Search the Community

Hi guys, now that my exam and other social commitments are over I am about to commence building a Twogar for this GB. As this is my first resin kit I will take it slow, so no guarantees it will be finished by then. I may also ask a lot of questions relating to building techniques for this medium. Ok, so the version I am going for is the Twogar as stationed in NAS Atsugi, Japan - making Bu No 147413. Got the kit and using Naval Fighters number sixty-eight by Steve Ginter as main reference. Any AM and upgrades used will be discussed as I go along. Pictures to follow. slainte, L.H.

Here is my second HKM Gloster Meteor. This one I built as a two seater trainer, using the Fisher Models conversion set, and two Profimodeler Rolls Royce Derwent engines. The conversion kit, engines and HKM model went together very well, although the join between forward resin fuselage and plastic kit fuselage needed some filler and shaping as I suspect one side of the fuselage distorted a little after coming out of the resin mould. Four choices of colour schemes were catered for in the conversion kit, but the biggest disappointment for me was that all the aircraft stenciling was in black, which was not very good for the plane I wanted to model. Here are the two models together on the shelf, which I'll come back to a little later. I have to say that the surface detail on this kit is superb. It's neither over nor under done and the detail comes up well after painting. I used Mr Color dayglo red, airbrushed on, and Tamiya rattle can gloss black on the outside, and my own mixture of interior flat black on the cockpit. The inside of the wings were painted with Tamiya rattle can aluminium. The only part of the Fisher conversion set I didn't use was the larger diameter intakes, as I felt this would interfere too much with the Profimodeler intake ducting. Here's a link to a picture of the real thing, taken at RNAS Yeovilton in May of 1966. https://www.airliners.net/photo/UK-Navy/Gloster-Meteor-T7/2134192/L?qsp=eJwtjcEKwjAQRH%2Bl7NmDpaDQm/6AHvyBJRlqMTVhd6GG0n93Dd4eM4%2BZjUJ%2BGz72qAU0koIlPOlAhYUXpXGjF%2BqaJTrTlLIapFtgyNLZuVu1Pw6uaxa7VlciGy4hoBjiP79JhPwqaGjLkz/1DpB7YxpOnsdZS%2BK2AeM50b5/Ac1PNLA%3D And a more recent picture. It seems the plane is presently undergoing restoration, and I think it's nice to build a model of an old plane that still lives. https://www.airliners.net/photo/UK-Navy/Gloster-Meteor-T7/2541667/L?qsp=eJwtjcEKwjAQRH%2Bl7NmDpaDQm/6AHvyBJRlqMTVhd6GG0n93Dd4eM4%2BZjUJ%2BGz72qAU0koIlPOlAhYUXpXGjF%2BqaJTrTlLIapFtgyNLZuVu1Pw6uaxa7VlciGy4hoBjiP79JhPwqaGjLkz/1DpB7YxpOnsdZS%2BK2AeM50b5/Ac1PNLA%3D Back to the model. Here's some pictures taken at the end of the build. This is what the model looked like during construction. I built the resin conversion first, followed by the engines, then the HKM kit. If you want to see more, here's a link to the Works in Progress build. https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/81935-hkm-meteor-with-t7-conversion/ You'll notice that my earlier F4 build represents a plane in Argentinian markings. I didn't know this when I built my earlier F4; I just like the markings. But it seems that there's a connection of sorts to this T7 model. In 1947, the Argentinian Air Force purchased 100 F4's, and a dozen pilots were sent over to the Gloster works at Moreton Valence in the UK. In order to train the pilots, Gloster's test pilots had to give ground instructionby sitting astride the fuselage immediately behind the trainee pilot. The rear canopy had been removed, and instruction given by bellowing at the pupil. Almost no air force had 2 seat trainer versions of the new jets. Gloster's wanted to fill this gap, but with no support fortcoming from the British Air Ministry, it had to be a privately funded enterprise. Earlier that year, Gloster's own F4 demonstrator had been on a sales mission to Melsbroek, Belgium when it was crashed by a Belgian pilot, and the remains had been removed to Gloster's factory. To get the project up and running asquickly and economically as possible, the centre section, rear fuselage, tail and both outer wings were refurbished and the two seater T7 prototype took to the air in March 1948. Naturally, the Air Ministry took notice and a contract was issued soon after. Eventually, 662 T.Mk7's were built, all at Hucclecote in Gloucestershire. The last contract was for 34 aircraft for the Royal Navy, of which the subject of this model, WS103, was the first. Hope you enjoy, Michael

Totally missed that one on the GB Color my world blue! Don't know where I was! So I think that this one would have made it, since it's all painted, or will be, blue. So it is based on the really nice Fisher model. What I am trying to do is represent it as it would have been the day of the race, in a way it is a "what if". The fuse is just sitting on top of the wings, watching how things will fit in there. Quite thight, I want to see an engine change! So stay tuned!

About Ted Williams in the USMC, On May 1st, 1952, at the age of 34, he was recalled to active duty for service in the Korean War. He hadn't flown for some eight years but turned away all offers to sit out the war in comfort as a member of a service baseball team. Nevertheless Williams was resentful of being called up, which he admitted years later, particularly of the Navy's policy to call up Inactive Reservists rather than members of the Active Reserve. After eight weeks of refresher flight training and qualification in the F9F Panther jet at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, he was assigned to VMF-311, Marine Aircraft Group 33 (MAG-33), based at K-3 airfield in Pohang, Korea. On February 16th, 1953, Williams was part of a 35-plane strike package against a tank and infantry training school just south of Pyongyang, North Korea. During the mission a piece of flak knocked out his hydraulics and electrical systems, causing Williams to have to "limp" his plane back to K-13, an Air Force base close to the front lines. For his actions of this day he was awarded the Air Medal. Williams stayed on K-13 for several days while his plane was repaired. Because he was so popular, GI's from all around the base came to see him and his plane. After it was repaired, Williams flew his plane back to his Marine station. Williams eventually flew 39 combat missions before being pulled from flight status in June 1953 after a hospitalization for pneumonia resulted in discovery of an inner ear infection that disqualified him from flight status. During the war he also served in the same unit as John Glenn and in the last half of his missions, he was serving as Glenn's wingman. While these absences, which took almost five years out of the heart of a great career, significantly limited his career totals, he never publicly complained about the time devoted to military service. Biographer Leigh Montville argues that Williams was not happy about being pressed into service in Korea, but he did what he felt was his patriotic duty. So this will be the start of the group build, and I will be building the Fisher F9F Panther as Captain Ted Williams jet . Ernie will be building his Panther as well, so it's our second buddy build, and we WILL finish these..we got 6 mos for gosh sakes ! Wish me luck. Paul