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Meteor Musings......


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Lately..I've been seriously suffering from a lack of enthusiasm regarding sticking bits of plastic together :raincloud:

So, thought I'd start to plan a few projects - to see if they'd help get me back on the tarmac........so here's what I'm a thinking.....a Meteor or four to add to the collection...in 1/48th

1st of all a Classic Airframes F4 - already started to cut plastic on that one - pic's will follow in the "In progress" section.....quite like the idea of one in the markings of 63 Sqn... with WW2 type Dull Red white & Blue wing roundels and fin flash with bright post war roundels on the fuselage with the yellow/black chequerboard......we'll see - I daresay I'll change my plans...

2nd a Meteor F3 - but with the long Mk IV type nacelles.....thought about using a Tamiya MkIII kit and extending the nacelles - with the surplus forward nacelles (narrow breather intakes) from a CA kit - and plastic card & milliput, however I may now use a standard CA Mk IV kit with the extended wing section from a CA NF11/12..........This would be in standard Dark Green/Ocean Grey/MSG......

3rd Martin Bakers "asterix" T7 and a Half- Using the fuselage and inner wings from the CA NF11/12 and the outer wing sections from the CA MkIV. The nose section would be removed of course and replaced by the nose cone from a CA Mk 8...........in silver and Dayglo of course..........

4th a U16 ....using the CA Mk 8 but with the Red Roo conversion set and nose....

(Here's one I did in 1/72ooth recently....)

100_8387.jpg

5th a Standard Mk 8 but using the Kits at War decal sheet or 92 Sqn.....

Now...questions are of course: how long? when? if? or when?.....maybe planning these will help me find my Meteor MoJo!!!!

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That 72ooth one looks nice. My list includes an F(TT)8 and a camouflaged T7 from Chivenor as well as a U16.

For something a bit different how about one of the many prototype or trials aircraft ? or the A&AEE "T7 and a bit" with F8 tail unit and camera nose ?

Ross

Edited by rossm
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That 72ooth one looks nice. My list includes an F(TT)8 and a camouflaged T7 from Chivenor as well as a U16.

For something a bit different how about one of the many prototype or trials aircraft ? or the A&AEE "T7 and a bit" with F8 tail unit and camera nose ?

Ross

I already have the Blue "T7 and a bit" built! Just need the undercarriage and decals to be finished - I should perhaps finish that one first...

I used a standard T7 kit as the basis - with the tail unit from an F8 which in turn is being build as a PR10 - with tail and outer wings from a redundant Tamiya F1!

Perhaps I should get that one finished as well.......

Dontcha just love Meteors...........

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I already have the Blue "T7 and a bit" built! Just need the undercarriage and decals to be finished - I should perhaps finish that one first...

I used a standard T7 kit as the basis - with the tail unit from an F8 which in turn is being build as a PR10 - with tail and outer wings from a redundant Tamiya F1!

Perhaps I should get that one finished as well.......

Dontcha just love Meteors...........

Yes, be a devil, finish something from the pending heap ! You'll feel much better for it and it won't take as long as starting a fresh one ! I've had the airbrush out today for the first time in ages (well maybe the second as I primed one the other day) to spray the first camouflage colour on two - an F-16 started in April and an He219 started in the previous millenium ! There's a part built Meteor III from the same era somewhere waiting to go with the four (I,IV,10,13) on the display shelves. Then the F(TT)8, T7, U16, TT20.................. and maybe some other 'vanilla' ones as well.

Definitely something about Meteors !

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Cool drone! I don't think the CA Mateosr will help your modelling mojo much though. They're awful!

Martin

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Talking about your PR10 Bill...how did the grafting of the Tamiya F1/3 wings go onto the CA FR9?

Which scheme are you going and which code letter are you gonna do? I wouldn't like to clash!

You is the man Bill!

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Talking about your PR10 Bill...how did the grafting of the Tamiya F1/3 wings go onto the CA FR9?

Which scheme are you going and which code letter are you gonna do? I wouldn't like to clash!

You is the man Bill!

Well Rich ..Plan "A" was to replace the one happily donated(!) - but I did that in 1/72nd scale recently .......

100_8400.jpg

So...not sure, love to find a PR10 in Dark Slate Grey/Medium Sea Grey over PRU Blue!! So may go Silver or "Day Fighter colours"

And here's a pic taken FIVE years ago of my 1/48th PR10 showing the addition of the Tamiya wings and tailplane.....

I've just about added the undercoat since then!!!!

pr10above1.jpg

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Cool drone! I don't think the CA Mateosr will help your modelling mojo much though. They're awful!

Martin

Tell me about it!! Daft thing is I love the challange Martin!! I've already built five of 'em and no two are the same!! Five different models and TEN different ways of dealing with the Nacelles!!! :hypnotised:

Another D.16 and MB's Asterix :blink: ,you nicking my ideas Billy Boy :D

Got some great pictures of Asterix if you'd like 'em uploaded for you to download.

Mark

I may well take you up on that Mark...looking forward to seeing how your U15 pans out btw........seeing as I've started the CA MkIV...

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Well Rich ..Plan "A" was to replace the one happily donated(!) - but I did that in 1/72nd scale recently .......

100_8400.jpg

Bill, where did you get the red leading edges for the nacelles from ? I ended up with mid-blue 'cos I found a colour slide by Jim Halley on the Air Britain website which seemed to show either no colour or a mid-blue. Unfortunately it's gone off their site but PM me an email address and I'll send you a rather grainy copy that I saved (can't post it 'cos of copyright). It's always possible it changed but I agonised over that little bit of colour for ages !

Ross

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Bill, where did you get the red leading edges for the nacelles from ? I ended up with mid-blue 'cos I found a colour slide by Jim Halley on the Air Britain website which seemed to show either no colour or a mid-blue. Unfortunately it's gone off their site but PM me an email address and I'll send you a rather grainy copy that I saved (can't post it 'cos of copyright). It's always possible it changed but I agonised over that little bit of colour for ages !

Ross

_0_0_ZRB5.jpg

Funny thing when I built the 1/48th model of the same aircraft -10 or so years ago(!) I'd painted the nacelles intakes in the surrounding camo colour....don't know where Colin got the red from...

there's no way of telling when or if the red was applied - pic's of the aircraft without red leading edges only proves that red wasn't applied at that time.....there is a well published photo of the aircraft in various publications - but from the rear three quarters so you can't see the nacelle fronts.

Rich Reynolds (Phreak) dad flew this machine, wonder if he has any knowledge of this......over to you Rich.......

Edited by Bill Clark
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Hi Bill,

I'm with Phreak on your PR 10; I have one on the back burner and would like to know more about how you attacked/are attacking it. In fact, I think we may have had an interrupted discussion started a while back. I think I had a request for a Jaguar borading ladder as well, although I imagine they're all gone now.

In any case, which one of those do you feel most strongly about having finished and up for the rest of us to ogle? That's where I'd start!

Cheers, Jim

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....

So...not sure, love to find a PR10 in Dark Slate Grey/Medium Sea Grey over PRU Blue!! So may go Silver or "Day Fighter colours"

...

Hmmm,

Wouldn't that be Light Slate Grey/Medium Sea Grey as per early Canberra and some FR9s ?

I can find overall silver and Dark Green/Dark Sea Grey over PRU blue. Also a B+W photo with very high contrast between dark and light colours and pale (white ?) walkway markings. It also has drop tanks which would be a nice addition (also in some of the photos of silver ones - both early and late canopy styles). Wouldn't like to commit on what the colours are - could almost be nightfighter Dark Green/Medium Sea Grey or maybe your Dark Slate Grey/Medium Sea Grey ???????????? It's too blown out to tell if there's any demarcation for the undersides on the pale colour. The demarcation is low down though which is consistent with a standard 'Fighter' scheme.

Getting warmer.........

Pages 112/113 of the Crowood book - p113 has a better print of a similar shot to the high contrast one noted above and the contrast is much lower. The roundels look faded but they'd have to be very faded if the 'grey' was Medium Sea Grey. Walkways are still pale though - does anyone have any more to say about pale walkway markings on camouflaged Meteors as they are new to me ?

Sorry, run out of books with nothing definite to show for it - how about silver, early canopy, drop tanks ?

Ross

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_0_0_ZRB5.jpg

Funny thing when I built the 1/48th model of the same aircraft -10 or so years ago(!) I'd painted the nacelles intakes in the surrounding camo colour....don't know where Colin got the red from...

there's no way of telling when or if the red was applied - pic's of the aircraft without red leading edges only proves that red wasn't applied at that time.....there is a well published photo of the aircraft in various publications - but from the rear three quarters so you can't see the nacelle fronts.

Rich Reynolds (Phreak) dad flew this machine, wonder if he has any knowledge of this......over to you Rich.......

The plot thickens. I have no evidence of the two-tone grey uppers. As far as I can see, A*N was as in Bills scheme in the early part of the 50's but when 541 disbanded, it was a mix of NBMF and grey/green over PRU blue.

There's so much missing which I'll never know I fear as dad passed away some time ago. I do remember my grandad having a panel from an airframe which had dad's name stencilled on it - this was apparently liberated when they flew the airframes to the knackers yard when they disbanded in late 1957. This was a black panel with white lettering, about 2 feet by 9 inches as I remember, it's somewhere in the linked family but got displaced in the inevitable house clearance that happened. If only I knew which a/c and colour scheme this was in...........I'm not prepared to guess and get it wrong. :(

One little bit of co=incidental evidence which might support the colour scheme with the red nacelle lips is that later on in life when dad was with 85 Squadron, one of their F8s that he flew ended up with red nacelle lips which has had me wondering in these later years.

Inconclusion I'm afraid but I won't be doing a two tone grey PR10 unless the PRO has images to prove it.

I do want to do an F4 of 203 AFS with black and red quarters on the nacelle lips and nose, I have a photograph of this but I can't see the flippin serial number. Talk about frustrating as I've searched high and low for this.

Ah well.

Edited by PHREAK
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Hi Bill,

I'm with Phreak on your PR 10; I have one on the back burner and would like to know more about how you attacked/are attacking it. In fact, I think we may have had an interrupted discussion started a while back. I think I had a request for a Jaguar borading ladder as well, although I imagine they're all gone now.

In any case, which one of those do you feel most strongly about having finished and up for the rest of us to ogle? That's where I'd start!

Cheers, Jim

Hi Jim, sorry for not replying sooner - got your PM's okay...I'll post some pic's on here as soon as possible. Basically though, and you can probably tell by the photo posted earlier, the tail unit came from the T7 kit (which now has the F8/FR.9 tail as a T7.5). I used the outer wing sections from a Tamiya kit - wing strengthening bands are from plastic card. The rear cockpit area is totally wrong - this should have a framework to it - but the sliding canopy section will hide that.......

I have started on the F4 - a lot of destruction to begin with - planning on dropping the air-brakes and displacing the control surfaces. Also adding some internal detail to the nacelles...I'll do this as a thread in the "In progress" section. I'll carry on with the T7.5 and PR10 - again in the in progress section before starting on the F8 . Incidentally purchased the Red Roo U.16 conversion in 1/48th today - so there's another long term project in the offing!!

Can't recall discussing the Jag boarding ladder - I got mine off of that nice chap Neil at Paragon....

Cheers, Bill

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The plot thickens. I have no evidence of the two-tone grey uppers. As far as I can see, A*N was as in Bills scheme in the early part of the 50's but when 541 disbanded, it was a mix of NBMF and grey/green over PRU blue.

There's so much missing which I'll never know I fear as dad passed away some time ago. I do remember my grandad having a panel from an airframe which had dad's name stencilled on it - this was apparently liberated when they flew the airframes to the knackers yard when they disbanded in late 1957. This was a black panel with white lettering, about 2 feet by 9 inches as I remember, it's somewhere in the linked family but got displaced in the inevitable house clearance that happened. If only I knew which a/c and colour scheme this was in...........I'm not prepared to guess and get it wrong. :(

One little bit of co=incidental evidence which might support the colour scheme with the red nacelle lips is that later on in life when dad was with 85 Squadron, one of their F8s that he flew ended up with red nacelle lips which has had me wondering in these later years.

Inconclusion I'm afraid but I won't be doing a two tone grey PR10 unless the PRO has images to prove it.

I do want to do an F4 of 203 AFS with black and red quarters on the nacelle lips and nose, I have a photograph of this but I can't see the flippin serial number. Talk about frustrating as I've searched high and low for this.

Ah well.

Hi Rich, nice chatting with you on Sunday me ole matey!! Interesting note there about the 85 Sqn F8's...Dave Fleming has some excellent photo's posted on here - or somewhere - with a vast array of variations on a colour theme. , due I suspect to the nature of the aircraft used by 85 sqn.

Any idea of the serial of your Dad's F8 with the red intakes?

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Hmmm,

Wouldn't that be Light Slate Grey/Medium Sea Grey as per early Canberra and some FR9s ?

I can find overall silver and Dark Green/Dark Sea Grey over PRU blue. Also a B+W photo with very high contrast between dark and light colours and pale (white ?) walkway markings. It also has drop tanks which would be a nice addition (also in some of the photos of silver ones - both early and late canopy styles). Wouldn't like to commit on what the colours are - could almost be nightfighter Dark Green/Medium Sea Grey or maybe your Dark Slate Grey/Medium Sea Grey ???????????? It's too blown out to tell if there's any demarcation for the undersides on the pale colour. The demarcation is low down though which is consistent with a standard 'Fighter' scheme.

Getting warmer.........

Pages 112/113 of the Crowood book - p113 has a better print of a similar shot to the high contrast one noted above and the contrast is much lower. The roundels look faded but they'd have to be very faded if the 'grey' was Medium Sea Grey. Walkways are still pale though - does anyone have any more to say about pale walkway markings on camouflaged Meteors as they are new to me ?

Sorry, run out of books with nothing definite to show for it - how about silver, early canopy, drop tanks ?

Ross

Cheers Ross, "pale" walkway markings is new to me, apart from some odd coloured machines - and maybe on sone night-fighters?

I've not seen the Crowood book - so thought I'd check it out.....on Amazon, price's range from £20 for used and £144.00 for brand new!!!

Checked on our "on line" library service - and there's not a single copy in the whole of Kent - so I've requested an "Inter Library loan!" - we'll see how this pans out!!

It was really speculation on my part regarding the two-tone grey over PRU Blue PR10 - on the basis that it most certainly happened on FR9's (and Vampire FB5's) so why not on the PR10? there's also artwork by David Howley in the Meteor Warpaint showing the upper surfaces of an FR9 (no colour captions) with presumably MSG & what looks like a Dark Green (assume this should be Light Slate Grey?) the contrast between the tones of these colours in the artwork would be quite high....and I have dismissed this as the limitations in pantone - or whatever colours the print uses nowadays....though this could be what you seeing earlier in your post...

(and yes - it should be Light Slate Grey......!!!) :winkgrin:

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Right...a few more ponderings.....purchased the 1/48th scale U.16 conversion set from Red Roo in the week - wasn't cheap - but I thought I'd treat myself as I'd spent so long attempting to get the shape right on my 1/72nd scale attempt.

I'll get some pic's done over the weekend.

Took a few pic's at Hendon last Sunday...here's the intake of FMk8 WH301. Something that most manufacturer's miss (though not Aeroclub in their 1/48th kits) is the fact that the intake inners are lined.

I've used 1/2 inch tube on one of my intakes on the Fmk4. This is fine for narrow breather intakes - as for the F4 and this (though my pic may have distorted this - it looks a lot wider in that!!)

IMG_0657.jpg

Also - at Hendon purchased the Alley Cat decals for the Night Fighters - and very nice it is to - well done Ali!!!

I'll have to get the NF12 conversion set now........;-)

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Hi Rich, nice chatting with you on Sunday me ole matey!! Interesting note there about the 85 Sqn F8's...Dave Fleming has some excellent photo's posted on here - or somewhere - with a vast array of variations on a colour theme. , due I suspect to the nature of the aircraft used by 85 sqn.

Any idea of the serial of your Dad's F8 with the red intakes?

Hi Bill

here's a possible bizarre answer....I suspect that it was WH301 ....you photographed her an Hendon!!!!

It's just dawned on me that 301 was on 85 squadron's books in the 60s and I suspect it was this airframe. She certainly got the 'orrible dayglo panel treatment later on in life which was probably done in the late 60s-early 70s....dad got grounded in 67 due to asthma. Peter Woodham displayed this airframe at Biggin Hill a la red nacelles (and red tip to the tail bullet too) in the mid 60s so a list of airshow participants may confirm the actual number. I do remember this as dad took us up to the control tower at Binbrook to track his return and were treated to a few aerobatics and a field beat-up before lnding!

I'll have a look when I get home tonight.

Have you thought about using replacement intakes? Cooper Details I think, well worth it for getting a good looking ickle or big breather.

Phelicitations mon ami

Le Phreak

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Hi Bill

here's a possible bizarre answer....I suspect that it was WH301 ....you photographed her an Hendon!!!!

It's just dawned on me that 301 was on 85 squadron's books in the 60s and I suspect it was this airframe. She certainly got the 'orrible dayglo panel treatment later on in life which was probably done in the late 60s-early 70s....dad got grounded in 67 due to asthma. Peter Woodham displayed this airframe at Biggin Hill a la red nacelles (and red tip to the tail bullet too) in the mid 60s so a list of airshow participants may confirm the actual number. I do remember this as dad took us up to the control tower at Binbrook to track his return and were treated to a few aerobatics and a field beat-up before lnding!

I'll have a look when I get home tonight.

Have you thought about using replacement intakes? Cooper Details I think, well worth it for getting a good looking ickle or big breather.

Phelicitations mon ami

Le Phreak

Cheers me ole china...... Cooper intakes? I'll have a look around....

Some nice stuff on '301 there Rich....must talk to Dave F about 85 Sqn Metreor's F8's........

See ya

Bill

EDIT: WoooHoooo Just found Dave's post..Take a look here Rich.....WH301 in 1969

Edited by Bill Clark
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I have been tinkering on the intakes for it. Would you like to see if they will work for you?

Send addy and I will get a pair of them out to you. If they work, I will put them into production.

Cheers,

Harold

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I have been tinkering on the intakes for it. Would you like to see if they will work for you?

Send addy and I will get a pair of them out to you. If they work, I will put them into production.

Cheers,

Harold

....why thanks Harold, I'll PM you with my address

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_0_0_ZRB5.jpg

Funny thing when I built the 1/48th model of the same aircraft -10 or so years ago(!) I'd painted the nacelles intakes in the surrounding camo colour....don't know where Colin got the red from...

there's no way of telling when or if the red was applied - pic's of the aircraft without red leading edges only proves that red wasn't applied at that time.....there is a well published photo of the aircraft in various publications - but from the rear three quarters so you can't see the nacelle fronts.

Rich Reynolds (Phreak) dad flew this machine, wonder if he has any knowledge of this......over to you Rich.......

Hello Bill,

Apology inbound! A three quarter front view of VS975 features in 'Meteor Glosters First Jet Fighter' by Stephen J Bond, published by Midland Counties in 1985 (ISBN 0 904597 55 5), and looking at the black and white picture, intake rings are definately another colour, and I have to conclude they probably are blue and not red! I think a correction to my instruction sheet is rapidly in order.....

Colin

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