English Electric Lightning F1a

[crobinsonh]

Here is the next part of the build - an attempt at an accurate Martin Baker Ejector seat for the early Lightning as the supplied seat is not great nor accurate.

 

I used a variety of 'bits' here including the metal post off an Echelon MB seat, the base of the kit seat, Plastic card and wine bottle foil for the seat side panels, cast off resin filed to size for cushions, magic sculpt for the various cushions and other bits and pieces cut up from other ejector seats.

 

This is the base now I just need to add all of the detail.

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully the will be one more update to complete the cockpit and the ejector seat and then I can start painting.

 

As a small break I have re-started work on my MDC Tony that I originally posted a couple of years ago as well as getting to paint an Accurate Armour Challenger 2 that I started 4 years ago - never done a tank but always liked the meaty look of the Challenger 2, plus a friend of mine is an officer in REME and I got to have a play with a real one! Works continues at snail pace

[crobinsonh]

Ok - As I have no real modelling time at the moment due to my Wife having been in hospital since December I thought I would go back to the next stages of the Trumpeter Lightning. I know that Frank Brown measured a real Lightning and I know from Edgar that Frank and Airfix used the real drawings from BAE to create their masters. I photocopied the Airfix F1a/F3 and checked that (where possible) against the Echelon kit and side plan - guess what they matched in depth and length etc. It looks to my like Trumpeter used the plans in Warpaint as if you scale these to 1/32nd the Trumpeter kit it pretty much spot on.

 

As we know from other builds (and from measuring the trumpeter kit against an upscaled Airfix kit and the Echelon drawing) the Trumpeter kit is 5mm too short and this extension needs to take place in the centre of the kit.

 

In addition to this the Trumpeter kit is too fat in several areas. Shown here at the front (apologies for the poor photographs in advance) where it is too fat/tall by 1.5 mm.

 

 

Here it shows that the tail bumper is in the wrong position - blue biro line is the correct one.

 

 

On the real Lighting and on the Echelon and Airfix kits the spine slopes down from the cockpit to the tail - this is not so on the Trumpeter kit. The end result is that the spine is too tall at the tail end and too short at the cockpit end. Again it is out about 1.5mm at the tail end.

 

 

Hopefully you can see the slope on this poor shot of the Echelon plan. The blue line under the cockpit shows how the fuselage sides are too shallow and will need to be built up.

 

 

The outline is the Trumpeter Tail fin the image is the Airfix F1a fin scaled to 1/32nd scale.

 

 

The blue lines are the oversize Trumpeter tail planes again the image is the Airfix kit scale up to 1/32nd

 

 

I will post more observations as I get time as then I intend to start modifying the kit - and then go back to finishing the cockpit and Ejector seat.

 

Please no flame wars against Trumpeter - I do believe they followed a published set of plans in good faith. I just believe they where the wrong plans.

 

Regards

[Marek]

Great build. Keep working , mate

[Derek B]

Fantastic work so far Colin - your attention to detail is quite exquisite. I worked on Lightning F.3, F.6 and T.5, at RAF Binbrook, and although you are making an F.1a, many of the details are instantly recognisable to me in the later marks of aircraft - this is all testimony to the attention to detail you are putting into your build.

 

Derek

[crobinsonh]

Ok. Slowly but surely making some progress with the first modelling time I have had in a few months.

 

I have now modified the tailplanes to the correct profile. Left hand is the original incorrect shape - right hand is the correct shape

 

 

Here I have removed the "hump" which is too linear and has the wrong profile. I will then sand it to the correct profile as it needs to lose 1.5mm at the one end.

 

 

Here it is sanded and placed back on top of the fuselage.

 

 

Here is where the cut is being made before adding the additional length to the fuselage

 

[crobinsonh]

Here is the change to the front cockpit area - first both of these areas have soft curves when they should be straight, secondly they are too low so they have been built up with plastic card before the filler comes out!

 

 

This shot shows the fuselage plug to provide the correct overall fuselage length

 

 

This shot shows the addition of the "hump" with the correct downward slope which will now need extending once I fit the tailplane

 

 

The various scribbles you can see on these shots are where I have starting marking which panels lines need filling in etc. Trumpeter definitely had a copy of the SAM publication on the Lightning and have followed the plans very closely for overall dimensions and panel lines etc. It is just a shame that they are rather inaccurate IMHO (and verified against a real F1 and a real F6 - the one at Tangemere museum).

 

Regards

[Clarkeeboy56]

Fantastic - good to see how the 5mm plug fits on the earlier Lightnings! Lovely work on the cockpit and seat as well Colin!!

[crobinsonh]

My latest updates from over the last 2 weeks - I have to say I do believe that this is one of the least accurate of Trumpeters offerings - particularly when you compare it to the Me-262, Dauntless, Avenger, Tu-160 etc etc.

 

 

Quick look at the other side...

 

 

Having removed the tank I have now corrected it by up-scaling the dimensions from the Airfix F1a and cutting to match that. This does mean that I needed to board the offending area as I am going to have extensive use of Miliput to fare it all back in.

 

 

Here it is from the most important side.

 

[crobinsonh]

Here is the original "fat" tank on the Trumpeter F1a. Please excuse the type - "Wromg" instead of "wrong"

 

 

Here is a bad shot of the start of the corrections to match the dimensions of the upscaled Airfix F1a.

 

 

Here is a shot of all the fixes so far consolidated including the 5mm fuselage plug to give the old girl the correct length.

 

 

And here is a really poor shot that is attempted to show a comparison between the uncorrected Trumpy F1a and my corrected version. It is far more obvious in real life. I will try to get better shots over the next few days.

 

 

There is still a lot of work to do as the panel lines etc are for a large part not accurate there are many vents etc that need adding, the windscreen and canopy are the wrong shapes and need replaced , the cockpit opening is too wide, the wings to not have the right kink in the top of the wing or the right kink/shape on the forward edge and the area of the fuselage where the tail planes fit is the wrong shape and no where near deep enough.

 

I will certainly be building the Echelon F6 and dumping my Trumpy F6's. I am going to look to use the Aires Cockpit, Wheel wells and Engines on the Echelon Lightning (I have 3 in the stash).

[crobinsonh]

Fantastic - good to see how the 5mm plug fits on the earlier Lightnings! Lovely work on the cockpit and seat as well Colin!!

Thanks for your kind comments - been using your build for tips!

 

Regards

[LSP_Kevin]

You're doing great work here Colin. I don't think I'd ever have the nads to do this to an expensive kit, so my hat's off to you!

 

Kev

[TimW]

Excellent progress! The Arcforums thread was a godsend for me, as my knowledge of this a/c was limited; I was miffed (to put it mildly) that such a costly Trumpy offering had so many goof ups of really basic stuff.

 

Having to pin-vise drill open all those dang vents wasn't much fun, either!

 

Keep up the excellent work!

 

Tim W.

[Derek B]

Fantastic work so far Colin - Nice to see that you are perservering with the Trumpeter kit. I have never owned either the Trumpeter of Echelon kits (although I have tried to get hold of an Echelon Lightning), but my understanding is that the Echelon offering is generally very accurate indeed, so I fully understand your wish to build the Echelon kit over the Trumpeter offering. Nonetheless, your Trumpeter Lightning will look excellent when completed

 

Derek

[Hubert Boillot]

This is a typical case where you'd have been better off starting with Echelon's vacform kit, were it available...

 

The Lightning is one of the jets I love, and would have jumped on in 1/32 scale...if there was any good-value for money readily available kit. Unfortunately, Echelon's is not available, and Trumpeter's is not good value for money....Don't want to start another round of Trumpeter bashing, but this illustrates where they get the quality/RSP equation all wrong, and that plays against their image

 

Anyway, excellent work Colin, and a pleasure to follow.

 

Hubert.

 

PS: many years ago, I finished the ID models vac-form 1/48 F1 in treble one Squadron markings, long before Airfix released its injection kit. So I'd love to lay a hand on Echelon's offering...