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1/48th Lightning T5


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Dunno if any of you remember the nightmare I experienced on my "Cold War" group build Lightning F3 - the one where the Alclad never dried?

Well! That F3 is now in various shaes of grey (pic's to be added to the completed section soon), but I was determined not to let the ALCLAD beat me..so here's my next attempt, another Lightning, this time a T5, using the Airfix F1/F1a/F2/F3 kit and the resin conversion set from CMK.

I had , some years ago, built a T4 using the Aeroclub conversin, so this would be a good opportunity to compare..

First of all the resin....

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The decals feature a T4 of 74 Sqn, and the Akrotiri Station Flight's "Pink Flamingo"

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With some paint added to the floor bulkhead and seats.....

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..and inner walls..

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Very nice Bill... I'll be doing this some day with the Neomega set, which includes an injection moulded nose, made by Aeroclub. I'm not looking forward to hacking the hooter off an expensive Lightning kit, but what can ya do? :shrug:

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Nige bought the CMK kit too from last year's Telford show (IIRC - it was around that time anyway), and the fuselage halves suffered quite a bit from warping. Is that warpage I detect in your penultimate picture where the spines are supposed to meet? I had to douse my Mossie's resin nose in hot water to get the damn thing anywhere near... it's one of the drawbacks of resin. :shrug:

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Yeh mine was warped to buggery. I scolded my hands trying to get the damn things straight.

I have both conversion sets now. The CMK and the Neomega/Aeroclub one. The CMK one looks a bit short in the nose but easier to ft. Whereby the Aeroclub one looks better in length but a mare to fit because you also have to hack away at the spine of the kit.

But either way I'll be keeping an eye on this as you can't beat a frightning, no matter how many seats it has.

Nige.

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Nige bought the CMK kit too from last year's Telford show (IIRC - it was around that time anyway), and the fuselage halves suffered quite a bit from warping. Is that warpage I detect in your penultimate picture where the spines are supposed to meet? I had to douse my Mossie's resin nose in hot water to get the damn thing anywhere near... it's one of the drawbacks of resin. :shrug:

Yes Mike, The nose and spine section is warped to buggery!! These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago before I resorted to removing the nose halves (so carefully glued on!!) And realigning and re-supergluing the whole thing!! I tried heating in hot water but only managed to burn my finger tips! I actually resorted to cutting the resin down, bending to shape and adding Milliput. Its currently sanded down - I'll post some more pic's tomorrow....I 've just about saved the kit from the trip to the great wheely bin in the garden!!

Yeh mine was warped to buggery.

Nige.

Kind o' spooky that Nige....

"What are the chances of that happening?"

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Very nice Bill... I'll be doing this some day with the Neomega set, which includes an injection moulded nose, made by Aeroclub. I'm not looking forward to hacking the hooter off an expensive Lightning kit, but what can ya do? :shrug:

I already have the Aeroclub bits got them before the Neomega resin appeared, the latter is on the list for this years purchases at Telford... hopefully

MarkC

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I already have the Aeroclub bits got them before the Neomega resin appeared, the latter is on the list for this years purchases at Telford... hopefully

MarkC

Yes, they're helpful souls offering both options of nose or no-nose, aren't they? :)

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I already have the Aeroclub bits got them before the Neomega resin appeared, the latter is on the list for this years purchases at Telford... hopefully

MarkC

Well I'd certainly recommend the Aeroclub T4/5 set.....

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.........added to the Neomega pit - you should have a corker.....that will be my next choice!! (Unless anyone else issues an Injection Moulded T4/5!!!)

Edited by Bill Clark
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Very nice Bill... I'll be doing this some day with the Neomega set, which includes an injection moulded nose, made by Aeroclub. I'm not looking forward to hacking the hooter off an expensive Lightning kit, but what can ya do? :shrug:

As I can't find an Airfix F.1 I'm probably going to use an Aeroclub vac Lightning; I've got an F.1, F.3, F.6 (possibly more than one of each) so I hope I can make a good job of it as I don't really fancy hacking one of these up either. ;)

I'd really like to make it to go with my Dynavector TSR-2, I have a print by Keith Aspinall called 'Testing Time' that show the two together during the TSR-2 test flights.

Karl

Edited by Karl
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Bill, looking great, and I never knew the Pink Flamingo decals were in with the CMK conversion (my dad claims he helped paint that a/c when he was on 56 @ Akrotiri)

Mike - the aeroclub conversion is a doddle to use. Using Bill's excellent article from about 10 years ago in SAMI I was able to do it no probs (see here). Like Bill says, add that to the Neomega cockpit and you'd have a stunner.

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Bill, looking great, and I never knew the Pink Flamingo decals were in with the CMK conversion (my dad claims he helped paint that a/c when he was on 56 @ Akrotiri)

Mike - the aeroclub conversion is a doddle to use. Using Bill's excellent article from about 10 years ago in SAMI I was able to do it no probs (see here). Like Bill says, add that to the Neomega cockpit and you'd have a stunner.

Don't forget you'll also have my modelling "skills" in that mix, so we'll wait & see before committing ourselves to a prediction, eh? ;)

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Bill, looking great, and I never knew the Pink Flamingo decals were in with the CMK conversion (my dad claims he helped paint that a/c when he was on 56 @ Akrotiri)

Mike - the aeroclub conversion is a doddle to use. Using Bill's excellent article from about 10 years ago in SAMI I was able to do it no probs (see here). Like Bill says, add that to the Neomega cockpit and you'd have a stunner.

Blimey..you have a great memory Nev!!! And thanks to y'all for your kind words.....

Anyway the CMK decals are certainly a good starting point, but from what I recall the aircraft in question was the 56 Sqn T5 left behind, when the squadron returned to blighty to convert to the Phantom. As such the Red/White nose chequerboard's were overpainted in a pale shade of pink - the same as the fin. This left the pale blue outline to the bars in situ, and the Pink Flamingo was painted onto the pink fin. The decals have the squadron bars AND the Flamingo in the same rather fetching, it has to be said - shade of pink! AND the ground on which the Flamingo perches is also in Pink and it should be in Green!!

So some careful overpainting will be required! To lighten the roundel bars and re-paint the Flamingo's perch! Be interesting to hear If your Dad has any info on this?

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Just a few more pic's bringing the build more or less up to date....

There is a gap in the photo's from those posted above and prior to me nearly discarding the whole damn thing because of the warpage issues. and this batch.

I've more or less managed to get over the warpage by chopping sections out, bending what was left and (apparent here) plastering with Milliput.

The nose ring is from Aeroclub - of course!

I'll start on the wings tomorrow.....

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I bought that CMK kit not long after it first appeared and mine was fine, so maybe I benefitted from an early sample. I did finish it but I wasn't satisfied with the result so I've dumped the model now and saved the nose section and spine to put on another F3 one day (if I ever find another Airfix F3!).

It's a nice conversion but when the Neomega cockpit was announced I rather fancied wasting yet more money and using that in the CMK tub. Didn't like the look of the Aeroclub conversion though. But having seen the photo here of the finished Aeroclub kit, it looks pretty impressive so maybe my reluctance wasn't justified. Maybe I'll just do nothing and wait until someone re-tools the Airfix kit as a T5 - or churns-out a 72nd scale one. What am I saying? That never happens - I have to buy the kit first and then someone immediately announces a better one... witness my Dynavector Wyvern and Sea Vixen which stragely don't seem quite so appealing now!

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