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Echelon 1/32 Lightning....time for a change


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I have a few of these in the stash - can I send them to you so you can do that part of the cutting out for me as its done so well :D

 

Now if only they could invent self cutting vac forms !

 

Sitting back and watching with interest and delight.  Crack on young man

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Yes. She is 4 years old now but she is still a chewer.

 

This is a big part of the Lightning F.2A/F.6 that Trumpeter completely missed. The kink in the leading edge of the wing. Frank Brown captured it superbly.

 

Btt1EHR.jpg

 

I bought this wide dual sander from Flory models at Southern expo at the weekend. It has been invaluable especially with that kinked wing.

 

CeckJVK.jpg

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The vacformer turned up today and i eagerly rushed into using it. Set the top oven to 170 , gorilla taped the hoover nozzle to it and away i went. One thing i have noticed so far is that the PETg clear stuff hold the temperature longer that the plasticard that came with it , which is good. I also did not realise that vacforming would pick up the tiny little imperfections in the milliput master. It doesnt look bad for a first attempt , and im happy with it as a test. I wouldnt really use it on a model but it looks OK. Theres plenty of time later on for playing around with it. Back to the model for now.

Heres a couple of pics of my first efforts

 

OT5jbeb.jpg

qn1H5Hb.jpg

NjpPApA.jpg

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Nice work so far.

 

One thing I'd recommend though is to mount your canopy master on a 'plynth' of smaller dimension, so there's an undercut all around the part you actually want.

That'll allow the plastic to be drawn in tight to your shape. It'll need to be cut to release it from the master afterwards.

The downside is you can't just lift the sheet and reheat to try again after a fail, but the upside is a crisper moulding and less chance of a fail.

 

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I just made a nice accidental discovery. I was going to make a template for the plate panel with rows of small rivets on it that fits in the top of the wheel bay. I was using gorilla tape and noticed it had near enough the exact pattern embossed on it that i was looking for , so i used the tape itself! What a time saver!

 

fIdn9XH.jpg

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Marvellous - good to see this. I have one of these on hand. I had two, but realising I would never build both sold one to an enthusiast. I hope he built it, as I hope to build mine some day. Looking forward to seeing yours come along.

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  • 3 months later...

great post - remember this well - perhaps the ultimate vacform model? i dont know of any more detailed / comprehensive. 

agreed that if you were into x planes / project cancelled stuff you had to get into vacs.. 

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  • 2 years later...

I recently purchased one as well. And the canopy is the main thing to replace so I am enjoying learning here how to do that in time. The type of non-yellowing plastic clear sheet to pick, I am still studying. Great work so far. This kit should be converted into injected mold. But I understand that Revell may have been inspired by Frank Brown's  Hunter but not paying for it. This is why the 2-seater never happened from Revell. Perhaps Airfix could do the right thing and take this on as a project one day?

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How strange - the first new post on this in three years and it's on the day I've finally managed to secure one of these kits for myself. I'm hopeful that the canopy will be ok but I'm looking forward to recieving the kit regardless. 

 

@mr.T Airfix don't do 1/32 sadly, their large scale pick being 1/24, but a 1/24 lightning would be huge.

 

Cheers,

  WV908

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An absolutely beaeutiful kit. It's quite scarey when I think back to making mine, I was still in the RAF and had to spend some time in Halton Hospital. Thankfully depsite being a military establishment they were very relaxed and as I had plenty of time on my hands I whiled away the hours tinkering with the kit. It's the first and only vacform I've ever made and I was really impressed with how it was so well thought out.

 

When it was finished I placed it on display in the Fenland Aircraft Museum and when I left the RAF moved away and forgot all about it. I had cause to go back a couple of years ago and it was still there sat on it's u/c just as I left it. I wonder if it's still there?

 

It must be at least 26 years since I made that kit, where did all the years go?

 

John

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15 minutes ago, WV908 said:

How strange - the first new post on this in three years and it's on the day I've finally managed to secure one of these kits for myself. I'm hopeful that the canopy will be ok but I'm looking forward to recieving the kit regardless. 

 

@mr.T Airfix don't do 1/32 sadly, their large scale pick being 1/24, but a 1/24 lightning would be huge.

 

Cheers,

  WV908

Pretty cool to read someone else also got one. The cockpit is most likely yellowed when you receive it. This needs replacement. I have also invested in a cockpit and exhausts. The rest has to be scratched I think. John Wolstenholme built a great one: https://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal10/9901-10000/gal9922-Lightning-Wolstenholme/00.shtm

 

And I know Airfix has not yet done a 1/32, so maybe this could be an exception to that rule?

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Watching with interest. 

I had one of these which I also stupidly sold on the basis that I would never get to build it. I had a couple of Frank’s Hunters also, one of which I built as a retirement present for one of my Heathrow colleagues who flew Mk5s during the Suez Crisis.

 

John

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