Lord Riot Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 I won this delightful kit on ebay for just £20, which I think (hope!) is a relative bargain for this scale. Lovely box artwork and what a fabulous decal sheet, so many options. I love the 56 Sqn Firebird colours, but I don't know which red spray to use, plus it looks quite tricky masking along the spine without seepage, so I've decided to go for the early 74 Sqn F1, which also looks terrific with its black tail and spine. I have the newer F1 kit in the stash so once I have more experience and find out what colour to use I'll do the Firebird. I already have a more recent set of markings for this one from when I made my LTF Lightning F3 last year. They look better than those in this older kit so I'll use them. Interesting that Airfix provides a black tail code in one set, when it should be yellow like the older decals. Anyway, no problem as I have both. Options! ... The sprues. Always nice to have a two piece canopy so I can have it open. Can anyone confirm, the early F1s had no fuselage piping for wires, etc down the side at all? It isn't 100% clear from the instructions. Any other tips? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 Looks interesting, I'll give this a follow. This isn't the current 1/48 tooling is it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 14, 2020 Author Share Posted March 14, 2020 No, this one is from 1998 apparently. It looks ok though, so far! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 6 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said: Looks interesting, I'll give this a follow. This isn't the current 1/48 tooling is it? 4 minutes ago, Lord Riot said: No, this one is from 1998 apparently. It looks ok though, so far! But it is the same tooling, AFAIK only the decals have changed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruskin Air Services Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 (edited) When I masked the demarcation line I applied the tape and the edge of the tape to be painted I brushed Matt varnish to seal it, worked fine on my airfix Lancaster Edited March 14, 2020 by Ruskin Air Services 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, Lord Riot said: Can anyone confirm, the early F1s had no fuselage piping for wires, etc down the side at all? It isn't 100% clear from the instructions. Any other tips? Nice subject choice! Early Lightning F.1 did indeed have no piping conduit down the fuselage sides. The very earliest use by 74 Sqn. of the Lightning seen them with the slotted wheel hubs and a bare fin rather than the more commonly associated black one and therefore the black A would be useful for that (a future project of my own to go with my AFDS F.1 one day) https://images.app.goo.gl/89LaaYsP3inpnq2n7 Edited March 14, 2020 by Col. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keith in the uk Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 Good choice of subject , Check your kit for warped wings as the first issues suffered from this problem. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 I'm building the same kit... have a look and hopefully you'll avoid some of the mistooks I made rgds John(shortCummins) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 15, 2020 Author Share Posted March 15, 2020 I think yours will come out much nicer John, you've used aftermarket for a start, and a whole plethora of professional level paints. All mine are cheap Humbrol acrylics and industrial spray cans! Looking forward to seeing yours finished, just don't put it in RFI the same day as mine please! 😂😂😂 Made a start today, cockpit done. Looking at John's super seat I think I need to add more straps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 16, 2020 Author Share Posted March 16, 2020 Fuselage goes together well, especially for an old kit. I'm hoping I won't need any filler. Plenty of space for adding nose weight too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey-1980 Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 Great start! Looks like your self isolation is going well then? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 14 hours ago, Lord Riot said: I think yours will come out much nicer John, you've used aftermarket for a start, and a whole plethora of professional level paints. All mine are cheap Humbrol acrylics and industrial spray cans! Looking forward to seeing yours finished, just don't put it in RFI the same day as mine please! 😂😂😂 well I'm having all sorts of "fun" with the AK Extreme paints, I've had to respray the wings twice so far, I'll not be doing it a third time! sometimes you get on with paints and some time you don't, its not necessarily that they're no good just they don't work for you!? anyhow, yours is coming along nicely, which scheme are you going to do? rgds John(shortCummins) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 16, 2020 Author Share Posted March 16, 2020 I saw that in your WIP, hopefully you can save it. I had a Canberra where the green bubbled and I had to wipe it off wet and start again, luckily it turned out ok in the end. Made a start on the wings, they were slightly bowed but nothing a bit of old fashioned glue and masking tape won't fix. I'm making it out the box as the early F1 option from 74 Squadron, all over silver. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 Wings now fitted. They do seem slightly warped but it's only slightly noticeable when viewed head on. The biggest gaps were underneath, so my poor sanding skills shouldn't show up too much. I had to fill the holes for the refuelling probe and the fuselage piping, despite the instructions saying you had to drill them out. They were already holes! Always disappointing having to use filler. It's so thick and never files completely flush with surrounding surfaces. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 Almost ready for paint! I'm going to paint the spine first as it's easier to mask than the rest of the airframe. I might try handpainting it as black seems to leave fewer brush marks than other colours. I'll see how that looks before deciding whether to spray or handpaint the fin. Either way I won't attach that 'til after spraying the airframe, so I don't need to mask it. Colour will be all over silver, then I'll try handpainting a few panels for a slightly different finish. Might need to give it a wipe over with dirt was after all that, not sure yet how clean these were. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 Spine painted black, then masked up and silver sprayed on. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 And there we go, masking tape did its job pretty well. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray S Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Nice work so far! My favouritist airplane of all, and my favouritist Squadron too. Cheers, Ray 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 Slightly worrying doing something like this to a lovely clean airframe ... But it turned out ok after rubbing with a dry kitchen towel. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 A bit more progress on the Lightning. It took three attempts to get the black fin reasonable. Luckily I had two spare ones from other Airfix Lightnings, one I did as an F3 and one I'm going to do as an F6, so I had two spare round-tipped fins. The first I brush painted but the lines showed up, the second one for some reason the spray left weird marks underneath like the plastic had some contamination on it. Third time lucky and after two coats of satin black auto spray the fin is acceptable. I'm quite pleased with the silver, this was just one coat of spray, then a wipe of dirt wash once dry. I'm loath to paint any panels as a I think it'd ruin it, though I did use Humbrol 56 for the gun ports. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 I made the two small fuselage aerials from thin wire and drilled a couple of tiny holes to glue them into. Not sure about those two rectangular vents, are they always open, in which case I should try and paint them black, or is shut perfectly realistic if the engine isn't running? Undercarriage fitted and steady, and thankfully she's not a tail sitter! After three attempts at painting, and a fair bit of fettling to make sure there was no gap, I've finally got the famous 74 Sqn black fin glued on! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 22, 2020 Author Share Posted March 22, 2020 I used kitchen foil glued down with Clearfix for the shiny nose ring. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 22, 2020 Author Share Posted March 22, 2020 After seeing @shortCummins's excellent bang seat I added a few more straps and a buckle to mine. It's not in his league but it'll do for me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilg Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 7 hours ago, Lord Riot said: I used kitchen foil glued down with Clearfix for the shiny nose ring. How do you get that so smooth! I've never tried that before - I can imagine ripping it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 22, 2020 Author Share Posted March 22, 2020 (edited) @neilg I try to cut a smoothish bit then rub it a bit on a flat surface first to stretch it out a bit, then just gently bend it around the nose ring. I glued it just at the start of one end so it gave some space to push it gently around the ring. Slowly smooth it around in one direction. Once it was as smooth as I could get I glued a bit under the other end whete it joined and left to set. I then cut off the overlap either side of the ring with a sharp craft knife. It has to be pretty sharp or it will rip. I should also say it took three attempts and it looks smoother in the photos than in real life! Edited March 22, 2020 by Lord Riot 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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