EE Lightning F.2A Finished

Well, my first build of the year and the first proper build in the new house. This was originally started before we moved, but all that had been done was the cockpit and air intake section. Work really only started once we were settled in the new house and my workshop was almost set up.

Onto the Lightning. This is one of the new tooled Airfix kits which came out a couple of years ago now. I can say that this is a lovely kit to build and there was only a couple of little fitment issues concerning the air intake sitting in the nose section and the belly sections to the fuselage. Otherwise, the kit is a great one to build. It came with two scheme options, one was the silver with blue spine and tail of No.92 Squadron in based in Germany in August 1972. The other in green with silver underside of No.19 Squadron also based in Germany in late 1974. As most of the ones I have seen built so far have been in the silver and blue scheme, I opted for No.19 Squadron scheme.

For the paint, I used Mr Hobby silver on the underside and Xtracrylix XA1001 RAF Dark Green, with other colours from various manufacturers. Once all of the decals were done, the silver areas got a couple coats of gloss clear and the green had satin clear to seal the decals. I did some subtle weathering using some washes to bring out a little of the detail on the underside, undercarriage bays and cockpit areas. Here are a few photos I took on my phone tonight of the finished model.