BAC Lightning F.6

[Jakko]

After trying to start building a DeLorean time machine, I decided it was more work than I feel like at the moment, so I instead turned to something else entirely:



The fairly recent Airfix Lightning F.6 kit, largely because I’ve always liked the Lightning, probably because of its slightly odd shape. I built the Matchbox one a long time ago (over 30 years), but have never really considered building one since.

The parts look very nice, though they do have a small amount of flash in places:





The decal sheet is very extensive, with two sets of markings and a large set of stenciling to go with each. Mine will probably end up being a bare aluminium plane, because the overall grey scheme doesn’t appeal to me much.

Starting construction with the seat, I immediately noticed something slightly odd:



Those two lumps on the back of the seat look like they’re supposed to be there, as they’re very nicely moulded, but it’s also immediately obvious when you start building that they don’t belong there after all. Luckily, a sharp blade solves the problem easily:



Now I’m trying to find a good pilot figure. The one in the kit isn’t bad, but he seems rather large for the seat (his head is jammed up against the seat’s pull handles) and he’s not wearing his oxygen mask. Now I know I have some pilots from the old Hasegawa US Navy pilots and deck crew set somewhere, who will easily pass for British pilots in this scale after no more than a paint job, but I think they’re in an old and damaged model that I haven’t located yet …

 

[PaulTRose]

a classic aircraft

 

[Jakko]

I’ve built the air intake duct (minus the nose cone, as that will be easier to paint neatly off the rest of the model), so I dry-fitted them into the fuselage. Well, judge for yourself:



With the halves touching on the underside, there’s about a 1.5 to 2 mm gap at the top … ouch. I was wondering how this could have happened, since the fit of the rest of the parts so far is very good, and the couple of reviews of this kit I read don’t mention such an obvious fit problem at all. After trying for a bit and feeling where and how the duct and fuselage halves seemed to touch, I figured I’d have to file down the sides of the duct. Then I looked inside the fuselage:



Ejector pin marks raised up to a millimetre or so above the surface of the parts … Removing those might just solve the issue:



Yes, it does:



The wings also have fit issues, though I don’t have a picture of it. The outer ends of the lower wing halves are bent so they seem to peel away from the upper halves. One of the two could be fixed by just glueing it down and pressing with my fingers until the glue set, the other required actual bending (carefully) to get it more or less straight again, then glueing and clamping.

 

[dave]

A good start.
I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I recall reading a memoir of a lightning pilot who said the cockpit was not very big and you could recognise a lightning pilot because his head was tilted to one side.

 

[Jakko]

I guess I’ll have to use the kit figure because I still can’t find my old ones, so I’ve more or less given up on that plan. Maybe I’ll just shave a bit off his bottom to make him sit deeper in the cockpit.

 

[Jakko]

The cockpit is done:



Just a simple paint job: mostly medium grey with a dark grey wash for some depth effect, and the decals for the instrument panels look better than I had expected, largely because they turn out to be printed in black and white, rather than black only as they appear to be while on the backing paper. On the downside, they have to soak for a time that reminds me of old Tamiya decals (several minutes at least) before they even begin to come loose. This doesn’t bode well for adding all those stencils to the plane later on.

And with the pilot added as well:



He’s also been painted in basically the colours indicated in the instructions, except I painted his lower face black to represent an oxygen mask (which is actually on his chest). I then added a quick-shade hrey glaze over the whole figure followed by matt varnish.

Next, I of course wanted to put the fuselage together with the cockpit trapped between the halves. At that point I discovered another gap at the top, almost as big as before, which eventually turned out to be because the cockpit, and especially the instrument panel, is too wide. Shaving both down resulted in this (note the shape of the panel):



That fit, though I still had to tightly tape the front of the fuselage top and bottom to get it to fit as it should around the cockpit.

Good, all done, we can proceed! Right?



Nope Something is seriously wrong with that instrument panel, because there’s a gap of about 1 mm on either side if I put the top bit on. I first thought that the whole cockpit might sit too high, but since the canopy fits over the seat (just), it probably doesn’t. Airfix screwed up something quite badly here, IMHO, because the panel can’t sit lower in the cockpit than I put it. I guess I’ll have to cut down the top too, but luckily not much of the panel decal is actually visible so it shouldn’t be a major problem.

 

[flyjoe180]

Hey Jakko, the content of our previous Lightning GB might be of interest to you in helping with some of your kit's issue: http://www.scale-models.co.uk/forums/papa695s-ee-lightning-gb-july-dec-2017.299/

 

[papa 695]

Looks like your having as much fun with this one Jakko, as I'm having with the FW190 build I'm doing.

 

[Jakko]

Hey Jakko, the content of our previous Lightning GB might be of interest to you in helping with some of your kit's issue: http://www.scale-models.co.uk/forums/papa695s-ee-lightning-gb-july-dec-2017.299/

Thanks for that, I’ve been browsing a bit there and came across this quote by yourself:

Next mission will be the cockpit IP coaming. Dry fitting shows a large gap and it doesn't sit flush with the cockpit sides.

That sounds like exactly the same problem I’m having here. Everything else seems to fit fine, which makes this an even stranger issue.

 

[Jakko]

It turned out to mainly be another ejector pin mark, underneath the cowling. This model has serious problems with those — for example, one side of the missile mounts has two pin marks, but on one mount they were raised but on the other, recessed so I had to fill them.

As a result of fixing all of this, I now have the model just about finished:



The model is wheels-up because I intend to pose it on a flying stand that I still have to build.

 

[Wouter]

Nice to see a Lightning being built. The late Mr. Tim White would be thrilled. Looking good there so far mate!

Cheers

 

[Jakko]

Aside from the fit issues because of the ejector pin marks, the bent wings and the instrument panel, this is a very straightforward kit. Of course it was simpler for me because I didn’t fit the landing gear, but if you know how to fix minor fit issues it’s definitely one I’d recommend. Now I need to build a stand for it, but what I have in mind has a few features that mean I have to think it through some more before I can do that.

 

[boatman]

Hi Jakko as wouter has said its nice to see the lighting being built on here I have just built one about 6 months ago an fitted 2mm led's in for nav an landing light's as I like to light my model's up its the airfix 1/48 scale kit an its been laying upstairs in my model room for must have been at least the last ten to fithteen yrs an I never felt like building it as I had the carrier Nimitz to build. so when I finished it I started on my hms Norfolk build but my mate said when you goin to build that lighting so ship build stops an I thought it wought be a change to do it so it happened an a few more plastic kits as well since then. but the lighting hold 's a special place in my heart as I live close to raf coltishall which is now closed down but when I was young I used to go on to the base with my dad as he was the heavy duty crane driver for the base an see the real plane's up close an it was fanstastic an I also saw a lightning crashing back in jan 62 I think . Saw the poilot's eject nr over head an went to see the crash site on me bike before it was cordoned off fantastic days miss them a lot any way back to your model what sqr colour's are you going to do the model in ? sorry for runnin on but that's me wonderfull memoryies chris

 

[Jakko]

This one will be finished in natural metal (I sprayed it with an aluminium colour last week, but not done anything else with it yet) with a black tail, using the decals that came with the kit for that finish — so just what you see on the boxtop at the start of this thread, really. Only difference is that I fitted the belly with gun ports instead of the plain ones, because I thought they looked more interesting.

I also started on the flying base, but that involved trying to stretch perspex rod (like stretching sprue, but this is 8 mm thick), and that didn’t exactly work as I had envisaged That’s to say, the clear rod first turned white on heating it (using a hot-air paint stripper), and snapped when I tried to stretch it. I’m still trying to think of a good alternative for what I have in mind.

 

[boatman]

Hi Jacco why not use a bit of Perspex as it clear cut to about 4mm wide an same thickness ? chris

 

[stillp]

I also started on the flying base, but that involved trying to stretch perspex rod (like stretching sprue, but this is 8 mm thick), and that didn’t exactly work as I had envisaged That’s to say, the clear rod first turned white on heating it (using a hot-air paint stripper), and snapped when I tried to stretch it. I’m still trying to think of a good alternative for what I have in mind.

Jakko, you need really good temperature control to heat form Perspex, as the temperature difference between it softening and going opaque (due to internal bubbles) is very small. You'd have more chance of success with styrene or ABS.

Pete

 

[Fernando N]

Hi Jakko, if making your own fails you can also order some from these shops:
http://www.bouwplastics.nl/staven/plexiglas-rondstaf-helder-50cm.html
http://www.sjaakshobbyshop.nl/index...Path=155_156&zenid=75m06bs7k2475utmajn0unhqf0
Bought from them before and they offer good service.
HTH

 

[Deleted member 4539]

Sorry that I'm late to this.
Very nice work.

 

[Jakko]

Jakko, you need really good temperature control to heat form Perspex, as the temperature difference between it softening and going opaque (due to internal bubbles) is very small. You'd have more chance of success with styrene or ABS.

Probably, yes. I just used the 8 mm rod because I had it at hand (an old curtain rod ), but It’s clearly not suitable for what I’ve got in mind.

Hi Jakko, if making your own fails you can also order some from these shops

It looks like the diameter I need is for sale at those links, so thanks for those, I’ll probably order from them soon.

 

[Jakko]

Hi Jacco

You’re not Dutch are you, given that spelling of my name?

why not use a bit of Perspex as it clear cut to about 4mm wide an same thickness ?

That’s more or less the plan: get rod of the diameter I actually need instead of trying tos stretch thicker sprue down to the right diameter. I’d still like to be able to heat-form it for aesthetic reasons, though.