Converting the Airfix Meteor FR.9 into a PR.10

[neilfergylee]

I'm back on the Meteors again.  It's like an addiction but if you're of my generation where at one stage there were just occasional releases of the Airfix F.III or Frog/Novo F.4, then it's like Christmas with so much on offer today.

 

Airfix's release of the FR.9 triggered something that has been running for a while: to convert one into a PR.10 by adding the tailplane and outer wing panels of an F.III.

 

I have decided to give it a go and the first decision is the trickiest: do I butcher an absolutely perfect Tamiya F.III or do something radical - dismantle a 1979-vintage AMT Meteor F.I?

 

A bit of background.  The PR.10 was essentially a PR.9 optimised for high-altitude reconnaissance.  It had the same engines and fuselage but used the extended wings of early models and night fighters and the tailplane of the earlier marks.   From a modelling perspective the Tamiya model is a perfect donor but I must confess that to scrap 75% of such a superb model seems rather perverse, while the presence of a model I assembled and painted when I left school made me think that hoarding half-assembled model for four decades was, ultimately worth it.

 

The Meteor PR.10: take a PR.9 and add the extended wings of early models and night fighters and the tailplane of the early marks

 

Here is the candidate donor aircraft: the trusty AMT F.I

 

As you can see, the AMT donor has seen a bit of action, including paint-stripping which failed to encompass the tailplane.  I performed surgery on the AMT model  to release the outer wing panels and the tailplane.

 

The Tamiya F.III (top) and Airfix FR.9 fuselages compared

 

Both fuselages above were lined-up against the rear fuselage transport joint.  The FR.9 fuselage is longer as the F.8 and FR.9 had an additional fuselage section added immediately behind the cockpit.

 

Comparing the wings showed that the AMT panels are pretty compatible with the Tamiya wing and also the Airfix equivalent.

 

The AMT outer wing panels placed over the Tamiya wing

 

The same panels on top of the Airfix wing

 

To get a little more scientific, I drew-round the Airfix, Tamiya and, later, AMT profiles for comparison.

 

The Airfix profile is in black ink and Tamiya in blue

 

One area of concern is the depth of the fuselage profile at the rear transport joint where the tailplane meets the fuselage.  Both the Airfix and AMT tailplanes are deeper than the Airfix fuselage.

 

Airfix (black), Tamiya (blue) and AMT (red) profiles compared.  Pretty good!

 

After surgery on the old AMT model, I was able to compare details with the Tamiya model.  Naturally, Tamiya wins on overall accuracy but the AMT model is not at all bad.  The only issue is that the horizontal stabilisers are rather overscale.

 

AMT and Tamiya vertical stabilisers compared

 

The AMT horizontal stabilisers are slightly overscale in comparison to the Tamiya versions

 

In conclusion, this seems like a worthwhile project and I shall proceed with the AMT parts, knowing that I have the Tamiya as a backup if they prove unsuitable.

 

More to follow.

 

Kind regards,

Neil

 

Edited September 20, 2019 by neilfergylee
Another typo

[neilfergylee]

Work started in earnest this week and I decided to make a start on the wings.

 

Using the picture at the top of this post, possibly the only one I have seen of the underside of a PR.10 and from Shaklady's seminal work, I started by cutting-out the leading camera window which is located just forward of the manhole and to the rear of the belly tank.

 

This involved a little re-scribing of the panel lines and insertion of a small overlay to represent the hatch.

 

 

Meanwhile, around half a gallon of Squadron putty went to fill the troughs in the quite excellent PR nose.

 

 

However, this was all diversion activity while I limbered-up to attach the AMT wings to the Airfix mainplanes.  I began by cleaning-up the 40-year-old outer wing panels, rescribing the panel lines and adding the Airfix trim tabs to the AMT ailerons.  Note how the original trim tab outlines have been filled.

 

 

Then the bit I was putting-off: real surgery.  I began by assembling the Airfix mainplanes and I have to say that the model is brilliant: the parts pretty-well fell together.

 

This felt like desecration as the parts were so well-moulded and I spent a great deal of time measuring-up precisely where I was going to make the cut.  The AMT outer panels needed similar measurement so that the chord was the same for the mating parts, while a further complication is that the outer panels have slight dihedral of around 5 or 6 degrees. 

 

 

When the outer panels had been separated, I was able to check the relative depth of the two wing sections and something that I had suspected was proven-out: the Airfix and AMT wing sections were quite different.  Fortunately, inserting a sprue 'prop' allowed me to expand the AMT wing section.

 

 

Then came the do-or-die bit.  Attaching the outer panels to the mainplanes meant a great deal of sanding and filing to get the best possible fit while maintaining the dihedral.  I went so far as to use polystyrene cement for the first time in an age, although Tamiya extra thin cement (which is essence of pure evil in a bottle) really sealed the deal.  This also involved inserting a few shims to help mate the parts and maintain the all-important dihedral and then it was time to step-back and see the result.

 

 

Above you can see the immediate result with the shims prominent.  I then trimmed these back and added Squadron green putty and allowed to dry overnight.

 

A check measure showed that the dihedral was pretty-well spot-on: the difference in height of the wingtips above a level surface was less than 0.5mm although the overall span is about 4 inches equivalent over size.

 

This evening I rubbed-down the filler on the upperside of the wings and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

 

 

I have added more filler on the underside joints and shall see to those in the morning.

 

More to follow!

 

Cheers,

 

Neil

Edited September 21, 2019 by neilfergylee
Various typos fixed.

[neilfergylee]

An update from Saturday.

 

Much Squadron green putty was applied and then sanded-off and much to my satisfaction, it merged-in very well indeed.

 

I then proceeded to add joint covers between the mainplane and the outer panel.  The originals are very well reproduced on the Airfix model but not only did they disappear during the remodelling but adding replacements using ten thou plasticard served to to a very effective job of covering the joint line.

 

Below is an example of the joint line on the Meteor NF.14 at East Fortune museum.

 

Here is the wing, post filling and filing plus addition of the covers.

 

 

This evening, I proceeded to assemble the front of the nacelles and paint the engine bays.  With the spare paint in the airbrush (ooh, get me!) I did some light overspraying of the wings.

 

 

 

The engine bay covers were placed in position and the fuselage added to give an impression of how the model will begin to look.

 

 

More to follow!

 

Neil

 

[gingerbob]

I'd seen this topic the other day, but only stopped in to have a look around now.  What fun- a bit of kit comparison, and some old-school conversion!  I'll be following this one, for sure.

 

Oddly enough, whilst off working on the boat in the last couple of days I'd been idly wondering how the basic shape of the old AMT kit compared to Tamiya's.  My AMT examples are in DEEP storage, but they may yet find some use...

 

Keep calm and glue and putty and sand on,

 

bob

[neilfergylee]

11 minutes ago, gingerbob said:

I'd seen this topic the other day, but only stopped in to have a look around now.  What fun- a bit of kit comparison, and some old-school conversion!  I'll be following this one, for sure.

 

Oddly enough, whilst off working on the boat in the last couple of days I'd been idly wondering how the basic shape of the old AMT kit compared to Tamiya's.  My AMT examples are in DEEP storage, but they may yet find some use...

 

Keep calm and glue and putty and sand on,

 

bob

Thank you Bob,

 

Your words are much appreciated.  Yes, that AMT kit is pretty good in outline and for its time it's excellent.  Something stopped me from letting it go despite house moves, marriage, children, career etc. etc.  It's a fitting end to a kit I first built just as I left school.

 

It's really rather fun and the Meteor is one of my favourite subjects.

 

Cheers,

 

Neil

[Giorgio N]

Very interesting work, the PR.10 is IMHO a very interesting variant. Will keep watching with interest

[neilfergylee]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

Very interesting work, the PR.10 is IMHO a very interesting variant. Will keep watching with interest

Thank you Giorgio,

 

It has always been a favourite of mine and having made a 1/72 version, I wanted to have a go at this larger scale.

 

Neil

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

I reckon this is going to look really good!  A fine start, showing care and careful building.  Nice work mate!

 

cheers & glad to have been of some small help too

 

Jonners

[neilfergylee]

4 minutes ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

I reckon this is going to look really good!  A fine start, showing care and careful building.  Nice work mate!

 

cheers & glad to have been of some small help too

 

Jonners

Very much appreciated!

[neilfergylee]

Another update.

 

Attention moved to the fuselage and to do that meant I had to address the cockpit.

 

@Jon Kunac-Tabinor published a superb article In Scale Aircraft Modelling on building the Airfix F.8 and this gave me inspiration to try not to do the default approach and buy a sheet of Eduard PE and just glue it in.  OK, OK, I did buy the Eduard cockpit interior kit but it was mostly for the instrument panel (which Jon proved could be handled quite easily with the standard kit parts) and the ejection seat (I'll take that one).

 

I did the usual drybrushing and washing and the result was 'OK' but I need to develop my skills.

 

 

 

Once in place, it allowed me to tape the whole thing together, Blu-Tack the tailplanes in place and get an impression of how the finished product will look:

 

 

I christened it the FrankenMeteor!

 

Once the cockpit was in place, I assembled the rest of the fuselage and then turned my attention to joining the Mk.III tailplane to the fuselage.

 

As mentioned earlier, the profiles do differ, so a great deal of coarse filing (and language) was used to thin-down the Mk.III plastic, while a lot of trial and error was needed to keep things square.

 

 

 

And so the two were joined using Tamiya liquid cement (a.k.a. The Devil's Tears):

 

 

And as of 45 minutes ago, the Squadron Green Putty was slathered on.

 

 

Finally, I couldn't resist adding Eduard PE parts to the kit ejection seat.  It's a bit of a weakness of mine although - to be honest - it's a bit of cop-out: if you can use superglue, you too can make a nice bang seat.  It doesn't really take skill!

 

 

More to follow after the great wet-and-dry marathon!

 

Thanks for following.

 

Kind regards,

 

Neil

 

P.S. I'm keeping a pictorial record here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26690797@N02/albums/72157710856832303

 

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by neilfergylee

[neilfergylee]

A quick update: filled rubbed-down and primed as a first look before more work to follow.

 

 

 

Encouraging but more filling and rubbing required.

 

Neil

[neilfergylee]

A long weekend and I finished-off the filling and filing on the joint to the tailplane and then proceeded to clean-up around the fuselage after attaching the wins to the fuselage.

 

Here was the model when first glued together:

 

 

Note the cockpit where I had dry-fitted the ejection seat and the canopy.  The quality of the moulding is just superb.

 

Following a little light masking, the complete aircraft received a coat of Humbrol primer;

 

 

Neil

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Looking very nice mate, but I think the bulge on the underside of the fuselage where you've added the new fin is still a bit pronounced. I actually think its where you've faired in the slightly deeper AMT part and the transition there is making its look "hump bellied". Did you manage to reduce this, as it's impossible to see in the last primed pics?

Cheers

Jonners

[neilfergylee]

38 minutes ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

Looking very nice mate, but I think the bulge on the underside of the fuselage where you've added the new fin is still a bit pronounced. I actually think its where you've faired in the slightly deeper AMT part and the transition there is making its look "hump bellied". Did you manage to reduce this, as it's impossible to see in the last primed pics?

Cheers

Jonners

Bang to rights guv.  I need more putty....

 

[neilfergylee]

Remedial work underway:

 

[Bedders]

Interesting project, and gets me thinking again about doing a 1/72 PR10. My Dad worked on 9s and 10s at Gutersloh in the 50s. I've always wondered why they reverted to the earlier tail unit for the 10 - can anyone enlighten me? 

 

Justin

[neilfergylee]

On 09/10/2019 at 07:28, Bedders said:

Interesting project, and gets me thinking again about doing a 1/72 PR10. My Dad worked on 9s and 10s at Gutersloh in the 50s. I've always wondered why they reverted to the earlier tail unit for the 10 - can anyone enlighten me? 

 

Justin

Justin,

 

Your dad didn't happen to be a keen, amateur colour photographer with an access-all-areas pass when he was at Gutersloh was he? 😁

 

I can only speculate about the PR.10 tail but can offer this.

 

In 1949, the prototype of the Meteor PR.5 crashed in its maiden flight and killing test pilot Rodney Dryland.  At the time there were orders for PR.5s open and a lot of serial numbers had been allocated.  However, no more PR.5s were built.

 

My theory is that in the aftermath of the crash, there was a rethink and as the fighter Meteor has evolved form the F.4 (the basis of the PR.5) to the F.8 (longer fuselage, new tail, bigger engines), then it might be better to start again with an F.8-derived version than stick with the previous generation,

 

The tailplane then becomes an enigma.  Options might have been:

1. Old-style tail considered adequate;
2. Old-style tails already on order;
3. Production of new style tails subject to capacity limitations and so fighter version took priority;
4. Deliberate wind-up for aviation historians 70 years later.

One of those might not be true.

 

As an aside, I made a 1/72 model of the PR.5 and it can be seen here:

Kind regards,

Neil

[neilfergylee]

Small update tonight, I have done more work on fairing-in the transition form the fin.

 

[neilfergylee]

There has been a short delay while I took a brief holiday (Madeira, lovely thanks) but I must confess that upon my return, priority number one was to attend to the Meteor.

 

Just prior to leaving, I had more-or-less completed the fettling of the surface finish, so attention turned to the canopy and colour scheme.  The two are related as earlier versions used the 'half-metal canopy, while later in the aircraft's life the full clearview version was employed and - as I understand it - retrofitted.  Therefore, choosing a scheme would determine the type of canopy to be employed.

 

Cutting to the chase, I decided to go for an all-silver finish on an 81sqn aircraft based at Selatar around 1960.  I rather like the all-silver scheme and it would allow me to create some custom decals for the (rather subtle) squadron markings.

 

In the meantime. here are some images of progress early this week:

 

I used the rather addictive Montex canopy masks.  Is it me or does Humbrol Liquid Masking not have the loveliest colour to it?

 

Meanwhile, both engines were assembled and painted.  They will not be displayed but are necessary to ensure the correct view through the intakes.  As an aside, I did not include the piping assembly because their presence would have made the engine covers stand slightly proud of the surface.

 

 

Finally, I ensured all other areas were masked, re-primed the airframe and then applied several light coats of Tamiya AS-12 from a spray can.  Cowardly but effective.

 

 

More to follow!

 

Neil

[Col.]

Nice progress Neil. A silver finish on such a comprehensive conversion is brave but will look great. Oh and yes, that masking fluid is a rather lovely colour.

[neilfergylee]

On Friday I assembled the undercarriage so that by the evening the model could stand on its wheels.  As I write this, I have produced a custom decal sheet for VA987 of 81 Squadron at Selatar in 1960 and I hope to send an update tonight.

 

 

Watch this space...

 

Cheers,

 

Neil

[neilfergylee]

I'm calling it finished!  There was a delay as I doubled-down to add all the stencils provided by Airfix, so sorry for the silence.

 

All being well, I'll take some 'official' photos and put them into the 'Ready for Inspection' section but I wanted to share this now as I've just finished.

 

 

Thank you all for your encouragement.

 

Kind regards,

 

Neil

[Sturmovik]

Looks great!

[Grunticus]

Exceptional achievement, I am very impressed. Quite a unique model, and so great other kits get recycled. Cheers!

[shortCummins]

Hi Neil

 

can I ask what you used for your custom decals?

 

they look really good, as does the rest of the build

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)