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Made in gb
Executing Exarch





London, UK

Those are some fantastic looking dusty boys, although no real dust as they're in a case!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Valkyrie wrote:
So I hit the jackpot a bit and managed to get an Ikea Deltolf glass cabinet for only £10. Honestly, look at Facebook Marketplace if you want a painting desk or cabinet, some people just want to get rid of their old stuff, plenty of bargains to be had.

The cabinet has plenty of room for the Tzeench forces and even has a built in light, which is much softer than the one used for the previous photos. So here are the forces of Tzeench in varying degrees of completion.







There's still a Dreadnought, a couple of Burning Chariots and a couple dozen Horrors still to add to the top shelf so it'll be quite cramped. Still have two free shelves which I could either use for my 5k Custodes force or 6k Guard super-heavy army. Decisions, decisions...

Page carryover!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/03/29 22:08:28


   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Those are some fantastic looking dusty boys, although no real dust as they're in a case!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Valkyrie wrote:
So I hit the jackpot a bit and managed to get an Ikea Deltolf glass cabinet for only £10. Honestly, look at Facebook Marketplace if you want a painting desk or cabinet, some people just want to get rid of their old stuff, plenty of bargains to be had.

The cabinet has plenty of room for the Tzeench forces and even has a built in light, which is much softer than the one used for the previous photos. So here are the forces of Tzeench in varying degrees of completion.







There's still a Dreadnought, a couple of Burning Chariots and a couple dozen Horrors still to add to the top shelf so it'll be quite cramped. Still have two free shelves which I could either use for my 5k Custodes force or 6k Guard super-heavy army. Decisions, decisions...

Page carryover!


Thanks very much
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

Hello all, hope you're all staying safe.

I feel I have stagnated a bit with the Thousand Sons/Daemon project. I've blitzed through a lot of it, but there's only a certain number of Horrors you can paint before you need a break. With that in mind I've decided to take a temporary pause from the project and refresh myself on something new.

Now that I have the display cabinet I've been pondering what to fill the other shelves with. My Custodes may not be suitable due to the weight of an Orion Gunship pressing on the glass, and my Guard force includes 5 superheavies so no room there. I was rummaging through my stuff and came across this:



This is a 1:48 scale English Electric Lightning, my all-time favourite plane.


Background

The English Electric Lightning was first produced in the UK in the mid 1950's to intercept incoming Soviet nuclear bombers and defend the V-Bomber airfields. The unique over/under placement of it's engines provided unparalleled speed and climbing ability, and at the time the Lightning was the fastest and most agile aircraft in the world. The Lightning was even able to match the altitude of the US U2 spyplanes, with XR749 reaching a height of 88,000ft.

The drawback of such a design was the limited range and armament, which EE tried to resolve over time but ultimately the aircraft became obsolete once the Soviet nuclear doctrine turned towards ICBMs. Overall over 300 Lightnings were produced and a great number remain on static display around the world.

Crew: 1
Max takeoff weight: 45,750lbs
Max speed: Mach 2.3 (>1,500mph)
Range: >700 miles
Rate of climb: Maximum of 50,000ft/min
Armament: 2x Firestreak or Red Top missiles, 2x30mm ADEN cannon.

I bought this kit at least 5 years ago while with my dad in the South of England. Due to not having a suitable place to display it, it soon started collecting dust and I retired it to my to-do pile.

The progress on the kit is quite limited as seen here.



The fuselage is joined although the tail is only attached by friction, and was quickly removed. I have had a good chat with Warpig on aircraft modelling who provided me with some excellent advice (thanks again Warpig if you happen to come across this post), and I recommend you check out his thread on the subject



Splitting the fuselage was a lot easier than I thought, the glue has probably degraded a bit over time, and the halves came apart very cleanly. I have since removed the cockpit as I plan to replace this with a resin upgrade.
With that, I moved onto the stripping. For this I used methylated spirits, which have worked well on 40k kits, but was unsure as to wherever Airfix use a different plastic.



This is after around 45 mins of scrubbing and rubbing. The detail and panel lines have been unaffected, which was my main worry, although I'm wondering if just soaking the fuselage will really get rid of the final streaks. My plan is to redo the Lightning in it's trademark mirror finish.



This one is the exact scheme I'm going for. For this I'm hoping to use Alcad's High-Shine metallic colours along with the corresponding decals. I've already balls'ed up and ordered 1/72 decals instead of 1/48, but a quick email to the supplier should sort that out.

Fingers crossed this'll turn out the way I've imagined, and fingers crossed I'll be revitalised and ready to get back into the Thousand Sons afterwards.

Thanks for reading. Once again a comment or any feedback really is appreciated

   
Made in gb
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought






Lightning was a cool plane, the twin engines and simple design always gave it a really brutal appearance I always thought. Randomly there’s one just down the road from here in a self storage centre. I hadn’t realised that you could use methylated spirits to strip plastic, I might give it a go if IPA doesn’t work

Goberts Gubbins - P&M Blog, started with Oldhammer, often Blackstone Fortress and Void Panther Marines, with side projects along the way 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

 gobert wrote:
Lightning was a cool plane, the twin engines and simple design always gave it a really brutal appearance I always thought. Randomly there’s one just down the road from here in a self storage centre. I hadn’t realised that you could use methylated spirits to strip plastic, I might give it a go if IPA doesn’t work


It's an odd one isn't it, from the era where the UK was producing stuff that looked a bit bonkers but actually worked pretty well, like the Vulcan, Valiant and TSR2 (maybe not the last one).

Meth spirits are pretty good at stripping plastic. It's maybe not the best at getting in finer details however, and it can stain your hands a fair bit. I've ordered some Biostrip20 however, will see how that goes.
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Boom! Leman Russ Commander





United States

I hadn't thought of the Lightning in years- great plane! Very suitable just as a true-historical kit, but in the right scale could see it modified easily for a close air support fighter for the Imperial Navy.

The Vulcan is one of my favorite Cold War bombers.

Rock on!


"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."

Montrose Toast


 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

 Meer_Cat wrote:
I hadn't thought of the Lightning in years- great plane! Very suitable just as a true-historical kit, but in the right scale could see it modified easily for a close air support fighter for the Imperial Navy.

The Vulcan is one of my favorite Cold War bombers.

Rock on!



Definitely. In Double Eagle there are a few aircraft in there which I haven't heard mentioned anywhere else in 40k. I think the Lightning, Vulcan and Mriya are the closest fits.
   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






A heck of a pivot but I love non-wargame hobby projects on Dakka. Thanks for sharing the historical background. Excited to see your progress.

My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

Quite a few packages arriving in the post today, mostly do to with the Lightning project including some exciting upgrades.



Here we have a new resin cockpit compartment as well as an upgrade sprue in etched brass. That along with a new set of excellent decals came to around £25, plus another £5 or so for a tub of Biostrip20, which is by far the best stripping product I've come across.

I absolutely cannot emphasise how small these components are. For comparison the main set of gauges on the etched brass is about 20mm across. there are a number of extra panels and dials which will have to be folded and glued, some of which are around the size of a pinhead.



Despite the crappy photo resulting from zooming in too much, the level of detail on these is staggering for such a small part.

Additionally I ordered a set of decals from Xtradecal, which included colour and decal guides for 6 various Lightnings. Of these 2 weren't viable as they were for 2-seater trainer versions, but I've finally pinpointed the finish I want.



Essentially it'll be the 74th Squadron colours with the cockpit roundels replaced by the lightning-bolt version circled above. I was a little dubious about mixing schemes like this as I do want some degree of accuracy, but a quick searched showed this scheme in place for the 111th Squadron and their Lightnings shown below.



I think I'll keep the yellow stripes as well. According to the guide the stripes were present on the 74th colours, but another search hasn't shown anything of the sort. Might deviate a little to put them on the 111th colours. The registration for this scheme shown above shows XM186, which was destroyed in an accident in 1963, tragically killing the pilot. With that in mind I may look for some other registrations, can cut and change around the numbers if necessary.

Thanks for reading. Next steps will be to remove the excess resin from the cockpit upgrades (currently waiting on a piercing saw to arrive) and painting up the cockpit before moving onto the fuselage.
   
Made in gb
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought






Wow! That brass etch is insane! I hadn’t realised that you could get stuff like that. The size of some of the bets the question of how one goes about getting them in to the model? I hope you have a good set of tweezers!

Goberts Gubbins - P&M Blog, started with Oldhammer, often Blackstone Fortress and Void Panther Marines, with side projects along the way 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

 gobert wrote:
Wow! That brass etch is insane! I hadn’t realised that you could get stuff like that. The size of some of the bets the question of how one goes about getting them in to the model? I hope you have a good set of tweezers!


I've worked with brass on this scale before, and you're right, it is absolutely insane.





These are part of a 1:200 battleship project which is on hold due to the sheer size of it, but you can see the detail involved. The 20mm gun with the Skitarii is around 15 individually folded parts.

It can be quite a forgiving material, as you have some degree to go back and redo if you balls it up. My main worry with this kit however is damaging the printed surface with the dials.
   
Made in gb
Esteemed Veteran Space Marine






Northumberland

Oh nice! I didn't realise you had a blog Valkyrie, I've just stumbled across it - excellent to see your progress (and thanks for the shout-out ).

I'd never thought of using methylated spirits to strip it, but I'm glad to see you've managed to get almost everything off. I'd be interested to see your results with the BioStrip too (I know I recommended it, but I've not used it personally).

Photetch is a b***h if you've not had experience of that particular hell, so I cannot advise you enough to hoover your work area before you start, just in case anything pings off any you need to find it. My OCD goes wild if I know there should have been a small feature that is now consigned to god-knows-where on my floor

Totally enthused for this project, totally jealous you have a 1:48 Lightning (Still hoping Airfix put it back into production) and totally confident this is gonna be cracking!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/04/11 12:06:23


Now with 100% more blog: 'Beyond the Wall'

Numine Et Arcu
 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

Cheers mate, and thanks for your very informative PM

Meth spirits aren't so bad, just after a while the fumes can mess with your head a bit. I've just given the fuselage another coat of Biostrip, will post a pic later to show the result but overall it's come out very nicely, lot less hassle than the meths.

Yeah I'm a little dubious about some of the PE parts. I can't emphasise enough how small they are; some would fit on a Primaris' fingertip for example, they're that diddy. It appears Eduard has predicted me cocking it up however and the frame includes spares which is nice of them, but I think it may be easier to omit some of the tiniest parts for sanity' sake.

Thanks very much for the kind words. I'm a bit ahead of myself and looking for my next project, currently between a Mosquito, Spitfire MkXV or a Glouster Javelin. If I do come across another 1:48 Lightning I'll let you know
   
Made in gb
Esteemed Veteran Space Marine






Northumberland

Nee bother - I'm glad there's at least one other aircraft enthusiast knocking about on here and happy my advice has helped

Aye that's always the way with the more effective products. I didn't suggest Dettol, which is another option, mainly because it leaves your whole house stinking of TCP.

By the looks of it the Lightning has more PE than my Spitfire did. They're great for bringing out the detail, but a PITA to apply. My method was to dip a cocktail stick in superglue as a precision applicator, then lay down the parts with needle tweezers if that helps.

Aha! It's a slippery decent from here on in! I did my Spitfire as a break, like you, then found out I've been hooked on them I'm not as keen on the Javelin, but all of those are great options. I'll look forward to seeing them .

Also: Subscribed. Because your Thousand Sons are also awesome

Now with 100% more blog: 'Beyond the Wall'

Numine Et Arcu
 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

 Warpig1815 wrote:
Nee bother - I'm glad there's at least one other aircraft enthusiast knocking about on here and happy my advice has helped

Aye that's always the way with the more effective products. I didn't suggest Dettol, which is another option, mainly because it leaves your whole house stinking of TCP.

By the looks of it the Lightning has more PE than my Spitfire did. They're great for bringing out the detail, but a PITA to apply. My method was to dip a cocktail stick in superglue as a precision applicator, then lay down the parts with needle tweezers if that helps.

Aha! It's a slippery decent from here on in! I did my Spitfire as a break, like you, then found out I've been hooked on them I'm not as keen on the Javelin, but all of those are great options. I'll look forward to seeing them .

Also: Subscribed. Because your Thousand Sons are also awesome


Cheers mate. Yeah Dettol isn't so bad at stripping. I don't mind the smell as much, it's more the oily film left afterwards that just doesn't seem to wash off completely.

So the saw and other gubbins has arrived, and I quickly set to work removing the large-ish resin gates from the cockpit.

Here's where I discovered a vital flaw in the design: The gate itself is the cockpit floor. Removing it means removing the bottom of the cockpit itself, which in my eyes is a pretty crappy design.

You could, if you're extremely precise, leave enough left to not have this issue, but the cockpit is such a tight fit in the fuselage it seems pretty impossible to do so. Once the ejector seat is fitted it's not so bad, after I filled the gaps with Green Stuff.

While the GS was curing I did a dry-fit of the fuselage. I was worried that it may have warped in storage but it seems to go together nicely. Some pressure will be needed for a neat fit but nothing out of the ordinary for these models.



The Biostrip has done a nice work cleaning up the fuselage. I did a test run on the spare tail and the panel lines are still visible after a coat of paint.

Here's my main gripe with the kit. For some reason, Airfix decided to extend the engine intake to around 2-3" inside the model, likely so it can act as a bulkhead for the structure. However this means fitting the cockpit is a nightmare as the whole subassembly simply sits on top of the intake, with no actual lugs, slots or other bits to hold it.



Ignore the crap primer work on the intake, none of this will be visible on the final model.

I've also ordered some suitable paint to match the PE parts. Turns out only the F3 Lightnings and onwards had blue cockpits so this is turning into quite a bit of a mongrel model; an F1 Lightning with an F2 cockpit painted in F3 colours. As Warpig mentioned however there's very little, if any visual difference between them so I'm not bothered.

It did occur to me last night however that I've overlooked one important aspect of the decals: the ones I ordered only included the squadron-specific markings, and generic stencils and warnings (Jet exhaust! Stand Clear! etc) were lost when I stripped the fuselage down. After a quick call to Airfix they've managed to find another set to send out. Credit to them for finding some despite being long out of production, good thing as well as there are no spares in 1/48 out there.

I think for the next project a TSR2 would be a very eye-catching project. Airfix did do a limited run a while back but they're currently going for around £100 or more online. Might just stick to the Javelin. A Buccaneer would be nice but I can't find a decent 1/48 kit anywhere. Anyone has any suggestions, send them my way!

Thanks for the update, any comments appreciated. Will do some more Thousand Sons stuff soon I promise!
   
Made in gb
Esteemed Veteran Space Marine






Northumberland

Hey that Biostrip has worked wonders! I did think about the stencil markings being lost, but it didn't click that (obviously) Xtradecal wouldn't include them. I'm amazed Airfix still had some to hand.

I have to applaud your taste in aircraft too, the Buccaneer and TSR2 are both amongst my favourites. As you say though, they're like hens teeth to find in 1:48. If you haven't come across it already, there's a handy site called Scalemates - they're basically a database for scale model kits where you can search for different manufacturers, in different scales and (most helpfully) they also detail reboxings, new toolings and variant kits. The site also has reviews which are canny helpful when you're trying to weigh up quality for money.

Now with 100% more blog: 'Beyond the Wall'

Numine Et Arcu
 
   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






Really cool to see the progress here. You and Warpig's conversation about different stripping agents was informative. Like gobert I am pretty blown away by that brass! Super well detailed. Is it just folded or do you need a bit of glue?

My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in gb
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought






The Lightning stripped nicely, looking forward to seeing you get the cockpit with all its extra details together. At least you have brass experience judging by the scale shots! TSR2 would be a great model to have, but £100 is steep

Goberts Gubbins - P&M Blog, started with Oldhammer, often Blackstone Fortress and Void Panther Marines, with side projects along the way 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

Warpig1815 wrote:Hey that Biostrip has worked wonders! I did think about the stencil markings being lost, but it didn't click that (obviously) Xtradecal wouldn't include them. I'm amazed Airfix still had some to hand.

I have to applaud your taste in aircraft too, the Buccaneer and TSR2 are both amongst my favourites. As you say though, they're like hens teeth to find in 1:48. If you haven't come across it already, there's a handy site called Scalemates - they're basically a database for scale model kits where you can search for different manufacturers, in different scales and (most helpfully) they also detail reboxings, new toolings and variant kits. The site also has reviews which are canny helpful when you're trying to weigh up quality for money.


Thanks mate, yeah pretty lucky about that. I found out about Scalemates last year trying to find some guides for the warship mentioned previously, and you're right, it's an absolute goldmine for info.

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Really cool to see the progress here. You and Warpig's conversation about different stripping agents was informative. Like gobert I am pretty blown away by that brass! Super well detailed. Is it just folded or do you need a bit of glue?


Thanks, I would definitely recommend Biostrip over anything else I've tried, worth giving a go yourself. There are a couple of bits to be folded, but it's mainly just to help mount them in the cockpit. The majority of the parts just lie flat and need a little bit of superglue.

gobert wrote:The Lightning stripped nicely, looking forward to seeing you get the cockpit with all its extra details together. At least you have brass experience judging by the scale shots! TSR2 would be a great model to have, but £100 is steep


Yeah it is a bit much. Also trying to get that perfect anti-flash white on the TSR would be a nightmare I'd imagine.


So another quick update. The transfers from Airfix arrived this morning, which surprised me. Was expecting a week or two for them to find them and get them over, but was done in less than a day! Utterly blown away by this level of customer service.



The decals are from a previous F2-F6 kit, so some of them would be incompatible. The main ones I needed however are the warning decals and stencils on the centre and bottom left which are perfectly interchangeable.

At the moment it's a bit of a waiting game. The cockpit paint should arrive tomorrow hopefully, then it's a bit of a strict procedure I have to follow:

- Paint cockpit
- Add cockpit brass
- Build fuselage and fill in any gaps
- Mask the cockpit off
- Prime and prep the fuselage for the Alclad paints
- Paint fuselage
- Apply decals.

Once the paint arrives then should be smooth sailing.
   
Made in gb
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought






That’s amazing customer service! They must have a well organised decal catalogue

Goberts Gubbins - P&M Blog, started with Oldhammer, often Blackstone Fortress and Void Panther Marines, with side projects along the way 
   
Made in gb
Esteemed Veteran Space Marine






Northumberland

White through an airbrush is still a PITA, but I have heard great things about using Daler-Rowney white ink. Apparently it goes on much smoother, so that would be a good option for a TSR2 I guess

Now with 100% more blog: 'Beyond the Wall'

Numine Et Arcu
 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

So work has begun on the cockpit. I've shaved down a couple of panels ready for the photoetch parts, although the throttle controls I've decided to leave as is, looks better than the etch upgrades.



The cockpit's painted in a mix of Tamiya XF-18 mixed with white, and then given a wash of Nuln Oil. The ejector seat's Vallejo US green and GW brown, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then redone with the same tones mixed with white to give almost a cell-shaded effect.

I had a bit of trouble finding a suitable reference for the seat, but then found this auction site selling a Lightning ejection seat for only £2000. The shots of the seat are perfect, and also explain why one random seat belt is blue.

The ejector seat handles were a bit tough, as I hate chevrons anyway, but painting them on curved surfaces is another level of difficulty.

Overall I'm very pleased with it. Next step will be to finish off any details and attach the remaining photoetch parts and the yoke.

Cheers,
Valk
   
Made in ca
Grisly Ghost Ark Driver






Great job on the cockpit! Love the stripes too

See what's on my painting table Now painting: Kruleboyz Gutrippaz 
   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






Nice job! Serendipitous timing with finding the auction, I notice that seat did end up selling, I wonder if you might be finding a very large package on your doorstep soon.

You did a great job matching the real life components, though. Love these historical, research-driven projects. Keep it up!

My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

Thanks very much I'll be honest if I could afford the seat I'd certainly get it, nice piece of history there.

So had a bit of minor surgery at the weekend and had plenty of recovery time to work on the Lightning when I should have been at the pub.

The cockpit is pretty much finished. I realised there's a fair bit of conflict between the third party upgrades. Both the photoetch and resin upgrades are designed to work with the Airfix kit, not each other and so there's some misalignment in the parts. A fair few have been left off the kit as they either wouldn't fit or would be absolutely impossible to notice.



The tiny warning labels (the red on top of the seat) are a nice little touch, surprisingly easy to apply despite my worries.



The side consoles are a lot more distinct, they seem to have been scrambled a bit in the photo.



I've also managed to glue the fuselage together and attach the tail. The cockpit itself isn't glued in to give me a bit of literal wiggle-room when attaching the canopy and surrounding panels. The tail went on nicely, and I've swapped it for the angular tail which was present on the later-stage Lightnings. Also looks a bit better in my opinion.

Despite my best attempts there's a slight bit of misalignment between the fuselage halves. I suspect the fuselage may indeed have warped a bit, as it's aligned correctly on the top but around 1mm off on the bottom. This could have been a lot worse. Gluing it in stages over a couple of days was better than doing it in one go, gave me time to minimise the damage a fair bit. Once it's filled and filed it should be near-invisible.



The intake lip isn't glued yet but fits nicely. There's a slight bit of misalignment at the top which you can see there, but this can be pressed down and made flush when the time comes to attach the lip.



While the fuselage was going I also put together one of the Firestreak missiles. This was very simple, just two fins onto the missile body. There's a clear tip to go on the end, but will leave it off until it's painted to avoid ruining it.


Thanks for reading, feel free to leave comments below
   
Made in ca
Grisly Ghost Ark Driver






Saw a picture of a Lightning with over-wing fuel tanks for long distance recently, and thought of this project!

See what's on my painting table Now painting: Kruleboyz Gutrippaz 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
Saw a picture of a Lightning with over-wing fuel tanks for long distance recently, and thought of this project!


Yeah the later Lightnings had the weird over-wing tanks. Looks weird in general but I think it just adds to the Lightnings general odd-ness.

So I did a quick test run of the Alclad paints today. I decided to go all the way and bought the Alclad polishing strips and primer: the previous attempt with Vallejo primer didn't work so well.

Ignore the smudged bit, that was just a compressor cockup. Overall really happy with the mirror finish.

Spent today filling in the fuselage and attaching the wings, so watch this space!
[Thumb - 20210420_173207.jpg]

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/04/20 19:10:03


 
   
Made in gb
Fighter Ace





Edinburgh

Daemon Prince looks absolutely glorious, rest of the force are lovely too.

Nice choice in aircraft - I prefer the older Cold War stuff like this. I regret my youthful recklessness with all my kits but it was fun at the time!

   
Made in gb
Esteemed Veteran Space Marine






Northumberland

This is coming along really nicely Valkyrie. The cockpit looks great and I'm glad to see the alclad is working for you as well. What's it like in comparison with acrylics in terms of finish and application?

Now with 100% more blog: 'Beyond the Wall'

Numine Et Arcu
 
   
Made in gb
Lord of the Fleet






London

Cheers guys

The Alclads are a bit of a learning curve. If you're going to commit to them, I'd highly recommend grabbing the polishing kit. It's only £8-ish but is a key part of the process.

The paints themselves are rather awkward in their consistency, they prefer to leak over the rim of the bottle rather than just pouring into the airbrush. Several sites I've seen recommend spraying at around 15psi, which in my experience is quite low. Doesn't look like anything is actually going on for the first coat then all of a sudden it's there, and you're like "wow"!

Cleaning is relatively straightforward although you need cellulose thinners for the job. Overall my main point would be not to rush it, take your time with the polishing papers and it absolutely pays off in the end.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So last few days have seen some exciting progress:



For some reason the original primer has stained the wings somewhat. I've lost count of the number of Biostrip treatments they've had and I think this is the best I'll get. It's not really as bad as the photos make out, they just look an overall darker shade of grey (48 shades to go).

There's been a fair bit of filling various seams and gaps. These have been filed down just to ensure it'll be clean and tidy.



The inlet cone isn't glued yet but it's finally starting to look like a Lightning.



Attaching the wings was a bit awkward trying to get the correct anhedral (downward angle like an "A" shape), perhaps it's slightly warped but not really noticeable. The inlet has been filled with scrap lead to avoid a taildragger situation. I had an old 6x4" sheet from the roof of the house. Weird stuff, you can just cut through it with clippers like plastic.

I just clipped off a few chunks and swamped it with superglue, then plugged it with green stuff, just in case anything comes loose in the future. The inlet cone received the same treatment just to be double-super-safety-sure.



Landing gear is relatively simple in the parts, although getting the angle is difficult as there's a distinct forward lean with the gear. I think the gears let the kit down a bit as the hydraulics are just stuck to the pistol, there are no lugs or attachment points. I've filed down the top hydraulic a bit and since this photo filled that hole with putty just so it looks a bit more solid.



Other bits I've added since include one of the Firestreak pylons and the weird ridge running along below the wings. Next step will be to add the tailplanes, airbrakes (still deciding open or closed) and remaining landing gear parts. The actual gear doors I'm leaving off until after painting.

Finally glad to have a Lightning on the table instead of parts. There's a fair bit of prep work still needed including clearing the panel lines of any excess putty, but I plan to possibly have this primed by the end of next week, fingers crossed.

For the painting, what I might do to avoid masking over the cockpit and cocking that up, will be to completely mask off the canopy then glue it in with a temporary means such as PVA. Means the exact area needed is masked off, but I can see it going wrong somewhere.

Comments and criticisms appreciated



This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2021/04/22 10:29:43


 
   
 
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