**** DONE: GB-63 1/72 English Electric Lightning F.2A - Stormy Weather

[Bustedwing]

User name: Bustedwing
First name : Graham
Category: Advanced
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Airfix
Model type: English Electric Lightning.

Another chance to build one of my all time favourite cold war jets. Never seen the real deal fly but the lightning is a monster and I bet the flight demo would have been awesome ! New tooling kit. lots of parts and detail. a far cry from their old offering. Built that one eons ago. Still have it. kit includes options for two versions.

 

[rochie]

YES !

there had to be at least one

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Great choice !
I really miss seeing (and hearing) the "Frightening" telling the sky who's the boss !!

 

[Crimea_River]

Great choice. I was a lad when I saw one at the airshow in Toronto in the 60s.

 

[SaparotRob]

The Electric is an awesome plane but it always looked to me as the interceptor with a beer belly.

 

[Airframes]

Nah, that was for pushing irritating clouds out of the way !

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Yes, Yes, Yes. Best ever interceptor that ever flew in my humble opinion. Mind you I am totally biased having spent upwards of 12 years on Lightning operating stations in the UK, Cyprus and Saudi. The perfect choice my friend.

 

[Ralph Haus]

A nice 'I've build enough prop planes' choice. For a jet, it is unique enough looking, that I may have to create a new livery?

 

[Bustedwing]

Lightning build from early 70s. I think I was about 10-11 as well as the Whirlwind which I considered doing but couldn't find a decent kit other than the old Airfix offering and of course the Hurricane. The hurricane is the only kit in my stash that fir the category. Near all my kits are Luftwaffe.

 

[N4521U]

A Jet............................ Good one! I think Vic really really realllly likes your choice.

 

[fubar57]

Good one Graham. I have its bigger brother languishing in the wings

 

[Bustedwing]

Starting in on it. First order, nose weight. Instructions call for 4 grams. I recently built Airfix's Shorts Tucano which called for 8 grams but I ended up using around 20 grams. Everything forward of the landing gear is packed with lead to sit on the nose wheel. Not taking any chances with the Lightning. Cockpit is done. I had to shave a fair bit off the intake to fit the fuselage without a pretty big gap. Got to make a seat harness still. There is a mistake in the decal sheet. The 92 squadron uses a yellow and red check patern on the fuselage roundel. The decal sheet is yellow and blue. If I can't make a suitable stencil to spray it I may end up doing the 19 squadron. Have not tried to do a bare metal finish in ages. Would the plane be bare or painted silver ?

 

[Wurger]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Nice start Graham and being an ardent fan of the Lightning my preference would be in aluminium, they always looked so great polished up. As for the decals, I suppose you could get away with using the smaller 92 Squadron set XN793 in the aluminium finish.

 

[Bustedwing]

Nice start Graham and being an ardent fan of the Lightning my preference would be in aluminium, they always looked so great polished up. As for the decals, I suppose you could get away with using the smaller 92 Squadron set XN793 in the aluminium finish. If I do go with the aluminum finish should I spray it with a gloss clear coat ?

 

[Vic Balshaw]

My feeling is that the finished clear coat should be flat or at the most satin but that is my preference and my choice on which of these would depend on how the aluminium finish looked. This is one of my former builds where a flat clear coat was used.

 

[Bustedwing]

My feeling is that the finished clear coat should be flat or at the most satin but that is my preference and my choice on which of these would depend on how the aluminium finish looked. This is one of my former builds where a flat clear coat was used. Yes that looks really sharp !

 

[Airframes]

Good progress so far.
I have mixed feelings about a clear coat over metal finishes, as, depending on the type of paint used, the clear coat can often enhance the metallic particles in the paint, giving a "grainy" appearance. However, I do normally apply a thin, brushed coat of clear over the decals, to prevent them chipping/cracking/lifting on bare metal.

BTW, it should be English Electric Lightning, not British.
English Electric was the name of the manufacturing company (who also made fridges !!), and later became part of BAC (British Aircraft Corporation, now BAe ) after a merger and nationalsation of the British aircraft industry.

 

[Crimea_River]

Ah so that's why the thing looks like a fridge.