1/72 scale BAC Lightning F6 (Trumpeter kit) |
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The
English Electric (later BAC British Aircraft Corporation) Lightning
was a very high speed Mach 2+ interceptor of the Cold War and used
in the RAF. It had the particular configuration of having two engines on
top of each other staggered. It also had a almost straight tapered highly
swept wing.
Most Lightnings were armed with two 30mm Aden canons and with the Firestreak or Red Top air to air missiles. The F2.A had the Firestreak missiles and nose mounted Aden canons. The F6 had Red Top missiles and usually also canons in a belly fairing. The F6 could also accommodate two large fueltanks on top of the wings! In the past, several 1/72 kits of the Lightning appeared, many re-issues and many not accurate. First was FROG (later Hasegawa reboxing) and than the better Airfix Lightning. This was the best kit for many years, than came Matchbox and some specialist resin kits. Now Trumpeter comes with several Lightning kits that are by far the best in the scale (including one in 1/32 scale!, so as alternative to the well sought after and excellent vacuform ECHELON kit). Look here for a build on that kit in 1/32 scale.
The kit missiles are transparant,
so you can suggest the glass seeker nose.
Trumpeter markings are included for
two aircraft:
The roundel colours are inaccurate
so the roundels are to be substituted by others like from XTRADECAL.
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Building
the model
I started with cutting off the rear
portion of the fuselage halves to cater for the replacement resin set from
HERITAGE.
Also, this was done for the resin
belly fairing area for the other HERITAGE set.
I had to close some moulding inaccuracies in the HERITAGE resin part tailpipe area. These tiny gaps were closed with superglue and baking soda and scalpelled in shape. The belly was also put in place. The nose cone bullet was supplied
in the AIRES set in metal as well, and this fits after a bit of trimming
into the Trumpeter intake ducting.
For the stabilizers, I again drilled
two small holes to fit a metal linking pin later on for better strength.
Now it was time to fill any remaining small gaps. I had to fill also a
gap at the base joint of the vertical tail, and the link was strengthened
as well with a linking metal pin which fitted in an open drilled hole in
the rear resin part.
The ventral fins below the tail were
slightly reduced in length.
The model was ready for a first paint
layer. The landing gear and smaller bits and obviously also not the canopy
were not yet fitted. After a satisfactory result, the overall model was
given a coat of light grey base coat to check for any flaws with the airbrush.
Some small corrections were made with putty and the corrected ventral fins
fitted, filling gaps with white glue.
This was also done for the smaller parts to be fitted later such as gear doors and stabilizers. Next came a few coats of ALCLAD II colour Highly Polished Aluminium which came on nicely. The rear fuselage ring at the exhaust, the intake ring and some smaller panels were given a slightly different sheen of ALCLAD II Aluminium. I avoided masking and simply used post-it paper with cut out holes. The main model now had its colour coats. It was decided to put on the decals with markings at this stage before fitting the vulnerable nose gear and main gears. I opted to use decals for a Lightning F6 from RAF Squadron no.56 based at RAF Wattisham around 1976 from MODELDECAL set 99. This has very nice markings. The roundels came from an XTRACOLOUR roundel decalset.
During application of the upper wing walkways, I found the Trumpeter decals to be a bit flimsy with non-consistent thickness. I used striping from striping decalset. The moving canopy edges have yellow bits as well and these were painted. Some bits were painted with brush
to complete the model.
The model was finished by fitting
the remainder of the parts like gears, refuelling probe, stabilizer with
a metal linking pin from a paperclip, pitot tube and air brakes. The windshield
needed a tiny bit of white glue to close the gaps and some fine retouching
with a fine brush.
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This completed the model and the
overall looks for me are pleasing.
NOTE: a single small mirror was fitted in the centre of the open canopy: this is not yet seen on the pictures.
A nice Lightning model in the 1/72 collection!
on a display at a show
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Created this page October 28, 2009 |