Storm Warning! Thunder, Lightning, Tornado and Typhoon! RAF QRA in 1/32 - Lightning F6, Phantom FGR.2, Tornado F3, Typhoon FGR.4

[WV908]

@Anthony in NZ

 

You are too kind about my saw work - clean? Err not quite haha. I did mess up the belly a bit but the fuselage cut is straight as a die...ish. The inner wall sides on the bays are horribly thin as I was trying to preserve as much of the central under-belly attachment point as possible. I'll need to rescribe the fasteners but the rest has survived. Not looking forward to re-scribing the engine door hinges either haha. 

 

I'm really looking forward to seeing those decals so thanks again The Tornado decals are a pain as I know I'm going to have to draw up the squadron markings. They're not much trouble to do, just time consuming and expensive if you want professional printing done. 

 

Cheers,

  WV908

[spruecutter96]

Hi, Joe. 

 

Now this is a multi-aircraft thread I will be watching with much interest! You are definitely a much braver modeller than I am, my friend....

 

Was the shot of the Lightning taken at Bruntingthorpe? I remember the blue and white. plastic taxi-way markers very well (I remember the Victor performing a tight-turn once, resulting in several of the larger plastic markers flying through the air for 30 feet or so).  It's a real shame that we won't see any more Cold War taxi days at Brunters - they were terrific events. 

 

Thanks for sharing with us.

 

Chris.  

[Max Headroom]

You’re mad - quite mad!

 

I approve 😁

 

I’ll cheer from the sides.

 

Trevor

[WV908]

@spruecutter96 Yeah the Lightning shot is at Brunty I'm hoping to visit again once the new museum is open to give myself chance to bump my head on every under-surface of XR728 whilst I take reference shots haha. I do have a fairly extensive gallery of her already, but there is always something you forget to photograph

 

Cheers,

 WV908

[WV908]

@Max Headroom

 

Agreed haha - I am a biiit mad. Half the madness is figuring out what step to take next, especially with the Phantom.

 

Cheers,

  WV908

[spruecutter96]

5 hours ago, WV908 said:

I'm hoping to visit again once the new museum is open

Have you heard anything about the museum? I read a few comments about the plans last year, but have heard nothing since then. Any information will be gratefully received. 

 

Chris. 

[WV908]

1 hour ago, spruecutter96 said:

Have you heard anything about the museum? I read a few comments about the plans last year, but have heard nothing since then. Any information will be gratefully received. 

 

Chris. 

 

There's regular updates on the Facebook page for Brunty - They hope to be open sometime this year and all the smaller aircraft are now next to the Lightning 'Q' shed

 

Cheers,

  WV908

[spruecutter96]

Thanks, Joe. 

 

Chris. 

[WV908]

Ooh... 

 

 

And that is the Tornado cockpit ordered too. These are so nice. Still on the fence with the Phantom. The other issue I have with the Tonka is that I have three of the Revell kits in the stash, plus the Italeri GR.4. The cockpit in the latter is good enough, so it means I'll ONLY need two more of these in future *gulp*

 

Cheers,

  WV908

 

[WV908]

Here is the current state of play with the Lightning's cockpit;

 

 

It's taking a lot of figuring out just how to fit the resin cockpit in - height, angle etc, not to mention that the kit isn't really designed for an all-in-one IP and glare shield, but hey ho.

 

Using the kit cockpit for figuring this out is essential and I'm also using the Airfix 1/48 kit as a pattern. Interestingly I have the Aires cockpit for that too (I never buy these so it must have come with the kit when I bought it and completely forgot) - it doesn't fit the kit it's meant for either haha 🙄 

 

Slowly winning the battle with the 1/32 tub but I have only cut out the cockpit recess on the starboard side fuselage half for now.

 

Cheers,

  WV908

[WV908]

Firstly, sorry @Anthony in NZ it's the committee designed replacement for you precious old bus of a Phantom this week! Mwa ha ha! Oh wait, the F3 turned like a brick too.....

 

Onto the plastic;

 

Kindly donated by @Foghorn Leghorn, I now have a Revell F2 nose cone! Wahey! Thanks Neil! He sent it as part of a lovely care packing confusing many little Tornado bits and those magic decal things, so this may, just may, end up as F2 ZD938 yet. This is the only Tornado I have sat in so far and it's cockpit is preserved at my local museum in Doncaster.  

 

So, first impressions. Here it is with the Heritage item;

 

 

 

That's the first battle won. It's actually cylindrical for starters! You can see though that the transitioning collar is part of the cone which sadly means, it's too short. Not to worry! As it's actually the same length as the heritage item I can use @Alan P's method of attachment, just modified for purpose.

 

So, next photo;

 

 

 

A part of the extreme end of the fuselage that had previously been removed on both sides has been reattached, hence the dodgy seam - this had previously been re-profiled to give the correct angle for the radome. As you'll see from the next few photos, due to the radome having the transitioning collar as part of the (too short) moulding, it is too wide at this junction and the wrong shape at the bottom. None of this is any issue as I can pack the radome inside with plastic card and re-profile that part. 

 

 

 

 

Here is my frame of reference, the Revell 1/48 F3. With a measurement taken from the back of the windscreen and scaled up to 1/32, the nose as shown is 4mm too short. I have spare collar pieces from the Revell 1/32 GR.1 that are the right diameter (the same pieces Alan used) that can be used to make up the length.

 

If I'd actually never cut anything in the first place when trying to get the heritage radome to fit and done exactly what Alan did then it would already be the right length haha. We live and learn! 

 

 

Oh and since people like to see what is behind the masking and so I can prove I do actually get *something* done, here is the 1/48 F-3's tub - compete with correct-ish F.3(T) fit - the same as the 1/32 will be;

 

 

Cheers,

  WV908 

[Alan P]

Solution in sight then, shouldn't be too much work to get the nose looking right.

 

Have to admit that's a very strange T-bird rear cockpit 🤔 it's got the instrumentation but no stick.

[tweeky]

Quote

the Lightning is an easy one; I've seen the LPG Lightings do a few full reheat runs and XR728 is my favourite of the pair.

728 would have one done QRA as a Sqn aircraft (5,11 or one of the NMF finished A/C sqns) LTF was non operational and wouldn't hold QRA.

Edited April 30, 2021 by tweeky

[WV908]

20 minutes ago, Alan P said:

Have to admit that's a very strange T-bird rear cockpit 🤔 it's got the instrumentation but no stick.

 

I didn't realise my chosen aircraft was a 'T' until way too late so I kept the little joystick on it's podium as the the stick 😔

 

Cheers,

  WV908

[WV908]

44 minutes ago, Alan P said:

Solution in sight then, shouldn't be too much work to get the nose looking right.

 

Stupidly after all this work to fit the F.2 nose cone and modifying the extra collar pieces and attaching those, the Heritage nose now fits 🤬

 

 

I'm going to look at my options and decide which nose to choose for this build.

 

Cheers,

  WV908

 

[Alan P]

Hey, that Revell 1/48 nose looks spot on. Annoying they never upscaled it to match the GR1 😠 Here's hoping Italeri decide to release an F2/F3 option to go with the lovely GR4

 

(They're probably just waiting for us to finish our conversions )

[WV908]

18 minutes ago, Alan P said:

Hey, that Revell 1/48 nose looks spot on. Annoying they never upscaled it to match the GR1 😠 Here's hoping Italeri decide to release an F2/F3 option to go with the lovely GR4

 

(They're probably just waiting for us to finish our conversions )

 

It's very annoying haha. It's too late at night now to make any serious decisions but the problems I now have are;

 

Up until the transition collar, the Revell F2 radome looks better. A lot better. But, from there backwards it doesn't fit as it's too wide and the profile is wrong.

 

The Heritage radome is not great in shape, but it does fit the nose in it's present state.

 

Both radomes will require filler to blend in and a slight bit of re-profiling to suit, but the heritage resin may possibly be less work as all the work on that is exterior, not interior as well like the F2 radome would be.

 

Final point of consideration is that I can get a much stronger join of plastic to plastic with the F2 radome and I won't have a huge weight hanging off the end of the aircraft that I don't need anyway as I'm fitting a full resin cockpit. 

 

Hmm.

 

Cheers,

  WV908

 

 

[Anthony in NZ]

Hey @WV908

 

Where's my Phantom build??  I can only look at Lightnings and Tornado's for so long you know! 

 

Great work buddy, actually enjoying these move along too.  Loving the Tornado!

 

Cheers Anthony

[WV908]

Hi @Anthony in NZ

 

The Phantom is eagerly waiting for the new speys to arrive so I can make the fuselage fit them exactly

 

It's been one step forward and two steps back with this Tornado. Feels a bit like I wasted the evening yesterday. I'm still on the fence about which radome to modify and use for it.

 

Cheers,

WV908

 

[Tornado 01]

Looking good so far, Although as far as vacform kits go its a Monty Python sketch for me (Runaway).... I had a P1 kit about 25 years ago but gave up on it.

 

 

[Alan P]

12 hours ago, WV908 said:

It's been one step forward and two steps back with this Tornado. Feels a bit like I wasted the evening yesterday. I'm still on the fence about which radome to modify and use for it.

Sometimes you just have to pick your nose and go for it 😂

[WV908]

Thanks to the resin Wizard himself @Ali62 The Typhoon can join the Frey as we now finally have useable (that's an understatement btw) canopies for the Revell kit. These things are perfect. Gonna have to dig out my photos of ZK353 now!

 

 

 

Oh, I also picked up his equally excellent Phantom canopy set for XV408

 

Cheers,

  WV908

[WV908]

No progress this week or planned progress this weekend sadly as we're having some work done on the house. 

 

What I would like to do is thank two very kind and generous members of this forum @Foghorn Leghorn and @Alan P who have provided me with parts and decals to help with the Tornado project. 

 

 

 

If I put the F2 parts in the photo it would just be too big to be able to see anything, but Thankyou guys, really. The Meindert decals in particular are something I never thought I would see and I'm now practically drowning in F3 decals. 

 

Cheers,

  WV908

 

Oh and I decided on the radomes. I'm going to use both

[Anthony in NZ]

Reminds me to sort those Phantom decals for you too

Edited May 7, 2021 by Anthony in NZ

[WV908]

2 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Reminds me to sort those Phantom decals for you too

 

Thanks Anthony

 

Any further progress with the other Phantom bits?

 

Cheers,

WV908