Tom's Dragon F.1 **Finished**

[Martin R]

Looking good, Tom. It'll soon be ready for paint.

regards,

Martin

[TomW]

Thanks chaps this really is a lovely kit in terms of detail and fit. A scaled down Tamiya 1/48th is a fair comparison if you look at Loftledir's build.


Completed the wing assembly this afternoon and weighted the whole thing up, the following photo's show the kit on top of a domed Citadel paint pot, I think I've gotten the balance right :






Very good joins are evident throughout, I wont need to do much in the way of filling once this is together:







And a shot down the intake to show the installed engine, I wish more jets had this sort of feature, might inspire me to build more of them instead of just birds with propellors:






Hopefully a bit of paint will follow at the weekend

Regards

Tom

[Miss-Stang]

That's amazing detailing for 1/72 scale, looks like an impressive kit.

Looking forward to seeing some paint on her,

[PaulBradley]

Very nice, Tom!

I'm glad to see everyone is conscious of the tail sitter issue...!

[TomW]

The memory of my Shackleton build from last year still haunts me Paul I still can't get over the 90 grams of lead that took to get it standing on all three gear assemblies....


Nevertheless I got some bench time with the Meteor today and have a substantially complete airframe as a result:






The good fit continues and I've yet to use any filler (famous last words ) with only the trailing edge roots looking like they may want a little attention:






I've also had a little play with a wash or two on the engines to make them stand out a little, not prototypically correct but I like the effect. What do you guys reckon??

Also I'm undecided about what to do with the seperate control surfaces, the rudder is fully poseable but do I leave the ailerons etc in the neutral position or displace them for a bit of dynamic effect??

Regards

Tom

[PaulBradley]

Looks good, Tom. I personally prefer just rudder movement - ailerons tend to be displaced too far on models and it doesn't look right.

[TomW]

Thanks Paul


Progress report for today shows that I've attached all of the flying surfaces and the undercarridge, sprayed the undersides with two coats of Medium Sea Grey and got the first coat of Ocean Grey on the topsurfaces:










As it turns out all of my careful balancing acts with the noseweights were in vain as this has gone from balanced to a tail-sitter , I'll put together a tail prop for later on at some point.

Regards

Tom

[Miss-Stang]

Looking good Tom!

I have to say, with that level of detailing in the engine bays, I'd be very tempted to leave one of the covers off to expose it

Looking forward to seeing the paint on it.

Btw, these kits look like they should be expensive with all the detailing. Can I ask, are they?

[TomW]

Thanks Miss-Stang :-), yeah the plan is to leave the port nacelle cover off as this one doesn't fit as well as the starboard. Price wise I paid £15 for this kit but that was reduced from £30, Dragon kits are very expensive generally but so are most imported Asian kits.

Regards

Tom

[Miss-Stang]

I like your idea to leave the port nacelle cover off since it doesn't fit so well - makes sense

I think the Dragon kits are a little out of my price range but you obviously do get a lot for your money.

Keep up the good work!

[splash]

It's looking good Tom at £15 you got a bargain.

Regards Splash

[PaulBradley]

As it turns out all of my careful balancing acts with the noseweights were in vain as this has gone from balanced to a tail-sitter

NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! You broke the streak!!!

[bluesteel]

You need to find a metal pilot to put in the cockpit Tom, that should re-balance

[JamesPerrin]

You could always stick some extra weight in the nose bay.

[TomW]

I wish I could James but the kit has an accurate depiction of the Meteor nosebay and there isn't a lot of space in there Still I can mount a prop under the fuselage using the nav-light aperture that should hide it from most angles of viewing.

Update for today has me at the painting complete stage:







Next are decals and canopy.

Regards

Tom