R7 - Lightning F.6

Oct 2016

Airfix Lightning F.6

Scale1:72

Some research

I always like to look at real world examples of aircraft before I start building. The bigger the image the better. (see below).

With the web you are spoilt for choice, especially with a relatively recent aircraft like the Lightning.

For me the obvious challenge in this build is in reproducing the 'silver' metal work. If you look closely at the surface detail its not 'just' silver at all. It's blue, grey, dirty, clean, streaky.

Achieving this may sound easy but when using hand brushing the subtleties of airbrushing are hard to emulate. This should be interesting.

Surface textures.

Trying to create these surface textures will be tricky, and will be a good opportunity to try out some subtle surface washes.

Image (2) is suitably filthy and I'm gonna aim for something like this. Lots of grime and discoloring.

A bit risky, as I might just muck it up at the end. Little by little I guess. Therapy rating might drop.

Airfix have provided some very accurate panel lines in this new pressing. They are just deep enough to not 'vanish' beneath two coats of enamel paint, which is often the case. Less of an issue in more recent kits.

Ill just need to add a few rivets.

Now you see it....

I was quite inspired by the 'metal foil' example (at right) and tried a little experiment to see if you can create something similar using just paint.

You wouldn't think that just changing the direction of your brush strokes would have any effect. After all its the same paint? But in fact it does. I will refine this a bit further now.

Into the pit

There is not a hugh amount of detail in the cockpit. At 1:72 you rather expect that.

You can certainly add a bit more interest in the ejector seat for example. I have tried my hand at some home made seat-belts here. I just used a bit of folded up masking tape fixed with super glue. Not brilliant but better than nothing.

The instrument decals do a pretty good job and stand out nicely against the blue/grey metal work. I think this is a pretty good representation of the instrument panels. As the cockpit will be open you will be able to see them.

If you really want to go to town then Eduard come to the rescue (see opposite).

Suck it up

The exhausts and front air intake need to be painted and fitted into the main body first. There is only a little detail provided but the exhausts are pretty good, providing some of the surrounding framework you can see in the reference photos.

Gluing the two haves together was very good. Only a little tape was required to hold things in place. There were one or two minor gaps but these will hopefully dissapear under the painting.

Then on with the first coat of silver. I have recently started using odourless thinner with my enamel paints. Unfortunately this does not seem to work with metallic paints. It just seperates from the paint.

I had to use white spirit instead which worked just fine. However I did get a bad headache from the fumes. Surprising really as I was only using small amounts.

You really do need good ventilation to use this stuff.

Mirror, mirror...

The second coat of silver was carefully applied (in the garden) using directional brush strokes that followed the airflow pattern. Then a coat of gloss varnish to seal.

A few small panels were then masked off and filled in using brush stokes at right angles. In the end I added a little black to the silver just to darken them slightly which helped to break up the otherwise uniform silver.

On with two thinned coats of black and some mirror foil front and tail to add interest.

Change of mask

I made up my own masks for the cockpit using Tamiya masking tape. I was using mirror foil for this but this has proved problematic.

This actually worked out pretty well. Using a magnifier and a new scalpel blade it was fairly straightforward.

I worked the edges of the masking tape into the creases using a toothpick. This revealed the edges quite sharply and I then ran around them using the knife.

Silver lining

The masks worked out really well. I ran a very thin line of silver around the edges of the frames and then added the black. It just adds a tad more detail to catch the eye.

The panel lines now show up well after a pin wash with dilute black/brown.

End of the line ?

I have just seen that Airfix are no longer producing this model which is a great shame.

'We're sorry, the website has sold out of this item and we're not expecting any more stock.'

So if you want one you had better act quickly.

Dec 2016