1/48 Airfix BAC Lightning F.3

by Lothar Wolf

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Since I very much enjoyed the welcome comments to the ARC community with my first entry, the Hunter, I thought I'd send in some pictures of another RAF model on my shelf, the BAC Lightning F3. Compared to the grace of the Hunter, the Lightning brings about the impression of sheer speed and power.

I initially intended to build an F1 aircraft from No. 145 (Shadow) Squadron, 226 OCU, from Coltishall in 1963, because their F1s then were all metal airframes with a beautiful red and white painted fin and to me these looked just great. I love military aircraft with interesting paint schemes.

What was intended to become an F1 had to be converted into an alternative F3, simply because of sloppy research. When the fuselage was almost finished, the fin and spine painted and decals applied, I realized, that my F1 originally neither did have nose guns nor did it have the bulged covers that run alongside the fuselage on later aircraft. Gunports were already opened and refined,  I had given extra attention to these fuselage covers, and to make it even worse, these were in the wrong length, too. (These covers are of different lengths, depending on the Mk., earlier Mks had shorter, later Mks longer covers). Sloppy research at its best !

Consequently I had to check files for an alternative aircraft requiring minimal correction work, and I decided to turn the model into an F3 of No. 23 Squadron from RAF Leuchars. Warpaints No. 14 on the Lightning provided some excellent background. This correction required fairing over the gun ports, replace the rounded early fin with a squared later one and lengthen these bulged covers, but: it still had a white and red fin. I've cannibalized another still SEALED Airfix kit for the required parts.

Click on images below to see larger images

With corrections completed, I've paied some extra attention to panel lines, these were rather shallow in places and needed rescribing. I've also added additional riveting, added a few lines and wires to the wheel wells and partially replaced the landing gear with scratchbuilt components. Kit exhaust nozzles were the white metal ones from Aeroclub and were taken from my scrap box. (I've built an Aeroclub vacform Lightning few years ago - not bad at all - but left my parrot unattended one evening - so I had a set of extra white metal exhaust nozzles left! Don't worry, the parrot is still alive and modelling, see picture at bottom!)

Canopy was also replaced with an aftermarket item. The yellow trims around the canopy windows were made from Tamiya tape. I cut a length of 6 mm wide tape, airbrushed it yellow, then cut off very narrow strips with a new scalpell blade. These strips adhere very well and can be easily curved. A drop of Future fixes them for good.
 
Finish was done in various shades of Alclad and strips of aluminum foil on sections of the intake and exhaust. Decals are a mix of Aeromaster and kit decals.

Now, this kit does have fit problems and requires some patience, but after all, I've very much enjoyed building this one and I think a finished Lightning is a very rewarding model.

Hope you'll like it.

Lothar

Photos and text © by Lothar Wolf