for images of other aircraft using the same set with their radomes open but no joy. The closest I could find is a repro of a Meteor maintenance manual on p.79 of the SAM modellers datafile No.8 on the Meteor, but it only has visible an NF.11 radar installation and the Mk.21 was only introduced from the NF.12 variant onwards, so that's no help. Does anyone have any suggestions or pointers showing the nose open to reveal the radar on an NF.14? Thanks for reading, Tony