The Wet Jets of His Majesty

[DeeBob]

Good morning campers and Howdy!

With this being my first group build, I've decided to take it easy on myself and build a cute little airfix spitfire in a whiffy paint scheme. Oh wait, I'm just re-reading the card now and it says I'm building two jet fighters from manufacturers I've never had kits from before, one of which I didn't know had no locating lugs until after it was in the post...

The boxes:
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I've also got a set of decals for US manufactured aircraft in RN service which will be providing suitable markings for the meteor.

The Saro is a whiff by nature, of course, so I'll be building that out of the box, and the meteor I intend to make a couple of modifications to, bravery depending.

I have officially started, if only by applying some paint to the insidey bits of the flying boat. Let's see if I finish!
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[DeeBob]

Having painted the interior parts of the SRA-1, I took the logical next step, and painted the insides of the meteor and assembled it as far as the two major subassemblies. It's at this point I'm going to start thinking about modifying it from the way the kit would have me make it. I like the idea of giving it dive brakes but scratching those up might be a bit beyond me in this instance, but it's definitely going to get clipped wings, and maybe folding ones.

[Captain Canada]

The What-if box is cool ! Looking forward to seeing that one come together. Are you still building the cute little Spitfire too ?

[Old Wombat]

I like the idea of giving it dive brakes but scratching those up might be a bit beyond me in this instance, but it's definitely going to get clipped wings, and maybe folding ones.

Perforated split flaps for the dive brakes.

Clipped wings [√] 
Folding wings [√] 
Tail hook         [  ]   

[kerick]

The split flaps would look great!

[DeeBob]

Did a little more on the meteor before heading to work this morning:

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One wing cut free from the tyranny of the engine pod, and cut down the wingtip (it's making wings shorter that we really like on this forum, right?  )

I'm away over Easter so probably won't achieve much more than this, but it's a start.

[buzzbomb]

I'm away over Easter so probably won't achieve much more than this, but it's a start.

A very good start it is. 

[Joe CalPo]

Ah, the jet flying boats, so cool and yet too late.

    

[DeeBob]

I'm back from the states now, so naturally as soon as I'd recovered from the jet lag I was back to work on the meteor.

I've got both wings cut free from the engines now (and spent a long time fiddling around with one of the inner engine pieces that had come loose and gluing it back in without splitting the whole piece) and doesn't it look good as an ekranoplan?You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.
Much to think about... A sci fi meteor in my future perhaps?

Anyway here it all is:
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I've stuffed all the big open gaps with sprue (and pushed a few pieces all the way through so they'll rattle around forever) to be puttied, sanded, and so on in the future:
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Looks brutal on camera, but it's all going to succumb to the grey goo before you know.

[kerick]

Very fun looking project! I'll be watching.
Do you keep a piece of carpet on the bench to attract loose parts before they jump to the floor?
The more logical answer would be a sanding pad but what fun would that be compared to a plastic part attractor?

[DeeBob]

The What-if box is cool ! Looking forward to seeing that one come together. Are you still building the cute little Spitfire too ?

If I stumble across a decent deal on a late mark I might be tempted, i must be the only modeller out there without a spit in the stash!

Very fun looking project! I'll be watching.
Do you keep a piece of carpet on the bench to attract loose parts before they jump to the floor?
The more logical answer would be a sanding pad but what fun would that be compared to a plastic part attractor?

Well, it's a wonderful idea and I feel I would letting the world down if I corrected you and said it was in fact a sanding block! In reality, I work over a wooden floor and still manage to feed the carpet monster!

[DeeBob]

You know, with the way this meteor kit goes together, you could build the wings and fuselage, do some surgery to the latter, and make a sort of parasol wing flying boat...

Ideas for a later date!

[DeeBob]

First round of PSR and the open ends are looking less open and less hideous! I'm not aiming for hyper detail here, just filling the hole, so it'll be a round or two more and I'll work on the next steps.
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[DeeBob]

More progress(?) tonight - cut some flaps out of the meteor wing, destroying the flaps and stabbing myself in the hand in the process. Oh well, I can scratch up some flaps and blood is free- it literally just appears in the body and nobody understands how.

Wing bits are PSRd to my satisfaction, and after my grievous wound I paused the meteor and did a little bit on the Saro- assembled the cockpit, wings, and one of the floats (I appear to have something of a short-shot kit, mostly it only affects the sprue but a section of the gear for the other float hadn't formed, so I've glued in a scrap thst will hopefully be sturdy enough by tomorrow evening.

[kerick]

Every project has its challenges, even if it's a little blood.