EE Lightning F.1A 'Firebirds'

[Ray S]

Hello all.

 

I am a bit of a fan of the EE Lightning, and have been since 1970. I have built many of them since then, but it was only recently that I have been confident (ahem) enough to get natural metal finishes that I have even remotely liked. My ultimate goal was to produce a replica of a Lightning in 1/48 rather than in my more usual 1/72, but I could never pluck up the courage. I have now since 2014 built 11 1/72 Lightnings, and had a couple of the Airfix 1/48 F.1/F.1A/ F.2/ F.3's in my stash. The other month I decided that I would never know if I did not try, so I got one out and started it.

 

I found the 1/48 kit a delight (mostly) and did not need much filler, but me and filler do not get on. There are a few things I think I would do differently next time when I build the other, but as a test, this was fine. The main paintwork was done with Tamiya rattlecans, a light grey primer first, then a white primer, the to-be-red areas were masked, then I sprayed Bare-Metal Silver, then masked various panels (oddly satisfying!) the sprayed Silver Leaf. The difference was subtle and visible at some angles and not others. The red was Humbrol 60 Scarlet followed by Humbrol 19 Gloss Red enamels, brush-painted and thinned with naphtha thinners. The transfers were the Airfix ones, and I was amazed that there were fewer stencils for this than on the Airfix 1/72 recent tooled kits.

 

I had the devil's own job of attaching some of the final parts, I was using fresh CA and nothing would stick, and when it came to attaching the Firestreaks, I ended up adding the two of them at the cost of four other parts just falling off! Even the tailplanes caused me problems, but that is one area where I had my ideas for dealing with differently. Anyway, enough waffle, and this is what I ended up with:

 

 

The nose ring by the way was Mr Metal Colour Chrome metallizer scrubbed onto the nose ring with an old brush, left for a minute then buffed with a cotton bud...

 

 

... as was the rectangular panel under the wing root.

 

 

Some of the different panels show here

 

 

Not sure about that pitot angle!

 

 

 

I was concerned about the wing walkways. I had the old Airfix Magazine which had an article about the Airfix kit build (December 2015) which showed an odd (to me anyway) finish with the walkway, and was nothing like the box top illustration where the walkways followed their usual path and went over the red, but the builder (Chris Jones) showed them like I have here. I am a member of the EE Lightning Appreciation Group on FB, so I posed the question as to which was right, and the general opinion was that this way was, and that was backed up with photographs. I still think the Airfix/Adam Toobey way looks better.

 

 

Next time, I will see if I can add the underside leading edges to the lower wing before fitting as there is a step underneath on my build. I will also add the nose ring before painting anything and masking it for the chrome as there is a small step around it and may benefit from clamping. I will remember to add the missile rails (which between you and me I forgot!), and I will probably pin the tailplanes and not rely on the friction-less fit that they have. Finally, I will add the wing navigation lights before painting too, as they are fiddly and needed some help to fit. The final thing to deal with differently was to do with masking - when I masked the spine to paint the red, I used short lengths of tape. Where they overlapped, they left a white area where the paint did not get to, so I had to try re-touching with a very steady hand along the lower edge of the spine, it was nerve-wracking as I have the shakes a bit!

 

This is not perfect and I made some boo-boos, but I am mighty pleased that I finally have a 1/48 EE Lightning in my collection, without resorting to Corgi, which would not, after all, be quite playing the game. 

 

Thanks for looking, all the best everyone.

 

Ray

[Alpha Delta 210]

Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing. 

[keith in the uk]

Nice work Ray , looking good .  i would be inclined to highlight the panel lines to give it that used look.  😉

[Nosirrah]

Very nice, I love a lighting myself.

[speedy]

Hey that looks great and the Airfix kit is a great out of the box. If there was one thing I’d do though is repoint that pitot tube👍.

[Procopius]

Spectacular Lightning! That FB group is amazingly helpful.

[Ray S]

4 hours ago, Alpha Delta 210 said:

Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing. 

 

Thanks Alpha Delta 210!

 

3 hours ago, keith in the uk said:

Nice work Ray , looking good .  i would be inclined to highlight the panel lines to give it that used look.  😉

 

Panel line highlighting is not a skill I have, sorry! Thanks for the kind words and the suggestion though.

 

3 hours ago, Nosirrah said:

Very nice, I love a lighting myself.

 

Me too, except Christmas trees!

 

3 hours ago, speedy said:

Hey that looks great and the Airfix kit is a great out of the box. If there was one thing I’d do though is repoint that pitot tube👍.

 

I am in total agreement with you there. The more I have looked at it, the more dangerous it looks. I will see what I can do about it. Thanks for the very kind comment.

 

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

Spectacular Lightning! That FB group is amazingly helpful.

 

Thanks Sir, for those kind words. I saw your post about your Treble-One project on there and was very pleased that you knew about them, even if it meant a different path was to be followed for you.

 

Thanks to everyone who has popped in and for the comments and likes, I am looking forward to doing an F.3 next, once the New Year has kicked in.

 

Ray

[Meatbox8]

Beautiful. My favourite scheme on a Lightning excellently rendered.

[Pete Robin]

She's Big, Very Beautiful and oh so British.

Very well done. Superbly modelled.

Regards

Pete

[DaveH]

Very nice Lightning, very nice scheme 'n paint finish....

 

DaveH

[ScaleModeller_54]

Brilliant looking Lightning , The colour Scheme looks perfect.

[Farmerboy]

Great job Ray, you have nailed it! It’s a great kit but with some pitfalls, l really struggled with the fit of the main undercarriage ( vague instructions), how did you find it?

[binbrook87]

That's a super Lightning. A fantastic clean finish and your natural metal looks fabulous. Nice to hear that I'm not the only one who has trouble attaching the final bits n pieces! I hate adding undercarriage, doors, weapons etc and like you have tried superglue with every increasingly frustrating results! I now tend to use Tamiya extra thin cement as it 'welds' the joint...but you have to be very careful with painted parts. 

[SAT69]

4 hours ago, Pete Robin said:

She's Big, Very Beautiful and oh so British.

Very well done. Superbly modelled.

Regards

Pete

I must agree! A Gorgeous Lightning!

[AMB]

Excellent job!   I am an aerobatic teams specialist and just checked my shots of the " Firebirds" Lightnings and everything checks out 100% accurate, even the walkways you were concerned about. The Lightning hanging vertically in the Cold War Museum at Cosford has the same pattern walkways that can be checked out at any time. Well done!

[Ray S]

22 hours ago, Farmerboy said:

Great job Ray, you have nailed it! It’s a great kit but with some pitfalls, l really struggled with the fit of the main undercarriage ( vague instructions), how did you find it?

 

It was somewhat frustrating. As you mentioned, vague instructions and no location points for the jacks. The CA did not like to play either, but that was not Airfix's fault! Thanks for the kind words.

 

19 hours ago, binbrook87 said:

That's a super Lightning. A fantastic clean finish and your natural metal looks fabulous. Nice to hear that I'm not the only one who has trouble attaching the final bits n pieces! I hate adding undercarriage, doors, weapons etc and like you have tried superglue with every increasingly frustrating results! I now tend to use Tamiya extra thin cement as it 'welds' the joint...but you have to be very careful with painted parts. 

 

I did think about using the Tamiya stuff, but I remembered what it did to paintwork on another build. Thank you for your very kind comment, it is much appreciated.

 

18 hours ago, AMB said:

Excellent job!   I am an aerobatic teams specialist and just checked my shots of the " Firebirds" Lightnings and everything checks out 100% accurate, even the walkways you were concerned about. The Lightning hanging vertically in the Cold War Museum at Cosford has the same pattern walkways that can be checked out at any time. Well done!

 

Oh, boy, that has put my mind to rest now, thanks for the confirmation and the kind comment.

 

Thanks too to everyone else who has commented and 'liked', it means a lot to me!

 

All the best everyone,

 

Ray

[exdraken]

Fantastic Lightning model!!

 

 

[Lord Riot]

Stunning Firebird! Very well painted indeed.

[HOUSTON]

GORGEOUS  !

Pristinely finished. 

Quite RESPLENDENT. 

 

 

[Ray S]

On 12/1/2022 at 2:36 PM, speedy said:

Hey that looks great and the Airfix kit is a great out of the box. If there was one thing I’d do though is repoint that pitot tube👍.

 

@speedy, I could not live with the pitot as it was, so I have given it a tweek:

 

 

 

I think that is better now. Thanks for 'your suggestion!

 

Ray

[gingerbob]

Yeah, I think I'd be "reasonably satisfied" with that!

 

Re your comment about stencils, are you aware of this?

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/barracuda-studios-bc-s48001-lightning-f1-f1a-f2-f3-stencils--240141

 

(Edit: I just checked Roy's website and didn't see them, but you may be able to find a set elsewhere.  I've got one set, but not sure I'm ready to relinquish them.)

 

bob

Edited December 5, 2022 by gingerbob

[stevehnz]

That is a super build Ray, the Firebirds scheme is spectacular & you've carried it off beautifully. 👍

Steve.

[Ray S]

21 hours ago, gingerbob said:

Yeah, I think I'd be "reasonably satisfied" with that!

 

Re your comment about stencils, are you aware of this?

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/barracuda-studios-bc-s48001-lightning-f1-f1a-f2-f3-stencils--240141

 

(Edit: I just checked Roy's website and didn't see them, but you may be able to find a set elsewhere.  I've got one set, but not sure I'm ready to relinquish them.)

 

bob

 

That is a new one on me @gingerbob, I will keep an eye open for my next build, which should hopefully be early next year. Otherwise, the Airfix stencils still liven it up. Thanks for the link and suggestion.

 

8 hours ago, stevehnz said:

That is a super build Ray, the Firebirds scheme is spectacular & you've carried it off beautifully. 👍

Steve.

 

Thanks @stevehnz, I hope to do the red/white check-tailed F.3 next year, unless the 111 Sqn black/yellow-tailed one wins the mind games. Or the white tail/spine 23 Sqn one, oh the choices...

 

Ray

[F-32]

That's magnificent!

[Olly Tindall]

Beautiful Build Ray

My Favourite plane in my favourite scheme, very jealous