This really looks like it will become a great build and cannot wait to see it built. I wanted to build this exact model recently. I had been waiting to give it a try, but was conflicted between getting the Meteor, or the Airfix EE Lightning F1A. I decided to go with the Lightning but now I am not to impressed with the overall build experience. Seeing your article makes me regret my choice! I want a Meteor like yours...LOL. Good luck and keep her going. Want to see it.

I had to spread the fuselage on my first one. I used two pieces of sprue, cut to the appropriate length - one in the middle of opening and the other toward the rear. I must say, this is the worst warpage I have seen in one of these kits.

Boris is proving daily that you want the "F.8 Korea" boxing. Molded in the UK with solid quality control. Better plastic, better molding, better kit.

The last weeks have been kind of busy, between Moson and private stuff there wasn't too much time to work on the Meteor. I did, however, manage to mate the wings and fuselage, and the air intakes were given the fill-sand-rinse and repeat-treatment.

When working with the wing/fuselage joint, it is necessary to find out what causes all the gaps. First, the upper wing halves are curved too much, resulting in a step between the wing and the wing root (pic 1). To fix that, the upper wings need to be glued to the top of the wheel well (pic 2), eliminating that step (pic 3). Next, there is some material missing from the upper wings, especially along the first 10-15mm. I added a thin piece (0.3mm) of plastic sheet to this section, sanding it flush after the glue had dried. (pic 4)

After all these fixes, the wings fit reasonably well. The seam at the rear, were the wing meets the separate wing root parts, is quite overstated. Filling this one will not be fun, with all the lovely rivet detail close to the joint. (pic 5)

The air intakes consist of an outer and an inner tube, sporting a prominent seam. This was filled with putty, then sanded and polished with various sanding sponges. (pic 6) After airbrushing a primer coat of Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black, followed by AK Xtreme Metal Alluminium, the intakes are done. (pic 7)

Next up will be working on all the wing joints, installing the air intakes, and cleaning up the seams inside the nozzles.

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Coming along nicely!

Next, tiny seam lines and other blemishes. I use thin CA glue for these, as it dries vey quickly and sands beautifully within an hour or so. I gave the fuselage joints a quick overspray with flat black to check for these blemishes and fixed them within a day.

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Finally, the heavy stuff. The joints aound the nose section and the air intakes were rather bad, and I knew that whatever I did to them, I would have to rescribe them later on. Rescribing standard putty or CA glue is always an exercise in frustration, as these materials are either to brittle or to soft - they simply behave different from the kit's plastic, making consistent results hard to achieve.

Styrene dissolved in Tamiya Extra Thin is the perfect remedy for this problem. When you read about "Liquid Styrene" or "Sprue Goo", that is what it is. You take pieces of styrene (I use leftovers from evergreen sheet styrene), drop them in an old bottle of Extra Thin Cement and wati for it to dissolve. This usually takes around 24 hours, and you can adjust its consistency by adding more styrene. I always have a bottle of this stuff on my bench, refilling it from time to time with the remnants of used cement bottles.

The downside is the rather long drying time and the fact you might have to apply more than one coat, depending on the seam. I had to apply three or four coats, protecting surrounding detail with masking tape. But when everything has cured, you can rescribe the area without issues. I used Tamiya's flexible masking tape as a guide for the nacelles.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.