AIRFIX 1:48 E.E. LIGHTNING F.2A/F.6

Reviewer: John Hall  (rec.models.scale)

The English Electric Lightning is a legend in itself, being the last twin-engined single seat fighter produced by Britain, finally retiring from nearly 3 decades of service in 1988.  The mid to late fifties heralded the design that initially was given the P.1 model number by English Electiric and superseded Mach 2 for the first time in 1958.   In 1960 the Lightning entered service to give the RAF a highly supersonic all-weather interceptor with excellent performance but headache inducing maintenance problems.  The F.2A and F.6 versions are the latest in the Lightning variants, the latter seeing life out until its sad retirement in '88.  Latter F.6 variants in particular were finished in three-grey tone.

Well, I have just completed this kit after finishing the F.1A which is subject to a separate review.  Unlike the other kit (Lightning F.1 -> F.3) this kit was not a display model and thus I was required to pay full price to secure it.  It came in an identical sized box with much the same packaging and sprues of the F.1-3 kit as you could probably imagine (since they were both released at the same time). Apart from the obvious differences in versions the kits were exactly the same and I knew exactly what I was in for. I predicted it to build much like the F.1A in my other review, which was quite an enjoyable experience that only presented a few problems.  Given they were both engineered at the same time, this kit turned out to be a lot easier because I knew all the hints and pitfalls before commencment.  So, in the large and dramatically packaged box comes four sprues of injected plastic molds. Again the plastic contained only tiny spots of flash but did have a few sink marks, most notably on undercarriage and upper wing tips - first job was to fill and sand these.  Details are finely engraved with rivets throughout and looks quite nice.

Again I started with the cockpit and subassembled the wings and undercarriage.   Like the F.1-3 kit you simply get a bath tub with seat, instrument panel (decals can be attached if desired) and stick. I know that in the above kit's review I intimated that I would ditch Airfix's cockpit and go with one of the aftermarket resin units but alas, I was too eager to get on with it  :).  Finely raised knobs and switches can be found on the interior cockpit panels but nothing to write home about.   Everything fits in snuggly but you have to remember that the F.6 is grey inside, not black as in earlier versions. When placing the unit inside the fuselage you are presented with an annoying aspect that locating pins and attachment grooves were almost non-existant, but a bit of dry-testing should get it in without too much hassle.  At the same time I assembled the interior afterburner set, painted it up and put it inside the fuselage.

Having been forewarned of a few little likely glitches from experience with my F.1A model I remembered to finely tune my fitting skills with the intake trunk, cockpit unit and afterburner section. Probably the best thing to do is to trim the tabs on the intake trunk edges to ensure the nose radar assembly would be quite straight forward after joining the main fuselage halves.  Talking of the fuselage, when joining the halves together don't forget to insert at least 20g nose weight to prevent any tail-sitting.   The halves went together very easily (must be the F.1A experience) and I remembered to take specific care around the nose and exhaust sections.  Again, you have the option of positional speed brakes but as I suspected in my F.1A review - and later confirmed with an enthusiast from the local Aerospace industry - the speed brakes are closed on the ground and hence, they appeared as such on my model again.

The nose ring again was a bit of a hassle but much easier than my first attempt on the F.1A even though I was faced with the same 'out-of-shape' problems.  Fitting the duct frames and sections again was a bit fiddly and not of a good mold but having the experience on the F.1A ensured it was much simpler the second time around - and not so much filler this time. The Aden gun muzzles were similar to the other kit in that they were merely just small indents in the plastic and I ended up doing the same as the F.1A - drilling them out and making a deeper trough.  Belly tanks are provided which I affixed and presented no fit problems.

The wings are different to that supplied in the F.1-3 kit as one would expect but it also allows for positional flaps and leading edge inserts.  Unfortunately this provided a worse fit than the other kit and I spent some time trying to achieve a good assembly which required the removing of the outer locating tabs - the only way to achieve a good fit.  Joining the wings to the fuselage presented no real dramas although a little bit of care on the leading edges is needed. The tailplanes and fin also fitted nicely.  I then moved onto all the external antennae and air scoops which kept me busy for quite some time.  Like the F.1-3 model Airfix have again contradicted lower and upper detail etching with indents down below but only outlines up above.   Something I spotted straight away after finding out about it on the F.1A.

Again the instructions proved to be quite vague about the exact attachment points when assembling the undercarriage, but my experience with the F.1A allowed me to ignore this and breeze right through.  A couple of minor fit problems with undercarriage and auxillary doors as experienced with the F.1A are again evident here in spite of the different wings in the two kits.  Supplied armament is the choice of either Firestreak or Red Top missiles complete with clear noses, plus overwing fuel tanks if desired.

Like the F.1-F.3 the F.2A/F.6 kit includes a decal sheet nearing the size of the bottom of the box itself, presenting great value and choice for producing no less than 6 different examples (four F.6 versions and two F.2A's).  Decals are quite good in quality although are a touch on the thick side and are prone to silvering. Nontheless with a bit of care and trimming I used the decals supplied in the kit and painted up a three-grey tone example serving in the last days of the Lightning's life that includes a Knight (as in helmet, not the 'horse' variety) insignia on the tailfin.

Overall, if you have made and are happy with the F.1-F.3 kit then you know pretty much exactly what you are getting yourself into with this kit - it has the same engineering and thus the same pitfalls and problems associated with the other kit. The finished product looks nice sitting on the shelf next to the F.1A, especially in the different generation colour schemes that I applied. The F.6 looks like it sits slightly flatter than the F.1A so this was a little disappointing.  The experience with the F.1A proved invaluable in construction of this F.6 and it certainly isn't that complicated when you know what to expect!  Again, I would highly recommend this kit as it is a great product but leave it on the store shelf if you are anything below at least intermediate in terms of modelling skills.

Related Reviews: Airfix 1/48 Lightning F.Mk 1/1A/2/3

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A Lightning F.6 similar to what the kit will replicate