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Airfix Lightning F2 (not an F1a.....); 1/72nd conversion
Topic Started: Jan 5 2014, 03:37 PM (1,879 Views)
Bill Clark
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Any of you old enough to remember Scale Models in the early 1980's may well recall an article (probably by Icarus/Geoff Prentice) where he 'bravely attempted' a line up of Lightnings in 1/72nd scale. He used the Airfix F1a and Hasegawa F6 as the basis kits for this line up, and for his F3, he used the belly tank and wings from the Airfix F1a and grafted them on to Hasegawa's F6. At about the same time Peter Lockhart - from Maintrack in Hastings issued a very primitive resin belly tank, which he may have written about when grafting it onto a Matchbox F2a/F6..

So, move the clock forward three decades or so and Airfix have at last issued the ultimate 1/72nd scale Lightning. It seems unlikely that an early small belly/straight wing version will materialise so its back to those heady days of filler and cross kitting if you want a reasonable early Lightning.

The biggest problem in cross kitting anything is finding the kits to cross-kit! In this injstance the new F2a is available but the old F1a/F3 is a bit more elusive...I'm lucky that I have a few in the stash, but hopefully it won't be long before someone issues a resin belly tank...

First of all some chopping up is required of both the old and new.....with the removal of both belly tanks

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Then its on to the fin. I'll be either building an F1a or an F2, both had the rounded fin. I had thought about using Airfix's F1a fin, but this was too short, and it wasn't that difficult to use the F2a fin - cut back.....

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Here it is amended with the fuselage and belly tank taped together...still quite a lot of trial fitting to go!!

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Next...the Wings!
Edited by Bill Clark, Jan 23 2014, 09:31 AM.
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Bill Clark
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The Lightning's wing was a complex shaped affair. The F2a/F6 wing had an extended leading edge plus an "under-camber" with a squared off tip. Airfix have managed to get this spot on. For an early variant we have to remove this extension and under camber.

On the left is a wing off of a Trumpeter F1a showing the straight leading edge, compared to Airfix's extended wing.

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With the Airfix upper and lower sections joined I have marked the areas that need removing from Airfix's wings..

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Here we see one wing amended...

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Next....getting the fuselage together and the tank added....
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Walrus
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A bristle short of a full brush
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Bill, madman or genius?

My money is on the latter! :lol:
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peebeep
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Nice work Bill. I can see A2Zee and Freightdog coming out with conversion bits for this kit. If they don't there's no justice.

peebeep
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Drewe
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I'd love a copy of that Scale Models article, I must have read it hundreds of times as a teenager! I remember he used the Modeldecal T.5 conversion, and finished it in an experimental blue scheme which I have never seen again. Said he used a Humbrol pale blue, and after talking to the bods at humbrol, tinted it with red, because the red killed the green in the blue! The things you remember!

Hopefully *somebody* has a set of early fuselage halves en route to me, which I'll use to make a mould of the belly tank for multiple conversions, and then I'll be right behind you Bill! (I had decided at the outset that chopping the wings would be better than trying to use the Airfix or Trumpeter ones - ISTR when I did an F.1A in 1986 I used the Airfix belly tank but modded the Matchbox wings - I gave that model to 1032Sqdn ATC in Yeovil back in 1987. . . I suspect it'll be long gone by now!)
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peebeep
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:slaphead:

Sorreee! :frantic:

peebeep
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peebeep
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Bill, any recollection of year/month on the SM article? It's quite likely that I have a copy lurking in the loft archive, I'd be quite happy to make it available to anybody who would like an electronic copy.

peebeep
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Bill Clark
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Drewe
Jan 5 2014, 07:36 PM
I'd love a copy of that Scale Models article, I must have read it hundreds of times as a teenager! I remember he used the Modeldecal T.5 conversion, and finished it in an experimental blue scheme which I have never seen again. Said he used a Humbrol pale blue, and after talking to the bods at humbrol, tinted it with red, because the red killed the green in the blue! The things you remember!

Hopefully *somebody* has a set of early fuselage halves en route to me, which I'll use to make a mould of the belly tank for multiple conversions, and then I'll be right behind you Bill! (I had decided at the outset that chopping the wings would be better than trying to use the Airfix or Trumpeter ones - ISTR when I did an F.1A in 1986 I used the Airfix belly tank but modded the Matchbox wings - I gave that model to 1032Sqdn ATC in Yeovil back in 1987. . . I suspect it'll be long gone by now!)
Hi Drewe, That T5 article was by dear old Ted Taylor. I was never sure about THAT colour, the text said that the colour was close to the Blue-grey used on Mirages!!I tried to mix it myself using either Hu 88 or 87?, and it looked like nothing I'd seen on an aircraft!! I think that the real colour of that aircraft was just Dark Sea Grey!! Its well documented a being XS458.


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Bill Clark
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peebeep
Jan 5 2014, 07:50 PM
Bill, any recollection of year/month on the SM article? It's quite likely that I have a copy lurking in the loft archive, I'd be quite happy to make it available to anybody who would like an electronic copy.

peebeep
Hi Paul, It was probably around July 1978? It had a photo of a 56 Sqn F3 with chequered tail on the front cover. I have seen a copy of it recently (well within the last year or so!)
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Drewe
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The line up of Lightnings article was much later than 1978 - 1981 or even 1982. The first issue of SM I ever saw was the biplane special from something like Sept 1980 when my brother started getting it. About a year later I got my first issue of SAM, the Sea Harrier one which had the conversion of the Hasegawa kit using a test shot of the upcoming Modeldecal Sea Harrier conversion set, which was cancelled with the 1982 Matchbox kit, this was followed by the Modeldecal Lightning T-5 conversion which was used in the Lightning article and was also cancelled when Matchbox did. . yup, a twin seat Lightning!

Of course, there may well have been an earlier article from 1978 or so in SM, I have no knowledge from that era, but the one with the T-5 conversion was early 80's (81-82)

Found this pic of XS458. . probably is DSG Bill!

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Edited by Drewe, Jan 6 2014, 02:24 PM.
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peebeep
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I remember the cover of that issue of SM and it is almost certainly in the loft archive. I will endeavour to dig it out.

peebeep
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Walrus
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I will just wait for Sod's Law to kick in after you lot have done the conversion which means Airfix will announce an F1 next Christmas! :lol:
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Floyd
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I wouldn't mind an electronic copy of the article if you are up for it Peebeep. Cheers. Some cracking work being displayed here. Far more talent than I.
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Bill Clark
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I think whats confusing me is that there were two separate atricles..The 'Line up of Lightnings' was by (I think) Geoff Prentice(Icarus) whereas the T5 article, of XS458 was by Ted Taylor. I met him just after in HJ Walkers shop opposite Hackney Hospital, where he helped out, and I'm sure we discussed the article then, certainly regarding the colour photo of the real T5 cockpit in that SM. I know Geoff's article used the Airmodel nose, but I can't for the life of me remember what Ted used........was it the Modeldecal set?(I actually have the Modeldecal Sea Harrier set...)
Edited by Bill Clark, Jan 7 2014, 10:21 AM.
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Drewe
Amused To Death
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Bill Clark
Jan 7 2014, 09:00 AM
I think whats confusing me is that there were two separate atricles..The 'Line up of Lightnings' was by (I think) Geoff Prentice(Icarus) whereas the T5 article, of XS458 was by Ted Taylor. I met him just after in HJ Walkers shop opposite Hackney Hospital, where he helped out, and I'm sure we discussed the article then, certainly regarding the colour photo of the real T5 cockpit in that SM. I know Geoff's article used the Airmodel nose, but I can't for the life of me remember what Ted used........was it the Modeldecal set?(I actually have the Modeldecal Sea Harrier set...)
I'm confused too - because I remember the line up of Lightnings and the T.5 using the Modeldecal conversion was part of the article - like I said, I didn't have the magazine in 1977-78 (I was eight years old!) but I remember the line up WITH the T.5 included. Having the checked fin F.3 on the cover rings a bell too. The Airmodel article must have been the earlier one I've never seen, because the XS458 article I saw definitely used the Modeldecal set which was never released.

Edit:-December 1981!
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Just found a copy on Ebay. Don't bother, I already bought it!
Edited by Drewe, Jan 7 2014, 02:39 PM.
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Bill Clark
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Drewe
Jan 7 2014, 02:31 PM
Bill Clark
Jan 7 2014, 09:00 AM
I think whats confusing me is that there were two separate atricles..The 'Line up of Lightnings' was by (I think) Geoff Prentice(Icarus) whereas the T5 article, of XS458 was by Ted Taylor. I met him just after in HJ Walkers shop opposite Hackney Hospital, where he helped out, and I'm sure we discussed the article then, certainly regarding the colour photo of the real T5 cockpit in that SM. I know Geoff's article used the Airmodel nose, but I can't for the life of me remember what Ted used........was it the Modeldecal set?(I actually have the Modeldecal Sea Harrier set...)
I'm confused too - because I remember the line up of Lightnings and the T.5 using the Modeldecal conversion was part of the article - like I said, I didn't have the magazine in 1977-78 (I was eight years old!) but I remember the line up WITH the T.5 included. Having the checked fin F.3 on the cover rings a bell too. The Airmodel article must have been the earlier one I've never seen, because the XS458 article I saw definitely used the Modeldecal set which was never released.

Edit:-December 1981!
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Just found a copy on Ebay. Don't bother, I already bought it!
Thats the ticket!! Good call on the date Drewe....I'll dig around to see what magazines I have tucked away!
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Bill Clark
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I've decided on a 92 Sqn F2, hence the grey cockpit interior. I've encased some lead weight in a block of Milliput. That should help hold her down!

I've also added pllastic card tabs - hopefully that will help alignment of the belly tank...

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Here the fuselage halves have been knocked together....I had to remove a few mm off of the forward bulkhead just visible at the front of the gap, before fitting the belly tank


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I've fitted the tank here. Also added a new plastic card ventral fin. I've also added the airfield arrestor hook. This will be filed down flush as the F2 didn't have a hook.

The black 'filler' is "Mister Stick's Rubber Toughened Cyanocrylate". Great stuff, bought from a Model Shop in Portsmouth a few months ago. Fill gaps and use an accelerator really does speeds things up!


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Next up.....the wings...
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foxy
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All though I am not an aircraft buff, this is fasinateing stuff.

I to seem to have got it wrong on my siteing many years ago, it was the checkered on the bow end that I remember. :slaphead:

You guy's go to town on these aircraft, nice to see :clap: .

Cheers foxy :coolio:
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Bill Clark
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OK, managed to get some work done on the wings, and bolted on to the fuselage. The wings ailerons have been filled and new ones re-scribed....next step is to get some primer on I think.....

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Bill Clark
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Getting somewhere - at last! Almost ready for some primer.....

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