The SwAF 'Acro Blixt' F36 Lightning

[PR19_Kit]

I could fit the upper and lower gun ports from the F2A kit.

[The Wooksta!]

The lower fuselage gunports - if that option is used, the guns and ammunition take the place of the electronics for the Firestreak missiles, the upper guns are replaced with more electronics for Red Top.  Don't forget Lightning had a huge amount packed into an exceedingly tight fuselage, hence all the workarounds.

One of the F3.6 proposals had the lower guns, missiles on inboard pylons, and the electronics went in the front of the big belly tank.  I'd go with the underwing gun pods, it's the easiest way round it.  In any case, would a display squadron need guns?  Keep the missiles though as they gave extra lift. Display pilots found them quite useful.

[PR19_Kit]

Maybe the missiles are dummies for the aerobatic team?  And they still carry both sets of guns. 

[PR19_Kit]

A veritable ARSENAL of IR missiles for my various builds at the moment. 

Only two of these are for the F36 Lightnings though.



A mixture of Airfix Firestreaks, and Alley Cat Red Tops, with the various pylons mixed and matched. I only had to scratchbuild SIX of the Red Tops control fins............ 

[PR19_Kit]

The F36 'Blixt' (Swedish for 'Lightning') has been fully assembled now, well the main bits of it anyway, and it all fits rather well. The new Alley Cat wing parts fit very well indeed, and I'm quite impressed, but the new, shorter belly tank, less so. That needed a fair few PSR sessions to match it with the F2A fuselage, but it got there in the end.

I added the longer cable ducts, as fitted to the F3s and F6s, by filing down some narrow sprue (from the AZ Attacker kit actually) and they don't look too bad. And as seen above the new Red Tops have been mated with the original Firestreak launch rails and are ready to be glued in on final assembly.

And it has ended up with the upper pair of 30 mm cannon as the blank fairings are not included in the F2A kit, and in any case the Swedes liked having a couple of cannon handy.   

I'll prime it all tomorrow and I expect some more PSR will follow, as it almost always does.

[PR19_Kit]

The Lightning's cockpit's painted now and the canopy's in place prior to masking up. But BOTH canopy halves were cracked inside the clear envelope. 



The cracks aren't all that visible, but they're a right pain nonetheless, and a direct result of Airfix's minimal packaging with their Starter Sets. It's just a cardboard envelope really, with none of the rigidity of the original box sides. I wonder how many kids have been disappointed by a broken and cracked kit before they even started it?

Once the canopy's masked the whole aircraft will be painted in various NMF shades prior to over-painting the spine and wing leading edges with the lovely Swedish blue in the pic above.

[PR19_Kit]

The NMF's been painted for some time, and the fin, spine and wing LEs done in as neat Swedish blue as I could find. The blue is a bit too dark and metallic to match, but it's the best I could find.

Sadly my home printed decals were a DISASTER and I've had to reprint them with a more correct shape for the all-over fin decal, and hopefully they'll be in place in a day or two.

Then, as with the Swift F10, it's the trim painting, the landing gear, the Red Tops and any greeblies that are needed, and it's done. Hopefully by the end of the LHC GB.

[NARSES2]

, and it's done. Hopefully by the end of the LHC GB.

You can always use your power as a GB Mod 

[PR19_Kit]

You can always use your power as a GB Mod 

What makes you think Fred and WON'T do that anyway?   

[PR19_Kit]

Here's the F36 in the paint shop, after a mega-masking session.

You cannot view this attachment.

Maybe some decaling later on.

[Gondor]

You can always use your power as a GB Mod 

What makes you think Fred and WON'T do that anyway?   

Does that mean we can ask for a two month extension?

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Does that mean we can ask for a two month extension?

At the rate I'm going on my Tu-13, a two YEAR extension would be more likely! 

[zenrat]

You can always use your power as a GB Mod 

What makes you think Fred and WON'T do that anyway?   

Does that mean we can ask for a two month extension?

Gondor

Why have power if you can't exploit it?

 

[PR19_Kit]

You can always use your power as a GB Mod 

What makes you think Fred and WON'T do that anyway?   

Does that mean we can ask for a two month extension?

Gondor

Why have power if you can't exploit it?

 

      

[NARSES2]

You can always use your power as a GB Mod 

What makes you think Fred and WON'T do that anyway?   

Does that mean we can ask for a two month extension?

Gondor

You can ask