There's only one real Lightning

[gengriz]

On a bit of a roll here, posting piccies of my Whiffs today !

Great to have found a group of people who can appreciate that they have not simply come out of the box.  

This swing wing, Martel armed Sea Lightning (as a Sea Vixen replacement) is one I am particularly proud of.  Not as fanciful as it may seem, either.

[Radish]

That just looks exceptional.....

but I thought you were talking Lockheed P-38 a beautiful aircraft    

[Scooterman]

SAAAA-WEEEET!

       

[Runway ? ...]

Good looking bird  

Fleet defence idea. Fire them off from huge, hedgehog style, rack and let them find a parking space on an available carrier later.

[BlackOps]

Fan-freakin-tastic!  

I really like this one! This one is a shoulda been.



Jeff G.

[lancer]

WOW!!! That is fantastic.  

[Captain Canada]

Woah....is that ever cool ! Looks perfect ! Very tough looking with the twin seats and twin nose wheels.

Love the look from the underside !

Can we have a little more info on how you built it ? I gotta make one...just so I can do some touch-and-goes on my kitchen table !

 

[gengriz]

The inspiration came from 2 books:  Project Cancelled by Derek Wood and Tony Buttler's British Secret Projects, Jet Fighters since 1950.  

Both show piccies of a BAe swing-wing Lightning mock up that was genuinely proposed as a Sea Vixen replacement (but beaten by the Phantom).   My model looks like the photo but the accompanying plans show a rather fatter belly tank and a later proposal for a bigger radome with side intakes -  these were a bit beyond my skills.

The kit is the 1/72 Matchbox T55; I chopped the wings up, modded the cockpit to give a weapons control position for the Observer, rotated the wheel wells inward (nightmare - the plans give no clue as to how this could possible be achieved, except possibly retracting into the fat fuselage), shortened the Pitot tube and substituted beefy Matchbox Buccaneer main wheels and Tornado nose wheels to give it a bit of strength for carrier landings.

The Martels & pylons come from the Airfix Buccaneer.  Decals are a mix from the Fujimi F4K,  Frog Sea Vixen and original kit, plus bits from the spares box.  

Had a lot of fun building it.  

[kitnut617]

Now that I like, well done, brilliant  B) .  I've been reading about this in Tony Buttler's British Secret Projects book.

Cheers,  Robert

[Davey B]

Gorgeous!      

[GeorgeC]

Side-by-side cockpit - handy for those 'cant see the carrier, you land it - no you bloody land it' moments!  Very, very inspiring, thank you.

Regards

GeorgeC  

[The Rat]

I know I've seen pics of a VG Lightning before, have you posted them anywhere else?      

And you're right about it being the one true Lightning. Out of the trio, the second shall be first!    

[philp]

That's pretty nice but I agree with Radish.  The one true Lightning is the P-38.

[Runway ? ...]

Aww!  That's a bit of a cheap shot. Some Muppet bureaucrat (creed - 1. protect the bureaucracy. 2. grow the bureaucracy) somewhere, picks a word from his big bag of words and stamps on everybodys image of the next real lightning. The "Dave" isn't going to be a patch on either. Both were, and did, different jobs to great effect. It might make a reasonable bomb truck in its own right because that's what it is supposed to be.   Play nice   eh

Cool Pointy thing though Dude    

[nev]

Superb model!  

There was a VG RN Lightning posted many moons ago - Martin or the Wooksta spring to mind.