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Gloster Meteor F.8 - Brazilian Air Force (High Speed Silver and a splash of colours)


Celestialsphere

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Hello Fellow Meteorites !

 

Let's start on another 1/48 Airfix F.8 Meteor. My contribution to the Group Build will be a Brazilian aircraft using the FCM 48-053 sheet. To contrast with James' (@81-er) camouflaged version, I will be doing this colourful 1966 scheme. I chose this because it has the 'Força Aérea Brasileira' title on the fuselage which appeals to me.  

 

20221008-184824.jpg

 

 

Here's a photo of the real thing. I really like jet aircraft parked on grass - try that with an F-22 Raptor....

 

10457778-851578628187891-835125534211567

 

 

 

Proof I haven't started. :)

 

20221008-184728.jpg

 

I will also be using the Red Roo ADF Aerial housing and a CMK resin ejection seat which is winging its way from Poland right now.

 

20221008-184749.jpg

 

One of the sprues is warped but only has small parts on it so it shouldn't be a problem, and I won't be installing the cannon.

 

20221008-184922.jpg

 

This is my first 1/48 jet aircraft so it should be fun.

 

Cheers

 

Andrew

 

 

 

Edited by Celestialsphere
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  • Celestialsphere changed the title to Gloster Meteor F.8 - Brazilian Air Force (High Speed Silver and a splash of colours)

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

 

I see we have ‘James from Essex’ x 2 !

I will have to use your member names. @81-er The FCM decal sheet it very nice. It got me thinking - decal manufacturers could do a side line in printing posters of their artwork to frame on the wall. Just the thing for a hobby room.

 

Cheers 

Andrew

 

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Some progress.

 

I started with the cockpit as is the tradition of our people. As @Ray_W put it, the fit around this area can go off the rails quickly, and of course it did for me. I don't know what went wrong but the whole assembly was too wide for some obscure reason. Test fitting the fuselage halves together resulted in a 3mm gap on the underside when the top was held together. Sigh. To solve this I removed the rear coaming and have done some judicious cutting  and trimming so the cannon bays now squeeze together at the rear.

 

20221022-205154.jpg

 

The fuselage halves now test fit together as intended. I will install the coaming later.

 

The fit of the cannon bay covers has been improved by gluing on strips of 0.25mm (10 thou) plastic to the top and front edges. This makes the covers a nice tight fit. A bit more fettling and I'll be happy with that.

 

20221022-203941.jpg

 

Cheers

Andrew

 

 

 

 

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A nice start, Andrew, and thanks for the tips on the cannon bays. With my Sabre finished, I'm hoping to get a start on my Meteors in the next day or two.

 

James

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18 hours ago, Celestialsphere said:

The fit of the cannon bay covers has been improved by gluing on strips of 0.25mm (10 thou) plastic to the top and front edges.

 

Excellent solution to the problem.

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Well I have been cutting, fitting, fiddling and faddling and making slow progress.

None of it is overly photo-worthy but I thought I would share one thing with the world.

My plan is to have the air brakes closed so I test fitted one of the underside air brakes. Being a good fit it then needs to be popped out again. Rather than use a blade to flick it out and risk damaging the part I drilled some small holes so it can be poked out from the other side. 

 

20221028-205847.jpg

 

Also the air brake part benefitted from being rubbed over a piece of fine wet and dry paper to take off the very slight 'roundness' of the exposed face.

 

See, is that fiddle faddling or what?

 

Cheers

Andrew 

 

 

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Here is a question. In the 1/48 kit, just aft of the external canopy jettison control on the port side, Airfix provides a clear part F10 for the hole highlighted below.

 

20221101-163331.jpg

 

The blurry snippet of a cutaway shows the hole to be a cockpit air outlet. Therefore I presume the clear part is not necessary?  I propose putting a small plastic backing piece behind it and paint the hole black inside. Thoughts?

 

Screenshot-20221101-172020-Gallery.jpg

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14 hours ago, Celestialsphere said:

The blurry snippet of a cutaway shows the hole to be a cockpit air outlet. Therefore I presume the clear part is not necessary?  I propose putting a small plastic backing piece behind it and paint the hole black inside. Thoughts?

Im guessing when Airfix Lidar’d the Meteor there was a plexiglass plate blocking the air duct. They presumed it was a lamp and made a clear piece for it. Personally I’d do exactly like you or use a piece of tubing to represent the ductwork itself ? 

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My brother has found as good a picture as anyone could wish for in this photo set of the F.8 at the Temora Aviation Museum. Thanks Brother.

 

Link:

Gloster Meteor F8 at the Temora Aviation Museum | Large Scale Planes 

(Photos By Ian Kaiser and Matt Gannon)

 

Image 98 is the one to see.

 

 

We wonder how much the 'Bung, Mk1, Rubber, Red' costed various governments around the world...?

 

@Corsairfoxfouruncle Now I see you provided a link to this photo set in the STGB 'Gloster Meteor reference' page. Thanks for that.

 

Cheers

Andrew

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I've just had one of those 'You can't see it but I know it's there' moments.

We've all had them when something is not visible but you do it anyway.

The Airfix 1/48 kit doesn't include rudder pedals... so I had to make some. The ends of a couple of the cannon barrels, which I am not installing, have been cut off and pressed into use.

 

20221102-184225.jpg

 

20221102-185537.jpg

 

That's better.

 

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9 hours ago, Celestialsphere said:

I've just had one of those 'You can't see it but I know it's there' moments.

We've all had them when something is not visible but you do it anyway.

The Airfix 1/48 kit doesn't include rudder pedals... so I had to make some. The ends of a couple of the cannon barrels, which I am not installing, have been cut off and pressed into use.

 

Excellent bit of repurposing work there @Celestialsphere - I love seeing what ideas other modellers come up with to solve a problem :thumbsup: 

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Time to fill some panel lines.

 

As per the posts by @Ray_W and @Retired Bob I am filling in the longitudinal engine cover lines and the circular intake panel lines.

 

After stretching of some sprue I then glued it into the panel line and pressed it down firmly. This will be left for a few days before sanding smooth. 

 

20221106-164823.jpg

 

Hopefully only a touch of filler might be required. 

 

Cheers 

Andrew 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been sanding down the very fine pebbly finish on the parts in preparation to start the main assembly. 

My technique is to coat the surface with a black permanent marker and then set to with 1200 grit wet and dry paper with plenty of water.

 

We see where more needs to be done where fine dots remain. A uniform grey surface means the rough texture has been fully removed leaving smooth plastic. The method also clearly shows sink marks that need to be attended to.

 

20221116-194652.jpg

 

Cheers 

Andrew 

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  • 2 weeks later...

That which is seen can't be unseen.

 

Of course I had to look too close. 

Inside both of the air intakes on a Meteor is the horizontal front spar fairing. On this fairing is a small circular 'Gearbox Cooling Air Intake'. Has anyone else seen this? See number 172 on the cutaway image below.

 

Screenshot-20221125-214818-Chrome.jpg

 

Now I had to add this to my model.

Other photos of real aircraft show the leading edge of the kit fairing is too sharp to enable a drill to be used without breaking out the side of the hole in an ugly manner.

Therefore I decided to increase the thickness of the fairing with some 0.5mm (20 thou) plastic sheet.

 

I marked the inside edge of the intake on the fairing.

20221124-180243.jpg

 

Cut outside this area leaving just a tiny amount holding the piece in place.

20221124-183515.jpg

 

Glue a strip of 0.5mm sheet in place.

20221124-184514.jpg

 

Now is the time to glue the wing halves together.

20221125-203608.jpg

 

As the plastic sheet is the same width as the inside of the intake I just have to round off the leading edge of the fairing and the intake cowling will slide into place.

 

That's the next task. Then I will drill my little Gearbox Cooling Intake. 

 

Too much effort...? ( It would have bugged me if I didn't do this)

 

Cheers 

Andrew

 

 

 

 

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Maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't it be easier to drill the hole before you put the intake cowling on?  Also, yes, I did know about this, but was still exploring whether all (loosely speaking) Meteors had it, and whether it was "inboard" or always on the left when you're looking into the intake.

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