BAC Lightning F.6

[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 :sad: 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.php?main_page=index&cPath=155_156&zenid=75m06bs7k2475utmajn0unhqf0

Bought from them before and they offer good service.
HTH

[Guest]

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

[Guest]

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.

[Guest]

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.

[Guest]

I’ve been painting thr Lightning now. First I sprayed it silver (about a month ago ), and after quite some thought on how to make it look like bare aluminium, I decided to paint random panels in silver mixed with a little bit of other colour, mainly gun metal, light grey and/or white. So far, I’ve gotten to this stage and I think it looks fairly good, though I’m not there yet:

[ATTACH]329478[/ATTACH][ATTACH]329479[/ATTACH][ATTACH]329480[/ATTACH]

[boatman]

Nicely done Jakko you have achived the panel colours great it really sets the plane off an it looks a good fit

[Guest]

Thanks, good to read some confirmation that I’m on the right track All I need to do is paint about as many bits again as I’ve done now, and I think I can move on to the next stage (painting the tail fin etc.), then the decals.

[colin m]

the couple of reviews of this kit I read don’t mention such an obvious fit problem at all

Which is a little odd as a few of us on this forum found this problem out for ourselves. Maybe google doesn't like this forum !
But anyway, she is looking very nice at the moment. I like the effect of all the different panels you have created.

[Guest]

Which is a little odd as a few of us on this forum found this problem out for ourselves.

I probably didn’t dig deep enough to find those posts, then ISTR I read a couple of reviews before deciding to buy the kit, but none of them pointed out this particular problem. Not that it would have stopped me buying it, but it would have saved me a fair amount of time trying to work out what was interfering with fit.

But anyway, she is looking very nice at the moment. I like the effect of all the different panels you have created.

Cheers

[Guest]

Great paintwork with the different panels.

[Guest]

Not different enough yet

[Guest]

Damned paint incompatibility … !

I had the different panels done to my satisfaction, and painted the fin, upper nose and cockpit canopy matt black. Because I thought the finish might be a bit rough for all the decals to go onto this model (it comes with what seems like a full set of stencilling), I sprayed a coat of gloss varnish from a spraying can over it. See the result:

[ATTACH]329935[/ATTACH]

It looks like all the silver base paint wrinkled slightly, and some of the paints I put over it did so even more. The black on the canopy didn’t, but the silver below it caused the extreme chipping effect shown in the photo — that this isn’t the black paint’s fault is obvious because the tail fin looks fine.

Anyway, I’ve decided to go with it — I absolutely don’t feel like stripping the model and repainting all of it, and kind of hope that a layer of matt varnish later on will solve things.

So I then proceeded to begin applying the decals. Here’s the lines on the left wing, which is all I’ve done so far because I needed to leave them to dry before I could begin on the other side.

[ATTACH]329934[/ATTACH]

Airfix provides decals for the red and yellow bits you can see, but I felt that painting these would be simpler.

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
That's a bummer sorry to see this reaction with the paint.

[Guest]

On the positive side, it helps make the panels appear different