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Lightning model jet aircraft built from the 1/72 scale Airfix plastic kit
Pictures and construction information of a Lightning build project.
The parts from the Airfix F3 Lightning kit box
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A closer view of the Lightnings fuselage moudings.
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The English Electric Lightning (later BAC Lighting) was the RAF's first truely supersonic interceptor aircraft. The plane was a world beater when it entered service in the 1960s replacing the Hawker Hunter.
The article covers the 1/72 scale Airfix model of the F3 Lighting.
This example of the kit is moulded in the usual Airfix grey/blue plastic which is soft and easy to work using normal craft tools. The material cuts easily and can be scraped with a scalpel and sanded no problem.
General moulding quality of the kit is very good. Minimal flash is evident in this example and what's there is easy to remove. There are a few sink marks, notably around the cockpit side (a slight linear depresion running diagonally as shown in the photo above right) where the bulkhead is moulded, and some around the rear near to the airbrake position.
Panel lines are raised and quite fine.
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Mostly assembled, wheels up Lightning.
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Some filler is needed to take care of the odd sink mark, and more is required after assembly mostly around the nose ring to fuselage and tailpipe to fuselage joins.
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This kit was tooled quite some time ago when the average kit's cockpit consisted of a simple seat and a pilot figure, this kit is no exception. If you build from this kit and require a nicely detailed cockpit then you will definitely need to either buy an aftermarket set of pilot's furniture or get plenty of pictures and scratchbuild one yourself.
As I am building this plane mostly as is comes from the box the cockpit on this model will consist of a seat! The pilot's been ejected. To make the empty pilot's office less noticable the seat and entire internals are being painted with matt black enamel (it's dark in there). Detailed cockpits are very nice and all, but for me the real interest for a small scale kit is an accurate and detailed airframe, for which this kit comes out pretty good I reckon.
Covering the cockpit is a good clear canopy moulding, quite thick but that serves my purposes nicely. (rubs hands gleefully!)
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General assembly is straightforward using the easy to understand Airfix instruction sheet. All parts come together with little fuss, though the top spine of the model's fuselage requires a bit of coaxing. The front ring and tailpipe do not blend in too well so require the application of some model filler. The wings fit very well at what I think is the correct anhedral angle. I've been studying full size pictures to check this angle, I reckon the Airfix side painting view shows it as it is more or less.
One thing that does look wrong is the nosecone on the model. I've chopped off about 2mm from the end of this and recarved it. It's a lot better now I think, but still wants a sharper point. A lathe turned metal cone would be a good option to replace the kit's cone, this giving a sharp conical nose shape as the fullsize Lightning and supplying the nose weight into the bargain. The only other part of the model I'm not entirely convinced about is the size and/or position of the tailplane. It could be easily modified if required, even after building work is completed.
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Airfix Lightning page 2 details and pictures
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