Andrew's Vought F5U-3 *Finished*

[AndrewR]

One of the most important items of reverse lend-lease was the signing of a partnership between Chance-Vought, The Gloster Aircraft Company, Power Jets Ltd and Rolls-Royce to licence build the Gloster Meteor in the US. To promote this joint venture, Vought painted one of the aircraft in prewar USN yellow wing colours, to emphasise the US end of the deal. This aircraft was flown up and down the Eastern Seaboard and demonstrated to the public and to US naval aviators.

The F5U-3 externally was similar to the Gloster Meteor III, apart from a tail fairing for an arrestor hook. Vought built over 400 of these aircraft for the USN, and 300 of the non-navalised F5U-4 for the RAF. The latter were available before D-Day, and were employed on air superiority missions to take on the Me262 and also air defence against the V1.

The basic and elderly Airfix kit.



Starfighter Decals set for prewar Buffalo fighters. I've done the green stripe one (Lt. Jimmy Thach's aircraft), so this time I'll do the red trim with white tail aircraft. This was flown as a display aircraft at the World Fair, and so fits nicely in with the "Retro" scheme for the F5U-3 demonstrator.




I should be able to fit the diagonal red stripes onto the wing, and the red fuselage band can be trimmed to fit too.





If I don't like the canopy, I have the option of a vacform one.




From the modelling perspective, it will be pretty much OOB apart from a tail fairing and arrestor hook.

cheers

Andrew

[JohnRatzenberger]

Cannot help but look really cool !!!

[Jagewa]

That's pretty cool Andrew.
Is the fuselage silver/nmf or grey?

[AndrewR]

That's pretty cool Andrew.
Is the fuselage silver/nmf or grey?

I will be doing it as light grey, I think. Because aluminium will show up my lack of skill

[Martin R]

Nice!

[splash]

I like your plan as it was very plausible, they actually converted a Meteor for deck landing trials:

Extract from an old Flight Magazine:
Meteor F3 (Naval Conversion) Meteor EE337 was fitted with Derwent 5 engines in short nacelles and a deck-arrester hook.
The inboard undercarriage doors were removed, and a cable deflector was mounted on the nose wheel leg door. This aircraft was used for special investigations into the problems of carrier borne jet fighters and was flown from H.M.S. Implacable in the Firth of Forth.

I built one as part of the Meteor GB here is the link

The old Airfix Meteor is a sweet little kit that's fun to build and will look brilliant in the colours you have suggested.

Regards Splash

[AndrewR]

Thanks Splash, that's very helpful. I'm going to extend the fairing at the rear to make an arrestor hook bay.

[splash]

I'm going to extend the fairing at the rear to make an arrestor hook bay.

That sounds like a brilliant well thought-out idea (are we allowed to do that )

[TobyC]

I can see this being a wee bit special.

[AndrewR]

I'm going to extend the fairing at the rear to make an arrestor hook bay.

That sounds like a brilliant well thought-out idea (are we allowed to do that )

Only on special occasions. Royal weddings, England World Cup victories and the like.
Prince Philip getting an Australian knighthood in this case

[AndrewR]

The kit is moulded in a very soft plastic, which is easy to work with.



I borrowed a neat idea from a build of this kit here:

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... 26024.html;

Use the two very thick undercarriage doors (the rectangular ones) as the sides for a cockpit tub. They fit perfectly, and are even curved to fit inside the fuselage.


I added a couple of bits of plastic rod in the engine intakes to represent internal detail.



The undercarriage bays also got three strips of the square rod in them. I haven't made any attempt to blank them off though.



Then there's a cover behind the pilot's seat to hide the big hole, and some extra weight!


I also drilled some holes in the instrument panel to represent dials.

It's going together very nicely at the moment!

[Molly-new]

Great start Andrew, and some top tips to store away for future reference.

[AndrewR]

Great start Andrew, and some top tips to store away for future reference.

There's more!

I got the wing unit together and primed the undercarriage bays and jet intakes and exhausts.



One side of the wing assembly needed clamping. Otherwise the fit has been good.




The fuselage halves need gluing together. A test fit looks promising, as does the fuselage to wings fit.

cheers

Andrew

[Martin R]

You'll be done before you know it, Andrew.

Like the tip about the undercarriage doors, too!

regards,

Martin

[TimJ]

Looking good so far. Nice work on the cockpit interior.