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Meteor NF engine nacelle size


Magua87

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Morning, all. 

 

I was wondering if there was an easy way to determine what nacelle size a particular night fighter Meteor was fitted with? I've got a Matchbox build on the go (NF14) and I have an option of narrow or enlarged intakes. 

 

I'm currently looking at airframes WS800, WS830, and WS833 from Modeldecal sheet 92. 

 

Actually, while we're on the topic of Meteors, regarding airframe WS800, the decal sheet reads "60 Sqn. machines are believe to have had aluminium silver undersides". Can anyone confirm? 

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AFAIK all NF. 14s had the larger-diameter “deep breathers”.

 

I’ve found one photo of WS755 “C” taxying and one of WS787 on the gate at Tengah which suggest that these jets had High Speed Silver undersides with a low demarcation between this and the Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey uppersurfaces.  Meteor night fighters with the earlier high demarcation between upper and lower-surface camouflage had Medium Sea Grey undersides, e.g. WS830 when with 46 Squadron.

Edited by stever219
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Great choice! I have the very same kit which is currently vying with an F-111 for the next build! Still not decided.

 

There was a thread ages ago about Meteor NF colours:

I think the consensus seemed to be most NF.14s were generally dark green/DSG upper and medium sea grey lower, except for 60 squadron's Far East based ones which were silver underneath. 

 

I assume in there were odd differences here and there though, best to try and find a photo of the specific Meteor you want to make, if possible.

 

I would guess that as a later mark, NF.14s would probably have had the larger intakes. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Lord Riot said:

Great choice! I have the very same kit which is currently vying with an F-111 for the next build! Still not decided.

 

There was a thread ages ago about Meteor NF colours:

I think the consensus seemed to be most NF.14s were generally dark green/DSG upper and medium sea grey lower, except for 60 squadron's Far East based ones which were silver underneath. 

 

I assume in there were odd differences here and there though, best to try and find a photo of the specific Meteor you want to make, if possible.

 

I would guess that as a later mark, NF.14s would probably have had the larger intakes. 

 

 

If I recall the first NF meteors to have the large intakes  were the NF 13.

 

Selwyn

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5 hours ago, Selwyn said:

If I recall the first NF meteors to have the large intakes  were the NF 13.

 

Selwyn

They probably were, being the dedicated “tropical” version and needing to screw as much thrust as possible out of hot and high air.

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Do you know about the error with the NF14 nose? It's too long and you should use the shorter of the two supplied. John Adams discovered this a few years ago.

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50 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

I remember that, but sadly didn't make note, and no longer have the shorter of the two supplied.  Can you recall (or measure) how much shorter, so I can cut the existing nose?

Graham do you still have the instructions?  The detail the parts to be used for each mark.  For the NF 14 you should construct the nose as for the NF 12. In very simplistic build terms the NF 14 was a NF 12 with a bubble canopy.

 

Selwyn

Edited by Selwyn
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Like most here. I’ve studied my fair share of NF Meteor photographs and from what I can deduce the large bore intakes can be seen on late NF.11’s and all subsequent versions after that. You will be hard pressed to find small bore intakes on NF.12’s, 13’s and 14’s however I’m sure someone will come along and prove me wrong. 

 

Now I could just go and grab my copy of Cold War Sheild Vol.1, however that’ll just start my desire to crack open another Meteor kit!! 

 

Cheers..  Dave

 

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57 minutes ago, pdsvidioman said:

Ok, displaying my ignorance but what was the longer nose used for ?.  Very many thanks Paul

 

That's the point,  it wasn't used for anything, its a mistake in the kit.

The NF 11 (and NF 13) had the Mk 7 restricted view multi panel canopy, that wasn't really suitable for a fighter aircraft, and  the short nose that had the AI mk 10 radar installed which had a range of about 10 miles. 

The  AI mk 21 radar set then became available which was an anglecised version of the US APS 21 set that had a 25 mile range, a considerable improvement.To fit this set to the NF 11 meteor required a 17 inch extension to the nose,  and the tail unit was given some extra surface area to compensate for this. So the extended nose NF 11 design with AI 21 became the NF 12.

 At long last they were able to manufacture   large blown canopies so the poor restricted view T7 style canopy of the NF11/12/13 was then replaced on the NF 12 design with the far superior clear view  "Bubble Canopy."   This modified aircraft design was the NF 14.  The NF 14 was still fitted with AI 21 and consequently had the same length  nose.

 

Somewhere in the past  there was a confusion about the 17 inch extension from  the NF 11 to NF 12. It was stated somewhere that when the NF 14 came about there was supposedly a "second extension" of 17 inches added to on the nose of the NF 12  as well with the new canopy  to make the NF 14.  Over the years this became an often repeated "gospel" for the NF 14, and Matchbox when they designed the kit added a incorrect 17 inch longer nose for the Mk 14 option.

 

The NF 14 is not 17 inches longer than the NF 12.  People have measured both aircraft marks and they are the same length. To build an accurate NF 14 just use the nose parts for the NF 12, and consign the kit NF 14 nose bits to the spares box, or bin, as you wish.

 

Selwyn

Edited by Selwyn
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1 hour ago, pdsvidioman said:

Thank you Selwyn, I remember building the original Matchbox with the long nose parts as instructed and even as a youngster it didn't look right. Now I know why. Again, many thanks, Paul 

 

😂 Me too, I think there are about three of them still in my dad's loft with extra long noses! 

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On 24 April 2018 at 10:43 PM, Magua87 said:

I'm currently looking at airframes WS800, WS830, and WS833 from Modeldecal sheet 92. 

 

Actually, while we're on the topic of Meteors, regarding airframe WS800, the decal sheet reads "60 Sqn. machines are believe to have had aluminium silver undersides". Can anyone confirm? 

Meteor NF.11's had both types of intakes from very early on :-  

DmtNCSu.jpg

60Sqdn Meteor NF.14's were delivered/repainted in DSG/DG/Aluminium after the role and Marque "Night-Fighter (NF)" was declared obsolete and changed to F.(AW) on the introduction of the Javelin.

A few non operational aircraft in the UK were repainted in the scheme. 60Sqdn's aircraft were not re-marqued.

 

60Sqdn NF.14's :-

c5YUBBg.jpg

                                 Photo :- B.B. Sharmer

 

HTH

 

Dennis

Edited by sloegin57
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8 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

I remember that, but sadly didn't make note, and no longer have the shorter of the two supplied. 

 

Arent't there three noses in the Matchbox kit?

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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I think you are right about three, but as I only have the longest one (I think it is the longest one) I can't pick-and-choose.  I can't remember now what I did with the others, so one day I may stumble across one or more in a box where it is intended for some other conversion.

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The picture of the 60 Sqn jets show some good details such as:

 

1.  The sense antenna under the nose, if you look at the lower fuselage directly under the windscreen, you can see the two vertical stand-offs with the horizontal antenna element joining the two.

 

2.  The two cockpit air intakes added to tropical variants, these are on the lower fuselage directly beneath the pilot.

 

3.  The intake on the rear fuselage between the forward squadron marking and the canopy seat rail which Idon't ever recall seeing before.  Is that a nightfighter or tropical thing or is it there on all Meteors and I've just forgotten?

 

4.  The whip antenna behind the canopy rail.

 

5.  The antenna on the port engine nacelle, was there a corresponding one on the starboard side?

 

6.  The radio altimeter antenna (the inverted T shape on the lower fuselage beneath the serial number).

 

Also note the generally very clean condition of the aircraft - no pre-shading necessary, as well as the very smooth finish of the skin (except for the oil canning beneath the cockpit), no need for a divot rivet maker either!  Nice to see a bit of wear on the intakes of the OC's aircraft though.

 

This is cracking, invaluable stuff, thanks Dennis!

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1 hour ago, Graham Boak said:

I think you are right about three, but as I only have the longest one (I think it is the longest one) I can't pick-and-choose.  I can't remember now what I did with the others, so one day I may stumble across one or more in a box where it is intended for some other conversion.

 

I have a number of these kits in the stash - I could earmark one as a NF.11 and send you the NF.12/14 nose, if that would work for you.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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40 minutes ago, Wez said:

The picture of the 60 Sqn jets show some good details such as:

 

1.  The sense antenna under the nose, if you look at the lower fuselage directly under the windscreen, you can see the two vertical stand-offs with the horizontal antenna element joining the two.

 

2.  The two cockpit air intakes added to tropical variants, these are on the lower fuselage directly beneath the pilot.

 

3.  The intake on the rear fuselage between the forward squadron marking and the canopy seat rail which Idon't ever recall seeing before.  Is that a nightfighter or tropical thing or is it there on all Meteors and I've just forgotten?

 

4.  The whip antenna behind the canopy rail.

 

5.  The antenna on the port engine nacelle, was there a corresponding one on the starboard side?

 

6.  The radio altimeter antenna (the inverted T shape on the lower fuselage beneath the serial number).

 

Also note the generally very clean condition of the aircraft - no pre-shading necessary, as well as the very smooth finish of the skin (except for the oil canning beneath the cockpit), no need for a divot rivet maker either!  Nice to see a bit of wear on the intakes of the OC's aircraft though.

 

This is cracking, invaluable stuff, thanks Dennis!

The aerial under the port engine nacelle was, originally, repeated in the same relative position under the stbd nacelle except that in that instance it was inboard.  A later mod moved it to under the fwd fuselage under the cockpits.  The intake on the upper rear fuselage was, I believe, part of the tropicalsiation mod  and could be fitted in a variety of positions as shown on these NF.14's wfu at 33MU Lyneham :-

1ck94PP.jpg

 

HTH

Dennis

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3 hours ago, Hook said:

 

Arent't there three noses in the Matchbox kit?

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

There are three noses in the kit.  The short one is for the NF.11, the middle one for the remaining marques.  The third and longest one was intended for the NF.14 but, as has been proved conclusively by John Adams, the wrong length and therefore not required.  The best drawings for the NF series of Meteors can be found in the Aeroclub vac form 48th kits or, and better still, one of the relatively few useful things in the Warpaint series Number 22, Meteor book, where the drawings are a combined effort by John and the late David Howley.

 

Dennis 

Edited by sloegin57
Publication title corrected.
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Slightly off topic but one other thing to remember when building Meteors of any marque, bar the 4, is that the camouflage pattern on the I's and III's was reversed when applied to the 8's and subsequent marques.  The 4 is not included as the aircraft stayed in service not that long and was aluminium overall during that time

 

Dennis

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12 minutes ago, sloegin57 said:

The intake on the upper rear fuselage was, I believe, part of the tropicalsiation mod  and could be fitted in a variety of positions as shown on these NF.14's wfu at 33MU Lyneham :-

It just goes to show the value of referencing a photo.

 

Thanks for the gen.

 

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15 hours ago, Wez said:

Also note the generally very clean condition of the aircraft - no pre-shading necessary, as well as the very smooth finish of the skin (except for the oil canning beneath the cockpit), no need for a divot rivet maker either!  Nice to see a bit of wear on the intakes of the OC's aircraft though.

 

This is cracking, invaluable stuff, thanks Dennis!

From memory the lips of the intakes were made of wood? I wonder if that's what we'd see with wear or another layer of paint underneath (if so, what colour?) 

 

Thanks everyone for the responses. Very helpful!

 

To keep this train running I've got one more question. Does anyone have any photos of the canopy retraction mechanism? I'm toying with building an aircraft with an open canopy and will need to remove the shuttle currently posed for a closed canopy and build a new one out of plastic card. 

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