Cockpit

Construction of the Airfix Lightning starts in the cockpit.

Although the kit cockpit is not bad, I chose to use the Cutting Edge offering instead. This is a 12 part detail set cast in a lovely, crisp butterscotch coloured resin. It includes a new tub, upper-sidewalls, Martin-Baker Mk. 4BSC Ejector Seat with moulded-on harnesses, instrument panel, coaming and optional position radar visor.

A couple of items need particular attention.

The cockpit tub is cast on a resin block that must be removed in order for the tub to fit on top of the intake trunk. Be careful when removing the tub from its casting block or you will break through the cockpit floor. I made this error and had to add a styrene replacement floor.

The resin bang seat is a little tall (the canopy won’t close over it) and looks tilted slightly too far forward. To compensate, I sliced a wedge off the back of the seat base. This had the dual benefits of leaning the seat back further, and lowering it sufficiently to fit under the closed canopy.

The radar visor also looks to intrude too far into the pilot’s space - when deployed it is very close to the headrest of the ejector seat. The surgery to the seat base largely addresses this problem.

Take care to note the correct orientation of the upper cockpit sidewalls. It is easy to install them upside down or on the wrong fuselage side. I did!

Ejector loops are not supplied. Fusewire is the simplest medium to use for these small but very noticeable pieces.

With a little vigilance, the Cutting Edge cockpit is a worthy accessory for the Lightning kit. The detail looks great painted up - the ejection seat in particular.

Fuselage Assembly

A fair amount of weight is required in the nose to prevent this model becoming a tail-sitter. Unfortunately, there is not much space to place weights. I used small lead sinkers secured with Super Glue Gel.

The instruction’s assembly sequence suggests that the ventral tank should be installed after the fuselage halves are joined. In retrospect, I would suggest that the ventral tank halves might fit better if first joined to their respective fuselage half. This resulting join line along the lower ventral tank will also be easier to clean up.

The rest of the fuselage was very straightforward. In particular, the tail was almost a snap-fit. A little filler was needed behind the intake ring. Small details such as vents, antennae and other dangly-bits should be left off until the model is ready to paint, otherwise you will be left with a growing pile of tiny styrene parts broken off during the remainder of the assembly!

The correct angle for the all-flying horizontal tail surfaces is not entirely clear in the instructions. They should be attached with a very slight anhedral (ie angled slightly downwards).

Wings

The wing of the Lightning F-2a/F-6 is a complex design with a compound sweep, notches and a very slight anhedral kink. Airfix should be commended for making a serious effort to reproduce such a complex shaped wing. However, the leading edge of the kit’s starboard wing is warped. This warping is an almost inevitable consequence of Airfix's attempt at total authenticity.

I originally decided to ignore the problem, but when the wings were attached the aircraft had a slightly lop-sided appearance viewed from the front.

Heat from a hairdryer was applied to the leading edge of both wings, which were then bent and clamped. Cool water was run over the wings to stabilise the new profile. This corrected the leading edge but compounded the problem in two new areas: the trailing edge of the starboard wing dropped significantly, and the top surface bulged slightly. I believe that these new problems would not have occurred if I’d fixed the warp before assembling the wing.

The trailing-edge flaps were only other fit problem. When closed, the assembled flaps leave a step between the trailing edge of the wing and the top of the flap. This problem can be avoided by first gluing the top flap half to the top wing half, and the bottom wing half to the bottom flap (this would also be the ideal time to eliminate the warp with hot water or a hairdryer). When these subassemblies are dry, the wings can be assembled.

You can ignore this suggestion if the flaps are depicted dropped - the fit when deployed is perfect. However, photos of parked Lightnings with dropped flaps are quite rare.

Notwithstanding the warp and flap issues, the fit of the wings to the fuselage is superb. 

Final Assembly

The undercarriage components are simple but very effective. Location of the undercarriage parts to the fuselage is positive and strong. This is just as well, as the resulting weight of the big model and added noseweight puts some strain on the undercarriage parts. The bulge and kink in the starboard wing splayed out the starboard main gear leg slightly.

Detail parts are excellent. This is the appropriate time to add all those little scoops, antennae, pitot tube, refuelling probe, speed brakes and clear lenses. The modeller also has the choice of whether to install the big over-wing fuel tanks, and/or Firestreak or Red Top missiles.

I was originally intending to install the over-wing tanks, but the kink in the starboard wing spoiled the alignment of these parts. Faced with the choice of either modifying the mount on the starboard tank or simply leaving them off, I chose the latter.

Self-adhesive bare-metal foil was applied to the intake ring and the rear of the fuselage to represent polished chrome.