74 Squadron F8

[franky boy]

Hello chaps

 

It's good to see this one almost at the start line.

 

I'd like to throw my hat into the ring with a Airfix's lovely F-8 in 1/48 scale. I've also ordered a resin seat and wheels which the big H has yet to dispatch. I'll be building 

 

26770C0C-E649-403A-8E51-3F012129E412 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

I'm planning to build VZ547 B of 74 squadron based at Horsham St Faith in the early 50's and finished in HSS. The Xtradecal sheet that I'll be using gives 547 in two options. One while squadron code letters were still in use and the other after the re introduction of squadron bars. This second option is my plan.

 

E61BFBC2-8EC7-4233-BAD6-22D45B5CD4C2 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

I've found one pic of 547 before the squadron bars re appeared and stripped right back in a hanger and some good shots of other 74 squadron Meteors in flight from around the same time to serve as inspiration. These pics are all from the 74 Squadron website.

 

FC7CE5CF-FDF0-4183-BE95-2DBE4F170FB9 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

03F97D6B-F603-4B9D-B0FA-245E71148447 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

3043B8F3-9328-4CD6-A9F9-AEC3D08F5C4C by James Halls, on Flickr

 

99675A29-A4E9-4F52-9535-EE5ED5B21DD4 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

Thanks for looking

 

James

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

You have a treat in store.  This is an excellent kit! 

 

[franky boy]

Thanks Enzo. 

 

Its a good one isnt it. I built the FR9 for a GB about 3 years ago and remember the only bad bit being the bad fit of the nose sections. Will keep a closer eye on this this time around. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello and welcome to the build with a very nice choice.

[JOCKNEY]

Great to have both you and this kit with us in the GB, best of luck.

 

Cheers Pat 

[franky boy]

Thanks Pat

 

Looking forward to it. 

 

James

[Ray_W]

Hi James, 

I expect this one must will be on the bench soon. 

Ray

[franky boy]

2 hours ago, Ray_W said:

Hi James, 

I expect this one must will be on the bench soon. 

Ray

Hi Ray

 

Yes it moved onto the bench last night. IP decal applied and cockpit parts painted.
 

Will post up some pics soon. 

 

James 

[franky boy]

Hi everyone 

 

I made a small start on my build a couple of days so here are the first progress pics. 

 

 First of all a coat of Tamiya NATO black for everything. I hadnt realised quite what a state my older cutting mat is in until I looked at this photo. 

 

78672F41-AEC6-46A1-B8DA-C098E6B47E4B by James Halls, on Flickr

 

I decided to use a CMK resin seat for this build. The kit is pretty nice but I just fancied a bit of resin. This was also painted up and now awaits a wash with the other cockpit parts. 

 

69343D24-57B4-4ABD-B0BF-52F5346C3357 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

The kit decals were applied to the top of the seat. 

 

40F443D5-753D-4CD0-AEB7-E934FC13A3D8 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

I decided to use the kit decal for the IP rather than buy a PE set. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with decals but fortunately this one behaved impeccably settling down very quickly with some micro set and sol solutions. I just need to paint over the yellow disc. 

 

BBC676F3-7476-483A-9A1E-39793D24EC02 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

I’ve also started to put together the main wheel bays which is a pretty quick job. 

 

Next up up is a wash and dry brush for the cockpit parts. 

 

Thanks for dropping by. 

 

James

 

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Nice looking bang seat and instrument panel. 

[81-er]

That's looking good, James. I really like the paintwork on the seat

 

James

[planecrazee]

Looks like you're off to a great start and your ejection seat has come up a treat 

 

I've also just been painting over the yellow dial on the instrument panel and it instantly looks better - the yellow just didn't look right at all 

 

Keep up the good work James

 

Kris

[franky boy]

11 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Nice looking bang seat and instrument panel. 

Thanks Dennis. Hopefully a wash and a dry brush will bring it on a bit more too. 

 

9 hours ago, 81-er said:

That's looking good, James. I really like the paintwork on the seat

 

James

Thanks James. I keep thinking it’s lucky the RAF used blue seatbelts at this time as it brightens up those black bang seats and cockpits. 

 

3 hours ago, planecrazee said:

Looks like you're off to a great start and your ejection seat has come up a treat 

 

I've also just been painting over the yellow dial on the instrument panel and it instantly looks better - the yellow just didn't look right at all 

 

Keep up the good work James

 

Kris

Thanks Kris. Yep, my ones gone now too and it looks a lot better. 

[81-er]

1 hour ago, franky boy said:

Thanks James. I keep thinking it’s lucky the RAF used blue seatbelts at this time as it brightens up those black bang seats and cockpits. 

Absolutely! I'll be copying my work from my Vampire build, and painting the cockpits a very dark grey rather than black, with the bang seats and details in black. There won't be a huge difference, but hopefully enough to make the details pop a little

 

James

[franky boy]

Hi all

 

Update #2

 

After the cockpit parts had had their initial coats of black and any other colours added (not many) it was all given a black brown wash followed by a flat coat and a dry brush. The resin seat came out quite well and the blue straps add a bit colour to the otherwise 'black hole'.

 

94FA9FF4-BFD0-4DE2-A5EA-6C1A5D4D19A6 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

2A41C64A-0426-4E53-8650-2B785E24B39C by James Halls, on Flickr

 

A18368A4-922F-430B-98EF-F4D2F2B293E6 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

The fuselage halves went together very well. While I was cleaning up the seams I also gave the whole of the fuselage a polish to get rid of the texturing in the plastic ready for the HSS finish.

 

EBC6E627-52C1-46F8-B7BC-FD644480733C by James Halls, on Flickr

 

The seams cleaned up very well with just a bit of PPP needed for the insert at the wing root.

 

31185C15-CEC6-46CE-A149-0BB583E357A6 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

I also filled in this panel with some plastic card and sanded smooth.

 

12736A33-342F-4419-A331-B663BFB1712F by James Halls, on Flickr

 

The gaps around the gun bay doors also need to be taken care of.

 

50195F92-BE02-44F5-9570-EFA97661FACE by James Halls, on Flickr

 

I've also got the undercarriage bays fitted and the wings together and filled a couple of sink marks top and bottom with sprue goo.

 

266F6B95-25C3-49AC-B6F7-56E33864DC5B by James Halls, on Flickr

 

BCF8BA62-08CD-4196-995F-10304C3053D1 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

That's all for now. Work on the wings continues.

 

Thanks for looking

 

James

[planecrazee]

Excellent progress there James and love what you've done with your ejection seat 

 

I hope you don't mind me following your build with vested interest as you're pointing out a lot of useful tips and tricks that I should be able to apply to my build.

 

Cheers

 

Kris

[franky boy]

1 minute ago, planecrazee said:

Excellent progress there James and love what you've done with your ejection seat 

 

I hope you don't mind me following your build with vested interest as you're pointing out a lot of useful tips and tricks that I should be able to apply to my build.

 

Cheers

 

Kris

Thanks Kris

 

No not at all. So far there’s not much to be ware of. 

 

Cheers

 

james

[Back in the Saddle]

Excellent job so far James, I shall watch for any tips along the way.

 

Some great reference photos too👍.

[franky boy]

On 10/31/2022 at 2:08 PM, Back in the Saddle said:

Excellent job so far James, I shall watch for any tips along the way.

 

Some great reference photos too👍.

Thanks Matt

 

Its been a nice straight forward build so far. 

 

James

[franky boy]

Hi everyone

 

Hope everyone's keeping well? A bit of progress to r from the past week.

 

I sanded down the plastic card that I used to fill in the panel on the underside of the forward fuselage and also the raised panel behind it. I've re scribed the raised one buth still need to do the plastic card one.

 

CADB4911-6C83-4B7A-9CB6-88BBF761C6A2 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

Moving forward the nose cone is not a great fit. It's not as bad as the FR-9 I seem to remember but it's a tight fit over the structure for the nose landing gear. I don't think I helped myself here either. I think I got the bulkhead that makes up the front of the cockpit tub and the rear of the nose landing gear bay to far forward when I glued it in. Anyhow a bit of scraping and sanding sorted this.

 

596D7CFA-3D5C-47E3-9296-D45C17145244 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

After more fiddling and scaping a got the gap down to this which should be fine with a bit CA/talk filler.

 

74573C83-0106-4472-B08F-80F27617DF5E by James Halls, on Flickr

 

D993A877-C28B-4549-9DD5-6628D766E601 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

I've spent a fair amount of time on the wings and intakes this week to. I'm confident that this a/c had the small bore intakes, at least in the time period that I'm modelling it so these were made up and the interiors were sprayed with Tamiya LP-11 silver along with the inside of the engine bays. All of the seams were taken care of and the plastic given a polish ready for the HSS finish. I also sanded back and re scribed a couple of round panels that Airfix have moulded raised, and also chopped out the wingtip lights and replaced them with clear sprue sanded to shape.

 

AF617B56-261F-445F-830C-FCC105079EB7 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

Last couple of job's are to fair in the intakes to the wings and add the aleron's before moving onto the engines.

 

9EFCC841-E02E-4014-A636-D7BD109502E9 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

That's all for now.

 

Thanks for looking

 

James

 

 

 

 

[Wings unlevel]

Looks you’ve got this well in hand James. I like the idea of polishing the plastic in preparation for the silver finish. Be interested to see what you do with primer too.

[franky boy]

Thanks @Wings unlevel 

 

The plastic IMHO definitely needs a polish of some sort on this kit. It has an orange peel texture out of the box.
 

As far as primer goes I’ll probably check the seams with some mr surfaced and then give the whole thing a nice coat of Tamiya X-1 gloss black ready for the silver. 
 

Thanks

 

James 

[81-er]

Nice progress there, James. I know exactly what you mean about the texture, it seems to be a feature of the latest Airfix kits. I fell slightly foul of it with my Sabre build, that look a few rounds of sanding between coats with a 2500grit sanding sponge to get something close to acceptable. The wing roots are still a bit rough, I just couldn't get in far enough to sand them down without taking all of the paint off the surrounding areas. Lesson learnt there for metallic finishes!

 

James

[franky boy]

7 hours ago, 81-er said:

Nice progress there, James. I know exactly what you mean about the texture, it seems to be a feature of the latest Airfix kits. I fell slightly foul of it with my Sabre build, that look a few rounds of sanding between coats with a 2500grit sanding sponge to get something close to acceptable. The wing roots are still a bit rough, I just couldn't get in far enough to sand them down without taking all of the paint off the surrounding areas. Lesson learnt there for metallic finishes!

 

James

Thanks James. Yes the Sabre is definitely a culprit for that and also the Spitfire xiv in my experience. Airfix not polishing their moulds as they might. Shame as it’s not a show stopper but just not what you may expect these days. 

[franky boy]

Morning everyone

 

Apologies as I haven't updated this thread for a good couple of weeks. Must try harder!

 

Anyway, progress has been made. Lots of gluing sanding and priming. Actually not that much sanding as this kit goes together pretty well.

 

The engines were made up and installed. As you can see I really didn't spend much time on these as they'll quite literally never be seen again. 

 

EBEA7634-7CC2-48E8-9CAA-11E548DDF395 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

I also pinched the idea from @Ray_W to glue some plastic card tabs onto the inside of the engine covers to help with alignment.

 

E399CEF0-1A1D-42B8-98E8-00A9C685F0F4 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

Then on with the wings. I added a spacer from sprue toward the back of the join but then had to do some imaginitive clamping as the wings just sat a tiny bit low to towards the leading edge.

 

24E2324E-DF16-478D-81E1-83CA30907641 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

You can see there are still some small gaps to fill but nothing a bit of super glue and talc wont fix. I also added a few lines of rivets just here and there on the wings to try to add interest to the final silver finish. You can see them on the rear of the nacelles below.

 

BCA7AA59-CF44-44E4-B36E-197A5FCB2CA6 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

The smaller of the cartridge ejection shoots are also a sloppy fit on each side so these have been tidied with a bit of PPP.

 

6D0D6323-79A4-4B5C-A2D1-4B6BD25900C7 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

And the ventral tank polished and the raised round panels sanded back and re scribed. 

 

1535B197-CDBF-4A2A-B1C7-094096B74F40 by James Halls, on Flickr

 

And that's where it's at. It's actually had a some Mr Surfacer along the seams last night just to double check and as usual there are one or two bits to sort out but nothing to major so hopefully I'll be onto primer soon.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

James