Trumpeter E.E Lightning F Mk 1. Finished.

[ericg]

I was at a bit of a loss to work out what was next after the Tiger Moth and looked through my stash for a big fast Jet. A few candidates were fighting to be built (F-8, Eurofighter, Mig-23 and this one) and in the end I decided to go with the Lightning. Despite all of the doom and gloom surrounding this kit and its many shortcomings, I am going to give this a go. I think the perceived problems and the promise of forthcoming corrections with the kit are the reason why you don't see many of these iconic jets built. There is alot of nice aftermarket available for this kit and whilst there is some planned resin corrections in the pipe line from Ian (which have taken a few years already), with a bit of thought I reckon I will tackle some of the `Trumpeterisms' of the kit to show you the way they can be easily fixed. I wont be fixing anything that will require modification of the Aires stuff, as I want to also show the fit and function of those parts.

 

To start, Aires Wheel bays, Engines and the cockpit. This stuff is just awesome resin and it is exceptionally well cast and crisp. I also have the Mastercasters Wheels and Xtradecal stencil data and 74 SQN decals.

 

As the kit is the F1a/F3 release, some back dating is required to make it into a MK1 to match the decals.

 

 

First up is removing the conduit alongside the fuselage. To achieve this, I filled the hole on the inside of the fuselage with plastic rod and superglue and then scraped and sanded off the conduit. I then had to re-scribe and re-rivet the resulting smooth area to add the detail that would have resided under the conduit. This picture shows the size of the conduit on one side and the removed section on the other.

 

 

Next up is one of the big flaws of the kit which is the intake. It is approx 5mm to short and does not meet up with the nose ring. Trumpeter would have you display the kit with the big gap between the back of the nose ring and the front of the intake. I have seen a few fixes for this problem including moving the intake assembly forward, This would require also repositioning the nose gear and would also create problems with the cockpit installation, so I thought I would devise a fix. Using strips of plastic card, I tacked a 5mm strip around the circumference of the nose ring and then tacked that to the intake. This would now be built up with further strips of plastic card to give it some meat when it came to sanding the inside of the intake smooth. There are also some subtle differences in the shape of the two corresponding parts. The intake should be smooth from opening to compressor disk face, so this fix also takes care of that problem. The obvious problem now would be how to fit the shock-cone and nose gear bay through the too small intake mouth.... more on that later.

 

This picture shows the intake assembly in position, with the built up strips of plastic card filling the gap.

 

 

Here is a look inside the intake, I have started to sand the inside smooth.

 

 

As mentioned before, the shock cone and nose gear bay part wont fit into the intake now, so here is the solution. I thought of the guys that assemble ships in a bottle as inspiration for this fix!

 

this pic is of the Aires shock cone/nose gear bay.

 

 

remove the `support' part by cutting it off flush with the rear of the shock cone. I then cut a trench into the shock cone that is at least 2mm deep corresponding to the length of the support part. Also remove the support from the kit cone, but rather than cutting it off flush, scribe it along its length downwards through the plastic so that you get the extra 1mm or so of plastic.

 

 

Here is the two parts compared, the bigger one is the kit part and I have added to it the scribing and rivet detail.

 

 

Now the kit support can be glued into the intake assembly one you have it nice and smooth (I have just dry fitted it here)

 

 

Here is the rest of the shock cone/gear bay assembly which can be dry fitted at will. The previously cut trench, and the extra depth of the support will help align and strengthen the parts when they meet inside the intake again. Hopefully my description and pics made some sense!

 

Edited July 21, 2015 by ericg

[ericg]

Next up is the spine. The real aircraft has a tapering spine, whereas the kit has no taper. A very simple fix is as below. Cut the spine through approx half its length directly down into the plastic using the thinnest blade of scriber that you can find. Once cut through, the spine can then be bent into position and then glued. (it only needs to be a mm or so) Here you can see the difference! The other side can then be done the same way, but this time, tape the fuselage halves together and glue the spine to match the one you did earlier. Once the tail is in position, the resulting gap will be smoothed out and the now slightly curved spine will be straightened by sanding it along its whole length. There will also be some minor re-scribing of some panels to do. 

Edited April 9, 2014 by ericg

[LSP_Kevin]

Terrific start Eric! You always have such well thought-out and executed solutions.

 

Kev

[Iain]

Hi Eric - great to see a build in progress! 

 

I've got bogged down again with mine - the more I go poking around the more head scratching it causes - your build will hopefully fire my enthusiasm again!

 

If I can help with anything - just shout...

 

Iain

[Ironwing]

Eric

 

It will be hard to top your Moth, but your off to a great start on a great subject with innovative solutions to the trouble spots. Nicely done...

 

Best

 

Geoff

[Uncarina]

Eric,

 

I'm following this! A great series of tips for this kit; thanks for sharing.

 

Cheers, Tom

[daveoh]

Hi im also doing the Trumpeter lightning F3 kit but I'm doing mine in deep maintenance. Lots and lots of scratch building engine bays open panels ect. Will be following this build, you never know what you will learn from fellow modellers.

Dave.

[ericg]

Moving right along and I am now fixing the belly tank. I reckon that the shape isn't too bad to my eye. The width of the tank does make the kit look a little portly though, so I sanded it to shape, checking to make sure that i didn't remove too much plastic in the process as I will need to re-do some of the rivets in the process. 

 

Here are some pics to illustrate the difference. The sanded and reshaped tank is on the left. As you can see, it is a very subtle difference but improves the kit.

 

 

 

The next fix is the gun troughs. I reckon that a nicely model with poorly done armament is like dating a supermodel that has a hair lip and is one area where I reckon alot of models fall down on the show table. This fix is dead easy to do and took all of 20 minutes.

 

Here is the way Trumpeter would have you do it. Very agricultural, not symmetrical and definately not indicative of a fine high speed interceptor.

 

 

Here is the fix. There are some blank covers spare in the kit that are for later MK's. Cut a long slot into the spare cover, and use a round file to ensure that the ends are rounded such that some plastic tube will sit in the slot, lining up with the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. A little bit of experimentation will be required to have it sitting in the correct position. Once happy, glue it into place with superglue. The tube that I used had an inside diameter that was a little small so I reamed it with a drill bit to size. Then it is just a simple matter of sanding it to profile with the rest of the fuselage and then filling any gaps. Hope the pics explain what I mean.

 

 

 

 

Aires wheel wells are virtually drop in and look great.

 

 

Stay tuned, this one is going supersonic!

[Cees Broere]

Hi Eric,

Nice one, I am also working on an early Lightning. Your gunport fix comes just in time.

My Aires wheelbays were not exactlly a drop fit though. Had to take off some of the top

but they are better than the kit ones.

I will be following this.
Cees

[LSP_Kevin]

That there is some nice work!

 

Kev

[Uncarina]

I've had a long term interest in the Lightning, but the poor reception of the Trumpeter kit put me off. In large part due to your build I just ordered one! Thanks for sharing these build tips!

 

Cheers, Tom

[ericg]

Great to hear Tom.

 

For such an iconic aircraft it isn't seen as much as it should be in 1/32 scale. I reckon once Ian comes out with his fixes then a lot more will be brought down from the stash. Hopefully the fixes that I am demonstrating will show that with a few cut of the knife and a few swipes of sandpaper, a reasonable replica can be had without blowing the budget.

 

Eric.

[Guest Peterpools]

Eric

Just logging on and enjoying your treatment of the Lightning. Thanks for working through each of the fixes so far, with easy to do explanations and how to's.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[Kagemusha]

Stay tuned, this one is going supersonic!

 

Indeed, great stuff!!!

[wunwinglow]

Looking good. Having just bought a Meteor, I need to replenish my brownie point account before I come home with another big box, but I will!

 

Tim