1:72 Airfix/MPM Gloster Meteor F.8

[Navy Bird]

A wee bit of progress...but any progress is good for an old man. The fuselage is buttoned up, as are the wings. Very little seam work required, which I found a welcome change from most short run kits I build. A few seams required a smidge of filler, but the rest just got some Mr. Surfacer 1000.

 

 

I drilled out the holes for the cannons, and also the cold air inlet in the front of the nose. Unfortunately, the air inlet hole as moulded by MPM seams to be a bit high - I think it should be centered in the circular panel lines. Maybe the panel lines are too low? Whatever, it is what it is.

 

 

Lastly, in a bit of over-zealous "Trailing edge Thickness Reduction" (or TTR, an often-used acronym found on a dog-eared page in a glossary of short run kit curse words) I managed to magically remove a bit of the trim tab on the port wing. A bit of card stock, a whiff of liquid glue (Micro Mark "Same Stuff" - whose stuff and why it's the same is a mystery to all and sundry) and a reasonable facsimile will disappear under the paint and none will be wiser.

 

 

I think I will do some re-scribing to reinstate the panel lines I managed to obliterate prior to mating the fuselage and wings. Easier to get at, methinks. I did some test-fitting, and it looks like the wing roots will return me to the normal world of short run acrobatics. Ugh.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Hook]

11 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

but any progress is good for an old man.

To quote the wisdom of Keith Richards, "It's good to be here. It's good to be anywhere!". 

 

Coming along nicely! 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[giemme]

13 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

A wee bit of progress...but any progress is good for an old man

You're at page 2, and you have already buttoned up the two fuselage halves and the wings; I don't recall doing that before page 10 on any of my builds, and on top of that this is a short run kit!

 

  

 

Ciao

[Navy Bird]

3 hours ago, Hook said:

To quote the wisdom of Keith Richards, "It's good to be here. It's good to be anywhere!".

 

Thanks Andre. Musicians have a way of cutting to the chase, don't they? To quote Stan Ridgway "Every day a good day when you above ground."

 

50 minutes ago, giemme said:

You're at page 2, and you have already buttoned up the two fuselage halves and the wings; I don't recall doing that before page 10 on any of my builds, and on top of that this is a short run kit!

 

Ha. I could have the whole kit built in one page if I'd stop posting all these in-progress pictures and you guys would stop commenting!   

 

Just kidding, keep the comments coming folks. They are mojo preservation pills.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Procopius]

I seem to recall learning the "thin the bejesus out of the wing" trick from one of your prior builds. I've always done it, and it really helps the look, but made the SH Meatbox enough of a chore that I look forward to the Airfix. 

 

It is nice to see even the Great One can sand off a trim tab or two in his zeal.

[giemme]

46 minutes ago, Procopius said:

It is nice to see even the Great One can sand off a trim tab or two in his zeal.

I bet he did it on purpose, just to enjoy some scratch building....  

 

Ciao 

[Navy Bird]

On 09/11/2022 at 11:44, Procopius said:

It is nice to see even the Great One can sand off a trim tab or two in his zeal.

 

Back in high school, I used to wear these obnoxious purple paisley shirts (hey, it was the 60s). The kids called me "The Grape One."    

 

On 09/11/2022 at 12:31, giemme said:

I bet he did it on purpose, just to enjoy some scratch building....  

 

I do everything on purpose. The only thing that's an accident is if the model turns out OK!    

 

*****

 

So, all the big bits are together. By the way, Airfix/MPM says 3 grammes of weight up front - by my reckoning it needed 5. Better safe than sorry I suppose. The wing roots turned out to be not as bad as I thought they might be. Not much filler required at all.

 

 

Somewhere I lost the "coaming." I think I did that on purpose, too. Guess I need to make another one!

 

 

I still need to do a smidgen of filler in a couple of spots on the tail, mostly to blend in the bullet fairing since half of it is on the vertical fin and the other half on the tailplanes. The latter didn't fit into the fin at all to begin with, so a bit of sanding was involved. Then, it wouldn't set right being tilted relative to the fin. Eventually, I think I got it close enough.

 

I also decided to open up the canopy. Thankfully Airfix provide two canopies, one for each style of the sliding portion. I cut the windscreen off the canopy that I wasn't using, leaving enough extra plastic after the cut to sand it down to have the amount of framework that I wanted. Likewise, I cut the desired portion of the sliding part from the second canopy. Now I'm left with two parts of the canopy with the appropriate amount of material - kind of like what you could get if you had a saw blade of zero thickness. Those bits got a Future bath, and are posed here with the bits that I'm not using (top).

 

 

We're getting precariously close to starting up the compressor again.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[81-er]

It's looking good, Bill, and I like your plan with the canopies. Very smart

 

James

[stever219]

I’ve just caught up with this thread and I think it’s inspired me not to sell on my Airfix Club edition of this kit.

 

I hope I’m not going to cause any grief here for @Navy Bird but two things have occurred to me.  Firstly WKxxx-serialled Meteors should have had the later ailerons with two tabs (balance and servo?) and (nearly) all fighter Meteors had two apertures in the nose; a central cold-air inlet for the cockpit and above and behind it, just aft of the first skin joint, is the gun camera window.

 

 

[Navy Bird]

26 minutes ago, stever219 said:

I’ve just caught up with this thread and I think it’s inspired me not to sell on my Airfix Club edition of this kit.

 

I hope I’m not going to cause any grief here for @Navy Bird but two things have occurred to me.  Firstly WKxxx-serialled Meteors should have had the later ailerons with two tabs (balance and servo?) and (nearly) all fighter Meteors had two apertures in the nose; a central cold-air inlet for the cockpit and above and behind it, just aft of the first skin joint, is the gun camera window.

 

 

 

Like this? I assume there is a window over the gun camera?

 

 

About the trim tabs - I don't have a lot of drawings but those of the NF.14 show split trim tabs on the ailerons. The extra trim tab is inboard of the tab that MPM moulded into this kit. Are these the same as what you're describing? Do you have any photos?

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Julien]

I’m not sure if there was a window over the camera or that’s the lense. When guns were removed latter on in the service life of some aircraft the hole was filled by a wooden bung.

 

the ovalish panel above is the access panel for the gun camera. This was missing on our meteor as I had to fabricate a new one. Not easy as it curves in three axis!

[Hook]

10 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Somewhere I lost the "coaming." I think I did that on purpose, too. Guess I need to make another one!

I *think* (always a dangerous moment) that the plastic coaming in my MPM Hi-Tech Meteor is surplus, being replaced by that fancy resin. Would that help?

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[giemme]

Neat job on the clear parts, Bill!

 

Great to see this is approaching the painting stage so fast!

 

Ciao 

[Navy Bird]

19 hours ago, Julien said:

...the ovalish panel above is the access panel for the gun camera. This was missing on our meteor as I had to fabricate a new one. Not easy as it curves in three axis!

 

Thanks Julien. When you were forming that cover, did you use an English Wheel?

 

https://www.aviationpros.com/home/article/10387129/the-english-wheel-some-insight-into-using-this-sheet-metal-forming-tool

 

13 hours ago, Hook said:

I *think* (always a dangerous moment) that the plastic coaming in my MPM Hi-Tech Meteor is surplus, being replaced by that fancy resin. Would that help?

 

Thanks Andre. I found the coaming - somehow it popped off and landed behind some paint bottles on the bench. Probably happened when I was putting the fuselage halves together. All is good now. Well, as good as the MPM kit can be.   

 

10 hours ago, giemme said:

Great to see this is approaching the painting stage so fast!

 

Getting there. I found some photos of the split trim tabs right here in the Britmodeller Aircraft Walkaround section. I really need to look there first! Anyway, I'm attempting to modify the kit now. Wish me luck!

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Julien]

21 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

 

Thanks Julien. When you were forming that cover, did you use an English Wheel?

 

https://www.aviationpros.com/home/article/10387129/the-english-wheel-some-insight-into-using-this-sheet-metal-forming-tool

 

No, we never had one back then it was done totally old skool with hand tools and templates

[stever219]

20 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

About the trim tabs - I don't have a lot of drawings but those of the NF.14 show split trim tabs on the ailerons. The extra trim tab is inboard of the tab that MPM moulded into this kit. Are these the same as what you're describing? Do you have any photos?

 

Cheers,

Bill

I was just about to refer you to the Walkaround section when I saw your latest post (I‘ve been out all day).  I hope those images will enable you to modify your tabs (they’re better than anything of mine that I can access just now).

[Navy Bird]

Quick shot showing the addition of the extra tabs on the ailerons:

 

 

There will be some putty work to properly blend these bits of styrene into the wing, and then some scribing. Should be OK. Note the coaming (such as it is) is back in place. It will look better once the Eduard photoetch gunsight is added. That will come just prior to adding the windscreen to the fuselage.

 

As far as the gun camera aperture goes, I'm not keen on drilling another hole up front and risk popping the seam. Based on photos I've seen of this area, and that I'm working in 1:72 scale, I'm opting for a homemade decal to replicate this. Call me lazy, but I think that will work best.

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

EDIT: Found a good photo:

 

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/10630726

 

The double tabs span the entire length of the aileron and do not protrude past the trailing edge of the wing, so I didn't need to add any styrene. This simply becomes a sanding and re-scribing job. Oof.   

[Navy Bird]

WK799 has a nice shiny new coat of Imperial Japanese Navy grey. Because, well, why not?

 

 

 

 

No, I'm not doing a what if scheme. This is the glossy base coat for Alclad White Aluminium which I'll use as a faux-High Speed Silver. I know a lot of folks use glossy black as a base for Alclad, but that's when you're going for a natural metal look - which this is not.

 

Anyway, I need to wait until the glossy paint no longer is out-gassing any fumes. That's when it is properly dry. @giemme will be pleased to see that the landing gear struts have yet to be added.  

 

Cheers,

Bill

[giemme]

12 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

@giemme will be pleased to see that the landing gear struts have yet to be added.  

I truly am. Relieved, actually.

 

   

 

Neat gloss coat, BTW - again, this is NBS compliant  (Navy Bird Smooth, for the non initiated - are there any left?    )

 

Ciao

[Navy Bird]

2 hours ago, giemme said:

I truly am. Relieved, actually.

 

I left them off as the yokes don't seem all that strong by themselves and really require the tyre and mudguard to be attached in order to provide the strength. I test fit the tyres in the yokes and was surprised to see that they fit well. And I'm happy that MPM designed and moulded the mudguards as separate parts.

 

The new 1:72 Airfix kit seems to have taken an interesting approach to strengthening the landing gear, as it looks like the wheel hub (not the tyre) is moulded as one piece with the strut, yoke, and mudguard - but this means that the strut and mudguard are made up from two parts with seams that will need cleaning up. Probably not a big deal, but I think the MPM approach, when fully assembled, will be strong enough and perhaps look nicer as the mudguard is one-piece and no one will see my lame attempt at seam hiding. That said, the new Airfix has it all over MPM because its landing gear is much more nicely detailed.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[81-er]

That's a beautifully smooth coat of paint, Bill

 

James

[Navy Bird]

Thanks mates. The glossy grey is fully cured as I no longer smell any paint. My plan is to paint the tail yellow now and leave the "High Speed Silver" (Alclad White Aluminium) to last. The last thing I want is any masking tape lifting the metallic. Once the White Aluminum is on I'll do a clear lacquer overcoat to protect it from my grimy fingers (just overhauled the carburettor on my snow thrower today).

 

Then we'll have to finger out how the red check decals work...    

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. To appease my audience on both sides of the pond, up above I spelled aluminium the correct way once, and the wrong way once.    

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

5 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Thanks mates. The glossy grey is fully cured as I no longer smell any paint. My plan is to paint the tail yellow now and leave the "High Speed Silver" (Alclad White Aluminium) to last. The last thing I want is any masking tape lifting the metallic. Once the White Aluminum is on I'll do a clear lacquer overcoat to protect it from my grimy fingers (just overhauled the carburettor on my snow thrower today).

 

Then we'll have to finger out how the red check decals work...    

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. To appease my audience on both sides of the pond, up above I spelled aluminium the correct way once, and the wrong way once.    

You mean Aluminium isn't correct ? 

[81-er]

There's some hope for you yet, Bill. Maybe you can assist some of your fellow traitors countrymen in learning the errors of their ways as well? While they're getting to grips with that, maybe they can also learn that it should be "ise" and not “ize”, there’s a U in colour, and that “through” contains more than four letters?

 

James

[Retired Bob]

5 minutes ago, 81-er said:

There's some hope for you yet, Bill. Maybe you can assist some of your fellow traitors countrymen in learning the errors of their ways as well? While they're getting to grips with that, maybe they can also learn that it should be "ise" and not “ize”, there’s a U in colour, and that “through” contains more than four letters?

Don't forget tyres and tires, then there is grey and gray.  I'm sure there are some more!