PeterB Posted November 3, 2019 Author Share Posted November 3, 2019 The nosewheel leg is assembled but needs touching up. The main legs were not too bad as they went into a socket of sorts and had 2 bracing struts which held them firmly. The "knee" joint was pretty substantial and the lower leg was supported by the compression strut. This is a different matter. For a start it is a plain butt joint and being a lot thinner has very little contact surface. It has a single bracing strut (not shown) which will help but I have drilled it and fitted a metal pin to provide a more positive fixing. The "knee" joint is very small and flimsy but the mudgard should help to stop it folding upwards ( together with a liberal application of CA glue). As stated previously it will be one of the last parts fitted before the finishing coat is sprayed on, but this is a dry run. So now I can add the decs. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted November 3, 2019 Share Posted November 3, 2019 On 11/2/2019 at 2:26 AM, PeterB said: NB this is the "plain" side of the hubs which are covered by the outer wheel door - only the inner face is detailed. Nice going Pete. Now I don't wish to cause you any alarm, however I'm of the opinion that like the Mosquito, Meteor wheel hubs were installed plain and spoked on the same side (i.e similar sides of the wheel are shown if viewed from the left and right). Now I'm not going to claim that this is 100% accurate for a Mk.8, however I do recall finding this out in an earlier Mk.III build and some early Mk. IV research I did a while back. happy to be corrected if that's the case. Cheers.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 5, 2019 Author Share Posted November 5, 2019 (edited) Hi Dave, You could be right - unfortunately the combination of the geometry of the legs and doors coupled with the low ground clearance make it difficult to see both sides of the wheels clearly in pictures/walkrounds. Anyway, I am at least 50% correct so that will have to do. Pete Edited November 6, 2019 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ventora3300 Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 Lovely Meteor, Pete, and fascinating to read about all the early marques and their issues. I always thought they had spoiled the original look by putting a long nose on the later variant but was ignorant of the stability/balance issues. Educational as always! All the best. Mike. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 6, 2019 Author Share Posted November 6, 2019 (edited) Hi Mike, Let's face it - the Meteor was never a really attractive machine, particularly once the wings were cropped. The two seat night fighters reintroduced the full span wing which was an improvement, but they had longer and blunter noses for the radar, and except for the NF14, had a heavily framed "greenhouse" canopy. It was an ugly duckling - a child of its time, but it filled the gap until the Hunter arrived. I have made a start on the decs and am having fun. They are very thin and need to be handled with great care. I suspect that the numbering of the wing walkway boxes is the wrong way round - getting the first one off the Port wing and on to the Starboard was a real pain. At least they are printed as a panel, not just a line so they were easier to position, but then they did not sit too well over the wheel bulge. However a little MS Microsol worked ok. There are a lot of stencils, most of them rather small. I don't feel up to putting the very small ones on and in any case they will not be visible on a camo background (I can barely see them on the sheet) so I will stick to the bigger ones, at least for the moment. Pete Edited November 6, 2019 by PeterB 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 17 hours ago, PeterB said: The two seat night fighters reintroduced the full span wing which was an improvement, but they had longer and blunter noses for the radar, and except for the NF14, had a heavily framed "greenhouse" canopy. It was an ugly duckling - a child of its time, Im liking your Meteor quite a bit. Though i disagree about the twin seaters. I always found them good looking and hope to find one to build someday soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 7, 2019 Author Share Posted November 7, 2019 Gone mad and just bought a NF kit with replacement nose - so much for reducing the stash. Might get it finished in time to do a group shot - F III, F IV, F 8 and NF 14. Then we can compare them. Pete 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 8, 2019 Author Share Posted November 8, 2019 (edited) Reading the Aerofax book on the Meteor it seems to suggest that like the F8, the NF14 had ejector seats, but I note that both the Matchbox/Xtrakit version has just plain seats and the various builds of it here on BM make no mention of this as an error, though they do mention the nose being too long repeatedly. Anybody have any info on the seats in the NF14? Incidentally, this kit has 3 sets of decs 2 of which are for the version with the earlier canopy and intakes. To complicate matters the artwork on the back of the box seems to have them the wrong way round compared with the schemes on the instructions. The yellow/black triangles are for 501 Squadron R Aux AF based at Filton, Bristol in the early 1950's they say. However, the Aerofax book on the Meteor does not include 501 on the list of users! It seems that although they were officially flying Vampires until they were disbanded in 1957 along with all the other Auxilliary Air Force units, they had a number of Meteor T7 and F8 "for training purposes". Odd! Pete Edited November 8, 2019 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted November 9, 2019 Share Posted November 9, 2019 The Meatbox is looking great however I do take um-bridge to your assessment of the Meteor's looks... c'mon she's a classic. If you want ugly, you'd better look at some of the aircraft operated by the FAA!. I'd best be off before I upset someone. Cheers.. Dave 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 (edited) Hi Dave, Short Sturgeon post war and some absolute "beauties" such as the Blackburn Blackburn (so good they named it twice as the song says) inter war? Still not in the same league as some of the French machines of the same period (sorry Jean). Pete Edited November 9, 2019 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted November 9, 2019 Share Posted November 9, 2019 8 hours ago, PeterB said: Still not in the same league as some of the French machines of the same period (sorry Jean). Which will all hopefully rear their ugly heads during next years Heller GB! Cheers.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Masters Posted November 9, 2019 Share Posted November 9, 2019 All this talk about Meteors and the Heller GB...it reminds me that I have Meteor on the shelf and a short stack of D-500/510, all circling the bench. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 (edited) Hi John, Look forward to seeing the D500/501/510 in the Classic Heller build - I was just telling Pat I nearly bought them and the Morane MS225/230 back in the early 80's when first I came across them - may buy some yet, who knows. I have a soft spot for the inter war French planes though I normally stick to WWI amd WWII onwards. I guess the only one I currently have that would qualify is the Potez 540 awaiting restoration though the Amiot 143 was pre war too I guess but did serve in the later conflict as a bomber whilst the 540 was relagated to transport roles.. Pete Edited November 10, 2019 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 (edited) No pics at this time but most of the decs are now on - 9 to go. I have also built up the wings of the ex Matchbox now Xtrakit NF14 I have decided to build for comparison, so we can judge their relative "beauty" in view of the comments above! Touch and go whether the new kit gets finished before the deadline as I am waiting for a resin nose to arrive - fingers crossed, The F8 should be finished and in the spray queue before the end of the coming week with luck, with the Panther not too far behind. Pete Edited November 10, 2019 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 I have now put on all the decals I am going to and will finish it off fairly soon. In the meantime I have run into a problem with the Xtrakit ex Matchbox Meteor Night Fighter I am building for comparison. Whereas the instructions for the F8 said it needed 3g of ballast when in fact it needed at least 5g, the NF says 20g which seems an awful lot!. I doubt I will be able to get more than 10g in the fuselage but I was hoping the resin replacement nose from Freightdog would solve the problem. However when it arrived today I found that not only did it weigh only 6g but also that to fit it I would have to cut of the part of the fuselage in front of the cockpit which is where I was putting the other 10g of ballast! Fortunately there is a solution. I had read that the NF14 nose was too long due to an oft repeated mistake in measurement, but have now discovered on this forum that it was actually the same as the nose for the NF12 which is in the kit and can hold a fair bit of lead. So, although the resin nose if more detailed, I will not be using it - if anybody is thinking of building this kit wheels up and is interested they can have it for a couple of quid plus postage - cost me £7 with postage so a bargain!. More anon. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 Yeah, your spot on about the ‘designated’ NF.14 nose, use the middle sized one as it’s the most accurate. Now I’ve had a NF.11 on the SOD for years, it only needs minor work before it’s ready for paint, however I just can’t get back onto it after all the time and effort I put into sanding it.I think it was painting that greenhouse canopy that put me off. You’ve chosen well with doing a NF.14. Cheers.. Dave 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 16, 2019 Author Share Posted November 16, 2019 Whilst the F8 is waiting to be varnished a quick update on my parallel NF14 build which is not eligible for this GB. The kit is ex Matchbox and they tried to be clever and allow you to build any of 3 versions. This required them to provide 2 different tails, engine intakes, cockpit canopies and 3 different noses, though it transpires that they only needed 2 as the other is the result of an error made by somebody many years ago as mentioned above. The intakes, nose and tail are not particularly good fits but the option of 2 canopies requires two large upper fuselage inserts, a bit like Fujimi did with their Aichi Val. That was bad enough but the Meteor one is 3 times as long and like my Fujimi one a rotten fit. After 3 lots of filling and sanding this is what it looks like. I will give it a coat of primer today and see whether it needs any more work. Fortunately the camo on the upper surfaces will hopefully hide most of the joints. Incidentally I have read somewhere that the error with the NF14 nose length is probably down to the fact that some machines had the black paint on the radar nose extended backwards for some reason, thus misleading observers into thinking the radome was longer than that of the NF12. I mentioned earlier I was dubious about the recommended 20g of ballast and I was right. I have got 13g in the fuselage in front of the cockpit and could probably have got away with half that so I could perhaps have fitted the Freightdog resin nose after all. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted November 16, 2019 Share Posted November 16, 2019 These Matchbox era NF Meteors are real putty monsters aren’t they. Look good once finished though I bet. Cheers.. Dave. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 17, 2019 Author Share Posted November 17, 2019 Ok, the joints could be better but they will have to do. Quite a bit still to do but it might be ready for a "Meteor Family" shot at the end of the GB. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 All looking good Pete. I really like the look of the night one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 Hi Greg, Bad day on the NF14 - I thought the Hasegawa decs for my Panther were bad enough but the ones that came with the Meteor just disintigrated on me. Don't know if they are ancient Matchbox ones or if Hannants had them reprinted but either way they are a mess. Only bought the kit 10 days ago direct from Hannants but it was one of a batch they labelled "Second hand, nearly as good as new" whatever that means. If these are the original decs that they put in their kits, then they can only be about 10 years old I think so I would not have expected this problem - perhaps they are from a dud batch, or maybe they have been stored badly but they look OK until you try to use them. I can get round the problem but it will take time so I suspect this will not be completely finished in time for the "group photo" I had hoped to do. Good job it is not the actual entry in this GB or I would be really annoyed. I have mailed Hannants and suggested they don't sell the rest of the kits - they are still showing 5 left. They do have a couple of cheap Modeldecal sheets that I could use if I have more problems. Probably much older than the kit but they do seem to last pretty well. Oh well, the joys of modelling I guess. Pete 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 I hope that you do manage to get things sorted by the weekend Pete. Cliff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 (edited) Hi Cliff, Hannants are sending me some spare dec sheets they have and I have put a coat of varnish on the ones that came with the kit, so with luck it will be complete enough to take a photo by Sunday, assuming nothing else goes wrong! This is what it looks like at the moment. Interestingly, according to the instructions the NF 11 and NF12 had the same camo pattern but the colours are reversed and the grey is Medium not dark Sea Grey all over - shades of the Mossie NF scheme. Some NF 14 seem to have had the upper tail in Green/Dark Sea Grey whilst others like this one had it Medium Sea Grey. Pete Edited November 19, 2019 by PeterB 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 Good luck with the decals - let's hope Murphy has the weekend off! The airframe looks suitably menacing, if not a little brutish I think. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 That’s quite distressing news was about those Xtradecals Pete! I must admit that whilst doing my Frog Canberra build I had so many issues with a set of new Xtradecal Type D’s, I was racking my brain trying to work out what I was doing wrong, perhaps it was just the decals themselves all along. This NF.14 really is looking lovely in that three tone scheme and we’ll be all glad to see your group shot once finished. Cheers.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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