Dpgsbody55

Well I did, but for the better. The last two updates I've made haven't saved. I had to copy it all into a Word doc, exit the forum and then log back in, then copy from Word back to the forum before it would save. Tonight it all went smoothly, so I'm a happy camper again. Thanks Kev, Michael

I think you'll enjoy doing the Meteor and both those conversions, Kagemusha. I think the engine is worth the fiddle, should you decide to include one, but it may test your patience. Either way, make sure you have plenty of CA glue on hand, as well as some acetone . I hope you will share your build when you get to it as I'd love to see what you do. A little more progress to report, after quite a few hours more work. I've added the interior detail to the engine nacelles, and finished the first engine. I've also made the first cut in the kit parts to accommodate the new T7 forward fuselage. The lower wing has to be shortened to fit the conversion, and this has now been done. I used vinyl tape to mark my cut and used a razor saw to slowly and carefully make my cut. If it's skewiff, the nose will look like a boxers schnoz when you've finished. Here's a shot of the wing components with some of the brass detail added. The white plastic is added to help location of the rear engine bearer. Next is a picture of the wing top with brass detail added, the engine in progress and the intakes with their resin and brass added. Last up are some shots of the (almost) completed engine. I still have to add the front engine mounts and finish painting the jet pipe. The jet pipe is not fully painted as I needed somewhere to hold the engine, and it won't be seen anyway when it's fully installed. The engine mounts need careful placing once the rear bearer is added to the lower wing to work out exactly how they're supposed to attach to the engine. I won't be gluing the engine yet as I will be using it for a reference for the second engine. In the photo above, the unpainted ring around the power turbine is where the rear engine bearer will go. Some plumbing is included in the Profimodeller kit for the area around the front of the engine, but I've also added plumbing around the combustion chambers for a little more detail. That's it for the moment. This week, I'll be making a start on the other engine, but I don't expect to get it finished quickly. I'm also off to Melbourne for Motorclassica next weekend, so a small break from modelling. Hopefully the next update should have the engines in place, then I can actually glue some plastic, not resin, which would be nice. Cheers, Michael

I know it's a bigger scale, which not everyone here likes, but my recommendation would be the old Airfix 1/24 kit. It's at least as well detailed as the same scale Trumpeter kit but without some of the Trumpeter inaccuracies, particularly with regard to the engine. It builds into a nice model too. Cheers, Michael

That's correct, Kagemusha, which is perhaps a statement about my sanity levels . I remember building a Meteor as a kid, in 1/72, and wished it was available in a larger scale. HKM's kit is very nice with parts that fit well and good detail on surfaces and parts, but if you wanted to, you could easily build it in a week. It needs more parts such as the engines to be included in the kit. They do provide an upper wing with the engine access panel as a separate part, but if you lift it off, there's nothing inside. I've previously built this kit and included the Profimodeller engine, and while it's not an easy build, I'm very happy that they make an engine for this kit. I like to see an engine included in my build as I'm as interested in the plane as what powers it. But after finishing that kit, I thought that I should have built a second engine for the kit too. When I decided to build another Meteor after seeing the T7 conversion, I thought I'd correct that mistake, hence the second engine. I probably won't build another Meteor, so this is my "ultimate" build on this subject. Both HKM's kit and the Profimodeler kit are a bit lacking in their own way, but put them together and you have a very impressive display. Cheers, Michael

Totally agree. I'll be watching the CR.42 release and if the kit is even half decent, I'm a buyer. But I'm more than just a little puzzled by the lack of a Macchi. I have a couple in 1/48, and they're great looking planes, and they were one of the great fighters of WW2, so why no 1/32 release. You'd think ZM or HKM might tackle this. Cheers, Michael

Small update on the engines. I'm about 60% done with the left engine. Here's the Profimodeler kit, all laid out before assembly. Lots of resin with not a lot of detail moulded in. I won't be using all the parts as I won't be building the dummy right side bits. A little progress. I started by gluing the engine centre to the power turbine , then painted the centre in steel. Then I glued the combustion chamber flanges together, front to back, and glued these to the combustion chambers after cleaning off the fret nibs. This is very fiddly and you all know what working with superglue and tiny bits is like. The medium sized brass photo etch at top shows the combustion chamber flanges removed. Compare this to the picture above and you'll see what I've cut out. Lots of . It gets worse. The combustion chambers have nothing to indicate where to glue the flanges should be glued. You need pics to compare to. For anyone contemplating building this add on to your Meteor, here's a link to a walkaround I posted on this site: https://www.largescaleplanes.com/walkaround/wk.php?wid=181 You can also see three of the combustion chambers attached to the engine centre. The pen is only there to stop the assembly rolling on to it's side, but it also gives you an idea of size at this stage. The next shot is the combustion chambers all glued on with some more brass detail glued in, as well as the intake turbine now in place. The other bits are the blast tube with it's fins installed, the rear engine mount, and engine lubrication bits which will go on the front of the engine. You'll notice that I haven't yet painted the rear power turbine, as I am holding the model engine by this part as I make it up. On my Meteor 4 build, I painted everything as I put it together and had to do a major repaint at the end as continually handling it ruined the paint. Last up is a close up of the blast tube and two of the fins glued inside. Next up will be to ad a little more detail to the combustion area, then add the four fins onto the power turbine cone, which will be at 45 degrees to the fins on the blast tube which will be carefully added then. The blast tube will need to be added square on, as there's a smaller blast tube to go on partially inside this much later. That's it for the moment. I'm hoping to get this engine finished and ready to mount in the next week, then start all over again on the other engine. Cheers,

Doesn't look too flawed to me. Nice job. Cheers, Michael

I like it, too. I agree that old kits can be fun and it shows how far kits have come. I also agree that a new P-51B is needed. I personally prefer the look of the original plane, so I always prefer high back Spitfires, Thunderbolts and Mustangs. Nice work, Michael

I approve . Very nice work, and I especially like your exhaust weathering Cheers, Michael

Hey Kevin. Perhaps the next time you speak to Neil, you could suggest HKM do a 1/32 D H Vampire????? This is a totally neglected plane and would make a great companion to their Meteor. Cheers, Michael

Very very sorry to hear about this. Something similar happened to me last year with my brother, so I have some empathy for your situation. As a father I just don't want to think of something similar happening to my daughter. Kids are very resilient however and tend to deal with these things better than adults. So my thoughts are with you and I really hope she makes a full recovery. Very best wishes, Michael

Thank you all for your very kind condolences. It's very much appreciated and as my brother's death has affected me more than I thought. Alas I've been through this before, but that experience taught me that I'll get through it again. But please don't feel too sorry for me. One thing I've learned in life is that no matter how bad you think you have it, you'll always find someone doing it tougher. That's life I'm afraid. Good bits and bad bits. Enough of this though. On with the model. After finishing the cockpit, I mounted it in the right side fuselage half, only to find that the kit supplied nose weight would no long fit. It appears that the T7 instrument panel is different to the MkIV panel and protrudes further forward. So out to the garage to find a file to make a notch in the weight. You can see how the panel protrudes into the nose weight, and the amount I had to take out. I wanted to take out as little as possible to ensure that the completed model doesn't sit on it's tail. But I finished up adding extra weight anyway into the space behind the wheel well. An old tire weight sacrificed part of itself to the cause, after persuasion from a hammer. Even though this conversion places the weight about an inch further forward and will therefore provide better leverage to make it sit on the nose wheel, I erred on the side of caution as I'd hate to have it be a tail sitter after it's finished. This will be a heavy model when it's completed. I've painted the back of the cockpit as this will also be the front wall of the instructor's cockpit which will be visible on completion. After that, the left side of the fuselage was glued into place. After this had dried, I did a little tidy up of the joint and got on with the instructor's cockpit. Here's the main components. The rear of the cockpit has already been glued on to the floor. Next up, the control column, left side and oxygen bottles were glued and that assembly taped together and left to dry. Then the right side and top coaming were added. You may notice that the instructor's seat and instrument panel have not yet been added. This assembly is pushed in through the rear of the fuselage, and it's a tight fit which is a testament to the quality of this conversion kit. The IP cannot be added as it attaches to the fuselage sides and would stop the cockpit being added, and the seat can't be added yet as another piece has to go in behind later. Here's the two cockpits glued into the fuselage. I drizzled some CA glue along the floor ribs where they butt against the bottom of the fuselage, as well as along the cockpit rear wall and fuselage sides, then clamped it all tightly into place. As is common with resin kits, one or two parts are twisted, but soaking in hot water has largely fixed this, and the clamp was used to further ensure that all was square. The instructions say that this assembly can be glued on to the HKM kit now, and the instrument panel and seat are added much later. However, I have a very delicate IP sitting around on my desk that I don't want broken and I can't see why it shouldn't be added now, so that is what I've done. Here's the panel. Those levers and that handle are too easily broken for me to leave lying about on the modelling desk. And here it is in situ. It was quite a pfaff manoeuvering it into place as it's wider than the opening in the fuselage. I also had to be careful not to break the control column getting it in, as that fowls too as you fit this in place. Here's the fuselage assembly now. At this point, I still have to add the gunsight, pilot's seat shoulder harness and instructor's seat and harness. The instructor's seat and harness can't go in yet as there's another part that slides down into the rear of the rear cockpit which needs to go in first. I'll do the pilot's seat shoulder harness when I also do the Instructors. The gunsight can wait until I'm ready to put the windshield into place, and that won't be for a long time yet. With all the weight added, this piece is very heavy and it's a good thing the joint with the HKM kit is not a simple butt joint. As Max (Mozart) has suggested, I think I'll need to consider metal after market undercarriage, and I agree that brass is the way to go on this kit as white metal bends too easily. This model will actually be 4 kits in one model when it's done (HKM kit, Fisher T7 conversion and 2 Profimodeler engines) so it will be very heavy as plastic kits go. That said, my three year old MkIV Meteor is still standing properly on it's plastic undercarriage with no sign of flexing and that had extra weight added too. So that's where the project is presently. Next up will be to make the engines and put them into the wings, then make up the fuselage. After that, I'll have to hold my breath as I chop the nose off the HKM kit, and the front off the fuselage portion of the wings. I'm not sure whether to chop the fuselage nose off each HKM kit fuselage half then glue them together, of glue the HKM fuselage together than chop it. Still thinking about that and I've marked out the cut with tape as the next picture shows. The cut will be along the front edge of the thin tape, and you can just see tape on the wing bottom where that cut will be. You also get an idea of how much monger the finished kit will be from this shot. So as I said, engines next. One day, I'll get to glue some plastic . Cheers, Michael

I've almost finished the front cockpit. All that remains is the pilot's shoulder harness. Here's a few images as I put it together. Cockpit right side. Left side and floor. Completed cockpit tub. Please excuse my rubbish photography. Looking at these images, I appear to have forgotten how to use a camera . It's a new camera too, so I have that excuse. That's it for now. The cockpit tub is now installed in the front fuselage half. Next stage is to add the nose weight and glue the fuselage halves together. The built up rear cockpit is inserted into the completed front fuselage once I've built it. No cutting of the kit parts has happened yet and I haven't touched a part in the kit at this stage, other than the front undercarriage mount. So if I screw this up, I can still build a Mk4 again. Cheers, Michael

Just less than a year ago, I was all set to start my next project, the HKM Meteor 4 with the Fisher Model & Pattern T7 conversion kit. I thought I'd tinker with it for a while then enter it into the Multi Engine group build. Unfortunately, real life hit hard in October last year when I took my little brother off to hospital as he looked ghastly. I quickly got the news that he had terminal cancer, so modelling got hastily put aside while I looked after him and his affairs until he passed in May. I'm still trying to wrap up his estate, but at least now I can clear the modelling desk of his affairs and take up the very welcome distraction of model building again. Life sucks at times. So here's the model, which (if I don't run out of talent ) will be converted to a Mk7 Trainer. And once again, I'll have another crack at the Profimodeller engine as I wasn't entirely happy with my previous result. There will, I hope, be 2 engines this time, so fingers crossed it all goes well. I've never done a conversion like this, so wish me luck. Cheers, Michael

Wonderful. I'll be watching this one for sure. I modeled SL721 as it was in it's first stint with AVM Sir James Robb. At this time, it's guns were removed, as was the armour plating and fuselage tank. You can see in your colour picture of C-GVZB photographed from the left side that it is still not fitted in 2000 as the filler is still not fitted. In the period that I modelled it had stubs fitted in place of the cannon fairings which I got right, but my model has the armour plating and fuselage tank in place, which I got wrong. Hadn't done enough research. The gun bays became luggage bays instead, but I'm not sure if it had cannon blisters fitted to at this time. She was refitted in early 1949 following a landing accident and painted a darker blue plus other mods which may have included the removal of the blisters. Apparently the plane was a joy to fly and was considerably faster than service MkXVI's due to the much lighter weight. I have thought of having another go at this plane, as there are so many colour scheme's applicable, and it's nice to build a model of a Spitfire that still flies too. Looking forward to seeing your progress and finished model. Cheers, Mike