DesTROYer's 1/48 Gloster Meteor F.8 Twin build

[DesTROYer]

My Month long exile from the work bench is over. Though I still have over 120 staples in my left thigh, I couldn't stay away from the bench any longer. Over the month away I spent a heap of time thinking about and researching my next builds and purchasing some new kits. In the end it came down to a 1/35 Blackhawk or a 1/48 Meteor F.8. The Meteor ended up winning, but as I had two kits in the stash and wanted to do one in flight and one with the engines and guns exposed, I decided to do the two at the same time.


The inflight model will be A77-854 with rockets and will be 98% OOB with only the seat "enhanced" by photo etch that is left over from the under service Meteor A77-851 Halestorm which will have resin seat & spent shell chutes, as well internal photo etch updates from Eduard.
It felt so good cutting and reshaping the first piece.


Before long I had two tubs well underway. The OOB one fell together in under 10 mins, but even with the little photo etch involved, the other is taking a fair bit longer.


I need to paint the seats, add some dry brushing to the cockpit walls and to apply some placard decals to both tubs and seats. The dials on the OOB IP will come from the kit decals but I think I'll need to add some extra colour too.


Progress will be slow as I'm still taking it easy still, but we're on the way.

[BradG]

Syrian?

[DesTROYer]

The appointment at the Alfred yesterday taught me that I was pushing myself a little to hard, nothing serious, but I'm taking it easy for the rest of the week as I still heal. Still I set myself up with the stable table in my Lazyboy recliner today and did some more work on the cockpit tubs.

Firstly, and perhaps strangely as I would usually detail and seal before doing this, I applied the cockpit decals after watching a video on youtube that recommended this and using Micro Sol both before and after applying the decals to non gloss surfaces. Seems to work quite well.
Here is the IP's of both jets. one with photo etch and the other with a decal. You'll notice I didn't get the decal lined up correctly on this first attempt. Good news is I had a second decal and managed to fix this.


The kit seat on the left, after market resin on the right, Again the decals applied before details painted and dry brushing added.


Now these tub sidewalls may look a little over done with the dry brushing, but IRL it looks right. I think its due to the macro lens I used to take the photos. Either way I was getting closer to joining up the second tub.


The two assembled tubs. The seat without belts will have a pilot added which will have the belts added afterwards. Just have to find the correct era pilot that fits to suit. I think I'll have to replace the photo etch face shield handle on the resin seat. it looks too flimsy.


Last up I did pop out to the garage to fire up the airbrush and put some paint down on some other parts. This done, I may start to assemble the fuselage tomorrow If I'm up to it.

[BradG]

Looking good thus far. Could I make one suggestion; try a softer, slightly bigger brush with less paint on it for your dry brushing.

[DesTROYer]

Cheers, Brad. I'll take that on board.

Back into the office today, and I was able to sit at the bench with no pain, so WINNING!

I started by mixing and matching some pieces of some 1/48 pilots to set something that both fits in the top, but looks the part. The flight suit isn't quite right, and the head is a bit out of scape, but once he gets a coat or two of paint and is sitting in his office, he'll look the part.



Then I started on fitting the guns into the gun bays for the under service Meteor. A little touch up is still required but they're getting there. They will look good once sealed, installed and given a wash I think.


Then it was on to the two sets of wings. One will have the engines exposed and the other will be inflight. Fit is great.



And besides putting the gunboat door covers on the inflight models fuselage, that was it for the day.


Oh and I did a little bit of work getting the display base for the Kiowa done for Expo. Its been on my todo list for a while.

[DesTROYer]

Hi everyone. Between Model Expo last weekend and a busy life, I haven't been able to build or post as often as I would like to have. This weekend, however, did let me spend some real decent time at the bench, and here is where we're at.

I got the two fuselages buttoned up. One fought me a bit harder than the other, due in part to the placement of the instrument panel with the photo-etch. This resulted in some of the nice detailing becoming damaged and removed. I will replace some of it where I can, and the resin seat also presented some problems with space between the front of the seat, and the instrument panel. So out came the seat, and the kit supplied seat will end up being fitted instead. This too is very disappointing to me.



I also got the engines assembled, painted, then added some extra detail. Three are being installed in the planes, two will be hidden beneath closed panels but needed to be installed as they can be seen through the intakes.





They still need a gloss coat and pin wash, but they're really coming together. I'm going to try and add some hoses too, but I must be careful not to overdo it or make them too big.



Wings and control surfaces have been fitted to the in-flight Meteor (Callsign: Meatbox 1) and wings, Landing gear and control surfaces have been added to the second ( Callsign: Meatbox 2)







Meatbox 2 will have more complicated tail markings painted on, so I have left the elevators off for now, but Meatbox 1 is all good for them to be attached.



I'm not sure if it's my assembly of the kits or Airfix, but the noses on both kits are proving to be a pain to get to fit correctly. Some filler will be required, but as there are seams everywhere that will also need to be filled, there is no reason why the nose shouldn't too.

That's it for now. More next weekend.

[hrtpaul]

Looking good there mate

[DesTROYer]

I struggled to find the motivation to do much in the office this weekend. I hadn't been feeling well Thursday afternoon, took friday off work and spent most of it in bed. Spent a little time in there yesterday and today, and ended up with both planes in their base coat. So over all, not that bad I guess.

[hrtpaul]

Looking nice there mate

[DesTROYer]

Looking nice there mate

Thanks Paul.