Enzo the Magnificent Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 You just knew it was going to be stripy, dintcha? Actually, all four of my builds will appear in this thread. They are: Lightning T.4 - 226 OCU. This is the stripy one with fluorescent orange trainer bands rather than the usual yellow ones. Lightning F1a - 111 Sqn. However... this might get changed to an F1 of the AFDS. We'll see how I feel later on down the road. Lightning F3 - 23 Sqn. Natural metal, white fin. Lightning F6 - 74 Sqn. It seems that these markings will be a very popular choice for this GB. Hardly surprising! Here are the kits. The Airfix F6 speaks for itself - the obvious choice. There are new Sword kits available for the F1a and F3, but I shall be converting the Airfix kit. Originally I had intended to use belly tanks and fins from the old, old Airfix kit so I bought a couple cheaply on evilbay. However, the superb Alley Cat resin conversion sets put an end to all that nonsense! I might bang one of 'em together quickly in an Obsolete Kits style build, but don't hold your breath... The T4 will be built from a Sword T5 kit. The T4 and T5 kits are sort of identical. Both fins are moulded on the sprue, but the irrelevant fin is removed from each boxing. I had two T5s and a T4 in The Stash, so I decided to use one of the T5s and add the redundant Alley Cat resin fin from the F3 build. Oh... and I'm hoping that a stalled Airfix F2a build will get caught up and swept along as well, but I won't be entering that in the Gallery as it is far more than 25% complete. Here we go. Hold on tight, rider! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 That's quite a collection you've got there Enzo. Leading the charge from the front en mass as usual 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted October 5, 2014 Author Share Posted October 5, 2014 That's quite a collection you've got there Enzo. Leading the charge from the front en mass as usual Never mind the quality. Feel the width! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted October 5, 2014 Author Share Posted October 5, 2014 A few shots to start off with. I would normally post photos of the sprues for the kits, but that's a bit pointless for the Airfix one as they have already been done to a better standard than I can manage in Paul AH's excellent review of the F2a kit. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234955355-english-electric-lightning-f2a-172-airfix/ However... this is the extra sprue in the F6 kit. It contains the extended cable ducts, overwing tanks, forward gun pack and Red Top missiles. These are the parts from the Sword T5 kit. As you can see, the pointed fin for the T4 has been removed from the sprues. Some very nice resin and pre-coloured PE is included. Finally, the parts from the superb Alley Cat conversion set. Upper wings, small belly tank and a pointed fin. This last part will not be needed if you decide to build an F3. More about the fin part later... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted October 5, 2014 Author Share Posted October 5, 2014 The first step involves delivering a certain amount of carnage to the kits used for the F1a and F3. Firstly, the kit upper wing surface is discarded entirely. (You may want to keep it should you ever decide to build a Saudi T-bird...) The lower surface is cut down slightly. This should not scare anyone as the cut marks are mostly along panel lines. The next step is to remove the rear part of the belly tank from the Airfix kit. If you are building a Mk1 (as shown here) then the fin will have to be removed as well. I was a little concerned about replacing the fin as I was sure that the butt joint would be very weak. I shouldn't have been concerned. Alley Cat have put a lot of thought into this area. Once you remove the kit fin, there is a groove in the starboard fuselage half. The resin fin has a shallow locating tab which is offset to starboard slightly. The tab will fit in this groove and no doubt provide a very secure fit. For that reason, when removing the fin from the resin moulding block you need to be very careful. Don't just snap the fin from the block, as the locating tab is likely to stay on the block. Run a sharp knife along the moulded groove and the fin will separate very cleanly. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Good to see that there will be another entry to the Enzo 'Stripy' series. This looks like quite the intricate conversion(s) - will watch and learn. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeyboy76 Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Looking forward to seeing these builds. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Looking forward to seeing these coming together Enzo. I have both fins in my T.4 boxing if you can use the T.5 version. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan B Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 That conversion looks a lot easier than the route I took to get my F1. Of course as is the norm Alleycat announced their conversion just after I'd finished building my F1! I have now bought one so it's interesting to see how it goes together. Duncan B 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted October 7, 2014 Author Share Posted October 7, 2014 Of course as is the norm Alleycat announced their conversion just after I'd finished building my F1! So we have you to thank! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan B Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 So we have you to thank! I actually predicted it would happen in my WIP of the F1! So far though Airfix haven't taken me up on the 1/72 Javellin Duncan B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted October 18, 2014 Author Share Posted October 18, 2014 A quick update. Here are the Airfix cockpits and intake trunking assemblies built and ready to be installed. The black cockpit is for the F1A. The fuselage halves ready for assembly. From left to right they are F1A, F3 and F6. The F1A has gun troughs on the upper nose. The others don't. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeyboy76 Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Looking good so far. Hope you have better luck with the fuselage fits with the cockpits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Good to see the production line is back in operation Enzo. Looking forward to seeing more of these. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 2, 2014 Author Share Posted November 2, 2014 Next step is to place the interior bits. This is the F1A which also demonstrates the excellent way that the Alley Cat fits. The cockpit of the T-bird. I have a sneaking feeling it should be black... The fuselages of the single-seaters. From top to bottom, F1A, F3 and F6 All four models with main assembly complete and various bits of masking applied. Now comes a lot of sanding and polishing to get them ready for a natural metal scheme. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Good and multiple progress Enzo. Have to say the nose weight needed for you T.4 is a bit nuts though... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeyboy76 Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Good and multiple progress Enzo. Have to say the nose weight needed for you T.4 is a bit nuts though... Wot he said!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Great job Enzo, I just don't know how you do it bud. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 3, 2014 Author Share Posted November 3, 2014 Great job Enzo, I just don't know how you do it bud. It takes a special kind of madness... and an Excel spreadsheet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousAA72 Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 (edited) Re the T4 Enzo, the one with the day-glo T-bands, check the serial number, XS418 was actually a T5. The artwork in the relevant Warpaint, copied in subsequent decal sheets got it wrong... Edited November 3, 2014 by Bill Clark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 3, 2014 Author Share Posted November 3, 2014 Re the T4 Enzo, the one with the day-glo T-bands, check the serial number, XS418 was actually a T5. The artwork in the relevant Warpaint, copied in subsequent decal sheets got it wrong... Thanks for the heads up, Bill. I didn't realise that. It just goes to show that one should always cross-check references! All is not lost however... I will just build XM997 instead. Same markings but a T4. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7008/6524443647_4bf52459b2_z.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousAA72 Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Thanks for the heads up, Bill. I didn't realise that. It just goes to show that one should always cross-check references!All is not lost however... I will just build XM997 instead. Same markings but a T4.http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7008/6524443647_4bf52459b2_z.jpg ....though with standard yellow T-bands of course...good shout Enzo... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phartycr0c Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Four birds at once, thats great going. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 3, 2014 Author Share Posted November 3, 2014 ....though with standard yellow T-bands of course... Stripy is as stripy does... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan B Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Re the T4 Enzo, the one with the day-glo T-bands, check the serial number, XS418 was actually a T5. The artwork in the relevant Warpaint, copied in subsequent decal sheets got it wrong... My understanding is that the OCU painted all the T5's with dayglo stripes to differentiate them from the T4's. I would have thought a quick look at the fin would have been enough to tell them apart on the line (but then again I once worked with a guy at Leuchars who couldn't tell a Jaguar apart from a Phantom even though he spent all day crawling around all over Phantoms) and I'm sure that even the sleepiest of Pilot would notice the difference once they got into the thing. Duncan B 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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