Hardcore Early Meteor Nerds Only

[neilfergylee]

I do happen to have a bit of an obsession with Meteors, having built a raft of 1/72 versions and recently a brace of 1/48 versions including a PR.10 conversion.

 

The Tamiya 1/48 models of the Mk.I and Mk.III have a great deal of commonality, not least sharing the same Welland engine.  That is fine if you want to model one of the 616 Squadron Mk.IIIs that wento Belgium in early 1945 but there were only 15 of those and the vast majority were powered by the later Derwent engine.

 

There are, however, some nice hidden features with both models: not included in the instructions are the shortened jet pipes of the Derwent engine, plus a pair of vents that Derwent 1-powered aircraft had on their nacelles.  Airfix's F.8 model contains an excellent pair of Derwants and I contacted their spares department to purchase the relevant moulding frame for the engines.  This allowed me to build a Tamiya Mk.III with Derwent engines and below you can see the difference.

 

The engines are not strictly correct.  Mk.III Meteors used the Derwent 1 engine, while Mk.8s had the Derwent 8.  Strictly speaking, these were different engines as later Derwents were effectively scaled-down Nenes.  One comparison is to look at the jetpipes of early and late airframes: the later engines has jetpipes probably 50% larger.

 

Nonetheless, I have photographed my latest Mk.III alongside a Mk.I made last year.

 

 

 

 

Note below the nacelle vents and shorter jetpipe.

 

 

 

There is a full set of images here.

 

I hope this is of interest.

 

KInd regards,

 

Neil

[Troy Smith]

Very interesting build Neil.   

 

So, you just used the Airifx Dewents in the Tamiya wing?   Does that mean you can build a Derwent engined one if you build it withe the engine covers on?

 

And a query, how come the Mk.I has 616 Sq codes but a yellow underside?  I know yellow was for prototypes,  but though a sq machine would have had Medium Sea Grey? 

 

cheers

T

[neilfergylee]

On 18/03/2020 at 18:02, Troy Smith said:

Very interesting build Neil.   

 

So, you just used the Airifx Dewents in the Tamiya wing?   Does that mean you can build a Derwent engined one if you build it withe the engine covers on?

 

And a query, how come the Mk.I has 616 Sq codes but a yellow underside?  I know yellow was for prototypes,  but though a sq machine would have had Medium Sea Grey? 

 

cheers

T

Troy,

 

Yes that's right, Airfix engines in the Tamiya wing and if you're not bothered about the engines, then you don't even need to slip Airfix a tenner for a set of Derwents.  The important external bits come with the kit.

 

Now, well-spotted with the yellow underside and 616 squadron codes.  EE214 was originally a pre-production machine but was then passed to 616 as an unarmed operational trainer.

 

You can just about make-out the codes in this shot:

 

Edited March 20, 2020 by neilfergylee

[Wulfman]

Superb pair of Meteors, excellent modelling.

 

Wulfman

[neilfergylee]

3 minutes ago, Wulfman said:

Superb pair of Meteors, excellent modelling.

 

Wulfman

Thank you very much indeed 😀

[phildagreek]

Looks good!

[RMCS]

Superb 

[Work In Progress]

That's something I'd never thought about.  What a good idea