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1/32 Trumpeter EE Lightning F.Mk.6 XS904


Derek B

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Some Lightning aircraft which had accrued a lot of flying Fatigue Index (FI) wear and damage, were repaired under repair modification action in order to extend their flying hours. These repairs were specific to certain parts of the wing and fuselage structure on some aircraft, and took the form of application of reinforcement plates or strips. XS904 had these applied to the wings (two on the wing upper surface, and two on the undersides of the wing adjacent to the fuselage). I have made the two upper wing reinforcement strips (0.12 mm plastic sheet). These will be detailed once they are dry (the two underwing plates will be added after the wings have been attached to the fuselage).

 

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Derek

Edited by Derek B
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Little things. The upper wing vents, as portrayed by Trumpeter, are too high and regular/rounded in shape, whereas in reality, they are much flatter and streamlined at the front (they are also solid at the rear, not hollow). So, they will be reworked - the first one is completed.

 

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Better...
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Derek

Edited by Derek B
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Detailing of the top of the wings are now pretty well complete, any underwing detailing, corrections or modifications will be carried out once the wings are attached to the fuselage - back to the jet pipes now.

 

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Derek

Edited by Derek B
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Reproducing jet pipe exhaust weld seams/beads. Interesting - I have not tried this before, so looked at a few online videos (AFV ones) and went for it! (Fortune favours the brave I suppose!).

As the Lightning jet pipe exhaust shrouds are fabricated from heat resistant steel, they are made in two halves which overlap and are welded together.

Therefore, after noting where the overlap seams are, I scribed them into the jet pipes and scraped and sanded the plastic adjacent to the scribed lines in the correct areas in order to produce a stepped seam. 0.3 mm plastic rod was then glued adjacent to the seams. Once dry, these were sanded until they just protruded above the jet pipe surface. A single coat of Tamiya extra thin glue was then applied to soften the sanded plastic rod. A suitable implement was then used to impress weld marks (AFV modellers generally use blunt scalpel blades, but in my case, I used a round section Tamiya micro chisel for this). You can see the results below after clean up (bifurcated fairing between the jet pipes next - haven't figured out how to tackle that one yet, but I'll give it some thought! :) ). 

 

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Derek

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14 hours ago, Derek B said:

Reproducing jet pipe exhaust weld seams/beads. Interesting - I have not tried this before, so looked at a few online videos (AFV ones) and went for it! (Fortune favours the brave I suppose!).

As the Lightning jet pipe exhaust shrouds are fabricated from heat resistant steel, they are made in two halves which overlap and are welded together.

Therefore, after noting where the overlap seams are, I scribed them into the jet pipes and scraped and sanded the plastic adjacent to the scribed lines in the correct areas in order to produce a stepped seam. 0.3 mm plastic rod was then glued adjacent to the seams. Once dry, these were sanded until they just protruded above the jet pipe surface. A single coat of Tamiya extra thin glue was then applied to soften the sanded plastic rod. A suitable implement was then used to impress weld marks (AFV modellers generally use blunt scalpel blades, but in my case, I used a round section Tamiya micro chisel for this). You can see the results below after clean up (bifurcated fairing between the jet pipes next - haven't figured out how to tackle that one yet, but I'll give it some thought! :) ). 

 

MMEEgYq.jpg

 

souesPW.jpg

 

72tvDSS.jpg

 

UU7u8hS.jpg

 

yxzeen9.jpg

 

uMNSZEF.jpg

 

Derek

Those welds are off the charts mate!!

 

I am in awe and inspired by this sort of work.  You sir are a master.  I cant imagine giving it away....

 

Bravo my friend

Anthony

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2 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Those welds are off the charts mate!!

 

I am in awe and inspired by this sort of work.  You sir are a master.  I cant imagine giving it away....

 

Bravo my friend

Anthony

 

Thanks mate - after seeing what you have done with your Phantom build, that is high praise indeed! I have deliberately, where at all possible, avoided the use of AM parts in order to show what can be achieved by utilising any old bits of rubbish lying around! (as well as the fact that I can no longer afford to by AM stuff, let alone any basic modelling materials!).

 

Cheers

 

Derek

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