1/48 Airfix Lightnings ....what's not to like

[Panzerwomble]

Touted by some as Airfix's finest model ???

                     ....meh....maybe .....it's a crying shame however about the lack of representation of one of Britain's finer achievements being available to model in anything much beyond braille scale .

 

I like Spitfires same as any other Brit ...but they had a service lifespan of 15 years.... tops .....Lightnings were Britain's first Mach 2 Fighter that served for 27 years, and can be remembered in the skies by many more fans than blub over the odd showing from the RAF BoB flight . Just look how the Vulcan to the Skies project sucked people's enthusiasm in . 

 

So obviously kit manufacturers ......... ignore them .....and........ "lets have yet another Spitfire release to go with the 999th new Tiger Tank kit!!!!"..... ok my whinge over. 

 

I watched these aircraft  in the skies as a child / young adult , spent a summer living near Binbrooke in '86 when 5 Sdn and the LTF were using up the air frame hours before the show was closed down . They were old and bold and still impressive. ....and yes until the past few years I'd travel up to watch the Cold War Jets just blast down the runway at Bruntingthorpe. I've stopped buying books about them...because I think I own them all now .  Even my avatar here.......... is me sat in a ....you got it .  

 

No surprise then that Llghtnings are for me, my most modelled subject , starting with Airfix's old 1/72 F1 offering circa 1978 or so , and continuing to this day . I've made lots of them over the years and when I first saw this kit in 1999 .....yeah I had to buy it . Since them I've built the kit several times, and still have a few in the stash. It just seems the right thing to do; to always have one on the shelf . Bizarrely the other thing I seem to model a lot is Panther tanks ...which honestly interest me far less. 

 

So just done another F1 , as per the first batch made , serving with 74 Sdn in 1961 or there about.

I wanted to play about with NMF finishes ( not something I do a lot of in armour modelling) so some masking , different paints and undercoats , bit of foiling ....) Homemade metal pitot and Quickboost seat ...as the kit seat is a big let down . 

 

This one TBH  is a bit of a warm up exercise for the next one , which will be in my favourite scheme , 111 Sdn , The Tremblers .

 

Cheers 

PW 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Panzerwomble

[Panzerwomble]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Panzerwomble]

 

 

 

 

 

[Panzerwomble]

Title was plural  so this is the F2A Version I did back in 2013

92 Sdn RAF Gutersloh shortly before they went all green .

The finish is old and uniform , and it has had a few "repairs "  which is why I wanted to do a few more to see if improvement could be achieved. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alex]

Cool stuff - nothing says "Cold War" quite like a big ol' jet turbine with a couple of wings bolted onto the sides....

 

Paint on the newer one is especially nice - great job with the roundels and what I'm assuming a squadron colors to their sides.

[Uncarina]

Such a great aircraft, and how I wish the Airfix kit could be scaled up to 1/32! You brought these kits to life.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[nmayhew]

4 hours ago, Uncarina said:

Such a great aircraft, and how I wish the Airfix kit could be scaled up to 1/32! You brought these kits to life.

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

this

 

if only they would come and play in manscale

[Panzerwomble]

Thanks for the kind comments folks .

 

It saddens me that so many post war British jets have been largely ignored for kitting in either 1/48 or 1/32 . 

 

Buccaneer , Lightning , Jagaur , Spey Phantoms , Harrier .............there are some attempts available to a better or lesser degree , some are ancient and some are quite bad . Less said of Trumpy's Lightning the better .

 

There is the odd nice one in 1/48 ;  Hasegawa's Phantom , Kinetics Harrier ...but some gaping holes too . 

 

Airfix have picked up some of the slack with the Javelin, Hunter and Sea Vixen , but again it's only ever quarter scale . 

 

One can only live in hope .  

 

Link to Thunder and Lightnings Website for a quick bit of nostalgia

 

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Panzerwomble
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[Tony T]

I normally buy my favourite jets in all three popular double-digit scales. So I'm still waiting for the 1/32 Su-15TM Flagon, J.35 Draken, FAW.2 Sea Vixen and Su-33 Sea Flanker.

Yet to catch up with quarter inch scale are good kits of the Buccaneer and F-111. 

If Airfix really are averse to 1/32 please consider a 1/24 scale edition of English Electric's Mach Two Masterpiece Mssr Hornby et al.

 

Tony