Trumpeter 1/72 BAC Lightning F.2A/F.6

TRUMPETER 1:72 BAC LIGHTNING F.6/F.2A

Reviewer: Johan De Wolf (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted: April 2009

Kit Details:

Aircraft: BAC Lichtning F.2A/F.6
Scale: 1/72
Kit: Trumpeter #01654
Parts: 84 light grey + 4 clear injection molded.
Surface detail: finely engraved
Decals: 2 options
Accuracy: good
Price: € 19.95

Aircraft History:

The first I remember of the Lightning was a cartoon by Chris Wren in Air International magazine. It depicts two aircraft enthusiasts looking up at a double contrail in the sky. One says to the other “it must be a Canberra or two Hunters in formation” where the other remarks “yes either that or a Lightning on its side”. This graphically illustrates one of the unique features of the Lightning, which had two engines on top of each other instead of the more conventional side by side arrangement. The Lightning was the eventual result of a 1947 study for a supersonic aircraft. The prototype, P1, had its first flight in 1954 after which several more prototypes were built. The project managed to escape the 1957 defense cuts because it was already at an advanced stage and showed promising results. In 1960 the first production Lightnings finally entered squadron service. Despite its limited range and armament, and high pilot workload, the Lightning was a very capable machine. It has always been a controversial aircraft with many critics. But even the most adamant critics will go quiet when one considers that an aircraft that was never intended to be more than a stop gap, and never had any money spent on it for upgrades, managed to stay on active duty for almost 30 years! Unlike most of its contemporaries the Lightning combined speed with maneuverability. It wasn’t until the advent of much later designs like the F-15 and F-16 that the Lightning found its match. I consider myself lucky that I had the chance to see a Lightning in action. It was in the late 1980’s when the Lightning was already in the twilight years of its career. I will never forget its unique shape, the incredible noise and the powerful high G maneuvers it performed, including a vertical climb until it was out of sight. Pilots that flew it all say it was a joy to fly as it was a real pilot’s machine. Ground crews are less complementary on the type as internal space was very cramped. This made replacing parts a real time consuming chore. As far as I know there are no flying examples left in Europe. In South Africa there are at least two airworthy examples though.

The Kit:

Inside the characteristic strong blue box you will find 7 light grey sprues and, separately packed, one transparent one. The parts are cleanly formed without flash or mold mismatch. The clear parts are commendable thin and very clear. The decals look very good, and offer markings for 2 machines plus a large amount of stenciling. The instructions show a parts location diagram and 16 easy to follow construction drawings. The final item in the box is a full colour leaflet with 3-views of the 2 machines for which markings are provided.

Accuracy:

The span is within one mm of what it should be and the length is spot on. Panel lines look realistic and conform well to photographs. All is not well though. One error that very quickly caught my eye is in the shape of the exhaust section. The area between the engines is too much pinched together.

This results in the diameter of the exhausts being too small. To make this area look more realistic, this error will have to be corrected. Aside from this glitch the finished model depicts the unique and brutal lines of the real aircraft very well.

Construction:

I started with removing the entire exhaust section from the fuselage halves. The APU exhaust was then deepened. As I wasn’t going to depict my kit with open airbrakes I also glued these in. These parts fit very well and I just ran liquid glue around the edges. However they fit so well that the capillary action of the glue sucked the parts a bit too far into their recesses. No mention is made of adding weight to the nose to prevent a tail sitter. To be sure I crammed the intake bullet and radome full of lead before completing the intake section. While this was drying, I assembled the cockpit. The instrument and side panels have finely raised detail which looks convincing after drybrushing. For the instrument panel there is also a decal, but it has black details on a bare aluminium back ground and doesn’t look realistic. The 3-part ejection seat looks a bit too simple for my liking and I replaced it with a white metal Aeroclub item. Together with the lead in the radome this proved to be just enough weight to keep the model on all three wheels. The fuselage was then closed up and set aside to dry. The wings were now assembled and the detail in the wheel wells was picked out with careful dry brushing. I replaced the kits exhaust section with a dimensionally more correct item from the Revell kit (the part from a Frog/Novo/Hasegawa kit will do too as they are all from the same mold). I used the discarded Trumpeter exhaust to build new ones to fit in the Revell part. The Revell part fits reasonably well onto the Trumpeter fuselage and doesn’t require too much filler to fair it in. The wings can now be fitted to the fuselage. The nicely detailed landing gear went on next followed by various smaller external details. Before fitting the canopy I added a small reflector gun sight. It is a pity that only the Firestreak missiles have been molded as clear parts because the RedTop rockets also have a large clear “eye” at the front. That is why I cut of the “solid” front from the kit parts and replaced them by a clear section. After painting the model the Red Tops and pitot were added.

Painting and Decals:

Colours are given throughout construction in Gunze Mr.Hobby/Color numbers and generic names. The decal sheet offers markings for two undefined machines. I really wish Trumpeter would provide some more information here!. However looking through my library I found the identities of both machines. Both are from around 1975: the first is a bare aluminium F.6 from 23.Sqn (XR753), the second is a dark green over bare aluminium F.2A from 19.Sqn (XN781). I chose to build neither of these as I was more interested in the markings that came with the Revell kit. These depict a light grey over pale gray F.6 of 5.Sqn from October 1987. This machine had a red fin and spine, and red wing leading edges added a year earlier to celebrate the squadron’s 21st anniversary of flying the Lightning. I used the main markings from the Revell kit and a mix of both the Revell and Trumpeter stenciling. Both decal sheets performed without problems though I did need some Agama tensol to help the Revell decals conform to the surface detail.

There is some confusion about the demarcation line between the two greys. The preserved machine at Binbrook has a mid fuselage demarcation line. However in photographs of this machine while it was still in service there is no visible demarcation line. So in this respect I trust the Revell instructions. However the Revell drawings also show a fake cockpit in silver on the lower fuselage and a grey belly gun pack. I couldn’t find a picture of the fake cockpit and the belly gun pack should be unpainted. Photographs also show that this machine had new airbrakes as these were lighter in colour than the surrounding fuselage panels. The left ventral fin seems to have a darker colour than the rest of the aircraft, so I suspect this was also a replacement item from another machine. Lightnings were never the cleanest aircraft, but towards the end of their service life most were positively filthy. I replicated this with a wash with dark water colours, and after the final layer of semi gloss I dirtied up some areas even more with pastel chalks.

Conclusions:

This new Trumpeter kit is light years ahead of the old Frog and Airfix kits, which can now be safely left to the collectors. Sadly the slip up with the exhaust is a bit of an eyesore that will need attention. I took the trouble of correcting this problem and I am very pleased with how my model turned out. It looks very much like the beast I saw perform at the air show some twenty years ago and it brought back fond memories.

The parts break down suggests that Trumpeter is planning to release other versions of the Lightning as well. I wonder if we’ll get a two-seater to replace the Matchbox kit. Academy has announced a new Lightning kit for this year as well and I’m looking forward to seeing that kit too.

Footnote:

Aires has already released an exhaust section to correct the Trumpeter kit.

References:

Aircraft illustrated special Lightning by Roger Lindsay
Aeroguide #8 BAC Lightning F mk3/6
Air International vol34 #6 June 1988

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