A little work in progress

[Martin H]

Next pair of builds.
These are my first builds started this year.
Back to the Airfix Lightning again   

First the group shot


1st one.
Lightning F-2N. 29 sqn RAF late 1960's.


This is the Airfix F-2A kit built oob, bar the Freightdog Genie nuclear air to air missile set.

The idea for the antiflash scheme is borrowed from a build the Wooksta did years ago. How ever i slightly tweaked it to have a bare metel underside.
I was orginaly going to re work the squadron bars into antiflash pink, but looking at V force squadron markings showed most of then retained full color unit badges. so I ditched that idea to keep the build simple. The serial is from a so called black out block.
This one could also count as a project. so it may make appearances on the PC sig stand as well as ours.

2nd build, this time purely a whiff.
Lightning F-6 (MLU). 5sqn RAF, Binbrook 1997.


What if the radar issues with the Tornado ADV took longer to sort out than they did. This is my take on a "quick and low cost" (yeah right!) update for the lightning, to keep it going a few more years while we wait for the Tonka ADV project to get its act togeather.

The MLU involved increasing the internal fuel load and replacing the old overwing ferry tanks with supersonic rated replacements. War load was enhanced by adding underwing hard points to allow another pair of missile rails to be fitted, and replaceing the original pair of 30mm adens with a single 27mm mauser, via the Tornado program. The radar was replaced with the same unit as the navy's Seaharrier FRS-1. In theory allowing the ugraded Lightning to be able to deploy Sidewinders, how ever they were only normaly fitted with winders for airshow appearances, as the RAF had a plentifull supply of Red top and Radar red tops for its remaining Lightnings.

Enough upgrades were carried out to allow both 5 and 11 sqaudrons to to keep going at full strength, plus a few extras for the LTF. A few T-5's were also involved. however they did not get the increased fuel tankage, but got the radar and weapons updates.

The belly tank rework is thanks to a Freightdog Lightning FGA set.
Radar Redtops (again from Freightdog) on the main missle racks.
Underwing pylons as per the Saudi and Kuwaiti Lightnings (from odds and Ordanance) with redtops (Freightdog again).
Paint job and most of the decals as per the kit instructions. Bar the squadron markings. They came from an old Modeldecal sheet.
Oh! you may have noticed the overwing tanks dont look right. Youed be right, they got "updated" as well. They are the out board drop tanks from an Italeri F-4E and they have been reversed as well.
Both builds have had the nose probe replaced with a metel replacement from Master model of Poland. They show up on ebay fairly frequently and look a lot better than the kit one.

[DogfighterZen]

Although i prefer the F.6, that's excellent work on both!!

[su27rules]

Nice!!

[PR19_Kit]

The refuelling probe on the F6 is on the opposite side............

[Martin H]

The refuelling probe on the F6 is on the opposite side............

and? not on this one it aint

[Captain Canada]

Love 'em both ! The -2N just looks right, defo one for the idea bank. I really like the 6 as well. Just looks right !

[NARSES2]

Nice work on all 3 Martin, particularly like the F-6 (MLU)  - has there ever been an ELU ; end of life update ? 

Swear I flew in that 707 when I flew BA's charter airline to Kenya in 79 ? Fooled me for sure, my first thought was "what's wiffy with that ?" 

[PR19_Kit]

The refuelling probe on the F6 is on the opposite side............

and? not on this one it aint

I was just commenting on a difference, not criticising.

[Captain Canada]

Nice work on all 3 Martin

This is why it's good to come back and read the comments after you post ! Thanks for the head's up Chris, I'd have missed that one !

Looks right at home in those colours, and as you say Chris, believable to the point where it looks like a model of the real thing !

[Martin H]

The refuelling probe on the F6 is on the opposite side............

and? not on this one it aint

I was just commenting on a difference, not criticising.

I know Kit. Hence the smiley.

[Martin H]

Swear I flew in that 707 when I flew BA's charter airline to Kenya in 79 ? Fooled me for sure, my first thought was "what's wiffy with that ?"  

The old BA scheme was similar, replace the fin top blue section with red and delete the coat of arms and the red cheat line and you almost have the original livery. Altou from memory, the privatized Landor scheme looked very smart and business like, where as the older state owned scheme it was based on looked rather dull and shabby. (to my mind anyway)

[PR19_Kit]

Altou from memory, the privatized Landor scheme looked very smart and business like, where as the older state owned scheme it was based on looked rather dull and shabby. (to my mind anyway)

Right on! 

The Landor scheme was the high point in BA's various schemes to my mind. Since then it's been down hill all the way.

Bizarrely their wonderful 'To Fly, To Serve' advert doesn't feature a SINGLE Landor schemed aircraft! 

It's still a great vid though, especially the last few seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XozHLoqwp_4

[NARSES2]

Swear I flew in that 707 when I flew BA's charter airline to Kenya in 79 ? Fooled me for sure, my first thought was "what's wiffy with that ?"  

The old BA scheme was similar, replace the fin top blue section with red and delete the coat of arms and the red cheat line and you almost have the original livery. Altou from memory, the privatized Landor scheme looked very smart and business like, where as the older state owned scheme it was based on looked rather dull and shabby. (to my mind anyway)

I'm going to see if I can find my photo's of that holiday now and look for it. It was my first long haul trip and they dropped us at the end of the runway in Mombassa and we had to walk to the terminal so I took loads of shots  A German charter landed after us but as it was just after the terrorist attack on German tourists out there they gave them the one terminal berth, understandably. Only problem with the half mile hike was the taxing aircraft and the fact that when we had left Gatwick it was snowing so I had a sheepskin on......it was 100F plus 

[PR19_Kit]

Only problem with the half mile hike was the taxing aircraft and the fact that when we had left Gatwick it was snowing so I had a sheepskin on......it was 100F plus 

Hehe, I had the opposite problem when I took a quick week's break in Majorca back in 1979 or so.

We flew in there by Spantax Convair CV 990 Coronado (drooool.....) only to find it was SNOWING as we landed at Palma! All the pics they took as we walked down the airstairs were ruined as all you could see was the snow!

[Martin H]

Two more finished. Both were started in the 2nd half of last year.
I started nailing this one togeather at the end of last August.


This is the General Aircraft GAL38 Fleet Shadower carrier borne long range patrol aircraft. Its the Akatombo resin kit. A very nice build for what is in reality a Garage kit. Based on the good build experiance I had with this kit, I went and aquired his Blackburn B20 flying boat.

In real life a single prototype was built, but the project was discontinued as it was very much a niche single role aircraft.
The paint job is a fairly standard Fleet Air Arm scheme and the markings are for 825 sqn flying off HMS Campania. In reality 825 was a Wildcat squadron.

Althou it does look a bit like a 4 engined heavy, its quite small. The next pic has a Spitfire alongside to show how it compares size wise.


Next one.

The Freightdog SARO SR-177 strike/reconassance fighter. Colins most recent offering of the SR177, built OOB.

You have a few options with this kit. Either the recci version with the belly pack as a duel fuel/camera bay unit.
Or as I did the nuclear strike version with a single Red beard "target marker". The wing tip pods are unguided rocket pods.

Squadron markings are for Treble two squadron (222 sqd) RAF serving with RAF Germany sometime in the 1960's. In reality I beleave treble two was a 2TAF Hunter squadron.