1/48 Airfix F.1A English Electric

Gallery Article by Burt Gustafson on July 13 2016

 

      

For your viewing pleasure, here is my article and some photos of my 1/48 scale Airfix F.1A English Electric Lightning.

History
The English Electric Lightning was the first operational British aircraft capable of achieving twice the speed of sound. The Lightning was the first (and only) Mach 2-capable platform ever developed for the RAF, and the fastest British fighter of all time. It was also the first aircraft to utilize "supercruise" (reaching supersonic flight without the use of an afterburner). It was designed primarily as a Mach 2 interceptor to meet incoming Soviet bombers at altitudes up to 60,000ft. The Lightning had an unusual design with two turbojets mounted one above the other in the fuselage. The cockpit was placed on top of the nose air intake. The two engines mounted one above the other was a way of minimizing the drag of the twin engine installation. The Lightning was armed with two 30 mm ADEN cannons and two air-to-air missiles. It was a good dogfighter, with speed, acceleration and climb rate that was difficult to match.

Fuel capacity dominated the Lightning's design as its fuselage was nearly all engines and ducting, thus it could not hold much fuel. All available room was adapted for the purpose of holding fuel. Even the flaps were used as fuel tanks, and the landing gear had very narrow tires that retracted outward so there could be greater fuel storage. Drop tanks for greater range was considered. However, drop tanks could not be mounted under wing and were mounted on top instead.

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Construction
This was an out of the box build. The kit went together fairly well following the building instructions. Assembly illustrations were pretty clear and the parts fit was pretty good. But, this was not a shake and bake build. There was a fair amount of seam filling and sanding and there were some fit issues.

Painting
The kit gives you the option of three paint schemes. I chose to use the paint and marking scheme for the Firebirds aerobatic team, 56 Squadron, RAF Wattisham, Suffolk England, 1963. The paint scheme consisted red stripping on the leading edges of the wings and horizontal stabilizers. The tail, the nose cone, and the ridge down the center of the aircraft was also red. The rest of the aircraft was bare metal. The red areas were airbrushed with Floquil Signal red. For the bare metal finish, I first primed the areas for bare metal with a coat of MM Gloss Black. After the Gloss Black had dried an cured, I airbrushed three light coats of Alclad Polished Aluminum over the gloss Black for a nice bare metal finish. The two Fire Streak missiles were painted MM Flat White.

Decals
The Airfix Lightning kit provides an exhaustive decal sheet that provides the markings for three aircraft. I chose to use the decals for the No.56 Squadron F.1A, RAF Wattisham, Suffolk, England, 1963. The decals were excellent, easily placed on the model, and conformed nicely to the model finish. To finish the model, I airbrushed it with a coat of MM Gloss Lacquer Finnish.

Comment
The detail of this kit is good, the decals were excellent, and the instructions were pretty clear. Most importantly, the parts fit was good. This was an enjoyable build, and I recommend the kit to any modeler.

Burt Gustafson

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Photos and text © by Burt Gustafson