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Airfix 1/48 Gloster Meteor F.8, 504 (County of Nottingham) Squadron


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A model from 2017, recently cleaned up after being on tour.

 

This is the excellent Airfix 1/48 kit. It was built out of the box with the exception of a couple of Albion Alloys aerials and Pitot. The kit was nice to build - the only things I did have to do was add some spacers in the rear fuselage to reduce the wing to fuselage gap and thinned down the area at the rear of the rudder. Finish was Alclad Semi Matt Aluminium with a hint of grey and graphite detailing afterwards. It was based on a picture in the superb "Cold War Shield" by Roger Lindsay. Decals were from Xtradecal.

 

I chose this scheme because the delightfully named Wymeswold is only 15 miles from where I live. Interestingly, Wymeswold is actually in Leicestershire.

504 squadron was the second operator of the Meteor, receiving the F.3 from March 1945 and had been amongst the first RAuxAF squadrons to receive the F.4 in October 1949. The squadron received  F.8s in February 1952. Interestingly, the aircraft were received as new fitted with the larger bore intakes but with the old style canopy. The newer 'clear view. canopy was retrofitted and the aircraft were camouflaged by 1955. The squadron was disbanded with the remainder of the RAuxAF squadrons in March 1957.

 

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I hope you like it.

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

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I well remember the sound of 504's Meteors over my home in Calverton Nottingham-shire and I can remember cycling 25 miles from Calverton when I was 14 or 15, to an air display at Wymeswold in 1956 or 7. It was worth it to see the Meteors of 504 on the ground with the Hunters of 257. There was a Mosquito B.35, a Spit 16 and a Fairchild Argus in the static park, Among the flying participation were, Meteors, Hunters, Attackers, Thunderjets (Thunderbird's team) and RR's reverse thrust Hunter and a Dart Kitten.

 

John

 

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OOh - nice!!  the HSS looks thepart and those marking really set her off.

Just to clarify on intakes and canopies. From our research for the Marmaduke press decals -  the clear canopy Mod 1516 was introduced in mid 1953 - so as WH464 was taken on strength 18th Feb '52 it would have had the metal backed one as standard.  They were retrofitted  so you can see the same airframe with both types. Ditto for the large bore intakes too- i.e. they could be retrofitted- though WH464 was delivered mid-October 1951 and the WK serials which had big mouths built in started to be delivered mid- march '52. I guess its possible some of the later WHs were either built with big mouths or modified just after delivery.

Either way - you can see plenty of big mouth F8s with metal backed canopies - the 2 mods are not co-temporaneous.
At the risk of being a picky sod, If you really want to do it - your ailerons should be the other type though to match that photo - though there's no reason to assume it wasn't re-aileronned later in 1953. 

 

Regardless - you've built a gorgeous model!

cheers

Jonners

 

 

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10 hours ago, John Aero said:

I well remember the sound of 504's Meteors over my home in Calverton Nottingham-shire and I can remember cycling 25 miles from Calverton when I was 15, to an air display at Wymeswold in 1957. It was worth it to see the Meteors of 504 on the ground with the Hunters of 257. There was a Mosquito B.35, a Spit 16 and a Fairchild Argus in the static park, Among the flying participation were, Meteors, Hunters, Attackers, Thunderjets and RR's reverse thrust Hunter and a Dart Kitten.

 

John

 

OOOh! I bet that was great. What days! I doubt that many 15 year olds would contemplate cycling 25 miles these days for a start. There was so much variety and so many units and types - an aviation enthusiasts dream time! And Calverton had a colliery then. And a line up to die for too. Glad to have stirred some old memories John and it is about the only benefit of being old - you can remember things like that!

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

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12 minutes ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

OOh - nice!!  the HSS looks thepart and those marking really set her off.

Just to clarify on intakes and canopies. From our research for the Marmaduke press decals -  the clear canopy Mod 1516 was introduced in mid 1953 - so as WH464 was taken on strength 18th Feb '52 it would have had the metal backed one as standard.  They were retrofitted  so you can see the same airframe with both types. Ditto for the large bore intakes too- i.e. they could be retrofitted- though WH464 was delivered mid-October 1951 and the WK serials which had big mouths built in started to be delivered mid- march '52. I guess its possible some of the later WHs were either built with big mouths or modified just after delivery.

Either way - you can see plenty of big mouth F8s with metal backed canopies - the 2 mods are not co-temporaneous.
At the risk of being a picky sod, If you really want to do it - your ailerons should be the other type though to match that photo - though there's no reason to assume it wasn't re-aileronned later in 1953. 

 

Regardless - you've built a gorgeous model!

cheers

Jonners

 

 

Thank you Jonners

 

You sure do seem to know your Meteors! Thank you for the info and I am sure to build another or 2 - love them - so it will come in handy.

I didn't even consider the ailerons to be honest - I will pay more attention in future.

 

And co-temporaneous is a beauty of a term which I have not heard before!

 

Again Thank You

 

Malcolm

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Baldy said:

Thank you Jonners

 

You sure do seem to know your Meteors! Thank you for the info and I am sure to build another or 2 - love them - so it will come in handy.

I didn't even consider the ailerons to be honest - I will pay more attention in future.

 

And co-temporaneous is a beauty of a term which I have not heard before!

 

Again Thank You

 

Malcolm

 

 

No probs Malcolm.  Glad to help.

It can still be a minefield in terms of which F8 had which mod and when. The research we did for Marmaduke Press just revealed how dicey it could be - and TBH where we couldn't find a definite picture we guessed (and said we'd guessed!)

Re the ailerons - the sprung double "flush" tab ailerons were cleared for use as Mod 1092 in December 1952 - it was designed to improve stability for the firing of RPs it seems. It also seems that they were retrofitted fleet wide (and I stress "seems" here) - but it's virtually impossible to say how fast this happened or even when it started and began - other than post December 52.


The only thing that one can say is that if your F8 was photographed pre-December '52 it will have the single projecting tab aileron. After that - it's down to finding a photo - though I would suggest that if you find a photo of a particular squadron's F8 with the new ailerons and it's dated - then I would bet all the others would have been re-tabbed too.

The problem is often that it's hard to see the aileron tabs in a lot of pics due to the angle at which the photos are taken!

 

 

Cheers, and happy Meatboxing!

Jonners

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Very nice and being a Nottinghamshire lad, a subject close to my heart. I built a Airfix/MPM/ Xtrakit F.8 a while ago in camouflage. 

Hi John, so you would remember the red Barton buses (7, 7A) that served that part of Nottinghamshire. My first wife came from Lambley, not too far away. The Meteors were long gone by the time I met her, but the Hastings from Lindholme were common enough 

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Mr T, you have just solved a problem. I have a  50th scale Barton Double decker which I want to change the destination from Ilkeston to Calverton and I just couldn't remember the route number 7(a) it is. Some 55 years ago at about this time of year, I was sat on a Barton's bus, about to start my return journey to RAF Yatesbury when my mum came flying round the corner waving a telegram, which said, stay at home as Yatesbury had disappeared under the heaviest snow fall for years!  I stayed at home for two weeks.

 

Thanks for the memory 🙂

 

John

 

This is probably a 504 Meteor at RAF Newton in '54'.

 

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Glad I have jogged your memory, I have a number of 00 scale Barton buses and a really nice picture of the Meteor at Newton from the year I was born. Would I be right in thinking it was a grass airfield? I remember going in the late 60's and I am sure it was then. Imagine what a risk assessment for a jet fighter firing 20mm rounds in public would look like today!

Sorry for a bit of hijacking Malcolm, but the stuff from John bought some memories back

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