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1:48 Airfix English Electric Lightning F.1/F.1A


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Whilst looking around the interweb for “stuff” on the various aircraft in my stash, I stumbled across this…

 

…so after that I was hooked and my mind was made-up what to build next.

 

Here’s the kit box art.

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As I’ve just done a grey & green camo’ scheme I want a bit of a change however I’m currently undecided which scheme to go for…

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…I quite like the red but the black looks equally good.
Whilst it’s not strictly correct I’m going to copy the box art and depict a NMF, I know it should be “high-speed” silver(?) but I think it’ll be more interesting as polished aluminium.

 

Having said that I found this photo…

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…so that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

 

I got a couple of after-market pieces, the Quickboost seat

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and an Eduard PE set

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Rummaging through the “spares box” I came across theses

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So I’ll probably make use of a couple RBF ribbons if I can find out where they would have been placed?

 

 

Next I’ll be making a start on the cockpit.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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John,

 

Watch those profiles, the top one is an F.1A but it didn't have the intake on the spine, that came with the F.2.

 

The bottom one is an F.1, not only did it not have the intake on the spine but it also lacked the long cable duct on the lower fuselage (the long lozenge shaped one just above the belly tank).

 

It's quite easy to get caught out by these things especially if the profile is wrong and therefore misleading!

 

I shall be watching this thread with interest.

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Looking forward to seeing how you get on, I was considering this very kit next, but I'll probably wait a bit now or yours will put my attempts to shame (like everyone's seems to on here!) I'll learn from yours first then maybe in a few months. 

 

 

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Just a point of note, if those remove before flight tags are the same 1/48th ones as what I have from Eduard (not at home so can't verify but they came in the Eduard Tornado Big Ed set) beware that they come out at a scale 55" long, waaay too long compared to what I have seen on real aircraft. I ended up buying the 1/72nd set for my Revell Gulf war Tornado, they were far better in terms of scale length

 

And take your time with setting the wings, I did mine by attaching them to the fuselage halves before joining the fuselage, which helped immensely with the correct dihedral, but I realised too late that when the wing halves are being joined, you need to clamp them very firmly to setting blocks to get the characteristic wing warp shape. Mine are slightly different side to side, hence the position of the model in the cabinet to hide my faux pas

 

Cheers

 

Les

Edited by lesthegringo
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Another “gotcha” is that the kit cockpit and instrument panel more closely approximate to those of the F. 2A, F. 3 and F. 6 fitted with the OR946 instrumentation.  The Mk. 1, 1A and 2 retained the old “basic six” blind flying instruments in a cockpit as black as a coal hole at midnight.  I think there are images on Thunder and Lightnings website showing the cockpit of the last F. 2 which is now on Malta.

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One more thing, it's a Lightning as in thunder and lightning, not a lightening as in something that lightens something else...  ...following this thread from Pedants Corner

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Great video! I have two Lightning kits - the Eduard special of the Airfix F.1 and the Airfix boxing of the F.2/6. The former I intend to build in one of the NMF schemes above but after seeing that video and learning about its pedigree I'll definitely have to build the latter as XR729. Thanks for sharing.

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Great video! There's always a 'hot ship' in any squadron or fleet, just seems to perform better and behave itself more than the others. Sounds like XR749 was something special, glad to see it's survived.

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On 14/02/2020 at 11:37, Wez said:

John,

 

Watch those profiles, the top one is an F.1A but it didn't have the intake on the spine, that came with the F.2.

 

The bottom one is an F.1, not only did it not have the intake on the spine but it also lacked the long cable duct on the lower fuselage (the long lozenge shaped one just above the belly tank).

 

It's quite easy to get caught out by these things especially if the profile is wrong and therefore misleading!

 

I shall be watching this thread with interest.

Hi Wez, do you mean these?

49537307363_ef8e3b982c_b.jpg

 

thanks for the "heads up"

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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2 minutes ago, shortCummins said:

Hi Wez, do you mean these?

That's the badgers!

 

The lower one, the cable duct is also longer on the F.3 (and F.6 versions).

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17 hours ago, Wez said:

One more thing, it's a Lightning as in thunder and lightning, not a lightening as in something that lightens something else...  ...following this thread from Pedants Corner

thanks Wez

 

spoil choker mishap

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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High speed silver was not applied to the Lightning due to airframe heating at speed.  It was later discovered that it wasn't such an issue and that being spotted from above was a bigger deal, so they went camo on top (F.3 & F.6) and all green on top (F.2A) before the last years when they went into the grey schemes.

 

AFAIK

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49542540982_ae16522a1f.jpg

 

Thanks to stever219 for pointing out the incorrect instrument panel, as luck would have it Eduard supply two IPs on their PE, one for the F.1 (the “basic six”) & one for the F.2A.

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I’ve given the PE and plastic a coat of my favourite UMP/Stynylrez black primer. I’m only going to use the “top half” of the PE, for the dials and leave the kit “lower half” as it’s more 3D.

The area of the IP panel that the PE fits to will be painted white, Eduard supply acetate dials and I’m hoping that the white will show them better?

 

More PE for the footwell and pedals, I’m not convinced that these will be visible once the cockpit is buttoned up, but I’ll know their there.

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The Quick Boost seat is really nice and I hope I can do the detail painting justice

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I’ve also given the fuselage walls a coat of UMP/Stynylrez black primer, once again I’m not sure how much, if anything, will be seen.

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I’m sorely tempted to leave the cockpit black primer and highlight/dry-brush the dials and panels, I’ll probably try it and see?

 

 

Next I’ll be doing the detail painting on the bang-seat and buttons.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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To add a wee bit of “interest” I painted the dials panel Tamiya X-1 gloss black, the rest of the IP remained UMP/Stynylrez black primer which has a eggshell/satin type sheen, I hope that this will give a bit of depth.

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The acetate and PE panel were glued on using white glue.

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As reference for the bang-seat and harness I used these photos found on the interweb.

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For the seat cushions I used olive drab, for the backrest, and XF-64 red brown for the cushion.

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Harness’ were then picked out with X-4 blue, XF-49 khaki and XF-57 buff.

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Buckles were picked out in X-1 gloss black and the bottom frame of the seat was painted XF-83 medium sea grey (RAF)

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XF-63 was then dry-brushed on the sides of the seat and the instrument panels.

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Next I’ll be adding a few decals and then assembling the cockpit.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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Wow! two Lightning builds at the same time. I've not seen anything yet to beat a Lightning departure from an air dispay, going straight up and often rolling. I used to be involved  in the IAT at Greenham and Fairford and we used to ask for clearance to FL180 for a Lightning departure, but only FL120 for a Phantom.

Also looking forward to this.

 

John

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49547846656_befeea5c66.jpg

 

Cockpit sub-assembly nailed together.

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Normally I’d not fit the seat until the end of the build however, its a little too wide at the base and therefore doesn't sit flat, and probably will be too high so some minor fettling was needed. It’s a tight fit so I’ve decided to fix the seat in place however I’ll wait until the end of the build before fitting the face curtain handle.

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During the fettling the throttle made a bolt for it, pinged off and was promptly eaten by the ‘carpet monster’, oh bugger! I’ll try to scratch something.

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Next I’ll be building the intake and exhaust sub-assemblies so that the fuselage halves can be joined together.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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The cockpit is coming together nicely ( apart from the throttles ) John and the Quickboost seat looks great. I prefer seats with moulded belts to PE ones, the only trouble is painting them convincingly and you’ve done a fantastic job on them.

Looking forward to more.

 

John

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1 hour ago, Biggles87 said:

The cockpit is coming together nicely ( apart from the throttles ) John and the Quickboost seat looks great. I prefer seats with moulded belts to PE ones, the only trouble is painting them convincingly and you’ve done a fantastic job on them.

Looking forward to more.

 

John

thanks John

those seat belts were quite like spaghetti and I'm not convinced I painted them the correct colours but I agree they tend to look better that PE belts.

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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