E.E. Lightning F6 - 1/48 Airfix

[Guest]

Hi All, Re my last posting, a spare piece of canopy from my F16 was dipped in Klear and left for 48 Hrs to dry/cure, I then super glued a piece of scrap PE to it, and am pleased to report there was no damage to the surrounding area of the canopy from the super glue vapours, so this is the route I will take. Have cut out the PE for the canopy, still to shape it.

Have cut the Aires Resin parts for the exhaust and dry fitted them, and all seems to fit O.K. Am using the Airfix bulkhead for the airfix exhaust to reinforce the fuselage, the Aires exhaust still fits.

Problems when presenting up the air intake casing to the fuselage (see photo B20), if you line up the nose wheel bay with the fuselage there is a big misfit at the tail end of this casing at the 'bulkhead' I have chosen to leave it like this otherwise if you make the 'bulkhead fit, you have a large gap at the wheel bay and the cockpit tub sits too high. You need to trim off the bottom half of the 'bulkhead' as I have, if you take this route so that it fits inside the dorsal fuel tank. When fitting the cockpit tub, its a good idea to shim it up on a thin layer of blue tack before you super glue it in position, make sure the resin parts under the windscreen and behind the ejector seat are also a good fit before gluing, it takes quite a lot of dry fitting,

In order to make sure the model is not a tail sitter have packed some screws into blue tack and fitted it behind the ejector seat. Will have white metal undercarriages which will also help.

When glueing the fuselage halves, will be doing it in stages, travelling aft from the rear of the cockpit to the tail, then on the underside from the tail up to the yellow band, see photo B25, the last two photos show the miss match at the nose. Cheers Derek

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[Guest]

Obviously quite a challenge to get the fuselage together but your thought, planning and preparation seems to be paying off.

Have you seen the article in the latest edition of the Airfix Magazine on a Lightning build? You would find it very interesting as it's an unusual camoflage scheme and a very nicely detailed paint finish.

[Ian M]

Looking great Derek. Good to hear that the Klear protects the canopy parts from CA vapour. Those frames look fun. If you have to shape them a lot, if you dont know (and I bat you do) it will help 1000% if you anneal them before you start to shape them up.

I just hold them in some old tweezers and use a lighter. They should just glow deep cherry red and not bright red. You might risk melting them if they get too hot! Let them cool naturally and they will be nice and soft.

Glueing the fuselage looks fun.

Ian M

[stona]

Nice work there. You're not joking about a mis-match at the nose,yikes.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Thanks for your comments chaps; Richard I do have the magazine, I think they understate the amount of work involved in installing the Resin bits, also all the photos I took in the '60 shows the Flaps aligned with the wing, for all parked Lightnings and not lowered as the author implies, but so what if he likes the model that way, thats fine.

Finally got the nose section closed, the fuselage seams filled in and smoothed, and the lines re-scribed, also fitted the wings and tail. Some minor filling needed at the wing roots, but generally a good fit. Cheers Derek

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[yak face]

Looking good derek! its starting to look like the unforgettable silhouette that we all love and remember going vertically up at the airshows!! ( those of us old enough and lucky enough to have experienced the thunder of the' lightning climb' at the start of the display ) Keep it up matey , cheers tony

[spanner570]

Very nice Derek, coming together now.

I never did see one 'going for it'. Alas, I have to be content to seeing them dead in a museum.

Ron

[Dave W]

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!.

[Ian M]

If mine comes out half as good as your one Derek I will be well chuffed. Its looking very much like a Lightning now.

Ian M

[Guest]

Derek thats looking great,just a heads up foam safe(aka odorless) ca glue wo'nt fog plastics.

[Guest]

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!.

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

[Guest]

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]

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

[tr1ckey66]

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]

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