Hasegawa 1/72 BAC Lightning F Mk.6

HASEGAWA 1:72 LIGHTNING F MK.6

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Built and Review submitted: May 2001

Aircraft:
The Lightning is one of those aircraft that can be slotted into the status of 'legendary' - not so much of its capabilities but more of its characteristics. It was the first British aircraft to be fitted from the outset with guided missile ordnance and of course was the first RAF aircraft capable of sustained supersonic flight. It has now finished its career as defender of the UK skies and left in its wake a unique history that saw the only British designed supersonic fighter to take to the skies in production form.

There were 41 F Mk.6 variants built which introduced the over-wing tank option on the aircraft plus an arrestor hook. It is mainly distinguishable by its larger ventral belly tank and outer wing leading edge extensions. An export version which was essentially an F.6 was built for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait under the F Mk.53 variant. The Lightning F.6 was the last and arguably best fighter variant to see service before the last of its type was retired in 1988.

The Kit:
This is a reissue of an early 80's Lightning F.6 kit with new decals for the updated paint scheme. The original kit featured similar boxart to the duel release with Minicraft below.

Inside the box are two large sprues and a smaller sprue of just under 40 light grey injection molded parts in a cellophane bag. A separate bag contains the decal sheet and two piece canopy on clear sprue. Typical of their earlier 80's molds this kit features raised panel lines, very reasonable external detail and just some slight flash encumbering a few parts - on my example flash was found on landing gear, an overwing tank, pilot figure, inner sections of the main wing, slightly on the edge of the tailplanes and one of the speed brakes was encrusted with the stuff. Otherwise crisply molded and lovely in the box.

Addendum (supplied by Simon Ruston): This kit was actually a collaboration with Frog that produced the F Mk.6, and the pilot is probably of Frog origin. The same kit appeared in Frog boxes, and after their demise, in Novo boxes, etc. This deal with Frog lasted from 1967 - 1974; and both boxed each other's kits.

Instructions:
There's enough reviews on this site that talk about Hasegawa instructions, again this is no different - briefly: fold out sheet, six construction steps, paint instructions for individual components quoted from Gunze Sangyo and Mr Color ranges, brief history, sprue diagram and four view sketches for each of the two versions provided for by the kit.

Construction:
This begins in the sparsely detailed cockpit - you are provided with a floor, stick, seat, instrument panel (with decal but no raised console) and pilot figure. As you would expect with Hasegawa, everything fits where it should without any hassles. But one word of warning, the pilot figure has his legs together so obviously you won't be able to have the stick between them! Make a call whether you omit him (or the stick), swing his legs to one side or somehow glue the stick protruding from his legs! Also the floor has an arrow scribed onto it, the instructions don't mention this - obviously it points to the front but does it sit on the upper or underside - I left it on the upper-side without any problems. The fuselage halves then go together and these affix very well. Nose weight is needed, the instructions quote the standard 5g.

The instructions say to affix the nose ring/cone and exhaust pipes but I left these off until nearer the end of the construction process. The other thing to mention here is that both ends of the plane could be painted black because there is no intake trunk nor exhaust fans, which is disappointing. If you paint the blunt nose black, you should also either add a touch of silver on the edges/rim (to match the nose ring which will be painted silver) or one of the greys for the scheme, otherwise you might find the black will bleed through. Anyway, back to construction, at this point I added the fins, tailplanes and the airbrakes. The tailplanes have different sized alignment tabs so you attach the right one to the right side. The fin needed patient tendering as while it fitted well, you needed to ensure it dried in the correct position. Both intakes had a little bit of flash, one worst than the other, and can be displayed open - but no actuating strut has been included. The starboard airbrake though was slightly smaller than the snugly fitting port one resulting in a larger gap in the closed position. The ventral fins did not fit spectacularly and needed some filler at the roots to blend in with the fuselage. One of mine also came off during construction so superglue was used to strengthen the bond.

The wings are the standard upper and lower pieces which attach with alignment tabs to the fuselage. A small amount of flash needs to be removed from the inner wing pieces and ejector pin marks also need filing down/removal. The port wing fits well but an excessive amount of filing on the starboard wing alignment tab (both top and sides) was needed to get it to fit. Once affixed, you can just about put them on and leave them and they will dry in the right position, but of course you should make sure. You can also optionally affix overwing tanks, but generally it was the "Cold War" Lightnings that had the overwing tanks and I wanted to leave them off mine, so the holes in the upper wing surface had to be filled in with putty and sanded smooth. The two-piece canopy was added on, which affixes almost perfectly.

I did do a test fit of the undercarriage for those who like to build wheels down and this did not reveal any problems. For wheels up the gear doors need test fitting and some trimming/coaxing to fit with a bit of filler still needed. The Red Top missiles are reasonable replicas and can be attached with pylons to the side of the aircraft, otherwise the holes need to be filled in.

The aircraft was then painted (refer heading below) before I added on the last external detail bits, including the abovementioned nose ring (painted silver) and exhaust (painted burnt iron with silver around the rims). The nose cone, which is part of the nose ring assembly, was painted Matt Olive Drab with a silver tip.

Versions:
Two No.11 SQN (XR725 & XR728) examples are provided for by the kit, both of course RAF. One in the three-tone grey scheme with black spine and fin (per the boxart above) while the other where's the two tone dark grey, almost black, scheme.

Painting & Finishing:
Up until the end of construction I was still debating with myself on which 'colour' scheme I would finish the Lightning in. I finally decided on the three-tone grey with Black spine. Thankfully the conversion chart from Gunze-Sangyo to Humbrol was generally spot on. The undersides of the wings and tailplane were painted H166 Light Aircraft Grey. The underside of the aircraft, leading strips on tailplane and wing undersides, upper wing/tailplane surfaces and the lower half of the aircraft were painted H167 RAF Barley Grey. The upper half of the aircraft was painted H165 Medium Sea Grey and there is very little difference between this and H167, you have to look closely (and I mean closely!!) to see any demarcation line. The instructions call for (Gunze Sangyo) GS2-black 90% and GS40-flat base 10% mix for the spine. I chose to mix about 15-20% H64 Light Grey into Matt Black and painted the spine, fin, cockpit, nose with this. The finish looks strikingly realistic. I then added on the exhaust and nose pieces which have a silver rim and it wasn't until I had literally finished with the model and put it in the cabinet that I noticed my error. I omitted to continue the black colour onto the nose ring so it completes the anti glare on top of the front of the aircraft - my black finishes right where the nose ring is attached. Against my better judgement it was decided to leave it at that.

Decaling:
These are the typical thick Hasegawan variety with very good register (although I thought the red/blue RAF roundel was a bit light for the version I produced). They moved around a fair bit on the model before setting and have a touch excess film but once set with Decalfix look great. Some stencilling plus the white wing-walk lines are provided. The model has raised cavities for where the decals actually go, which is good for assistance but I found the decals were slightly longer than the lines on the wings! So be wary.

Accuracy:
The Hasegawa Lightning kit is getting old now but is still a very good example and other modellers have vyed its one of the best on the market. There is nothing in my experience with the kit to disagree with this, it matches scale drawings well and seems to catch the profile very convincingly.

Overall:
This is typical Hasegawa. A straight forward build for all modelling skills and another accurate depiction. Definitely recommended!

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