Very rarely will I do a complete series of one type of aircraft, but for the EE Lightning I am making an exception. (Also one of the few exceptions to my 1/48 only rule by building Trumpeter's F.1A in 1/32.) I've had the Grand Pheonix reissure of Airfix's F.6 in the stash for a while, likewise the F.2A/F.6 release, but I REALLY like the earlier models before they added chord to the fin and squared it off, kinked the wings and took all the colors away! I've also had a pair of NeoMega resin's T.4/5 conversions with the hope of finding a second hand F.1 kit. Fortunately Airfix has re-released the kit of the early birds with the unkinked wings!
I had ordered four of them, but something happened to the two from the UK which I am trying to resolve (no tracking # issued) but have received two from the US distributor. One has fuselage halves that fit great and will be becoming an 74sq F.1. The other had slightly miss-matching halves and was cut for the conversion. I plan on using T.5 XS422 for the markings. It was one of two T.5s with the Empire Test Pilot School and is now living in Mississippi. Having undergone successful engine runs, it is close to being in the air.
I started by taping the halves together getting everything straight, then marking along a panel line just forward of the wing on the trailing side going around both halves so everything lines up so the forward fuselage can be removed.
Then the tape was cut and the halves were separated and the nose cut off with a Dremel cut off wheel on a slow setting, cutting just forward of the mark. Then using the new spine fairing, the spine was also trimmed away leaving this.
The fuselage was taped back up and put on my sanding table to finesse the parts together, eliminating a gap I created by cutting the spine a little too far back.
For comparison, unmodified kit parts versus the modefied ones.
I do remember the plastic of the first Lightning I built to be rather brittle. The plastic in this new release is quite soft and makes easy work of all the cutting. It is also helpful that NeoMega did some homework designing the conversion as everything fits as it should.
This is good because you will be using the kit's intake trunking and nose ring and everything fits like the resin pieces were kit parts!
The cockpit will be next and it is quite nice! It's great to have one's first attempt at a conversion go smoothly! Now it's time to celebrate by disturbing the populace of Oshkosh with my F.2A in FSX!
