DFI (FROG/NOVO) 1:72 BAC LIGHTNING F.6/F.53

 

Reviewer: Paulo Ivo Teixeira  (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  1 April 2006

Kit Details:

English Electric/B.A.C. Lightning F.6/F.53 1/72 scale. From e-Bay for 9.25 euros incl. p&p, came in a factory-sealed plastic bag (no box), with instructions in Russian only. Some quick research suggests it's a DFI (a rather obscure Russian company) reboxing of a Novo (another Russian company, less obscure) reboxing of a Frog kit. No date anywhere but the original moulds must be pretty old, 1960s or so.

Aircraft History:

There are already several excellent reviews of Lightning kits on these pages so I won't bother you with yet another potted history of this remarkable aircraft. Suffice it to say the F.6 is the later version with kinked wings, overwing fuel tanks and a big belly. Though built in smaller numbers (39) than the leaner F.3 (70), it is photos of the F.6 that come up most often in books and on the internet. The F.53 (34) and F.53K (12) produced for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, respectively, are almost identical to the F.6.

The Kit:

34 injection-moulded parts in soft grey plastic plus 2 clear parts (canopy and windscreen). All grey parts bar one, which had come loose, were still attached to round-cornered sprues with very thick gates, again hinting at a Frog origin. Lots of flash, though most of it could be easily cleaned with a modeller's knife (where it couldn't, it wasn't flash, but rather malformations). Raised panel lines throughout (a bit on the heavy side but I can live with that), recessed control surfaces. Not many sink marks and those there were, were easy to sand down/fill. Windscreen slightly chipped (or maybe malformed - it was off the sprue so I can't tell) on the right-hand side.

Instructions:

In Russian only! One sheet of rather coarse paper, measuring 40 cm x 15 cm (15 3/4 in x 6 in), folded roughly in four, featuring: some technical data on aircraft, general modelling hints & tips and eight (well actually nine, step 8 is split into 8A for wheels down and 8B for wheels up) easy-to-follow construction steps. This is a very simple build anyway so if you've done a Lightning before you shouldn't have any problems. No painting or decalling guide.

Colour Schemes:

As I said before there was no painting or decalling guide, so what follows is at worst conjecture, at best an educated guess. The sizes and colours of roundels suggest a choice of two natural metal aircraft, one 11th Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF) F.6 (identified from its squadron badge), year unknown; and an unidentified Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) F.53, in all likelihood 2nd Squadron based at Tabuk, since this and the Operational Conversion Unit were the only RSAF units to fly the Lightning.

Options:

Wheels up or down, airbrakes open or closed, overwing tanks yes/no.

Construction:

Construction started with the overwing fuel tanks, halves were glued together, seams were sanded smooth and they were put on one side. I next glued on the airbrakes in the closed position, there is a noticeable gap along the bottom edge of the right-hand side brake but I let it be. 

Work then started on the fuselage. I painted the whole inside of it flat black (Hu 33), as the plastic was quite translucent. The pilot's seat was also painted black, with olive drab (Hu 66) cushions. I added yellow shoulder belts and blue lap belts with silver buckling, all made with masking tape, as well as ejection seat rings made with two strands of fine copper wire painted black (Hu 33) and yellow (Hu 69) and wound together in a spiral. These were affixed to the top of the headrest with a dollop of Revell putty. I also built a cockpit floor from a piece of an old credit card, added a control stick made from thicker copper wire and painted it all black. From experience with the Airfix Lightning I knew nose weight would be required, so I stuffed in some 15 g of lead chippings encased in plasticine; make sure you also paint it black so it can't be seen through the canopy. 

The fuselage halves don't mate well at all: you get a step along the spine, and another along the underside of the aircraft. Both have to be sanded/puttied smooth, with consequent loss of raised surface detail, especially on the ventral fuel tank. I attempted rescribing some of the lost panel lines, but was only moderately successful. Both steps propagate all the way to the nose area, where some serious sanding was required to get the right oval fuselage cross-section. Filler was also needed at the tail fin root. The nose wheel bay was plated with aluminium foil.

The wings are in two parts, upper and lower. There are sink marks on the inside of the upper parts that need sanding, otherwise they'll be visible through the main undercarriage wells (which are openings cut out in the lower parts of the wings). It must be said that sanding this soft plastic is a different experience from the more brittle Airfix or Hasegawa fare, but it poses no particular problems. I then plated the bottom of the the upper wing halves with aluminium foil, these would be the insides of the main undercarriage bays. Aluminium foil was also applied to the interior surfaces of all undercarriage bay doors, both nose and main, as well as to the outside of the nose intake ring; the inside was painted silver (Hu 11) and the nose cone khaki (Hu 26). The fit of the nose ring to the fuselage is not good, the latter appears to be too thick on the right-hand side, leading to an unseemly little bulge just aft of the ring. Still, I only found this out too late, when most painting was already done, so I decided to just leave it.

There are gaps where the lower parts of the wings fit into the upper parts. Some of these are along panel lines on the wing undersurfaces, but are too wide and need to be filled, at least partially. I used white glue, applied with the tip of a toothpick. Unfortunately I couldn't get a perfectly smooth finish, despite much sanding (and there go a few more panel lines, good thing they were on the heavy side to start with). As this was going to be a natural metal aircraft I knew every imperfection would show mercilessly, but oh well... there isn't much of it and it's all on the undersurfaces... :-) 


© Paulo Ivo Teixeira 2006

The fit of tailplanes to the fuselage was very good. The wings required a little white glue along some of the wingroots.

Engine exhausts are provided as a ring to be cemented on the rear of the fuselage. Fit was appalling and required a lot of sanding and puttying to get half-decent. The exhaust cans were painted gunmetal (Hu 53), with flat black (Hu 33) insides.

With all wings and tailplanes in place it was time to do some serious  painting. I started by painting the anti-glare panel flat black (Hu 33). This was then masked off with tape and the whole airframe was sprayed Tamiya Silver Leaf. Several re-sprayings were needed to get a smooth uniform finish. Having experimented on a piece of scrap plastic I had decided against applying a base coat, maybe this was a mistake. But I am pleased with the final result, though I found the spray flow rather hard to control: sometimes large droplets would spoil an otherwise perfect job. For touching-up, note that Tamiya Silver Leaf is exactly the same shade as Revell aluminium (Re 99) (NOT Humbrol aluminium (Hu 56), which is noticeably darker and duller). 

The canopy frame was painted flat black. A very narrow yellow (Hu 69) sealant strip along the rear part of the glass-frame join was painted with a very fine brush. Canopy fit on the fuselage was pretty bad, white glue was again needed. Although I can't imagine how, some glue (either polystyrene or white)  managed to creep up the inside of the windscreen on the right-hand side, leaving it with a rather unseemly splotch... oh well, nothing I can do now...

At the same time I got working on the subassemblies: undercarriage legs and wheel hubs were painted silver (Hu 11) and tyres black (Hu 33). The Red Top missiles were painted flat aluminium (Hu 56) with black fins (Hu 33) and bright red rings and tip (Hu 19), to match some photos I'd seen. All these were then attached to the fuselage.

The ventral fins have black edges and were also painted separately. Again there was a gap between these and the fuselage, more white glue to the rescue. Luckily it dries invisible!

The last items to go on were the overwing fuel tanks, there were gaps between these and the wings that needed to be filled with white glue. The IFR probe wouldn't fit - its rear end would bump up against one of the main undercarriage bay doors. I simply cut off some 6 mm of the offending end of the probe, just aft of the aftmost attachment point, and was able to fit it. The pitot tube affixed effortlessly.

Two words of caution. First, if you attach parts 7 and 9 to the top of parts 8 and 10, repectively, as instructed in step 4, then you won't be able to cement the main undercarriage legs in place: parts 7 and 9 need to be cemented end-on to the sides of parts 8 and 10. Second, if you glue the pilot's seat as instructed you won't be able to close the canopy: move it down a couple of mm (ignore the slot on the rear cockpit bulkhead where the tab on the back of the seat is supposed to go). I only realised this too late, and the only way I could solve it was to move the seat forward in the cockpit and then glue it leaning backwards, so the pilot (had I included one) would appear to be reclining a bit - it doesn't look too bad though. 

Finally, wingtip lights were coloured green (right) and red (left) with marker pens.


© Paulo Ivo Teixeira 2006

Decals:

Good adhesion properties but colours completely off, especially the RAF blue and, worst of all, the RSAF green roundels, which were actually a shade of greenish brown! Carrier film was all over the place. Any hopes I entertained of doing up my bird in RSAF colours thus evaporated. In the end most decals were contributed by a Matchbox F.6 Lightning (74th Squadron RAF, Singapore 1970, with black tail fin) and the wing no-walk lines are from an Airfix F.3 Lightning. The only kit decals I used were a few red warning triangles (and even that red isn't quite right).

Accuracy:

Well, it's certainly got the beefy looks of a Lightning, although there are a number of issues of detail, most notably the ventral bulge is missing both the cannon muzzles and the side 'blisters'. The IFR probe attachment points are also inaccurate, as are the Red Top missiles: undersized and with fins of the wrong shape. On the plus side, the overwing fuel tanks are quite nicely moulded, with the correct tapering at the rear end. Canopy is also good, although my windscreen was slightly damaged.

Conclusion:

My motivation for getting this kit was that I wanted to build a buddy for my Airfix F.3 and I thought a natural metal F.6 in Saudi markings would look cool. But quite honestly, don't buy this. Or if you must, at least make sure you get the original Frog offering. With work and patience it can be made into a reasonable rendition of a Lightning, but there must be an easier way!

References:


© Paulo Ivo Teixeira 2006

 

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