BAC (E.E.) Lightning article

BAC Lightning F.2A (1/48 Airfix)

20.5.2005

**Introduction

The mainstream of my homepage is propeller-driven airplanes of WWII. But I also love vintage jets. Then I chose Airfix's Lightning and Cutting Edge's decals from my stocks. And I started to construct the natural metal finished F2.A of the RAF 92 Sqn. Construction concepts are "almost straight from the box", "rivetting" and "hybrid painting for NMF".

By the way, I think the design of Lightning has something in common with Spitfire in terms of the slender fuselage tightly covering R & R engine, advanced design of the wing and sacrifice of fuel capacity. Don't you think?

This is the Cutting Edge Decal CED48075 and references.

Kit review
There are two boxings, one for the F.2/F.3 and one for the F.2A/F.6. Each boxing is excellent. It's correct outline, crisp casting, crisp detail parts and fine fitting. Although there are a few very minor weak points, as I mention them afterward.

**Construction

The nose
The kit's outline from the intake lip to the wind shield is a little bended. So I'd correct it, but I don't like putty. Then I "cut" and "bended" and "widened" and "shimmed" the intake part (and also fuselage part). I call this method "Cut and Shim" method.

The original kit outline.

I cut the intake lip part at the top.

I bended, widened and shimmed it.

This is corrected outline. No difference ?

This is a conceptual figure of "cut & shim" method. These are cross sections of fuselage. The blue line is the kit part. And the left figure is usual method using putty and the right is "cut & shim".

The cockpit

These are Airfix's seat and Aires's resin M.B.4 seat.

This is Airfix original.

I didn't use resin cockpit set. It'd be hard to see from the closed canopy.

This is NEOMEGA's resin cockpit. It's not mine. My friend supplied the photo.

This is KMC's resin detail part. My friend gave me only photos.

Cutting edge's detail set (front), Aeroclub's metal part. I enjoyed only photo.

The fuselage
The upper nose cannons are characteristics of the F.2A. I depicted the cannon holes with brass pipes.

I set the pipe and applied CA glue and plastic powder which is attached with "ALTECO" CA glue putty.

After glued tightly, I sanded.

I put reinforcing beams of plastic sheet at the inside preparing for riveting work.

This is the upper view of the nose.

The wing
The flap was constructed at upright position. Each flap part was glued on each wing part in advance, then upper and lower wing part was glued. There was a gap between the flap and wing part. So I used CA glue putty instead of glue. The leading edge of the wing wasn't sharp a little. I sanded and sharpened it like as Mach 2 jet fighter.

The flap was fixed by scotch tape, and CA glue putty was applied.

The reinforcing plastic sheet (white) was glued. When I glued the upper and lower wing part, I inserted some putty (yellow) between them.

Before sanding.

After sanding the leading edge.

Panel lines
I engraved the panel line of the intake lip (please see the photo). An etching saw was inserted in a magazine. Then the fuselage part was spinned along the saw on a table. But after engraving, I knew the width of the intake lip is not equal. So this method shouldn't be used. Mmmm. I'll forget it.

This is how to engrave the nose panel line.

I deleted some panel line (red pointer). But as for the backward one, I deleted wrong line. (I mention afterward.)

This white plastic rod hided the gap. It wasn't correct detailing but fabrication.

This outlet was newly rebuilt with sprue and also the position was corrected.

Rivetting
Well, I had a problem. I didn't have enough data for understanding of rivet lines. At the beginning, I would trust the drawing of "Warpaint". But when I compared it with actual photos there were some differences. Then I gathered photos from books or Internet and nearly understood rivet lines of the fuselage. But as for the wings, I can't.
Finally my friend sent me a photo of the framework of the wing in "SAM Publications No.7 BAE Lightning". It made clear rivet lines of the main wing.

I depicted the framework from the photo of "SAM Publications". "XXX" marks is my mistake.

Next, I added rivets of small ribs. But there are some presumptions in this stage including panel lines.

Red dots show correct positions of fasteners of the engine access panel. And blue lines show correct rivet lines.

I didn't understand rivet lines for the horizontal fin. Then I "trusted" Warpaint's drawing.

Rivet lines of the vertical fin and ventral fin are almost perfectly understood from photos.

Rivet lines of the nose are also understood. But they are inconsistent with some access panel. So if you build a perfect model, you should re-scribe panel lines.

The rear fuselage was the same.

The main gear door.

Improvement to the F.2A
The Airfix kit is basically F.6. There are some minor differences and I scribed these panel lines. I deleted blue line formerly, but this was a mistake. I should delete red and leave blue.

The exhaust of the cannon (Purple), slits (Pink), small access panels (Green, Yellow) were added.

The starboard was the same as the portside.

Assembling
Lightning has slight minus-dihedral (sorry, I don't know correct word). You can understand by a photo taken from the rear. So I carefully sanded the wing root.

Brass sticks tied left and right wings.

These brass sticks are reinforcements.

The whole shape appeared.

The main gear fork of the kit is slender and it can't stand the load. So I reinforced by brass stick.

The ejection seat
The seat belts of Aires's Mk.4 are photo etching and I didn't understand correct position. Then I referred the "The Ejection Site".

It was hard to paint black and yellow stripes because my sight deteriorates with age. Should I buy glasses or a loupe?

Piping backward of the seat were fabrication detail-up.

The wing tip
I noticed kit's wing tip was thick. The small blister for navigation light was an obstacle, so I deleted and depicted after.

Before.

After.

Next, I depicted the blister.

The canopy
First of all, I glued two canopy parts and polished the inside of the canopy by #2000 sand paper and compound.

The gunsight and the anti-glare panel are kit part. The anti-glare panel of the kit is for the F.6 and differs from the F.2A. But I don't know exactly.

Hasegawa coating polymer and anti static electricity spray were applied inside of the clear part. They prevent impurity of the canopy.

I painted the frames in black and then applied putty.

I scribed borders between glasses and frames and sanded dull frames to be sharp.

Details

The pitot tube and the fuel probe were made of brass stick.

Fins of the Firestreek were replaced with 0.2mm plastic sheet.

Brass sticks were solder on the base of the pitot tube.

I checked the proper position in dry fitting.

**Paint & Markings

NMF
Natural Metal Finish was expressed by "hybrid painting method". This method is a hybrid of "airbrush" and "drybrush".

The canopy was polished by compound. The small rectangle made of plastic sheet was added ahead of the wind shield.

I thinly sprayed Mr. Surfacer #1200 and polished by #2000 sand paper. Then I masked the fin and spine for painting silver.

Mr.silver(#8) + Mr.clear(#46) was sprayed.

Small parts were stuck and sprayed like this photo.

Mr.Super Chrome Silver(SCS) + Clear + Black(a small quantity) was sprayed and polished by #2000 paper.

SCS+Black was drybrushed on sprayed silver surface. Clear was not mixed. Each panel was masked and brushed.

The leading edge of the main wing, the aileron, flap and some other panel were drybrushed by SCS without Black. Some other panel were sprayed darker silver.

Details

The lower cannon muzzle was patched. So I scribed with original template.

I scribed tire tread by an etching saw. It was the same method as the intake lip.

Anti-glare painting
The demarcation line for anti-glare painting is the upper edge of the panel for the ADEN cannon muzzle. And I trusted kit's panel line and painted black. But this was a mistake. I should re-scribe the panel line.

I made a mistake for the shape of the anti-glare paint. Because I trusted kit's panel line.

Markings
The vertical fin and the dorsal spine of the 92 squadron were painted Roundel Blue. This is a tradition of "Blue Diamonds" the RAF official acrobatic team. I used Mr.color #322 for this blue. This color is used for the acrobatic team "Blue Impulse" of JASDF. The "finisher's Bright Red" is used for Red of the roundel and fin flash.

All roundels were painted. I used same blue as the vertical fin. Well, the name of this color is "Roundel Blue".

This is masking for Blue. I masked white portion.	After spraying blue, I masked for white.
To determine the position of red masking, I put round masking tape. Afterwards, I masked red portion and removed this round tape.	Finished. The surface was polished by #1500 sand paper.

The fin flash was also masked and painted. Because I wanted to use the same red for the roundel and fin flash.

This masking is for white.	Finished.
The size of the fuselage and lower wing roundel is 12:24:36 inches and upper wing is 18:36:54 inches.	I use this circle cutter.

Please be careful that the nose checker is parallel to the panel line which is just over the checker. The walkway lines were painted.

After spraying yellow, I masked for red checker.

The double dotted lines were masked and painted like this photo.

The correction of nose
Finally, I decided to re-scribe the panel line and to repaint the anti-glare.

I applied CA glue for the wrong panel lines.

Next, I re-scribed by etching saw.

The correction work was finished. Please compare this photo with the former one.

The checker and the yellow edge had been done.

Details

The brake line and the landing light were added. The light is the part for 1/43 car model.

The linkage was cut at red pointer, twisted 45 degrees and re-glued.

Brass sticks were soldered to "L" shape. The triangle shape antenna was made of brass stick.

The blade antenna was also made of brass.

Decals and dry transfers
I used decals from Cutting Edge CED48075 sheet for the squadron emblem, the letter "A" and the serial on the lower wing. Before applying decals, I lightly sprayed #46 clear on the whole model. Clear paint slightly lowers the brightness of the silver paint surface. But it still shines enough. Then after applying decals, I sprayed again clear a little thick.

The size of the squadron emblem is a little small but a permissible range.

Red caution triangles are from a certain decal sheet of USAF markings. So they aren't exactly correct.

The serial number on the fuselage side is an original dry transfer.

After spraying clear, I polished by #2000 sand paper

Detail painting

I think masking and airbrushing are the best way to depict the window edge.

The color is Silver + Yellow.

The navigation light looks rather dark. So I painted it with clear red + black.

I carelessly hit the pitot tube and it was broken. Damn it!

**Completion

Finally, I completed the construction. The Airfix kit is very fine so I could pleasantly finish the work. I'm convinced that the "hybrid painting method" is the best way for NMF at the present time. I recommend you to try this method.

And this model was also published in Japanese model magazine "Scale Aviation (October 2005)".

References

1	The famous aircraft of the world	Bunrindo
2	WARPAINT SERIES No.14 BAC LIGHTNING	Hall Park Books
3	AEROGUIDE 8 BAC Lightning F Mk 3/Mk 6	Linewrights
4	Scale Aviation Magazine Vol.2	Dainippon-kaiga
5	No.7 BAE Lightning	SAM Publications
6	LIGHTNING STRIKES	Airlife
7	THE LAST OF LIGHTNINGS	Sutton

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