Next pair of builds.
These are my first builds started this year.
Back to the Airfix Lightning again
First the group shot
1st one.
Lightning F-2N. 29 sqn RAF late 1960's.
This is the Airfix F-2A kit built oob, bar the Freightdog Genie nuclear air to air missile set.
The idea for the antiflash scheme is borrowed from a build the Wooksta did years ago. How ever i slightly tweaked it to have a bare metel underside.
I was orginaly going to re work the squadron bars into antiflash pink, but looking at V force squadron markings showed most of then retained full color unit badges. so I ditched that idea to keep the build simple. The serial is from a so called black out block.
This one could also count as a project. so it may make appearances on the PC sig stand as well as ours.
2nd build, this time purely a whiff.
Lightning F-6 (MLU). 5sqn RAF, Binbrook 1997.
What if the radar issues with the Tornado ADV took longer to sort out than they did. This is my take on a "quick and low cost" (yeah right!) update for the lightning, to keep it going a few more years while we wait for the Tonka ADV project to get its act togeather.
The MLU involved increasing the internal fuel load and replacing the old overwing ferry tanks with supersonic rated replacements. War load was enhanced by adding underwing hard points to allow another pair of missile rails to be fitted, and replaceing the original pair of 30mm adens with a single 27mm mauser, via the Tornado program. The radar was replaced with the same unit as the navy's Seaharrier FRS-1. In theory allowing the ugraded Lightning to be able to deploy Sidewinders, how ever they were only normaly fitted with winders for airshow appearances, as the RAF had a plentifull supply of Red top and Radar red tops for its remaining Lightnings.
Enough upgrades were carried out to allow both 5 and 11 sqaudrons to to keep going at full strength, plus a few extras for the LTF. A few T-5's were also involved. however they did not get the increased fuel tankage, but got the radar and weapons updates.
The belly tank rework is thanks to a Freightdog Lightning FGA set.
Radar Redtops (again from Freightdog) on the main missle racks.
Underwing pylons as per the Saudi and Kuwaiti Lightnings (from odds and Ordanance) with redtops (Freightdog again).
Paint job and most of the decals as per the kit instructions. Bar the squadron markings. They came from an old Modeldecal sheet.
Oh! you may have noticed the overwing tanks dont look right. Youed be right, they got "updated" as well. They are the out board drop tanks from an Italeri F-4E and they have been reversed as well.
Both builds have had the nose probe replaced with a metel replacement from Master model of Poland. They show up on ebay fairly frequently and look a lot better than the kit one.
