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EE Lightning T.5


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Hello guys and girls.I hope you are doing well.Here is my latest finished model.The Sword EE Lightning T.5.A really bad kit that requires a lot of work to turn it into something worth of having a place in you display case.I built it OOB.The paints used are gunze.

 

enjoy the photos.

 

 

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Outstanding Dragan.  I try to avoid Sword kits like catching the plague.  You have done another amazing job at making such a difficult kit look authentic. :goodjob:

 

Mike

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That's really great! You've done a fine job and it's resulted in a fabulous looking T5 👍👍

I've built 4 Sword Lightnings and they're not too bad.... provided you are fully aware it is a short run kit, so will require more work. For example there are no locating pins for joining fuselage together, and the wing to fuselage butt joint needs some care (and superglue!). But the overall shape is really good and it does look like a lightning when complete.

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That’s a very nice result then! 
Can please you elaborate on your impression that this is „a really bad kit“. I have some of them in my stash, single seaters as well as twins. Sure, it’s short run and I see some missing location points and the need for strengthen the aileron attachment points but what was bad with yours?

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Thank you guys.

 

@manuel the problems are with the overall fit.The paint used is Mr.Color C08

 

@binbrook87 yes exactly.The overall shape is excellent but the fit is terrible.

 

@troschi Thank you.The bad fit is actually the overall fit of the kit.It requires a lot of sanding and filling.The wigns to fusleage join point is terrible.I had to modify this area for the locating tabs to even fit in the fuselage.The windshield also did not fit goot.I had to sand and fill the join.Also the resin exhaust had to be modified and the whole area roughly sanded for it to sit flush with the rest of the airframe.

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O“A really bad kit that requires a lot of work to turn it into something worth of having a place that n your display case.”

 

If you think the Sword kit is bad you’d better not go anywhere near a Merlin TSR 2, assuming that you can find one.  No two mating surfaces are in the same plane, the main parts have got more warp than the Starship Enterprise at full chat, surface detail, where it exists, was scribed by an inebriated, arthritic, seven-legged spider on a bad day, accuracy is a non-optional extra (permanently out of stock) and any resemblance to the real aeroplane is entirely accidental.  It isn’t even good enough for a scrapping diorama, let alone to represent a fully serviceable high performance flying machine.  By comparison the Sword Lightning is Tamigawajimi quality (I’ve got four of them) but as a limited-run kit does require more fitting work than a mainstream kit.

 

As an aside all of the Lightnings built by English Electric and BAC were practically hand built, to the extent that it was almost impossible to swap panels between any of the early XG-, XM- and XL- serialled aircraft.  Even at the end Lightnings were apparently leaving the factory in slightly different sizes; apparently the two Lightnings at Bruntingthorpe, XR728 and XS904, are different from each other in both length and span by an inch or three.  Look on the bright side; this kit has stretched you a bit, you’ve had to problem-solve and improvise, fettle and fill and that all helps to keep your mind active which is perhaps more important than simply having your kit fall together as you watch from a social distance.  You’ve had some pain but you have gained because the result is worthy of a place in your display case.  If you still think it’s not send it to me and it can go in mine instead!🤣🤣

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9 minutes ago, dragan_mig31 said:

@stever219 I dont know about the TSR2 kit but I have built a lot of bad kits over the years.One of the worst was a 1:72 gran FMA pucara.That one is like getting several pieces of a sidwalk edge stone and trying to build them into an aircraft :D

I've heard that that Pucara was like a bag of badly carved lumps of soap so, with your recommendation, I'll give that a very wide berth.

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Excellent work done on this kit.

I'm currently working on their Sword F3 which I almost gave up on a few years ago. I actually gave up on it, but returned to it recently.

I've also built the T.4 & the cockpit location is pretty bad, like you say the resin exhaust area isn't perfect but all the bad bits of this kit can be made good in the end. I also found that the nose area was too short, so I added the Quickboost resin nose ring (for the Trumpeter kit) which actually brings the model to the correct length otherwise it looks too stubby in the frontal area. I'd recommend anyone building this kit to add it.

Once you've done a few of the Sword kits you get used to it. Their Thunderflash is the same but with perseverance can be built into a stunning model.

In the next few days I'll upload my F3 when it's completed.

 

Martin

 

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3 hours ago, wellsprop said:

Superb! Which squadron did this aircraft belong to? 

This one was with 226 Operational Conversion Unit, 145 Sqn.  My references show RAF Coltishall 1970 or it could also have been at RAF Middleton St George.

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On 08/03/2021 at 11:43, dragan_mig31 said:

 

@manuel the problems are with the overall fit.The paint used is Mr.Color C08

 

@binbrook87 yes exactly.The overall shape is excellent but the fit is terrible.

 

@troschi Thank you.The bad fit is actually the overall fit of the kit.It requires a lot of sanding and filling.The wigns to fusleage join point is terrible.I had to modify this area for the locating tabs to even fit in the fuselage.The windshield also did not fit goot.I had to sand and fill the join.Also the resin exhaust had to be modified and the whole area roughly sanded for it to sit flush with the rest of the airframe.

Same things I experienced when I built my T4. But with patience and care it builds up into a beautiful model, as you have proven too :clap: :clap:

 

Great pics, BTW :clap:

Ciao

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