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1/72 - Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.11/12/13 & 14 by Special Hobby - NF.11/.12/.14 & TT.20 released


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Now that is great news especially to have a nice new modern Mk.14, we know they will like the other new a recent releases from Special Hobby so I am sure this will be a very popular release.

 

Ali

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Special Hobby and Airfix are currently the only companies that are producing kits of subjects I'm interested in.

 

Special Hobby have done it here again, all I can say is wooooo-hooooh!!!! :frantic:

 

I won't be holding my breath though, SH kits seem to be very long in gestation.

Edited by Wez
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Great news! Presently struggling with the Matchbox one, a personal record for quantity of Mr Surfacer 500 used. I have two fervent hopes. First, that SH sorts out the various nose lengths of the night fighters. There is an amazing amount of conflicting information in the various publications on this subject. Second, that they don't use those inexplicable, and all but impossible to assemble neatly, four part wings that come in some, but not all, SH Meteor kits.

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Great news there! NF.13 in IDF service for me please!

I wonder if SH is planning to use moulds from Mk.1-9 series - e.g. wing, engines - or that one is going to be a completely new tool?

Edited by Dennis_C
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13 hours ago, rickshaw said:

stevehnz, we truly thank you for taking one for the team.

 

As soon as you replace something/scratchbuild something, someone will replace a new kit and each of us has to make that sacrifice at one time or another...  :yes:

Not always true ...

 

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I have also recently finished the Matchbox one and a few in the stash. I hope they do a better job on the wings than the single seaters. John Adams is the chap who knows the inside out of Meteor NF noses and if they had any sense they would listen to him. Has anyone any contact with SH? 

Edited by Martin T
Autocorrect think it knows better than me
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On 12/9/2017 at 6:13 PM, Trenton guy said:

There is an amazing amount of conflicting information in the various publications on this subject.

Nose lengths of the nightfighter Meteors used to be a minefield until John Adams of Aeroclub, who I hope still visits this forum, got it sorted for us. At the risk of plagiarising his good work and findings, it might be worth repeating again. John did measurements from actual airframes using plumbs dropped onto the hangar floor so they are very reliable. Most sources have the NF.11 and NF.12 correct and most sources have the NF.14 WRONG. And I mean most sources, including many esteemed and worshipped books. Indeed, out of more than 10 books on my shelf specifically on the Meteor, all bar one gets the NF.14 length wrong. The correct one is the Haynes 'Super Profile' by MJ Hardy. Unfortunately he quotes the NF.12 as being the same as the -11/13. You just cannot win it all can you?

The NF.11 and NF.13 are both the same, both being versions of the same variant.

The NF.12 was longer and was identical in length to the NF.14, contrary to quotes still seen regularly. The apparent differences were due to the later NF.14 windscreen being redesigned in shape and appearing to be further back along the nose than the -12. The shorter 'Deep Breather' nacelles on the -14 compounds this visual anomaly. When the radar became redundant in the NF.TT.14 era, sometimes the metal ring around the rear of the nose dielectric cone also got painted on some a/c, making the nose radome appear longer. All this is detailed in a couple of places by John Adams. One I dug out today is a letter in Scale Aircraft Modelling Vol.26/10. Thanks John. Incidentally, the -14 length at 49ft 11in. is also confirmed in AP 2210AP Vol.1.

 

Lengths: NF.11/13      48ft 6ins.

               NF.12           49ft 11ins.

               NF.14           49ft 11ins.

 

It also turns out that later in life, all -14s and some -12s received a tail radar warning receiver, the antenna being in the extreme tail cone which shortened these a/c by 3.5ins. This wouldn't change the nose length though.

 

at some point in prehistory, someone got the quoted length of the -14 wrong and it has been perpetuated ever since. Certainly Shacklady had it wrong. Was he the original sinner? Certainly his book has been the Meteor bible down the decades hasn't it?

 

I hope Special Hobby read this forum!  I also echo those comments on the SH Meteor wing thickness, a good opportunity for a retool of those too methinks. 

 

Nige B

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Ha!  And I just started my Xtrakit/Matchbox one only last night.  Great news though.  I can see me having a fleet of these.  So many squadron 'fighter bars', so little time.

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58 minutes ago, Meatbox8 said:

Ha!  And I just started my Xtrakit/Matchbox one only last night.  Great news though.  I can see me having a fleet of these.  So many squadron 'fighter bars', so little time.

 

Well crack on there's a good chap! 

 

SH kits are usually a long time coming and following the first rule of modelling (the one that states that the day you beat a demanding kit into submission, some other manufacturer will release a better and easier to build kit), the sooner you've got the Xtrakit/Matchbox kit built, SH will release theirs!

 

You'll be taking one for the team but I'm sure we'll all be jolly grateful - won't we chaps?

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On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 1:11 PM, viscount806x said:

I hope Special Hobby read this forum!  I also echo those comments on the SH Meteor wing thickness, a good opportunity for a retool of those too methinks. 

 

Nige B

Given that Special Hobby have already started cutting the moulds, anything that they might learn from this forum would be too late.

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10 hours ago, Wez said:

 

Well crack on there's a good chap! 

 

SH kits are usually a long time coming and following the first rule of modelling (the one that states that the day you beat a demanding kit into submission, some other manufacturer will release a better and easier to build kit), the sooner you've got the Xtrakit/Matchbox kit built, SH will release theirs!

 

You'll be taking one for the team but I'm sure we'll all be jolly grateful - won't we chaps?

Well, we all have to make sacrifices.  I did do a little work on it tonight.  Very little work as it turned out.  Last night I put in the Airwaves cockpit side panels.  Tonight I took them out again!  The cockpit combing is a bad enough fit as it is.  I think I might take out shares in Humbrol filler.  So, I hope no one is in a hurry for the SH kit.  It's going to be a while before I finish the Xtrakit one, even with my own sloppy and laissez faire attitude to kits that don't want to behave.  In fact I might even finish the Magna Albacore first. 

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mmm very difficult to be 100% sure but it looks as if they have made the nose of the Mk.14 too long, as has been well researched by John Adams the 12 and 14 as many of us now know should be the same length.

I think I will try and write to them and get it confirmed and or corrected if it is so.

 

Ali

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  • 1 month later...

A short while ago I asked the following questions via Special Hobby's website:

 

I'm very pleased to see you're planning a series of 1/72nd Meteor night fighters, are you aware of this discussion where fuselage lengths are mentioned

 

Well, I've had the response now:

 

Meteor Mk.14 fuselage is corrected now. Thank you for the alert.

 

Obviously Special Hobby are prepared to listen and it shows the benefit of a direct approach to some manufacturers.  This news makes me happy!
 

 

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