Depicted as aircraft serial number WK815 from the Royal Air Force Target Towing Squadron based at RAF Sylt, Germany in 1959
The Meteor wasn't one of the kits in my stash or on my radar at all but as I had one in stock for selling and it was announced as the subject for the for the NSW Scale Model Shows 2027 Airfix Cup I figured I'd knock one out.
The Kit
- 1/48 Gloster Meteor F.8 (Kit No.AF-09182A)
Aftermarket
- HFM Pilot. Designed by me and AI and printed on my 3D printer.
The Build
I decided to build this inflight to avoid having to deal with landing gear and thinking this would be easier and quicker, especially as Airfix give you closed gear bays as an option.
Unfortunately there was no pilot so I turned to Gary at Scalespot Models excellent tutorial on how to use AI to design figures. After a bit of mucking around I ended up with something useful.
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| HFM 1950's Jet Pilot |
Another issue with building the kit in flight was having to close the open gun and engine access panels. These fitted as you'd expect but the resulting panel lines were far to wide for my taste so I ended up filling and re-scribing them.
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| Gun Panels prior to filling and re-scribing. |
The wings and engines build up pretty easily. There are no clear wingtips so cut those out and used some coloured resin which was sanded to fit
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| Wing and Engine Assembly |
The worst area of fit was the nose section to fuselage join. It relies on the cockpit tub to provide a gluing surface so getting that in the right spot is critical. I don't think I did, that said plenty of other modellers have mentioned the same issue. I ended filling most of the join and re-scribing.
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| Pilot dry fit and nose join |
Apart from those issues the kit is fairly simple to assemble although the clamps were needed on a couple of occasions.
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| HFM Clamps prove handy again. |
Painting
This was one of those models that needed a primer coat. Mr Surfacer 1500 was used for this. Some work was needed after the primer coat and as the underside was Black I re-primed the underside using Mr Surfacer Black 1500.
The Xtradecal instructions were upscaled and printed out so I could layout the stripes
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| Upscaling the instructions helps with the pattern |
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| Masking - yeah! |
Getting those stripes on the bottom looking right took a bit of effort (not something I'm that into TBH), especially where they go over the engine nacelles. In the end I got to the point where I went, Meh, it's better than Bruce's Scale Models would do 😃 so left it and cracked on.
SMS trainer yellow, with drop of red to make it more garish was used for the yellow. This is my favourite yellow paint as it covers really well with just a few thin coats.
After painting the Tail Band and upper wings I tacked the canopy on with a few drops of AK Ultra Glue. I wanted to be able to remove the canopy nearer the end as I couldn't guarantee a perfect seal and on every build I get some dust or fogging inside the canopy.
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| HFM Clamps again for the win |
Next was Mr Color 330 for the RAF Dark Green. This was sprayed in the basic layout of the pattern before paper Masks and Therapy putty was applied to finish the hard edged camouflage pattern. Tamiya XF 77 IJN Grey will be used for the RAF Dark Sea Grey.
Decaling
Prior to decaling I shot a gloss coat and applied an initial wash of ABT 502 Sepia. I like to do multiple washes and get the base one down before decals.
I grabbed the Xtradecal sheet as this Target Tug aircraft looked like something different. Annoyingly the R code was slightly out of register. You can see it close up but it's not to visible with the naked eye. Yes I could have painted it (and all the other markings) but I just couldn't be bothered.
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| Out of register R - thankfully you need to get close to see it |
Bar the serials and codes the rest of the markings are from the Airfix Sheet. They were excellent and went down with no issues at all.
After decaling I shot a sealing coat of SMS semi gloss (a mixture of gloss and flat) I like mixing my own semi gloss so I can get the sheen I wanted.
Weathering
This was a mixture of Mr Weathering Color and ABT 502 oils There were applied directly on the surface and worked in with various brushes. I have found that applying a sealing coat of semi gloss or flat clear really reduces the weathering effects so I'm not going to seal and just let it dry naturally.
All that remained was to pop off the canopy, clean the inevitable fogging, fit the seat and pilot, refit the canopy and then attach the few fiddly bits.
The Base
The base is simply a piece of scrap timber with a print glued to it. The print was a photo I took when flying one day for work and blurred using the tools in Corel Paintshop Pro (under the title Bruce's Sharpening tools). It was printed at Officeworks and glued to the timber with PVA glue.
Conclusion
This is one of what I call "the new Airfix kits", i.e. those tooled from 2006 onwards. That said this is one of the first of those and, as you'd expect, it's not as good as the newer kits. The fit of the nose and closed panels are not terrible and can be overcome with a bit of patience and , dare I say, basic modelling skills.
Overall the kit builds up reasonably easily and quickly into what is quite a large model. The Airfix decals in my kit were excellent and I perhaps should have stuck with my original plan and built the aircraft on the box-art noting the registration issued on the Xtadecal code letter.
In the end the project turned out better than I'd hoped. I am particularly happy with the weathering on the upper surfaces. That said I don't see another Meteor in my future, but that's down to the subject rather than the kit.
The Photos
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