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

[oz rb fan]

looking good mate

[RayS]

Nice work Troy, they are coming along really well.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Awesome work there Troy!

Some "Blue note" for inspiration below! I've been lucky enough to meet some former 77 Sqn Meatbox pilots c/o a mate of mine whose father flew them, with Sabres later. His posting was just after the end of the Korean War luckily for him. I've a Meteor to build at some stage so your builds are really inspirational. Any issues in particular I need to look out for? I've heard there are some decent gaps at the wing root, but that's no big deal of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft2Krq132wE

[DesTROYer]

Thanks guys.

Adam. I had trouble getting the tubs to sit in correctly. The front fire wall should sit in flush behind the nose. If its not flush the nose wont sit on properly. The seat with a pilot in it sat too high too, so I had to make some modifications to assist with that. The wing root seams weren't an issue for three out of the four, and the fourth closed aup alright with some filler. OOB the kits gotogether alright.

[DesTROYer]

I don't know why, maybe it's the 1/32 bug making me wish I was building this in Manscale, or maybe it's post expo blues, but I haven't been feeling much mojo lately on this build and have been tempted to put them on the shelf for a while and move onto something else. But I don't work that way, and when I start something, I finish it. That said, the motivation to get into the office on saturday eluded me, and sunday I had to force myself in. For Meatbox 1, I want to try and liven the scheme up a little and decided to try and do this RAAF Meteor. A77-867.


To my knowledge no decent decals exist for this scheme. So it would require me to fire up the old Macbook and cut out some stencils on my portrait cutter. First I masked off and painted the gloss white.


Then I got to work designing the masks. 5mmx5mm squares did the job. I also made up the serial numbers (not shown) as they were not right on the three decal sets I did have, according to my reference photos.


Getting the squares in place was a bit of a task and some weren't sitting as flat as I would like, So after I had sprated the second coat of green, I was a bit worried that I may have had some bleeding.


There was a little bit, but not even close to what I was dreading. It should not take too much work to remask and touch up. I think maybe that the green may be a little too light. So I may even go the full effort and remask and spray a slighter darker coat, but I don't want to push my luck, and might just touch up the areas that really need it.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Very nice mate! You've made me pull mine from off the stash shelf - if nothing more than to look at and think about a future build. Mine will be a 77 Sqn Korean War bird - not sure which one yet. Not sure if I'd mount the rockets either. They do look cool though as my RAN Sea Fury has 'em.

[DesTROYer]

Thanks Adam. Meatbox 1 will be a inflight 77 Sqn Korea Meteor.

[BradG]

Nice job, checkers would probably be the hardest thing to paint. I ended up using some decals for one of my checker tail thunderbolts and that was just about has hard as trying to paint them!

[DesTROYer]

It was a wet an windy weekend here in Melbourne. Perfect for modelling. After I got all my other tasks underway, back into the office I went and got to work masking and painting up Meatbox 1. After touching up the tail checkers I moved onto the roundels.


The red and blue were next and went down pretty well. The only real drama I find when using masks is they don't settle into the panel lines to well and when the paint is applied too wet, they do tend to run. Nothing too bad with this lot though. This was followed by the serial numbers which again went on ok, with only some minor bleeding. A little touch up here and there was required and some more will be required over the next few days, but I'm pretty happy with how it's looking.








The airbrushes are now cleaned, the lights in the office are switched off, and dinner has been eaten. Here is we sit. One of the best investments I've made in this hobby is my Silhouette Curio Portrait Cutter. It allows me to do schemes that are not as readily available otherwise and lets you whip up solutions to problems you may come across pretty quickly.

[DesTROYer]

Alright, another weekend down and here is where we stand. Meatbox 2 now has its wheels, landing gear and most antennas on and as of today has been gloss coated so I can begin the decals over the next week.





Meatbox 1 now has had the hole for the stand cut out and the stand test fitted. It has also been clear coated ready for decals.







The engines have been clear coated too and I have painted up the stand. The stand needs some more details painted and a clear coat, and both will get a wash applied.





Finally, I wanted to build a rack to hold the covers from the engines and gun bays of Meatbox 2. I have no references to base this on and basically just pulled it out of my... head. Still, it does the job and needs only a little more work and a coat of paint and it will do the job nicely.







That's it for now, more soon, thanks for following.