A day late (or almost on time 😀 ) I started on the Airfix Meteor. This one is going to be built as an aircraft from 111 Squadron out of North Weald, 1954.
The Airfix kit looks good on the sprue, so I won't use any aftermarket. My usual way of building is to get the most boring stuff out of the way first. With planes it is dealing with two-part assemblies and their seam lines, so I already glued all the control surfaces, the jet pipes, and the wheels together, any seams will be filled and sanded tonight.
The cockpit is an excellent little assembly, but the rear wall needs some filler, as does the seat.
In short: not much to see right now, that's why I am always happy when this preliminary work is done.

Cheers,
Boris

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

I built one of those last month. Very enjoyable experience. I've come to look forward to seeing how each new Airfix kit is engineered. Always interesting.

Thanks for the tips, Tom! I actually need to restock my supplies of fishing weights before closing the fuselage, so your comment is a good reminder 🙂 As to the fairing, it is basically the same as with Airfix' P-40, which also works fine if assembled the way you described it.

Looking great Boris! A lot of detail also in this new Airfix kit.

Looks top-notch so far, Boris. As to the weight(s) needed as TC mentioned, I don't know what your "accessibility" is to shotgun ammunition (or fishing weights for that matter), but I've found that #8 birdshot - the small stuff - is a little more "compatible", if you will, to finding all those little recesses that fishing weights can't. Just an idea you may find useful.

Nice work, Boris. You’re working on the first issue F.8 molded in blue-gray from India. I have one of those and the forward fuselage halves are seriously warped under the cockpit area. I put it back in the stash and will eventually build it as a camo’d Israeli bird. I did build the new RAAF F.8 which is molded in the UK. Much stiffer plastic and no warping.. it’s really a fun kit, don’t you think? Shame that the first run seems to have QC issues. BTW, you don’t see much except the accessory pack on the front of the engines once it’s done, but I built it all anyway just because it’s so nicely engineered and thought out.

It's not that hard to unwarp a first-run kit. I did two of them. Hot water and then some industrial-strength pushing and shoving.

Really nice so far. Very interesting tips. I really wanted to get this kit this month but ended up getting the new Airfix Lightning instead. Had both in my hands. So look forward to seeing what you do and learn with this kit so I will not have any issues.