1/48 Airfix English Electric Lightning F.6 by Greg Buckley

1/48 Airfix English Electric Lightning F.6

Gallery Article by Greg Buckley

The Lightning was one of the few survivors of the “Sands” white paper published by the British Government that stated that air defence of the UK was going to be undertaken by SAM’s. Luckily the project was too far in advance for it to be cancelled and with some swift sleights of hands by not changing the project number to confuse the government, the Lightning was finally brought into service.

Bear in mind that the design of the Lightning was started just after World War 2 by the same team that designed the Canberra (B-57) and entered Sqn service in 1960. Basically it was two whacking great Rolls Royce Avon 301 engines with a pilot perched on top. The unusual design of engines mounted on top of each other meant that 1 engine out was a doddle as there would be no problems with asymmetric trim. The Lightning was the UK’s only home grown supersonic fighter and it had performance in abundance. One pilot after his first flight in it stated that he was with it all the way until he released the brakes at the start of the runway! Its only major drawback was that its Avon’s were extremely thirsty and meant that it only had short legs and was better suited as a point defence interceptor. The F.6 attempted to redress this with a large ventral tank containing extra fuel and a gun pack. As for manoeuvrability, a few Phantom drivers, then the premier Air to Air machine found that they could not out turn, out climb or keep up in a close range dogfight.

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On to the kit, well Airfix have really outdone themselves with this beauty, if you haven’t had a bash with one try it, you will not be disappointed. The only weak area is the cockpit and that was rectified by the Cutting Edge set. The kit went exceptionally well together including the wings which because of the camber have caused some builders problems in the past. This was overcome by taking it slowly, gluing an inch or so, letting it set for a few hours and then repeating.

The kit comes with a plethora of marking options but after seeing a nice set by Cutting Edge (48075), well it had to be the 5 Sqn Bosses bird. Extra additions o the kit were the Aeroclub nose weight & nose cone. The Aeroclub nose ring was also trial fitted but this caused big problems as it split the front of the fuselage. As by this stage the kit was only awaiting its final coat of varnish, as you can guess the air was pretty blue! On speaking to other members of my model club, it seems that I am not the only one to have suffered this problem.

All major paints were by Xtracolour, thinned with cellulose thinners. The decals were then applied over a period of 1 week as there is a lot of stencilling. A coat of Xtracolour Satin Varnish was sprayed on and then a panel line wash of “Paynes Grey” oil paint thinned with turps. Final coating was done by a coat of 50:50 Xtracolour satin and Flat.

Whilst the Lightning does not have the sleek elegance of the other UK fighter of its era, the Hunter. I think that it has a very purposeful look about it. So for all you jet builders who think that grey is the only colour, have a bash at a good piece of British engineering and see for yourself what the Lightning is all about.

Greg Buckley

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