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Just completed, the recent Airfix 1/72 kit of the Gloster Meteor F.8, with my own markings for an Armament Practice Station Acklington, example from 1956. The APS Acklington was where, for 10 years, all RAF fighter Squadrons went for live gunnery training using the Druridge Bay ranges on the Northumberland coast. The APS had a full squadron's worth of Meteor F.8s, and as a reserve squadron they participated in RAF Air Defence exercises, scoring many 'kills', and they were also allowed to compete in the annual Fighter Command competitions. They were not too popular as they usually won! That's because all of their pilots were instructors, and they got lots of practice in their day job.

 

52749689053_59ba22ff54_b.jpgVZ494, L, APS Acklington, 1956 (25) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

52749194426_736b53d3b1_b.jpgVZ494, L, APS Acklington, 1956 (29) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

52749449854_43320eab76_b.jpgVZ494, L, APS Acklington, 1956 (2) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

52748665927_06e3d54ed5_b.jpgVZ494, L, APS Acklington, 1956 (27) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

52749689118_434c83d52e_b.jpgVZ494, L, APS Acklington, 1956 (16) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

52749441094_a1ca895301_b.jpgVZ494, L, APS Acklington, 1956 (5) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

52749194506_e419421c9c_b.jpgVZ494, L, APS Acklington, 1956 (28) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

 

The markings shown were standard on all of their Meteors, and the 'squadron bars' replicate the towed-target markings. Their badge on the engine nacelles consists of the RAF Acklington APS crest flanked by the towed-target bars. I could not find a front view of their Meteors, so can not confirm that the individual letter 'L' was displayed on the nosewheel door.  From photos, the following serials and codes have been identified - VZ494 'L' (small engine intakes); WA760 'R' (small intakes); WA963 'D' (intakes not known); WE855 'F' (small intakes); WH279 'X' (small intakes); WK932 'M' (small intakes); and WK985 'W' (large intakes). The two 'L' and 'W'  had the four aerials on top of the wings, while 'F' and 'M' definitely had no aerials. Unfortunately, none of the available photos could identify which style of ailerons were fitted - I changed them three times on my model, but I'm still not sure!

 

As for this new Airfix kit, it was a challenge. In very many ways it is excellent, but there are problems. The fit of the parts is far too tight with no 'wriggle room'. For example, the wings click on tight, but adopt insufficient dihedral in the process. The main undercarriage legs are in the 'flying' position and the model will sit too high on the ground. I just chopped a large chunk off where they were glued. The mainwheel hubs are wrong, being 'dimpled' on both sides. The port sides should have concentric rings as hubs. I filled the dimples in and painted rings on them. The cockpit floor extends too far forward and fouls the nose bulkhead. Chop a lump off the front of the floor. The wing trailing edges are far too thick and thinning the insides doesn't work as it will affect other parts. So I thinned them on the outside as best I could. There are a couple of parts shown on the construction diagrams which aren't in the kit, namely the support for the nosewheel door, and the 'towing lug' (?) for the rear of the belly tank. The mountings for the four top-of-wing aerials are moulded on the upper wings, but if your chosen aircraft didn't have the aerials then the mountings need to be sanded off.

 

Will I build any more examples of this kit? Yes, definitely, and hopefully my lessons learnt will shave a couple of weeks off producing the next two. 

 

 

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Just building my example, and the thing I would note is that it needs considerably more than 8gm as recommended to sit right. If you can fit 8g weight in the recommended position under the cockpit you're using some super dense extragalactic unknown metal... 🙂  I ended up putting a lot of weight behind the cockpit and even a bit in the front of the belly tank, and even then it was a close thing.  I suspect the 8g is a calculation of the moment-arm  of the weight of the very long tail. 

 

And I concur with the statement about the nose bulkhead fouling which I did't realise till I'd closed the fuselage, and so  I ended up filing it flat and even then it needed filler.

 

The nosewheel assembly is very complex, and I was worried about its fragility so after assembly into the nose, I simply slathered it with CA glue to harden it up.

 

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Very nice result and love the colour scheme.  Thick trailing edges are a bit of an Airfix hallmark at present. The undercarriage issue is strange as I don't think their 1/48 model has the same problem.

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Philip, this is my lucky day. First, Simon's lovely Martinet from RAF Morpeth and now your stunning Meteor from RAF Acklington. 

 

The Meteor is exceptional and beautifully finished, resplendent in the APS unit markings.

 

Both airfields were local to me and just a few miles from my house. Unfortunately RAF Morpeth remains mostly derelict, whilst the former RAF Acklington  is now HM Prison Northumberland. 

 

Thanks for sharing it.

 

Chris.

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15 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

Awesome! Last time I saw that colour scheme was 1979, as the various Acklington-based parts of Meteor WA984 were stripped and painted....

 

002

 

001

 

003

 

Very many thanks for that 1979 colour photo of APS markings. My first reaction was "drat, it has a yellow coloured nosewheel door!"  So my choice of silver for my recent model would be incorrect. However, closer inspection of the 1979 photo shows that the whole front fuselage is in target tug colours, with a black diagonal stripe under the nose. The code letter on the nosewheel door seems to be 'E', whereas the code on the fin could be 'U'. So, several different airframe parts are involved.

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13 hours ago, cngaero said:

Philip, this is my lucky day. First, Simon's lovely Martinet from RAF Morpeth and now your stunning Meteor from RAF Acklington. 

 

The Meteor is exceptional and beautifully finished, resplendent in the APS unit markings.

 

Both airfields were local to me and just a few miles from my house. Unfortunately RAF Morpeth remains mostly derelict, whilst the former RAF Acklington  is now HM Prison Northumberland. 

 

Thanks for sharing it.

 

Chris.

Snap! I used to creep around the former RAF Morpeth, and RAF Acklington, seeing what could be found. They were a bit far to cycle from Fenham, but bus and/or train easily got me to Acklington in 1966-68.

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1 hour ago, Acklington said:

Very many thanks for that 1979 colour photo of APS markings. My first reaction was "drat, it has a yellow coloured nosewheel door!"  So my choice of silver for my recent model would be incorrect. However, closer inspection of the 1979 photo shows that the whole front fuselage is in target tug colours, with a black diagonal stripe under the nose. The code letter on the nosewheel door seems to be 'E', whereas the code on the fin could be 'U'. So, several different airframe parts are involved.

 

Yes in fact the nose was from a TT aircraft; the tail section was from APS F.8 VZ530/U.

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Beautiful model and those markings really stand out.  I concur re the difficulties with this kit.  This should not be happening - precision is all very well, but not to the extent that it prevents the average modeller from assembling the kit well.

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On 17/03/2023 at 10:41, Sabrejet said:

 

Yes in fact the nose was from a TT aircraft; the tail section was from APS F.8 VZ530/U.

That serial VZ530 seemed familiar, and I have found it in my photo collection, just a wing in the now-closed museum compound at Lasham in 1988. Note the black/yellow APS colours on the wing-tip. The photo is also useful as it shows the underside detail, which can be compared with the Airfix kit. In particular, there has been comment on other forums that the Airfix kit wrongly has raised detail for four mounting points for underwing rocket rails, which the RAF never used.  These four mounting points can be seen as black 'dots' on the Lasham photo, so clearly the Airfix kit is correct. The Lasham wing also has the early type aileron and trim tab, as would be expected for an early production VZ serial.  However, many Meteors seem to have been retro-fitted with the later style ailerons, or perhaps had replacement outer wings.  So getting the correct fit on your chosen Airfix Meteor, really does need photographic evidence.

52758202381_d45179b07d_b.jpgVZ530, ex APS, Lasham, 8 Sept 88 by Philip Pain, on Flickr

Edited by Acklington
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VZ530 (or most of it) ended up with Flight Refuelling at Tarrant Rushton and when FRL closed down that operation (circa 1978?), there was a LOT of Meteor stuff left over. So it's not surprising to see that bits got strewn to the four winds. And I remember those rocket mounts - rubber buffers I think (?). Back to WA984, the Wessex Aviation Society had a close relationship with FRL and ended up as recipient of a lot of NOS Meteor parts, still in '26EH' part-numbered boxes, as well as a lot of larger NOS parts (including an unused complete windshield assembly, with glass) and things like U.16 wingtip pods, Valiant refuelling panel and a number of spare fuselage fuel tanks. I also recall that the ventral tank we used was NOS too. Amazing times. 

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