Airfix 1:72 English Electric Lightning F.6 build

[TommyKillander]

Nice bird Tommy, great build!!
Nice stand Tommy, great build!

It looks really cool in a flying pose, Im going to start putting some planes on stands from now on.
Also make my own stands.

Thanks Patrick, I really apprectiate it.

I hope I can get some time off this weekend to take more photos.

I happy with the stand, but next version will have a magnet I think. But I have to do some experimentation with it...

[Thomas2542]

That looks brilliant. Nice way to make a stand.

[TommyKillander]

That looks brilliant. Nice way to make a stand.

Thanks!

The stand was very easy to build, I will definitely build more aircrafts "gear up".

[UKguyInUSA]

Cracking build, Tommy...she looks awesome! Takes me back to being a young teenager when I used to see one at the local air-show.

[purplejarvy]

Beautiful, prob my fav aircraft! Great job!

[TommyKillander]

Cracking build, Tommy...she looks awesome! Takes me back to being a young teenager when I used to see one at the local air-show.

Thanks UKguy!

[TommyKillander]

Beautiful, prob my fav aircraft! Great job!

Thanks purplejarvy!

[TommyKillander]

Hey guys,

Had an unlikely convergence of Free Time and Good Lighting Conditions for a couple of hours today so I decided to Carpe Diem and have a go at photographing this bird more thoroughly. These are the best shots I got from that session.













Build Retrospect:

This build have been a challenge, but it has been very educating and interesting as well. I'm pleased with the result and I believe that I have improved, but there are ofcourse lots of areas where I need to get better. The aircraft is awesome - that's what got me going when bad stuff started to happen and I was considering to abandon the kit for a while.

So to conclude this: The aircraft is a marvelous piece of machinery but the tooling issues/degradation and some very questionable design solutions in the kit makes this a tough one. On the other hand there are great details (panel-lines, cockpit and decals to mention a few) that makes up for some of this but one should be prepared to scratchbuild some stuff, use a lot of putty and sand. Everything needs to be dryfitted and checked and some parts needs to be CA-glued for stablility.

I will probably build a 1/48 Lightning sometime later on, but not right now Hopefully there are some good kits on the market to choose from.

I did a couple of bad things that I need to improve if I'm going to get better at building scale-models:
* breaking stuff is always a bad thing...
* I didn't manage to rescribe all panels, I had a lot of trouble with the areas that where filled with Tamiya Putty. After 2-3 retries I gave up.
* I got into a "Finishing-frenzy" too early so I got a bit sloppy with the weathering. I managed to put on the Ultimate Dark Dirt wash but it didnt fill the panellines completely. Maybe I should have coated it and also pinwashed on top of that?

PS. Airfix did actually contact me after 1+ month and offered a spare canopy for 4£ incl. postage and packing. A little bit too late but their customer service should have credit for the effort anyway.

PPS. The stand have some pins that goes into the belly of the aircraft. The holes have been edited out in picture #3, using Gimp. Just in case you were wondering...

[LudvigN]

Ok, I will ask the question were all thinking about, is there a build thread for JAS39 Gripen?

[TommyKillander]

Ok, I will ask the question were all thinking about, is there a build thread for JAS39 Gripen?

I'm sorry but no, I have not planned to make a build-thread.

I feel that a build-thread is like a two-edged sword. It's great to get feedback and ask questions but it also generates a pressure to post updates and to keep the build going at a steady pace.

The Gripen is a more relaxed build for me. I will take my time with it... especially the slow tedious surface-treatment (filling/sanding/rescribing) that I need a lot of time to complete

But I can post some status updates on Facebook if there is an interest of this kit.