EE Lightning XN776 East Fortune underside colour.

[AliGauld]

Hi There,

I've got a bit of a conundrum. I'm building this one for my nephew as he was totally fascinated by her on our last visit to East Fortune. He sat in the Vulcan bang seat for ages just staring at her.

 

My question is what is the underside colour on her. All my pictures and the ones in the walkaround on here seem to show a white underside but there was a reply in the forum from someone who used to work there stating Light Aircraft Grey as the colour.

I'd like to get it right for the wee man.

 

Second question - the nosecone appears to be Light Admiralty grey, would I be right in thinking that.

 

[71chally]

In service it had natural metal undersides, I'm guessing it's been painted light grey (not white)  to help with preservation.

 

The nose cones to my eye were a mid dull green which could weather with the tan of the fibreglass/honeycombe base showing through.

Edited August 13, 2020 by 71chally

[AliGauld]

10 hours ago, 71chally said:

In service it had natural metal undersides, I'm guessing it's been painted light grey (not white)  to help with preservation.

 

The nose cones to my eye were a mid dull green which could weather with the tan of the fibreglass/honeycombe base showing through.

Thanks very much for your help with this.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[davecov]

I agree with James. Here are some photos I took of XN776 a few years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave

[Hook]

I find the nose cones of Lightnings a hard colour to pin down. It ranges from medium green to almost Hemp, and everything in between.

 

And on occasion on the same airframe. 😎

 

Cheers,

 

Andte

[AliGauld]

1 hour ago, davecov said:

I agree with James. Here are some photos I took of XN776 a few years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

Dave

Thanks so much for your help.

 

37 minutes ago, Hook said:

I find the nose cones of Lightnings a hard colour to pin down. It ranges from medium green to almost Hemp, and everything in between.

 

And on occasion on the same airframe. 😎

 

Cheers,

 

Andte

Thanks so much.

 

It just goes to show that trying to interpret true colour from digital photos on a monitor takes some patience and expertise. 

Not my forte. 😀.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[71chally]

29 minutes ago, davecov said:

 

Dave

That picture in particular illustrates how difficult it can be to interpret and tell apart silver/natural aluminium from light grey in most photographs.

 

The way I paint worn Lightning nose cones (and it's personal preference), is to paint a thin coat of tan colour first, and before that dries properly  I paint over a mid green and brush it into the tan areas where I want the worn effect, usually around the base and near the point of the cone.  Don't forget the very tip of the cone has a metal finished protector.

 

The other thing I'm a bit wary of with XN776 as it is, and only from photos as I've never seen it for real, the green looks wrong to my eyes, and I'm not sure what those bright red gun panels are about (which became lore in some illustrations) as I've never seen that in photos of service jets.  There were usually a dark metallic colour (gun metal?) with maybe a slight tint of a very deep red/brown.

 

This lovely Phil Bradshaw picture shows XN776 in service,

 

 

Also, just remembered that we have recently covered this, last page of this thread, might have some useful info,

 

 

It depends if you want to model XN776 as it is now in the museum, or in service, both equally as valid.

[AliGauld]

10 minutes ago, 71chally said:

That picture in particular illustrates how difficult it can be to interpret and tell apart silver/natural aluminium from light grey in most photographs.

 

The way I paint worn Lightning nose cones (and it's personal preference), is to paint a thin coat of tan colour first, and before that dries properly  I paint over a mid green and brush it into the tan areas where I want the worn effect, usually around the base and near the point of the cone.  Don't forget the very tip of the cone has a metal finished protector.

 

The other thing I'm a bit wary of with XN776 as it is, and only from photos as I've never seen it for real, the green looks wrong to my eyes, and I'm not sure what those bright red gun panels are about (which became lore in some illustrations) as I've never seen that in photos of service jets.  There were usually a dark metallic colour (gun metal?) with maybe a slight tint of a very deep red/brown.

 

This lovely Phil Bradshaw picture shows XN776 in service,

 

 

 

Also, just remembered that we have recently covered this, last page of this thread, might have some useful info,

 

 

It depends if you want to model XN776 as it is now in the museum, or in service, both equally as valid.

Hi There,

 

Many thanks for your comprehensive replies.

I want to build her as she is in East Fortune now. 

I would agree that the green is a bit iffy and I might just use dark green for that but as it's being built for the wee man I want to show her as he fell in love with her.

 

I had read through that thread and it was one of the comments there that made me question the underside colour in my own head but didn't want to hijack the thread for my own selfish purposes.

 

Again,

Thank you so much for all your help.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Hook]

3 hours ago, 71chally said:

The way I paint worn Lightning nose cones (and it's personal preference), 

Thanks for the tip!, must try it on my next Airfix.

 

And about the reddish gun ports - could it have been some sort of grease to protect the surrounding bits of airframe? 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[tweeky]

The radar bullet in service wasn't covered in anything it was how it came the colour was a greeny/yellow. from time to time the odd burn on the surface was repaired with a spot of PRC a brown two pack sealant (used on the fuel leaks too).

 

The F6 gun ports had a deflector around them and these were a pale red in colour.

[AliGauld]

1 hour ago, tweeky said:

The radar bullet in service wasn't covered in anything it was how it came the colour was a greeny/yellow. from time to time the odd burn on the surface was repaired with a spot of PRC a brown two pack sealant (used on the fuel leaks too).

 

The F6 gun ports had a deflector around them and these were a pale red in colour.

Thanks very much for this.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Wandering Minstrel]

21 hours ago, AliGauld said:

 but there was a reply in the forum from someone who used to work there stating Light Aircraft Grey as the colour.

I'd like to get it right for the wee man.

 

Second question - the nosecone appears to be Light Admiralty grey, would I be right in thinking that.

 

'Twould be me, I spent the summer of 2016 working there, just after the newly refurbed hangars opened.

 

 It's definitely a painted grey underside which tallies well with LAG, matching pretty closely with the grey underside of the Tornado F.3 next to it. The Lightning came to East Fortune after having spent time at Leuchars as a decoy so I assume that the slightly dodgy paint dates from then as NMS tends not to repaint its aircraft (the Bolingbroke in the corner of hangar 2 being the exception).

[AliGauld]

4 minutes ago, Wandering Minstrel said:

'Twould be me, I spent the summer of 2016 working there, just after the newly refurbed hangars opened.

 

 It's definitely a painted grey underside which tallies well with LAG, matching pretty closely with the grey underside of the Tornado F.3 next to it. The Lightning came to East Fortune after having spent time at Leuchars as a decoy so I assume that the slightly dodgy paint dates from then as NMS tends not to repaint its aircraft (the Bolingbroke in the corner of hangar 2 being the exception).

Hi There,

Yes it was your post that got me doubting myself and i'm glad it did.

 

Thanks very much for confirming the colour.

 

Many Thanks,

Alistair