E.E. Lightning F.6 1/48th Scale With Extras WIP #1

When you build one 1/48th scale Lightning and realise how big it is, you decide that will be the only one you are going to build (says muggins who also has four Canberra's in this scale to). But when a friend asks if you are planning to build another one as they happen to have a load of the new CMK resin for review for the Airfix/Eduard Lightnings, it was just too tempting. So a Lightning was ordered along with a couple of extra items which would complete the upgrading of the kit. The upgrade set I am fitting to this project are as follows.

CMK 4350 BAC Lightning F2/F2A/F3/F6 Cockpit Set. CMK 4348 BAC Lightning F2A/F6 Engine Set. CMK 4344 BAC Lightning Front Undercarriage Bay Set. CMK 4349 BAC Lightning F2A/F6  Control Surfaces Set. CMK 4345 BAC Lightning Main Undercarriage Bays set. CMK 4343 BAC Lightning Air Brakes Set. (All supplied by Tim at SAMI)

CMK 4351 BAC Lightning F2/F6 Electronics Boxes. Aires 4318 BAC/EE Lightning F Mk.2/6 Exhaust Nozzles. Model Master AM-48-078 BAC Lightning Pitot Tube. Eduard 48632 BAC Lightning Ladder. (Purchased by myself) 

The first upgrade I started on was the resin cockpit set which covers versions F.2, F.2A, F.3 and F.6. I decided to build the F.6, so the correct instrument panel was chosen and all of the parts cleaned up. The fun starts when you try and mount the tub! CMK do not supply and instructions on how to mount the cockpit interior inside the kits fuselage. The Airfix tub mounts to the starboard side of the fuselage, but this was not the case of the resin one. After a time of head scratching, I worked out it get glued to the port side of the fuselage and that the two upper panels also need to be glued directly to the fuselage to. Once I was happy with the location of the tub and upper rear panel, I used strips of plasticard to act as location guides for when fix the parts to the fuselage later after painting them.

Next I started to modify the fuselage for number two engine bay installation. This upgrade set consists of five parts, three for the bay itself, the engine and the bay door/cover. The first to do is cut away the kits moulded covers from the two fuselage halves. This was when I discovered that the resin replacement cover was slightly shorter than the same item on the kit. But I had also noticed that the bay bulkheads had thin flanges on them, so this should fill the gap only if the flanges were still intact from packing and transporting. So the bay was assembled and test fitted in to the fuselage to sort out any problems. Apart from the damage to the bulkheads, there was no other issue with this set. Mind you, the engine is a single piece casting and solid resin, so I have drilled and grind out some of the material to cut back the weight a little as it will be sitting towards the rear of the aircraft.

The next bit I tackled was the air brake recesses. The set comes with two recesses, two doors and four pistons (two spare). The recess is straight forward to fit to the fuselage. I just drilled around inner edge of the moulded recess in the fuselage halves from the outside. Then removed the end panels and cleaned up the opening test fitting the recess sections as I went along. Once I was happy with how they sat against the inner surface of the fuselage, I glued them in place with superglue and filled any gaps in the joint using "Filla-Glu Powder". This also strengthened the joint of the recess panels to the fuselage.

Well that is all for now, I do not want to make this post too long as there is plenty still to write about on this project. The model is actually quite advanced in the build from what you see here, so I am breaking it up over a few posts until I catch up to where the model is at present.  So, until the next update, Happy New Year to you all.