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EE/BAC Lightning F.6

John Wolstenholme

By John Wolstenholme,
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HOLMES

HOLMES

Posted
Posted

John,

I have just read ALL of th pages of your build , THRILLING BUILD may I add.

and I am impressed by your workmanship and detail to things that one might overlook..

TRULY INSPIRIRNG !!! :salute::cheers::cheers:

LOOKING good too..

HAPPY NEW YEAR and look forward to seeing this done very soon...

HOLMES :wub:

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Skyking

Skyking

Posted
Posted

Hi John. Fantastic Old School craftsmanship. For a first time Vac builder you are nailing this one out of the park. I wouldn't know an English Electric Lightning if it sucked me in and blew me out the afterburner, but I know exceptional modeling skills when I see it. I just spent an hour going through all the threads and can really appreciate what you are going through. Building a Vac kit is about as close to scratchbuilding an entire model as you can get. Beautiful job.

Cheers

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...
John Wolstenholme

John Wolstenholme

Posted
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Posted (edited)
start the new year by finishing that baby
John,

look forward to seeing this done very soon...

HOLMES

You and me both. Just want to see this finished now. Thanks Aigore and Holmes.

Thanks as always Tim.

I wouldn't know an English Electric Lightning if it sucked me in and blew me out the afterburner

Mike

Hi Mike, really appreciate you taking the time and your comments. There are easier ways of find out if it is a Lightning :rofl:

There I was freewheeling downhill when around the next bend came an uphill gradient and I was dropped by the lead pack. So, it was out of the saddle again. The anti-collision lights are small and there is not a lot to get hold of for sanding to size if you happen to have cut your fingernails! The four items which needed to be added to complete the windscreen frame detailing ended up being formed from ~25 bits of plastic, wire and a modified dial. Some work was needed to fair the windscreen into fuselage, particularly at the front.

#1 Anti-collision lights under wings, at rear fuselage and to spine, made from 0.75mm styrene sheet; 0.5mm sheet didn’t hold heat long enough to form.

[a] Shaped scrap resin pieces pressed into warmed/softened clear styrene. Same method used as for Red Top missile lens, but using a 7mm hole in the bottom of the 35mm film canister. Whilst not crystal clear (due to small size?) they were easily made so with a ‘lick’ of future Whilst the underwing lights are completely clear, the rear fuselage and spine ones are clear only to the rear half. I initially painted fuselage areas silver to make reflector, fixed lenses with epoxy resin (not 5 min), then masked rear halves to paint front section.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r18/jwolst/Lightning/135a.jpg

#1 Additional instruments etc added to windscreen frame i.e. power socket for LFS sight recorder camera, standby direction indicator, G-meter and standby compass (info courtesy of John Ward). Managed to get four slivers of white decal on the 1.5mm hemisphere, which at least makes it look at bit like a compass! To measure the gap between the frame and instrument shroud a highly technical solution was required. Taped windscreen in place and cut strips of paper until they just fitted between the two! Even so, I still lightly tacked each completed instrument in place and then tried for clearance fit – tedious, but at least you don’t get any unwanted surprises when you come to finally fix the windscreen!

#2 Windscreen fitted and faired in at the front with milliput, after ‘glasses’ fitted to LFS. [a] Rain clearing duct from scrap resin etc.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r18/jwolst/Lightning/134a.jpg

Thanks again to Jim Featherby (LPG) for technical input and Phartycroc for additional photos.

Now the only thing between me and wreaking havoc with the airbrush is x hours of masking :doh:

BFN

John

Edited by John Wolstenholme
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Berkut

Berkut

Posted
Posted
Ventral gun/fuel pack painted, looking all pristine and totally wrong.

5a.jpg

BFN

John

It is just staggering to think how many hours of work, dedication, details and rivets (:worship:) that one picture contain. I have no words John. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
John Wolstenholme

John Wolstenholme

Posted
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Posted (edited)

Thanks for your continued interest and particularly Anthony, David, Berkut, janman, loki and Tim for taking the time.

Mark and PM, appreciate your comments, it makes it worthwhile. GL, appreciate the sentiment; this is as close as I am going to get. :jaw-dropping:

Some may be interested to see how I dealt with masking the gear bays. Nothing original, I applied ~4mm strips of Tamiya tape to edges of bay, then in-filled with slightly oversized pieces of ¼†low density foam which does not damage any fine detail. The tape prevents the foam overhanging the wing and the foam helps press/keep the tape in place. The up-standing tape also allows attachment of the kitchen paper boot covering the leg.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r18/jwolst/Lightning/136a.jpg

Finally after mucho masking and pratting about I have the basic colours (3 tone greys) applied. The gloss black for Alclad S/Steel was somewhat troublesome to get a finish without some tiny specks of dust. I was getting a bit fed up, but what the hell are a few more days after all this time.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r18/jwolst/Lightning/137a.jpg

I finally got the good sharp intake lip! Nothing looks worse than a fat lip on a Lightning - well no that is not quite correct as we know!!! Intend to protect the Alclad with Future as this surface is easily marked/damaged.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r18/jwolst/Lightning/138a.jpg

At some point I have got to work up enthusiasm and revisit the OWTs – there are a couple of things I am no longer happy with, having developed ideas during the course of this build. In the meantime need to initiate the dirty up plan to the paintwork! See you in a few weeks.

BFN

John

Edited by John Wolstenholme
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geedubelyer

geedubelyer

Posted
Posted

Cor blimey guv'nor...she looks luverly and that's the truth! :worship:

Congratulations John, you've finally got some paint on her. The colours look smashing on my monitor and I would have easily missed the little details that you've picked out. Does the demarcation line between the two greys run along the centre line of the nose then?

The intake ring, APU exhaust and jet nozzle surrounds look like real metal. Very convincing. I hope the application of future does n't detract from the finish you've attained to this point.

Now you've truly whetted my appetite and I'm eager to see the markings and weathering applied.

Thanks for bringing us up to speed on your "Fourteen tons of Thunder".

:worship:

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John Wolstenholme

John Wolstenholme

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Posted
I would have easily missed the little details that you've picked out.

I don’t think so Guy

Does the demarcation line between the two greys run along the centre line of the nose then?

The contrast between the greys is not great and certainly seems to be even less apparent with age/weathering (added some white to help simulate fading). The red lines indicate the demarcation line, as it is not that apparent in the photos. But maybe I have misunderstood the question

I hope the application of future does n't detract from the finish you've attained to this point.

This is my thinking on the Alclad S/Steel:

Takes a lot of effort to get a good finish and only a careless moment to mark it. I normally add 10% iso-propyl alcohol (iso-propanol) to Future when spraying a first coat to a model. Man have you ever seen what ethanol (ethyl alcohol) does to Alclad S/Steel. So no dilution, I apply with a wide soft brush, rather than spraying, and can see no difference. I think even spraying neat Future knocks off a bit of the finish, but it may be my imagination!

This must be the best Lighting build ever.

Marcel

No, just the longest time ever to build one. Wonder how long it took to build a real one?

Best regards

John

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mareku

mareku

Posted
Posted (edited)

John, this is one from the best modelbilding I´v seen yet :) Your modeling and scratch building skills are gorgeus. I´v learned from this thread a great deall. Thank you very, very much! :woot.gif::cheers::cheers:

Edited by mareku
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Timvkampen

Timvkampen

Posted
Posted

Wonderful John. That looks like a fine paintjob to me!!! Both of my Furies are ready for Future! Finally.

Great to see you using the same tedious techniques for masking the wheel wells (tape, toiletpaper and foam!! Works every time;-)).

Best,

Tim

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Skyking

Skyking

Posted
Posted

Looks great John. Very hard to believe this is a vac kit. Your paintwork is very convincing. As Guy said the SS on the intake looks the real deal. I'm looking forward to the next install.

Cheers

Mike

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  • 3 weeks later...
John Wolstenholme

John Wolstenholme

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Posted (edited)

Hi all, particularly mareku, camophilip and Tim for taking the time – thank you.

Thanks Mike. It feels like a Lightning too – chunky and surprisingly heavy.

Hey Bill, here’s the answer. …and to your second question – have a break.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r18/jwolst/Lightning/139a.jpg

The more you look the more you see. A few more of the nuances to the ‘markings’:

#1 Some stencil data (ID Nos. to missile and gun packs) not on sheets made up from individual decal pieces.

#2 Cover plates to fixings for gun pack are not painted as main pack.

#3 Bands to gun pack change black/white/black over gun blisters.

#4 Areas of PRC (brown) sealant application; very common for the fuel leaking Lightning.

#5 Dirty brown (fibreglass) oval panel on port side.

#6 Parachute doors are unpainted.

The dotted lines to the rear fuselage are too bold/sharp. Will have to ‘wear’ those down somewhat to look more realistic, as I have done with the wing walkway lines using a No. 10 blade.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r18/jwolst/Lightning/140a.jpg

I decided the model didn’t quite have the faded/worn appearance I was looking for. So, I over sprayed the upper surfaces with white thinned 1:8, in a random fashion, prior to application of Future. This had the effect of reducing the gloss finish of the enamel paints to satin. To simulate some exhaust stains and general grime (phase1) I dry brushed pastels lightly in various areas. The satin finish gave some key for the pastel dust, which could be removed with pieces of damp paper towel.

If you are interested, for main decal application, rather than just applying in a position which looked about right from schematics, I measured from photos and marked positions on model with small pieces of Tamiya tape. The kit decal bands to the ventral pack come as ‘tram lines’ which is not good news from two points of view, i) they are too wide and ii) there’s a lot of clear decal which could produce some silvering. I cut the lines/curves against the ink and used strips of masking tape, of the correct width, to give spacing between the two decal strips. It all takes time, but I don’t want to shamble it now! I am also mindful of the fact that this aircraft, at the end of its service life, would not have every single stencil on that are provided on the sheet(s). Additionally, I opted to supplement the kit decals with Xtradecal F.6 stencil data sheet. To get the correct colour stencilling etc, which varies, I have chopped/mixed decals, which has been a PITA.

While looking closely at photos for above marking details this cropped up. How many differences do you see between these photos of XS903, taken in ’87 (I’m guessing) and ’88, respectively?

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r18/jwolst/Miscellaneous/XS903tn.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r18/jwolst/Miscellaneous/XS903tn1.jpg

Still haven’t started on the underside yet! Looks like the anti-glare panel is the wrong shape at the front! I am beginning to feel like Jim Peters. Will I get across the finishing line?

BFN

John

Edited by John Wolstenholme
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Tripio

Tripio

Posted
Posted

Hello John,

what kind of question is that?

OF COURSE you will.

I've just went back to the beginning,you've started the Lightning two and a half years ago.

Taking into consideration your stamina in the building,the finish line is not so far...

Keep up the good work. :doh:

Regards,Laz

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