Gary West Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 (edited) Finally finished something – my first in 9 months, Lightning F6. This is actually a reclaim and not a new build. First built about 7-8 years ago, she was a straight OOB F2A – not a very good one either. In here original finish, both the Green and Silver paints were straight out of cans and the underside was so thick, that most of the panel lines had vanished. There were gaps where they shouldn’t exist and decal films were embarrassingly visible. Despite this, the kit sat in my loft; I just couldn’t bring myself to bin it. This is what she used to look like.... Just before Crimbo, I got a pang to build a Lightning and so I decided to try and make my F2A good. I removed as many parts as I could, then placed what was left in a poly bag and filled it with Mr Muscle oven cleaner – worked brilliantly. I did have to reclaim a few panel lines, and fill a few gaps with CA, but once I had given her a coat of primer, I was amazed at how good the detail was. I made the relevant parts changes required to make her an F6 then struggled to decide upon a finish and markings for a while – at this point I realised how very few after market decal sheets there are out there for Lightning’s. I decided upon a bare metal finish, and for purposes of speed opted to use decals included in the few unmade Lightning kits in my stash – after some research on Airliners, I managed to cobble together the serial XR753, of 23 squadron. The Silver is Alcad polished Aluminium, and although I have several shades of this, I didn’t want the overall Silver to be too bright, so I went for Halford’s Grey primer – this gave the right finish, but also allowed me to accentuate various panels in both brighter and darker metal shades. The real wow affect came when I gave the finish 4 or 5 coats of Kleer – this really brought it to life and in my opinion, gave it a very real natural metal effect. I would highly recommend this to anyone who hasn’t tried this. seat before painting AFTER seat after painting - poor image I was quite limited to what I could do in the pit, but I did add an after market seat, to which I added Tamiya tape straps. I ran hydraulic lines down the main u/c legs – made from fuse wire and added Eduard’s RBF tags to the very few locations regularly seen on Lightning’s. One word of caution on Eduard’s tags – I used 1:72 tags, as the 1:48 are way too big. The kits pitot tube was removed and replaced with a length of brass rod which was then partially covered with Tamiya tape, into which some 1:48 RBF tags were cropped and the CA’d in place. The one thing I couldn’t do was add an air intake cover, as I discovered my radar cone wasn’t central Given this was a write off, I’m really pleased with the outcome and I’ve already stripped 4 more kits. Gary Edited April 1, 2007 by Gary West Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stephen Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Looks great to me Gary! Stephen Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Graham T Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Nice work.....you'd never think it was a "retread"! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
model_madness Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 To be honest Gary they both look superb! Of course i can;t see the underneath in the original but the chips look pretty realistic. Good work, you certainly have more patience than me in stripping a model and starting from scratch again Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Davidwatson Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Very impressive transformation gary, love BMF lightnings! Well worth the effort in my opinion. David Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Wow. Looks beautiful! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dswoofie Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 It didn't look too bad originally, but it now looks superb!!! What patience to strip and re-do all of that, and to make it look sooo good afterwards. Just love BMF Lightnings, and this captures the look great! Karl. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TF51GREGWISE Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 I love the EE lightning! and your kicks *** :) nice work on the makeover! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gary West Posted March 30, 2007 Author Share Posted March 30, 2007 (edited) Thanks for the comments everyone. Well worth attempting a re work if you have something suitable - I got more pleasure from this than a conventional build. Gary Edited March 30, 2007 by Gary West Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aggressor Supporter Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 Nice work on redoing your Lightning. Would of never have guessed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jr_rules2 Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 What a build! Great finish! ;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sebastijan Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 Both look great... I guess either you love the odd-looking Brit jets or you hate them... I LOVE them! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mikeew Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 Superb job Gary. That is seems to have been a real labour of love for you. Turned out great! Did you airbrush the 3-4 coats of klear on? Must try that. cheers, Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gary West Posted April 1, 2007 Author Share Posted April 1, 2007 Superb job Gary. :) That is seems to have been a real labour of love for you. Turned out great! Did you airbrush the 3-4 coats of klear on? Must try that. cheers, Mike Mike - I used a broad brush and painted the Kleer on rather than air brush. I've air brushed Kleer previously and it took so long to acheive the same level of finish. Just watch those small bubbles as it dries. Cheers - Gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Andre Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 Lovely work! How did you make the pattern on the Firestreaks? Cheers, Andre Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gary West Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 Lovely work! How did you make the pattern on the Firestreaks? Andre Andre - these are decals provided in the kit Quote Link to post Share on other sites
madmike Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 What a rebirth!! Superb "save" and worthy of praise. Nice work. B) I MUST build a Lightning, even a quicky 1:72 one to have one next to my Hawk and Tucano. MikeJ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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