Meteor F3 Conversion - A bit further down the road

[Cicchino]

Guys, 

 

Another milestone - the Welland engine exhausts are complete; I painted up a pair and slotted them into the beat up test mule for a quick look. I slipped in a pic of the real thing at Hendon for grins; all in all I'm am pretty happy with the result although there is a band of weathering at the aft end I need to add. The exhausts include a shock cone inside the exhaust that is unfortunately impossible to photograph.  

 

These were small enough to do on my Elegoo Mars printer but I need my Saturn for the larger parts and I have a temporary work stoppage while I do the dreaded FEP film replacement. Hope to have some more substantial pics over the next few days.

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cicchino]

Well... almost done:

 

I found a clearer picture of the aft end of the exhaust and hidden in what I thought was just grime is an additional joint. I've made that correction and hopefully that's it for the Welland exhausts. 🤞 Front nacelle looks good, cleaning up some disappearing rivet/dzuz ines on the rear nacelle next.

 

John

 

 

[PEYSSON Gilles]

Hi John

 

The work you've done on your Meteor is truly amazing 👍

 

Gilles

 

 

[Cicchino]

Guys, 

 

Another F.3 update. I was able to several nice prints of the forward engine nacelles, I think these are final. I've also updated the Welland exhausts to include the separation line toward the aft end of the exhaust, and I'v also gotten several sets of nice prints for these. They are printed at 30 microns: think I could go tighter, but they would take forever.

 

 

 

In preparation for adding the inner wings and nacelles once I am happy with the rear nacelles, I've test fitted the cockpit to the fuselage. I've dressed up the cockpit with a new seat, Airscale Sutton harness, some Eduard and scratch built details. It's all painted Night and it virtually invisible now  The test fit needs to be cleaned up as I think something is impeding the closure of the fuselage around the cockpit; I don't have the included nose weight in yet either. The solder pipe extending out of the cockpit will be for the cockpit heater that goes between the combing and windscreen. 

 

What I've realized I can't live with is the bland rear decking behind the armor plate; I have the Profi Modeler PE, but it only masks the omissions. I think I'm going to design something similar to the Revell F.8 parts and print them up 

 

I do feel like I've moved the ball forward bit and with a couple of corrections to the rear nacelle, I plan to build and paint the kit with the nacelles while I finish up the outer wings. 

 

Thanks for the dropping by

 

 

Regards

 

 

John

[Uncarina]

I lost track of your build John, and it's my loss! I really like how your F.3 is coming to life, particularly how you've captured the shape of the nacelles and outer wings. When Revell originally announced a Meteor F.3 I was pretty excited, so seeing yours is the next best thing!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[LSP_Kevin]

Very nice progress, John! Any more thoughts on making the parts (or files) available for purchase?

 

Kev

[Cicchino]

13 hours ago, Uncarina said:

I lost track of your build John, and it's my loss! I really like how your F.3 is coming to life, particularly how you've captured the shape of the nacelles and outer wings. When Revell originally announced a Meteor F.3 I was pretty excited, so seeing yours is the next best thing!

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

Thanks Tom, I was as well; not that I'm disappointed in the F.8 and will be building it shortly, but I remember first reading about the Meteor in WWII when I was 9 or 10 in the local library and it kind of stuck with me. Luckily the HKM fuselage is a nice starting point.

 

11 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Very nice progress, John! Any more thoughts on making the parts (or files) available for purchase?

 

Kev

 

Thanks Kev. I am leaning towards it although it what form I just don't know yet. The conversion itself is extremely simple, just a couple of straight cuts on the HKM wings and it's plug and play from there. There will be a forward and rear nacelle, engine exhaust and outer wing,  just 4 major components for each side, although I think I'll be adding the ammo cans for the rear cockpit. There will be a couple of clear navigation lights for the wingtips but thankfully everything I've seen shows that the entire fitting was colored not just the bulb making the print very manageable.  I've also sketched up some WWII markings masks in silhouette including codes and serials as well as the non-standard upper roundels. I'm starting with the Welland aircraft as it was my original interest, but I will have the Derwent powered exhaust and additional scoop designed as well; I believe Xtradecal has a sheet for the Derwent F.3s available already. 

 

I know that whatever I do has to allow me to continue modeling as opposed to getting caught up in being a 'kit producer', and I just don't have the infrastructure in place right now to be very efficient at it (i.e. a website, ordering and tracking options, etc.) Ironically though, I have another conversion idea that I've just started designing;  I am super excited about it, and I think the LSP guys will be as well (although it will require the fortitude to cut up a Tamiya kit.)  At the end of the day maybe I am heading that way. I just retired 1st of the year and I have a lot of time to sort through these things now. It's a good place to be. 😃

 

Thanks for the continued interest and I will keep the forum posted, 

 

John

[Cicchino]

Guys, 

 

The HKM kit has a bare shelf behind the pilots armour plate. I thought it should be more representative of what's in the Revell F.8 kit, so I cobbled together a drawing and came up with this first test print; I haven't even cleaned it up yet.  It's a 1 piece print, fragile but should slot in nicely right behind the cockpit. It still needs a brace, a greebly or two and the final attachment point to the cockpit, but it fits perfectly and fills the void better than I imagined. I am just holding it in place with my finger at this point.  Hopefully the next time you see it, the 'production' version will be painted up and installed in a closed up fuselage. 🤞

 

 I am super excited about how it came out. This would be part of the final F.3 conversion, but I think I could make it available separately for dressing up the F.4 kit. Getting closer...

 

 

    

   

 

Thanks for dropping by, 

 

 

John

[LSP_Kevin]

Awesome!

 

Kev