Author Topic: Lightning T5  (Read 11821 times)

Bigkev

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #15 on: May 27, 2016, 07:46:33 AM »
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
I hope my next is always better

Roger

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #16 on: May 27, 2016, 07:49:08 PM »
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

Roger

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #17 on: May 31, 2016, 06:19:33 PM »
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.

Roger

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #18 on: May 31, 2016, 06:24:30 PM »
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

Bigkev

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #19 on: May 31, 2016, 07:58:41 PM »
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
I hope my next is always better

Wizzel

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #20 on: June 01, 2016, 07:50:52 AM »
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!

Roger

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #21 on: June 02, 2016, 09:25:26 AM »
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

Roger

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #22 on: June 16, 2016, 09:17:32 PM »
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

Roger

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #23 on: June 28, 2016, 02:10:41 PM »
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

Bigkev

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #24 on: June 28, 2016, 09:29:45 PM »
Hi Roger,
Nice work, and nice to see the Tamiya White Tape 'in action'.
Look forward to seeing how it progresses.
Cheers,
Bigkev
I hope my next is always better

Roger

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #25 on: July 02, 2016, 04:58:50 PM »
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

Roger

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #26 on: August 11, 2016, 09:05:32 AM »
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

Haddock

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #27 on: August 11, 2016, 10:49:30 AM »
How about a ship next.
Haddock.

Roger

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #28 on: August 11, 2016, 04:50:53 PM »
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

Haddock

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Re: Lightning T5
« Reply #29 on: August 11, 2016, 11:12:26 PM »
Disappointed, very disappointed, I feel a bit let down now.
Haddock.