Bridlington & Wolds Scale Model Club Forum
Models => Modelling Projects => Topic started by: Roger on May 10, 2016, 07:11:22 PM
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Hi All
Now that I am back from my travels, and the new windows are all fitted (not by me of course), it is time to start a new project. Hopefully this will be finished by the time I get the parts to finish the Mirage, so a quick project is needed.
I bought the Sword 1/72 Lightning T5 when it was released, and thought this should make a suitable model.
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Reading another forum there was much discussion about why the finished model did not look quite right. The problem seems to be with the nose area, and the forum discussion centred around the overall length of the model. However it mainly involved comparing the Sword kit with the Airfi new tool Lightnings.
Comparing the kit fuselage with Richard Caruana's plans in the Modellers Datafile suggests the length is right, but that the nose is seriously undernourished. Measuring the intake indicates that it is 1mm taller than it is wide, when it should be circular. Also the kit windscreen and canopy were too wide for the fuselage.
Taking all of this into consideration, I decided to leave the length of the fuselage alone, but add a 1mm shim at the top and bottom of the intake, tapering back to nothing behind the cockpit area. In addition a 0.5mm shim was added to the lower rear fuselage so that the two exhausts were f equal width. The shims at the front were left proud of the fuselage and profiled to the new fuselage shape I wanted - these will be faired in with filler later in the build.
As always it s easier to show what I did with pictures, so here goes....
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And finally this is the new profile. It is not a lot different - the top fuselage is the modified one, but does give a better outline I think. Also note the new velux window in the modelling room - I can now see what colour I am painting things, at least until the owls come out to play!
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Nice One Roger.
Some serious modeling going on there.
Looking forward to more pics.
Andy.
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Hi Roger,
Your attention to detail and accuracy is to be applauded. 1mm is not much, but I know that you want it to be as true to the real thing as it can be. I have the Sword F.1 and F.3 Lightnings in my stash. I'll wait to see how this one comes along. It will probably give me the inspiration to build them.
Cheers,
Bigkev
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I think 2mm on a length of 200mm is not noticeable, however on a width of 15mm it definitely is, especially when it makes the nose intake oval! It will be interesting to see how it all turns out anyway.
From reading the reviews the F1 and F3 don't suffer quite the same problems so you should be fine. One of them would look good on our stand at Telford with my T5 don't you think?
I have now painted the interior bits, I will post a pic later.
R
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OK, here are the interior bits painted and ready to go. The kit includes colour photo etch for the instrument panel. I improved this a little by glazing the rear panel with sellotape, and putting a dark wash over the front face to bring out the etched detail. Difficult to see on the photos, but I liked the result.
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This shows the intake compressor stage for the lower engine - difficult to see when the fuselage is closed! The seats still need a bit more work, plenty of colour photo etch to go on. They will be fitted later in the build to make making easier.
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This is the resin jet pipe - nice detail I think. Airbrushed matt black, then Alclad Steel, then a bit of masking and the front section airbrushed Alclad Stainless Steel.
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And this is the other end, the intake centre body. Alclad aluminium, then the radar cone painted in Xtracrylx Interior Green. Maskol was patchily sponged on, then a topcoat of Xtracrylix Russian Tank Green was sprayed on. When the maskol was rubbed off the effect was a bit stark, so a quick blow over with some more tank green was applied. The tip was then tapped on a piece of card with silver paint on to get the steel tip of the radome.
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And last for now, all of the above was fitted in the fuselage, that then was glued together. The wings were glued together, and then taped to the fuselage to see what it would look like - progress I call that!
Cheers for now
R
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Hi Roger,
Coming along nicely, well like Lightning actually! Sorry couldn't resist.
Like the idea of the instrument panel, using sellotape, a great tip.
Also getting the point of the cone painted. Great simple idea, I'll definitely try that one.
Keep up the good work,
Bigkev
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Excellent work Roger, I am enjoying seeing it coming together.
I shall have to call you John Travolta in the future - the speed is like "greased lightning"
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Morning Roger and nice to see you on here. I'm looking forward to picking up some useful hints and tips from you well written articles and excellently put together kits. Keep 'em coming!
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Hi Everyone
Some more progress has now been made on the Lightning. The main construction is now complete, next will be priming, correcting the defects and then painting.
Fit was quite good - apart from the filler to reshape the nose, I just used Mr Surfacer to fill any gaps, and as you can see not much was needed. A few details were added - missing intakes and the brake chute retaining point above the exhausts. I decided to do this one without missiles so fitted shaped blanks over the ends of the pylons. (I have several single seaters and a T4 in the stash so there will be plenty of opportunities for more aggressive loads).
I couldn't find a single photo of a Lightning parked with the flaps down, so put them in the up position. (As an aside I was watching an official 1944 training film about the P51 on YouTube earlier - did you know they were supposed to be parked with the flaps down to stop people standing on them. Just thought someone other than me would find that interesting, but reading it back I'm not so sure now!!).
Hope you are all busy modelling,
Cheers for now
R
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Hi Roger,
Nice that. I'm liking seeing this one progress. Your tips are very useful.
I agree with you on the Lightning flaps, I've never seen a picture of one with them drooped.
What colours will this one wear??
Bigkev
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Hi Kev, I was going for a medium sea grey/barley grey LTF scheme from the kit, but I found a photo of a dark sea grey over natural metal with red/blue roundels and big LTF lion on the fin. This is on an xtradecal sheet that arrived in the post today, so that is my current plan.
I think the best Lightning scheme is bare metal, but I have a T4 and F2a that I want to finish like that.
Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind by tomorrow!!! There are just so many attractive schemes for the Lightning.
Cheers
R
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Hi All
Back again and a little more progress made - had it rained as per the forecast perhaps more would have been achieved on the modelling front. Instead the garden is looking tidier and my tennis serve is improving. Anyway, I digress.
Several rounds of filling, sanding and priming were carried out. After the primer was smoothed all over and any sanding removed it was time to start colouring in.
As a rule, I like to paint the small details first, then mask them before applying the main colours. In this case I start with the polished steel nose ring - Alclad gloss black primer followed by Alclad Stainless Steel. However I didn't want gloss black under the dull aluminium as it would give too much reflectance, so out with the masking tape.
To mask round the curved fuselage I cut a mask with a compass cutter. Hopefully the attached photos show the principle of setting the compass cutter to the correct distance. By imagining a line tangential to the point where the mask is required and projecting this forward to intersect with the centre line of the aircraft we can set the cutter (this is 'x' in the diagram). I made the mask in two pieces - easier to handle, and I didn't cut a big enough piece of tape in the first place. The final photo shows the end result.
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Next is the anti glare panel on the nose, Tamiya XF1 black in this case. Here I used a mask cut with a punch - the photo shows the idea. Of course the actual mask I used in this case was the surround from the piece of tape you can see in the picture.
I'll be on to the natural metal undersurfaces next - further installment when that has happened.
Cheers all,
R
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Hi Roger,
Now that's what I call a great tip in the masking of the nose ring. I always wondered if there was easy way of working out the radius of the curve. Now I see there is, thanks very much for that tip.
it's looking good so far.
Something I have never thought of was painting the 'smaller areas first. I always go for the main finish, then do the smaller bits. Again seeing the standard of your work, means I must at least try it, and see how it works for me.
A great build Roger, so far.
I think my Airfix lightning F2A is about to appear from the stash, then maybe a Sword moulding............
Cheers for the informative build so far.
Bigkev
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This is fab! I love reading and seeing how you all achieve your results. So many different ways of getting there and I'm trying like mad to keep up with it all. The Lightning has always had a place in my heart as I grew up in Beverley and remember hearing them zooming up from Leconfield - they were the curse of the town in them days - and one of my favourite childhood books was Thunder and Lighnings by Jan Mark, about a lad who moves near to RAF Coltishall and makes friends with a lad who is mad keen on Lightnings. Terrific stuff, so keep them little bits of trivia coming Roger!
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Thanks guys for the feedback, much appreciated. As you may have read there will be a slight pause in proceedings caused by:
a. destruction of my airbrush compressor
b. a trip to Iceland to ride the local horses
Before the compressor went pop had refilled and resanded the upper nose of the Lightning as I was't quite happy with the profile. I have also found that the T Bird has a differently shaped anti glare panel, so will need to correct that when I get going again.
Until then, happy modelling to you all
R
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Progress at last. Using the new compressor (very pleased so far!), i painted the underside with Alclad Dark Aluminium. This highlighted a few problems which were wet sanded with fine wet and dry. All of the paint was then smoothed with Micro mesh before repainting (see photo). This process was repeated a couple of times until I was happy with it. I think this is an important part of the modelling process - don't think "that will do", be prepared to go back and do it again until you are satisfied.
Next I masked off some panels that were to remain dark aluminium, sprayed some other panels stainless steel, masked them off and finally repainted the whole underneath with Alclad Duralumin (see second photo). Once the masking was removed a basic natural metal finish was left.
Off to a funeral tomorrow on the South Coast - topsides will be painted on my return.
Cheers all and thanks for your patience,
R
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Back again and we have made a bit more progress. Before I started the masking for the Dark Sea Grey, I found some Tamiya "Maskng tape for curves". Photo below shows this in use under the wings, so easy to use and goes round a fairly tight curve as you can see. Thoroughly recommended, though not really for use on straight lines. I tried a little and it is hard to keep it straight!
All masked up and Xtracrylix Dark Sea Grey was applied, followed by several coats of Klear, wet sanding any rough spots back in between coats. Of course this effort was mainly directed at the locations where decals will be applied. The other two pics show the result.
Decal ready ar last.
Cheers for now
R
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Hi Roger,
Nice work, and nice to see the Tamiya White Tape 'in action'.
Look forward to seeing how it progresses.
Cheers,
Bigkev
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A little more progress here, basic painting and markings now complete.
The instructions were not very helpful with positioning the stencils provided on the kit sheet - I ended up using photos and the Airfix F2a instructions to make some sense of it all. There were a lot of decals that had no reference at all on the sheet and they weren't obvious on photos, so I have plenty of spares. The main items (everything but the stencils and wing walks) came from an Xtradecal sheet.
The black lines for the ventral tank were provided as straight sections on the kit decal sheet - this clearly wasn't going to work so I cut masks and painted them on.
I think the next step will be to tone it all down a little!
That's all for now,
Cheers
R
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And after a short delay, we have finally got a finished Lightning. As always the finishing off took quite a while - the undercarriage involved a total of 54 parts and the ejection seats a further 29. I have enclosed a couple of pictures of the finished article.
Note - I wasn't at all happy with the kit pitot and refuelling probes, so spent a bit of cash and used Master turned brass parts.
Thanks for following the build, hope it was of some interest to someone! Now to sort through a big pile of boxes to find the next project - happy days 8)
Cheers for now,
Roger
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How about a ship next.
Haddock.
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You mean a seaplane perhaps? Or maybe a Navy plane? Or perhaps a flying boat?
I think I'll leave the heavy stuff to you nautical types, I love to see what you do with them.
Already started the next project (the advantage of the rain this morning), I'll post about it when I have made some interesting progress.
R
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Disappointed, very disappointed, I feel a bit let down now.
Haddock.
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If you ONLY do a seaplane or flying boat -- you will ONLY have come over to the light grey side - NOT THE DARK SIDE.
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Sorry Haddock, didn't mean to disappoint!! I did think about a 1/48th lighter as used for transporting aircraft between shore and aircraft carrier at one time, but never found a drawing of one - maybe I'll revisit that. I also thought about a humber light buoy when I came back on the Hull ferry last time as they looked interesting, and they come in both red or green. But then I got home and saw the stack of boxes of aeronautical loveliness.......
Anyway MSea I'll never say never, maybe I'll at least go light grey at some point.
Come to think of it - my new project might end up naval and light grey, haven't quite decided on the final colour scheme yet.
R