You're tryin' to break into another world A world I never knew - Airfix 1/72 Gloster Meteor FR.9

[2996 Victor]

Looking good to me, Alistair - those little issues always occur, and you've overcome them with your usual aplomb  

 

Cheers,

Mark

[AliGauld]

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

You're going great guns here Alistair,  looking good too, grateful for the heads up re the UC bays walls too.

This will be done in no time.

Chris

Thanks Chris,

As I said I think it was me.

 

1 hour ago, Warwolf said:

Looking good!

Thanks very much.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[AliGauld]

45 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

Looking good to me, Alistair - those little issues always occur, and you've overcome them with your usual aplomb  

 

Cheers,

Mark

Thanks Mark,

But I think that's the first time I've ever heard hacking away with a file and scalpel called aplomb. 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[2996 Victor]

17 minutes ago, AliGauld said:

Thanks Mark,

But I think that's the first time I've ever heard hacking away with a file and scalpel called aplomb. 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Credit where it's due, mate, credit where it's due!

 

[mark.au]

Glad you’re enjoying this one Alistair.  Progress looks good 👍 

[AliGauld]

Right, I got on with the gluing bit last night.

Engine fronts and exhaust pipes in.

 

 

Port wing upper in place and it does require a little clampage just to hold in place.

 

 

Followed by the starboard one which was a little more problematic and was left overnight to ensure that the glue cured properly.

 

 

The nose and tail pipes got a spritz on gun metal internally. (Ooh Err.)

 

 

This morning the clamps came off and this is the state of play.

 

 

There is still a little work required on the wing root leading edge.

 

 

A quick dry fit to the fuselage.

 

 

 

 

Very little work required here .

Quite pleased with the fit.

Then I tried the nose and tail pipes in place.

 

 

 

Not too bad. I'm going to have to fettle the port tail pipe a bit but otherwise not too bad.

A final quick dry fit just for the look of it.

 

 

 

Now I need to work on the fuselage seams before I can get the empennage fitted and then the whole thing glued together.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[AliGauld]

8 minutes ago, mark.au said:

Glad you’re enjoying this one Alistair.  Progress looks good 👍 

Thanks Mark,

It's got it's foibles but what kit doesn't.

It's a fun build though and is almost stopping my thoughts on salvaging the Swordfish.

Almost but not quite. 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[mark.au]

Just now, AliGauld said:

Thanks Mark,

It's got it's foibles but what kit doesn't.

It's a fun build though and is almost stopping my thoughts on salvaging the Swordfish.

Almost but not quite. 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

I was going to mention the S*******h but thought it might have been too soon! 😂

 

Progress looks good, keep going on the Meteor! 

[2996 Victor]

Coming along very nicely, if I may say so It's a pity that there are still a few fixes needed,  but as you said, what kit doesn't have it's foibles. Great stuff!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[AliGauld]

11 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

Coming along very nicely, if I may say so It's a pity that there are still a few fixes needed,  but as you said, what kit doesn't have it's foibles. Great stuff!

 

Cheers,

Mark

Thanks Mark,

I seem to have run out of likes today for some unknown reason, so, I'll need to go back over stuff later.

I'm not convinced that the little bit of work required is not down to something I've done earlier in the build.

The tolerances are so tight that one bit out will be magnified later on.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[bigbadbadge]

Coming along very nicely Alistair.   You're taming this one well. Looking good fella.

Chris

[AliGauld]

1 minute ago, bigbadbadge said:

Coming along very nicely Alistair.   You're taming this one well. Looking good fella.

Chris

Thanks Chris,

It's coming together.

Still having fun though.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[AliGauld]

I've just found a wee problem with the port horizontal stabiliser.

 

 

As you can see the ejection pin has pushed the part so thin it has created a hole.

Nothing a wee bit of filler can't solve but not what you expect in a newish tool.

 

Empennage fitted after the fuselage seams were dealt with and primed to see whether anything else was necessary.

Some CA/Talc was needed at the nose join.

There are two very fiddly inserts to be glued into the canopy which were placed after it was masked.

I glued the canopy on after that.

 

 

 

There is still a little work required on the wing roots and the engines.

 

 

 

Apart from the bottom of the port tail pipe there's nothing major.

That tail pipe will require a bit of a shim.

I still need to rescribe the fuselage panel lines but things appear to be going fairly well and better than I expected.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[mark.au]

Disappointing about the ejector pin flaw but a man of your ability just brushes that kind of thing off.  Assembly continues apace otherwise.  I’ve never built a Meteor as far as I can remember, I must rectify that one day.

[AliGauld]

44 minutes ago, mark.au said:

Disappointing about the ejector pin flaw but a man of your ability just brushes that kind of thing off.  Assembly continues apace otherwise.  I’ve never built a Meteor as far as I can remember, I must rectify that one day.

Thanks Mark,

The hole is a minor inconvenience and an easy fix .

This is my second Meteor, the first was a Special Hobby/MPM Mk.IV which was a nice little kit as well.

I'd be very interested in seeing what you could do with one.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[AdrianMF]

Rather more filler and issues than I would expect for a new kit but it is looking very nice!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[AliGauld]

12 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Rather more filler and issues than I would expect for a new kit but it is looking very nice!

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian,

I'm fairly certain that the majority of the fit issues are of my own making, but, the wing root and tail pipe not so much.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[bigbadbadge]

Looking very Meteor like now Alistair,  shame about the ejector pin hole in the tailplane, still no issues for a Modeller of you calibre.  Great work

Chris

[AliGauld]

Thanks Chris,

It's a very minor issue but unnecessary.

 

I was getting the nose cone bit ready to prime and paint and thought that I'd better try a dry fit as these are the parts that are reportedly most problematic.

With the parts cleaned up the fit left a 2mm gap all round.

I think this is due to the nose wheel bay being slightly out off position.

So after a wee trim to that bit I looked at this bit.

 

 

Then I trimmed some plastic from the rear of it as the horns on the side fit into the gun bays and will hold the part.

 

 

As you can see it holds in place nicely after trimming.

 

 

and with the nose cone held in place the fit is miles better.

 

 

Once glue has been flung at it it should be a lot better fit.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[2996 Victor]

Nice progress, Alistair, and you're sailing through those few little niggles  Great stuff!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[AliGauld]

11 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

Nice progress, Alistair, and you're sailing through those few little niggles  Great stuff!

 

Cheers,

Mark

Thanks Mark,

As I've said I'm pretty sure the majority of the niggles have been due to placement errors on my part as the tolerances are very tight and one error just multiplies the problems further down the line.

Once I start getting some paint on it will look better.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Steve Coombs]

Just from curiosity - I've seen various photos of FR9s that have fairings fitted over the gun troughs to make smooth bulges in the nose area. Does the kit offer those as an option?

A general call-out - does anyone here know what the criteria were for these things being fitted? I understood the role of the FR9 to be armed reconnaissance, which these fairings would contradict.

[AliGauld]

5 minutes ago, Steve Coombs said:

Just from curiosity - I've seen various photos of FR9s that have fairings fitted over the gun troughs to make smooth bulges in the nose area. Does the kit offer those as an option?

A general call-out - does anyone here know what the criteria were for these things being fitted? I understood the role of the FR9 to be armed reconnaissance, which these fairings would contradict.

The kit doesn't offer that option as the one modelled has the gun troughs.

As shown below.

 

https://www.airteamimages.com/gloster-meteor_VZ603_uk---royal-air-force_130215_large.html

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

 

[AliGauld]

One last quick update before I head out to work.

All the nose cone bits painted, glued and the clear pieces in.

 

 

The glue should have cured sufficiently by the time I get up tomorrow to allow me to mask them and then I can get this fitted to the fuselage.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[mark.au]

A little delicate seam work on that nose ahead I think.  Nice job on the fettling though, paint on the weekend?