The true old times are dead (1/72 92 Squadron Lightning F.2)

[Pete F]

Following your excellent build and then mentions of books reminded me of one of my favourites back in the 1970s. Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark. Even though it is a children's book I was inspired to read it again and surprised that I still enjoyed it. It encapsulates being a school kid in England at that time and the sadness surrounding the Lightnings being phased out. If you haven't read it before It might be fun for you or your family. I know you can get it on Kindle but not sure how available a real copy would be in your part of the world. Keep up the good work. 

[Procopius]

3 minutes ago, Dave Wilko said:

One would imagine so,especially if the jet was configured in four gun and no missiles mode,it literally must have been quite "a blast"

and most spectacular if the rounds were on target.

 

Yes. And miles ahead of the only other radar-equipped and cannon-armed fighter in service at the time, the Javelin, with its guns in the wings. I've just been reading Peter Caygill's book on it From the Cockpit, and my word, he's pretty generous to an aircraft that was in service into the late 1960s, a time when the US had the F-4, and which could only hope to barely intercept the probable enemy attacker of the UK with an embarrassingly lengthy stern chase, provided Johnny Russian didn't do anything so dastardly as make a sharp turn, in which case the Javelin was liable to fall out of the sky. I did quite enjoy this very mild but telling reproach of it from a former NCO ferry pilot: "I do feel that a fighter that is not to be looped is missing something. Even the Meteor NF could and they didn’t look as though they should."

[Procopius]

12 minutes ago, Pete F said:

Following your excellent build and then mentions of books reminded me of one of my favourites back in the 1970s. Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark. Even though it is a children's book I was inspired to read it again and surprised that I still enjoyed it. It encapsulates being a school kid in England at that time and the sadness surrounding the Lightnings being phased out. If you haven't read it before It might be fun for you or your family. I know you can get it on Kindle but not sure how available a real copy would be in your part of the world. Keep up the good work. 

 

Pete! Thank you! I've had my eye on it for a while, though I feel like the emotional complexity of it might be a bit much for my Winnie at this stage of his life. It's a very tricky needle to thread, though, the mind and tastes of a seven year old boy, but I fear he'd need the Lightnings to shoot something down to really be engaged.

[Steve Coombs]

52 minutes ago, Pete F said:

Following your excellent build and then mentions of books reminded me of one of my favourites back in the 1970s. Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark. Even though it is a children's book I was inspired to read it again and surprised that I still enjoyed it. It encapsulates being a school kid in England at that time and the sadness surrounding the Lightnings being phased out. If you haven't read it before It might be fun for you or your family. I know you can get it on Kindle but not sure how available a real copy would be in your part of the world. Keep up the good work. 

I remember that being a Jackanory story of the week. A bit of research shows that was in 1976 and read by Jeremy Kemp. Eek!

[JosephLalor]

6 minutes ago, Steve Coombs said:

I remember that being a Jackanory story of the week. A bit of research shows that was in 1976 and read by Jeremy Kemp. Eek!

That was the only week I ever tuned into a Jackanory story in full.

[Procopius]

 

So tonight I fitted the etched side panels to the coaming and glued it to the model, with the second episode of Blake's 7 blaring in the background. I appreciate that it's a cult hit, but, uh, I can see why it lacked the longevity of Dr Who.  

 

Having gotten the side panels on after much swearing, I decided to go for broke and do the control column. Thanks to the Daco book, I had a good photo of an F.2 one, which has a black grip with a silver button over a Dark Admiralty Grey shaft. No snickering in the back. Take that man's name.

 

I carefully taped the joystick to a piece of tape to paint it and it promptly flew off at the first brushstroke. All evening I'd been good, and done everything over a box perched on my knees -- not, for obvious reasons in my lap -- but I had figured that with the tape I wouldn't need it. Two things now happened in very quick succession:

 

1. I flew out of my chair and on to all fours to look for it, and

2. I remembered that my scrotum currently looked like the Brain from Planet Arous was playing Oedipus Rex at the end of the titular play.* 

 

I spent a while in that position, contemplating life, the universe, and trying to screw up the courage to see if a very private part of my body had just burst like an overripe tomato. A quick, fearful glance revealed that it had not. After some more time spent contemplating the infinite, I commenced a full sweep of the floor, which as you will recall, was recently scoured clean in search of the upper gun panel. Well, I didn't find the joystick. But guess what I did find.

 

 

Presumably there's only room for one small part in the hellish pocket dimension it had been banished to, and it re-emerged. 

 

I sighed disgustedly, stood up, and of course, there on a patch of floor I'd gone over approximately five hundred times, was the joystick.

 

Amazingly, it fitted trouble-free.

 

 

I'll need to do some touch up with DAG around the etch ends. 

 

I also added the gunsight, but forgot to get a photo, and then decided not to jinx things by pressing on regardless. 

 

The Aqua gloss blobbed up slightly on the front windscreen, so I may strip it in IPA and regloss, I haven't decided yet. 

 

 

*I'm willing to bet money these two cultural icons have never been combined in such a manner before, and never will be again.

[Stew Dapple]

22 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I appreciate that it's a cult hit, but, uh, I can see why it lacked the longevity of Dr Who

 

But... Servalan 

 

25 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I'm willing to bet money these two cultural icons have never been combined in such a manner before, and never will be again

 

I will not take that bet Edward 

 

The Lightning's looking rather nice. Hope the bawbag returns to a more natural state soonest  

 

Cheers, 

 

Stew

[Learstang]

PC, that small piece of plastic you found is shockingly like a small piece of plastic I recently found on my nice laminate wood floor (no carpet monster here!). After seeing your picture, I had to check and see if mine was still in my possession. Thankfully it is where I put it last. If it had gone missing again, I would have had to call a quantum physicist to try and explain it. I'm still not convinced that the two pieces aren't entangled on a quantum level, though. And I've also no idea which kit this piece is from either.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

 

P.S. That brain you mentioned, is it by chance the giant flying brain that John Agar attacked with an axe? A truly great moment in cinema.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Learstang
Additional comment added.

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, Learstang said:

PC, that small piece of plastic you found is shockingly like a small piece of plastic I recently found on my nice laminate wood floor (no carpet monster here!). After seeing your picture, I had to check and see if mine was still in my possession. Thankfully it is where I put it last. If it had gone missing again, I would have had to call a quantum physicist to try and explain it. I'm still not convinced that the two pieces aren't entangled on a quantum level, though. And I've also no idea which kit this piece is from either.

 

 

Well, if you can swing it, feel free to fall off your workbench and visit me after passing through one of reality's thinner walls. 

 

20 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

Hope the bawbag returns to a more natural state soonest  

 

I'm not sure if it's crueller to leave you in suspense or to provide regular and detailed updates, but I have a pretty good idea which one you'd prefer.

[Learstang]

I may just try that, PC! If I'm lucky, I'll get stuck in an alternate universe where things go well for me, for a change.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[Procopius]

 

Just imagine going from the Javelin to this. Just imagine. 

[Fritag]

Nostalgia clip 👏 👏 👏 Plus a beautifully flown slow roll starting at 0:35.

[Mr T]

A very nice clip. I could just imagine the noise. 1970  was the year we went to Farnborough on a coach trip when I was 16. It was on the Saturday and rained so hard that virtually all the flying was cancelled. It stopped just before we had to get on the coach and Concorde put in an appearance and the RAF put on a tactical display with their newly acquired Harriers. First time I saw the the 'toned down' Blue and Red roundel, it was on the the second Harrier T.2 (XW175) in the static display. 

The Lightning cockpit is looking impressive, I would have long since given up and built the kit with the canopy closed. 

I hope your recovery continues. I assume Mrs P has scant sympathy for your plight, it usually seems to be the way. 

[perdu]

2 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

But... Servalan 

Exactly...

 

 

Messing within dimensions, must be risky but, I am glad your parts deficits have been rectified, did anything else you have been short of during recent builds turn up too?

 

Maybe there is a time every day when lost boys escape from Neverland and drop any of our missing items on the floor on their way out into infinity.

 

 

Any road up, 

 

[Hook]

7 hours ago, Procopius said:

the Brain from Planet Arous

A Masterpiece.

 

The best part, also in the trailer around the 1 minute mark, is when the US General in the background is visibly shaking the flag himself.

 

An Epic Epic. Of Epicness. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

 

 

[Procopius]

6 hours ago, perdu said:

Exactly...

 

 

Messing within dimensions, must be risky but, I am glad your parts deficits have been rectified, did anything else you have been short of during recent builds turn up too?

 

Maybe there is a time every day when lost boys escape from Neverland and drop any of our missing items on the floor on their way out into infinity.

 

 

Any road up, 

 

 

The thing is, Mrs P got roughly the same haircut the week after we were married:

 

 

It was a rough first year for us, so the look mainly reminds me how nice it is to not be living with my in-laws and paying for someone else to go to grad school in another state.

 

2 hours ago, Hook said:

The best part, also in the trailer around the 1 minute mark, is when the US General in the background is visibly shaking the flag himself.

 

 

We're a very egalitarian society, Andre. In Europe, an NCO would have to do it so the officers could flail about unencumbered. But that's not our way.

 

7 hours ago, Mr T said:

The Lightning cockpit is looking impressive, I would have long since given up and built the kit with the canopy closed. 

 

 

Oh, I do plan on building it closed, but one still has to do the work, if only to impress(?) people on the internet one will hopefully see again in a few years.

[perdu]

Great haircut, doesn't it suit them.

 

 

Mmm yes

[Procopius]

2 minutes ago, perdu said:

Great haircut, doesn't it suit them.

 

 

Mmm yes

 

It's not my favourite, but it's also not my hair. It's in addition, I feel compelled to inform you, not a very flattering photo of my wife, who was and is pretty cute, I assure you. But as the only thing weirder than men who tell you how unattractive their spouse is are fellas who insistently let you know how hot they are, we'll leave it at that. 

 

This one from 2014 isn't particularly flattering either, but it's still one of my favourites:

 

 

I thought she was taking the groceries I handed her as I unloaded them from the car into the house, but she was apparently feeling faint and just...left them on the porch and ate a box of doughnuts and drank chocolate milk out of the carton, to get her strength up. 

 

[Procopius]

10 hours ago, Mr T said:

I hope your recovery continues. I assume Mrs P has scant sympathy for your plight, it usually seems to be the way. 

 

She's actually been very nice about it!

[jackroadkill]

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

ate a box of doughnuts and drank chocolate milk out of the carton, to get her strength up. 

 

Now that's a woman after my own heart!

 

[Mr T]

23 minutes ago, Procopius said:

 

She's actually been very nice about it!

Ah, it is probably then because my wife is a nurse and at the time most of the married women I knew were also nurses. Nurses use all their sympathy with their patients, any left goes to any children and (male) spouses take the remainder. I know this as a) I am married to a still practicing nurse and b) I used be a nurse and then taught them. Even knowing what I know, it amazes me when I have been in hospital, how the nurses don't kill some of the ungracious and entitled people them come across. 

[Pete in Lincs]

Today I was out in a 16 tonner full of beer etc. Delivering around the Eastern side of Lincolnshire. Near to the former RAF Binbrook.

We had a delivery to the Plough in Binbrook village. In the village is a small farmyard. In the farmyard is a Lightning.

I only saw it this time as I was so high up. It's filthy but, Form an orderly queue if you'd want one in your yard.

[Pantherhawk27263]

While I was building my Lightning recently I think I only had one piece go flying off into the the roving black hole that moves about my residence, and that was a nose gear door. I was able to make a semi respectable replacement using a part from the spares box. 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Pantherhawk27263
added word into

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, Pantherhawk27263 said:

While I was building my Lightning recently I think I only had one piece go flying off the the roving black hole that moves about my residence, and that was a nose gear door. I was able to make a semi respectable replacement using a part from the spares box. 

 

See, and that's the problem. You upset the delicate cosmic balance -- quantum uncertainty mandates that a portion of all Sword Lightning parts must, at any time, be unlocateable. And I'm suffering the consequences!

[Learstang]

16 minutes ago, Procopius said:

 

See, and that's the problem. You upset the delicate cosmic balance -- quantum uncertainty mandates that a portion of all Sword Lightning parts must, at any time, be unlocateable. And I'm suffering the consequences!

 

It's worse than you imagine, PC. I determined what kit that mystery piece of mine* came from. It came from a Lightning kit, but it was the Airfix kit! (Cue eerie music.)

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

 

*It was the part for the upper starboard cannon port.