1: 48 scale Sword Lightning T4 XM995 92 Sqn RAF Leconfield

[LightningBoy]

Whilst I'm finishing off my Lightning F53 and waiting for several coats of varnish to dry I've made a start on one of my Sword Lightning T4s in my stash.

 

I have made a T5 before, XM452it is elsewhere on BM ,  but I forgot how much of a challenge it is to build compared to the Airfix 1: 48 Lightning - I've done it before so I can do it again.

 

I'm going to finish it in the colours of a T4 from 92 Sqn with yellow training bands and a NMF, serial to be decided. (photo shows XM995 later in it's career at RAF Gutersloh after the yellow trainer bands have been removed)

 

 

Here are a few of the early sub assemblies:

 

Nose ring - very substantially fixed to the sprue which took a lot of cutting and filing to remove and make it presentable.

 

 

Intake trunking - need to line up carefully as there are few if any locating pins on the whole lit The engine front is far to far forward for the No1 engine but can hardly been seen when assembled.

 

 

The central fairing which holds the radar again takes careful alignment.

 

 

When putting the central fairing into the intake the instructions don't show very well how they go together. As shown in my photo the undercarriage bay protrudes in a tapered fashion.

 

 

Whilst gluing, I held the 2 parts together with an elastic band

 

 

The main undercarriage fixing point was very shallow on one wing and non-existent on the other - I drilled them out to accept the pin on top of each main u?c leg. I have doubts about how strong the join will be - we'll see!!!

 

 

The cockpit interior is predominantly black in the T4, grey in the T5

 

 

The paint is not yet dry in this photo

 

 

LightningBoy

[Biggles87]

I'ma sucker for a Lightning build, so I'm in.

I have a two seater conversion for one of mine, can't remember if it's a -4 or -5.

 

John

[LightningBoy]

Welcome on board Biggles.

 

Update as follows:

 

Cockpit and intake fitted to starboard fuselage

 

 

Alignment ensured by temporarily holding both halves of the fuselage together with an elastic band and masking tape

 

 

Wheel wells painted silver

 

 

Wings glued together and held in place by the clamps from the end of trouser hangers

 

 

LightningBoy

[Ray S]

Good start on this one! I had fun with the smaller 1/72 version, that got me into the Sword Lightnings and I love building them. One day, I will get a 1/48 kit.

 

Ray

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Any Lightning build is great as far as I am concerned.  I have never built a Sword kit so interested to see what you think of it.  Following this one.

Colin

[LightningBoy]

Latest update after a couple of hours work on XM995.

 

The wings have been sanded down on the joins and test fitted to the fuselage. Getting a good fit needed a lot of work. The tabs that go into the fuselage are badly moulded and too long. I cut 4-5mm off each end and will line them up on the leading edge when I fit them. The tab was also too thick so I made it thinner and filed away some of the slot in the fuselage taking care to remove equal amounts both top and bottom to keep things equal.

 

 

 

I have added weight to the nose area to prevent XM995 becoming a tail-sitter. I get the nut and washers in a bag from the Poundshop.

 

 

I have used the fins from the Redstreak and Firetop missiles as tabs to help align the fuselage sides. They are shown angled to the fuselage sides in the photo but once the glue has dried I will bend them to the correct angle. The missiles are totally wrong, I will be using Airfix Firestreaks.

 

 

 

 

LightningBoy

[LightningBoy]

Resin reheat pipes have been filed down and fitted to the backing plate. They come in the kit, in my humble opinion they are only marginally better than the Airfix kit parts and I would not normally spend good money for such a marginal improvement - it's only my opinion.

 

 

 

They are designed to be fitted after the fuselage halves have been joined, unlike the Airfix ones.

 

LightningBoy

[LightningBoy]

Quick update on the T5

 

Fuselage halves now joined and drying.

 

The tabs described above have been a great help

 

 

They were bent to shape once dry to follow the curves of the fuselage sides.

 

 

The fuselage was held together using masking tape and section by section they were glued with liquid glue section by section aligning each length of fuselage and allowing it to dry before moving along. I marked the position of the aligning tabs with marker pen to allow me to put a bit more liquid glue in those areas - don't overdo the glue or it will be a major meltdown. Guess how I know????

 

 

 

LightningBoy

[LightningBoy]

Progress update.

 

The fuselage halves are now joined with few dramas. Now for the badly fitting wings!!! I have spent some considerable time filing and checking the wings to the point where I was wondering abut the affect on the wingspan on the Lighting lol. The first wing is fitted, held while it starts to dry with the 6 degrees anhedral and then rested on the bench to completely dry, do check occasionally to ensure the anhedral angle hasn't changed.

 

 

I know it's an F6 but it shows the mainplane anhedral well (also the main u/c doors angling slightly outwards)

 

 

 

The second wing is then fitted to the fuselage with the attached wing resting in the shoebox, anhedral angle checked to match the first wing.

 

 

53-670 in the background

 

 

 

When everything had dried I then applied liquid cement along the joins one side at a time to reinforce the joint. When fully dried I I filled the massive gaps with Pollyfiller and then sanded down the joins.

 

 

 

Red Top tips

 

Use moist cotton buds to fill the wing join gaps with pollyfiller and clean up any surrounding areas.

 

LightningBoy

 

[LightningBoy]

After a lot of filing & filling on the wing joints I decided to fit the tailplanes. I usually leave this until last to allow access for applying all the small decals on the fuselage, however as the Sword kit is just a butt joint I decided to fit them at this stage. Some modellers drill holes for reinforcing rods to beef up the join, I decided that my drilling accuracy might cause misalignment  so went for the butt joint option. I hope my T4 doesn't pull enough 'G' for them to be ripped off!!!

 

I have used the shoe box to support the model in the 90 degree bank mode whilst the glue sets, I started off with glue from a tube and when this had set applied liquid cement to the bottom allowing capillary action to take it deep into the join. When this had set I applied liquid cement to the top in the same manner.

 

When one tailplane is set fully repeat on the other side.

 

 

Back to 53-670.

 

Red Top Tip

 

If you have any available, use spare Firestreak missiles from the Airfix kit when you get to that stage

 

LightningBoy

[LightningBoy]

Having given the model a good wash with washing up liquid and water it is time for some silver paint - Matt silver aerosol from the pound shop

 

 

 

 

These early coats have revealed a few gaps needing filler on the underside. will fill these before doing final coats.

 

LightningBoy

[LightningBoy]

Totally forgot to mask off the yellow trainer bands so XM995 will now be finished as per the photo ie without trainer bands.

 

LightningBoy 

[LightningBoy]

The filling completed on the underside fuselage join, rubbed down and more coats of silver applied. The join is less noticeable now, yet still not perfect. If iI rub down any more on the bottom of the fuselage I will end up with a flat section so have decided, reluctantly, to live with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Red Top Tip

 

Be careful spray painting in the garden in case a wind gets up!!!!!!!

 

LightningBoy

[LightningBoy]

Blue spine and tail now painted, tried masking the join but found the compound curves too difficult so I waited until I had a steady hand and did it by eye.

 

 

The pitot head supplied with the kit is not the best. It has several moulding pips on it which need careful removal and filing down to get an acceptable finish. I followed this up with a brush of liquid cement along its length which smooths everything out.

 

 

Red Top Tip

 

An acceptable replacement for a lost or broken Lightning pitot head can be made from "Stretched sprue". There is ample circular section sprue on each Airfix Lightning kit.

Take a straight section of sprue, heat it over a candle flame and when the plastic softens stretch it out. The faster you pull, the smaller diameter results. Very thin - biplane rigging (see my HP Heyford pictures). The slower you pull, the larger diameter results. The Lightning pitot head in the photograph requires a fastish pull to start with transitioning to a slower pull to increase the diameter and form a taper. It's great fun experimenting and comes with practice. When you have a representative taper, cut off and cut and file the piece that mounts the pitot to the intake ring.

 

 

LightningBoy

[LightningBoy]

Latest work on XM995.

 

Silver foil tape was used to replicate the shiny finish on the nose intake ring and tailpipe shroud

 

Before

 

 

After

 

 

Before

 

 

After

 

 

Red Top Tip

 

Do the nose ring first as it's easier then do the tailpipe

 

LightningBoy

[LightningBoy]

Starting to apply the decals now. I think the difference in looks after the first roundels are applied is phenomenal IMHO.

 

 

I decided to finish the wings upper and lower first, then apply Satin varnish to seal them before moving on to the fuselage.

 

 

The reason for this was to enable handling without previously applied decals coming off on your fingers. The walkway lines on the wings should only  be attempted when you have plenty of time and are in a clam state of mind.

 

Red Top Tip

 

On Airfix : 48 Lightning decal sheets there is a fine black line border which can be used as spare lining for Sword 1: 48 Lightnings. It is a bit thin for the matching to the Airfix walkway lines.

 

LightningBoy

 

 

[_alfisti_]

Nice project, I really love the two seat Lightnings. You're making good progress, although the Sword kits are a lot of work. They always look so nice and easy in their boxes...😄

Saudi-Lightning in the background looks good too.👍

 

Cheers

Daniel

[LightningBoy]

Thanks for the feedback Daniel. The Sword kits are indeed a challenge, the first one I built is elsewhere on BM, XS452.

 

LightningBoy

[exdraken]

Wow, looking great!

A bluetail

Sorry for having missed it until now...

 

 

[LightningBoy]

Update on XM995...

 

 

 

 

 

Having allowed a couple of days for the satin varnish (Humbrol 135) to dry and chosen a time when relaxed and calm I started to apply the fuselage decals.

 

The sqn markings and tail markings are straightforward, no problem at all.

 

Then came the 3.5 hours of applying all the small stencils. All went well until the dotted lines on the back of the fuselage. Because the Sword decals are so thin I only managed to get one side correct - the stbd side bunched up!!! Fortunately I had some spares from Airfix which were much easier to apply as they come in batched of 3 whereas the Sword version are one complete row for each side. On reflection, I would now subdivide the Sword decals to groups that would be easier to manage.

 

I'll leave the decals to completely dry overnight and apply the coat of satin varnish to seal them in tomorrow.

 

Next step is to add all those details including the undercarriage that impede the application of the decals.

 

Red Top Tip

 

If you wonder where the dashed lines mentioned above finish beneath the fuselage here is an example from the Flixton F1 Lightning, all the way underneath to the centreline.

 

As you can see, they also sit either side of the large panel line, which isn't obvious from the instruction sheets.

 

 

 

LightningBoy

[tweeky]

Do you know why it went round the rear Fuselage tho? 

[LightningBoy]

Applying the decals on the fuselage now, there are lots...

 

The Sword decals release very quickly from the carrier paper so just dip them in the water and let them soak on your modelling mat / board.

 

The serial numbers on the fuselage and wing are thin and care needs to be taken when applying them to prevent them 'concertinaing'. 

 

Photos to follow.

 

LightningBoy 

[LightningBoy]

No I don't Tweeky, I  only suspect that it might be an area to support the fuselage at some point but that is purely a guess! Would be great if you know.

 

On another matter of my Lightning ignorance, do you know what the small exhaust looking thing is positioned just ahead of a lowered port flap and just behind a lowered starboard flap?? I suspect they may be vents? What I do know is they are a bug**ger to fit and my carpet has eaten it's fair share 😬😬 My latest method is to  fix them on with satin varnish then when they are dry carefully strengthen with another few coats of satin varnish.

 

LightningBoy 

[bigbadbadge]

You're taming this kit very well.  I have built a couple of Sword kits and like them so far, not built a Lightning though. Enjoyed reading through your thread and seeing this beauty emerge.  I didn't realise you can get spray paint  from the pound shop, will look out for some next time I am in town, thanks. 

Good to see the decals go on and the mojo boost they give is immense. 

Great work 

Chris

[tweeky]

Firstly your question,

The "Exhaust/vent" you ask about is it an open aerofoilish shaped tube with a small angled plate on the end of it ? if this is it then its an attempt at draining the No2 engine bay should a leak happen being fuel, Engine and or Hyd oil. the idea being the angles plate at the end of the tube crates a vacuum thus sucking the "fluid" out, the idea of it being around 6-8 inches long is is far enough outboard not to be re-ingested into Zone 3 or the inter/reheat pipe bay (no extinguishes in there as you know). All part of the fire integrity program. Hope this helps

 

As for the dashed lines around the rear fuselage, yes we used to trestle the rear end when the radar bullet was removed. The reason the dashes extend up the rear fuselage is originally the idea was the tether the rear end to the ground during reheat runs, but the powers to be realised that amount of power and holding it down might stress the back end so the procedure was abandoned, think its still in the AP is somebody has them. 

 

Tweeky (Mark)

Edited March 12, 2022 by tweeky
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