GB-44 1/48 EE Lightning T-4 - Military A/C of post-war time

[rochie]

Username : rochie
First name : Karl
Category : intermediate
Scale : 1/48
Manufacturer / Model : Sword models EE Lightning T-4
Extras : decals from EXTRADECAL

 

[rochie]

subject of my build will be XM 972 of 226 OCU when based at RAF Middleton St George (now my local airport)

a little history of 226 OCU (from Wiki)

It was first formed in August 1946 at RAF Molesworth under No. 11 Group of Fighter Command by redesignation of No. 1335 Conversion Unit with the mission of training fighter pilots. The unit operated a variety of aircraft, as befitted its general fighter pilot training mission. Those aircraft included the Gloster Meteor, Hawker Tempest, De Havilland Hornet and De Havilland Vampire.[citation needed]

226 OCU then relocated to RAF Bentwaters, Suffolk on 10 October 1946, training pilots for day fighter and fighter-reconnaissance roles consisting of four flights of de Havilland Hornet F.1, Hawker Tempest II, de Havilland Vampire FB.1 and Gloster Meteor F.3 and F.4. Later Meteor two seat Mk VIII trainers were added. Students trained on only one type during the course and did not fly other aircraft other than the Avro Anson I for twin engine familiarisation and the squadron North American Harvard I. At that time it was directed from Fighter Command Headquarters, Bentley Priory, via 11 Fighter Group at Hillingdon.[citation needed]

On 26 August 1949 220 OCU moved to RAF Driffield in Yorkshire where it disbanded for the first time by being redesignated as No. 203 Advanced Flying School.

The following month, September 1949, the unit was resurrected at RAF Stradishall and No. 226 OCU's service began a new chapter. In No. 12 Group, again in Fighter Command, the unit had the more specific mission of training Meteor pilots. This lasted until 1955 when the unit was disbanded for a second time.[citation needed]

Continuing the tradition of training fighter pilots, the OCU reformed in June 1963 at RAF Middleton St George, flying the English Electric Lightning with the redesignation of the Lightning Conversion Squadron.[1] It moved to RAF Coltishall in April 1964. During 1968 and 1969, the OCU was involved in the training of pilots of the Royal Saudi Air Force in flying their newly acquired Lightnings. On 30 September 1974, it was disbanded at RAF Coltishall, and the OCU's association with fighters came to an end.[2]

The next area where 226 OCU saw service was Scotland. Shifting emphasis to strike aircraft, 226 OCU reformed at RAF Lossiemouth the day after disbandment and undertook its peacetime role training pilots for the Sepecat Jaguar. Less well known was 226 OCU's wartime emergency role as a 'shadow squadron' or reserve unit made up principally of the squadron's instructors. From 1975[3] until 1991[4] the unit's wartime role was as an operational squadron in the front line assigned to SACEUR with twelve Jaguar aircraft, eight WE.177 nuclear bombs, and a variety of conventional weapons. In a high-intensity European war the unit's role was to support land forces on the Continent, first with conventional weapons and secondly with tactical nuclear weapons as required, should a conflict escalate to that stage. The apparent mismatch between aircraft numbers and nuclear bombs was a consequence of RAF staff planners concluding that there would be one-third attrition of aircraft in an early conventional phase, leaving the remaining survivors numerically strong enough to deliver the unit's entire stockpile of eight nuclear bombs.[5]

With the post-Cold War drawdown of the RAF the OCU fell victim to defence cuts in 1991 and was disbanded for the last time by redesignation to No. 16 (Reserve) Squadron,[6] although the redesignated unit continued with both its peacetime and wartime roles exactly as before, in its new guise as No. 16 (Reserve) Squadron until retirement of the WE.177 weapon.[7]

the kit and decals

 

[rochie]

history of RAF Middleton St George (again from Wiki)

Second World War
The airfield began its life as Royal Air Force Goosepool, and in 1941 became RAF Middleton St. George when the aerodrome opened under the auspices of Bomber Command. Whilst the nearest settlement was Middleton St George, the station acquired the Goosepool after the nearby farm.[2] In 1943 it was allocated to No. 6 Group, Royal Canadian Air Force.[3] A sub-station was located at RAF Croft, Yorkshire.[4] Squadrons based here include: 76 Squadron, which flew Handley Page Halifaxes, 78 Squadron, which flew Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys, 419 Squadron RCAF, which flew Vickers Wellingtons, Halifaxes, and Avro Lancasters, 420 Squadron RCAF, which flew Wellingtons, and 428 Squadron RCAF, which flew Wellingtons, Halifaxes, and Lancasters.[5]

Post war
After the war, the aerodrome served various squadrons and units including No. 13 Operational Training Unit (OTU), No. 2 Air Navigation School, No. 4 Flying Training School, and squadrons that used Gloster Meteors, Hawker Hunters, Gloster Javelins and English Electric Lightnings.[6] In 1947, the airfield became a satellite station of RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire.[7]

In 1962 Flight Officer Jean Oakes became the first woman to fly at over 1,000 mph. The London Times of 14 September 1962 reported that from RAF Middleton St George, she took over the controls from Flight Lieutenant John Smith and flew up and down the north east coast at about 1.6 mach.

The RAF left the station in 1964, but the aerodrome was reopened in 1966 as a civil airport.[8] The airfield was named Teesside International Airport in the 1960s, and was renamed Durham Tees Valley Airport in 2004.[9] In the late 1980s the entire Married Quarter estate was sold to a Roger Byron-Collins company and was renamed The Virginia Estate.

From 1968 to 1979, some of the former station buildings housed Middleton St George College of Education, a teacher training college.[10]

The officers' mess at the base was converted into the St George Hotel, complete with the RAF Middleton St George museum.[11]

With the gradual reduction to just 2 scheduled services and some sporadic summer holiday charter flights to & from the airport for several years, falling passenger numbers and the later introduction of a £6 per head / per flight levy, the spectre of total closure loomed large, despite high levels of anecdotal local support for the airport, allied to a generally held inability to understand why the owners, (whose original remit at purchase, was to revitalise the airport, but in reality did very little) to bring about any useful air services that the large potential catchment area of the original 5 owning local boroughs would use. With ongoing site redevelopment plans established and pushed forward by the owners, the potential sale of the airport to a new Combined Local Authority was announced in 2017.

In 2018, just days prior to the announcement of that sales completion, the St George Hotel closed its doors for the last time, and the future for what was the old Officers Mess building is now uncertain.[12] The small museum room within the Hotel has been relocated. With the sale, work began to raise the profile and to attract more services, both scheduled carriers and charters, and the selection of an established ground services agent that already operates a North East regional Airport has been seen as a positive step. In 2019, the newly elected Mayor of the Tees Valley Combined Authority announced the hugely desired return of the Airports' original name of Teesside International, from the controversial and unpopular name of DTVA made in 2004.[13]

 

[Airframes]

Good one Karl - looking forward to seeing how this goes together. Wouldn't mind one myself.

 

[rochie]

Good one Karl - looking forward to seeing how this goes together. Wouldn't mind one myself.

cheers Mate.

looks very similar in some ways to the Airfix kits, plastic is very hard and shiny like the Eduard Tempest kits when first released !
you get resin bang seats and after burner cans in the box too !

also note you get parts for both T-4 and the T-5's on the sprues as well as both firestreak and red top missiles

 

[Airframes]

Sounds good - might get one to do in camouflage, from the LTW.

 

[Jock Tamson]

Good choice, looks like a nice kit

 

[rochie]

Good choice, looks like a nice kit

Thanks Greg

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice one Karl.

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[nsmekanik]

 

[fubar57]

Very cool. I really have to remember the reason I stalled out on my F.6

 

[javlin]

Nice subject Karl but being a sword kit does that necessitate it to limit run kit?I ask for I thought they were involved with PCM kits which usually were a limit run.I went back and looked at kit parts looks like no tangs for tailplanes use tube glue followed by liquid a minute or two later.

 

[rochie]

Nice subject Karl but being a sword kit does that necessitate it to limit run kit?I ask for I thought they were involved with PCM kits which usually were a limit run.I went back and looked at kit parts looks like no tangs for tailplanes use tube glue followed by liquid a minute or two later.

Maybe a little mate.
there are tangs for the tails just very shallow and there are slots for them to fit into on the fuselage, its just they are not holes like most kits

 

[T Bolt]

Looks like a nice kit Karl. Looking forward to watching your build

 

[rochie]

Off work for four days from tuesday
wife will be in potters bar visiting the child, so no distractions apart from walking the dog now and then i should get plenty done on this and the MiG

 

[T Bolt]

Cool. Just started cutting plastic on mine last night. Should have some pictures up tonight. Feels good to be building again!

 

[rochie]

Made a start.

meagre cockpit parts

nose wheel bay and radar shock cone parts, these will be fiiled with lead pellets fore weight

Cockpit sidewalls

 

[Airframes]

Good start Karl.