E.E. Lightning F6 - 1/48 Airfix

C

Caledonia

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\ said:
I remember an air show at RAF Coningsby in the late seventies.The F15 did a take off and vertical climb but rolled over and levelled out after a few thousand feet.The 'old' Lighting did it's party piece and just kept on going vertical until we couldn't see it.A totally awesome display of engine power.Our Phantoms didn't even try it!.
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Hi Dave, thanks for sharing your memory, two pieces of information I read about recently was at retirement in 1988 the Lightning could still beat an F15 to 30,000 ft., also two years before retirement NATO held an exercise where an F15, F16 and a Lightning was set the task of intercepting Concorde, only the Lightning made the intercept. Will always remember the Leuchars airshows in the '60's when everyone was making thier way back to the car park after the show finished (we thought) and 4 Lightnings would come in at tree top height from St Andrews, and just as they passed over the crowd, they would stand on their tails and go vertical, the noise seemed to paralyze you; you couldn't move or speak until they were well into the clouds.

There is an excellent DVD I have Cold War Jets Of The Royal Air Force [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: DVD where ex Pilots relay thier experiences, one mentioned that even with the engines at idle, they had to keep their foot on the brake, also at take-off they had to get their nose up quickly or they would go supersonic, which many of them did on their first solo, much to the annoyance of the neighbourhood.

Thanks everyone for your interest and kind comments, and Trey for the tip re odorless C.A.

Am cleaning up the 'Flightpath' white metal undercarriages just now, will post some more photos shortly. Cheers Derek
 
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C

Caledonia

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Hi all, this project is turning into a bit of a marathon, my fault really, I bought, as I mentioned before, the Flightpath upgrade and the Aires Wheel Wells to improve the model, but am finding that never the twain shall meet (or fit to be exact). If I could start again I wouldn't bother with the Flightpath stuff, about all I have used so far is the white metal undercarriage and that needed quite a bit of 'persuasion' to fit into the Aires Wheel wells. With hind sight I think that the Airfix OOB would have made a decent model. I am happy with the Aires exhaust and Wheel Wells even with the extra work involved in fitting the latter, also the Neomega cockpit was excellent in my view.

Anyway a few photos showing the Wheel Wells with the white metal undercarriages fitted. Cheers Derek

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yak face

yak face

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Lovely wells derek , the white metal legs look great too ,well worth the effort, cheers tony
 
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tr1ckey66

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Hi Derek

The cockpit and undercarriage bays look great. Sometimes it's difficult to justify the aftermarket stuff but with the care and attention you're giving this model I'm sure it will pay off. The details look impressive so far.

Cheers

Paul
 
Ian M

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Sorry to hear that the Flightpath and Aires stuff is giving you so much grief! Now I'm really looking forward to starting on mine. :laughing:

I will just say that the effort you are putting into it is certainly paying off! Its looking very good.

Ian M
 
C

Caledonia

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Hi All, some photos of the Flight Path white metal wheels and PE Hubs, before and after assembly.

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Also a last couple of shots of the cockpit before I close it up.

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More problems with the Flight Path PE, they supply a very nice air intake trim, unfortunately whoever developed the unrolled plate shape got it wrong, it does not fit. - back to the drawing board.

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Cheers Derek

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Ian M

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You are really fighting this one Derek. I don't know If I'm upto the challenge I have set myself in the SIG build. Still A week or two on the Tonka and I will still have 5 and a half months to sort the lightning out.

That collar around the intake, is it the right way round. If it is, some one messed up when they designed it!!!

Chin up, looks like you are in sight of the fun part: Paint!!

Ian M
 
C

Caledonia

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Hi Ian, the collar is the right way round, I just hung it loosely on the nose to show how nice it could have been. As I have nothing to loose, I am thinking if making some cuts adjacent to the longitudinal rivet lines and cutting a fine wedge out of the solid other half of the cut to try to reduce the radius of the developed plate, this would need to be done in several locations. My only fear is the force needed might irreparably deform the PE. Will let you know how I get on. Yes I am really looking forward to the NMF painting NOT, my plan at the moment is an undercoat of my usual Tamiya Gray Fine Surface Primer, and I am the thinking of pre-shading the panel lines and some of the panels which are different shades of aluminium. Then I plan to paint it with Tamiya Titanium Silver X-32, them after possibly a gloss coat try the Rub-n-Buff Silver Leaf - as you say FUN FUN. Cheers Derek

p.s. How's the Tornado coming along, there is a lot of work in that kit
 
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treyzx10r

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Derek thats looking great ,nice detail on the wheels and the office is superb!
 
Ian M

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Derek, have you tried heating the collar to soften it? sounds like you have nothing to loose. If you can make a former to bend it around after its nice and soft you might get it to play by your rules!

Not started the tonka yet, the SIG don't start until Tuesday. Being the Mod for the group builds it would not bode well if I cheated and started before the start date....

Ian M
 
C

Caledonia

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Hi Ian, thanks for your comment, unfortunately the bending is not the problem. The shape of the nose of the Lightning comprises of a near semi-circular arc top and bottom which are joined with two other large radius tangential arcs. So the plate development is similar to, but not the same as you would do for the Frustum of a Cone. Anyway it should have been a simple matter for Flight Path to wrap a piece of card around one of the Airfix models, marked it up and cut out the shape. As it is, the developed shape they came up with has too large a minor axis radius, so it can never fit.

Much of the documentation provided by Flight Path refers to a Model F3 Lighting in Resin they were developing when they abandoned their project when the Airfix came on the market, so I suspect they are really selling the goodies from their F3 under the guise of it fitting the Airfix F2A/F6, and it does not.

Cheers Derek
 
Š

Španac

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. follow from the beginning and can not be satisfied with seeing the cabin. Detailing is top.

Lijep pozdrav, Ivica
 
C

Caledonia

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A few shots of the painting so far. Primed with Tamiya Surface Primer - Gray, followed by Humbrol Matt Black Enamel in the Cockpit and Tail Fin tip area, and finally pre-shading the model with Tamiya XF-1 Matt Black to try to capture some of the random shading you see on the Lightning Bare Metal finish. Next stage is to apply the Tamiya X-32 Titanium Silver all over followed by Silver Leaf Rub-N-Buff.

Cheers Derek

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iwan_canobi

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Really starting to move forward now, its looking good! The lightning is an awesome machine, used to walk by one every day when I was working for BAE down in Warton, was hard not to just stop and have a stare all the time! :smiling3:
 
spanner570

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That looks great Derek. It has come out really well.

I like the 'Hit and Miss' effect you have achieved with the buffing, so much better than an all over samey look. This to me is how the buffing would be in real life on this aircraft. Could be wrong though!

Well done.

Ron
 
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