1/48 Sea Meteor EE337

[OzH]

As I normally like to build a couple of the same aircraft types at the same time (I’m building the Classic Airframes Meteor NF.13 for the Night Fighter group build), so, I have this one on the table at the moment, Tamiya’s F.3 Meteor that’s going to be in the markings of EE337 during the time that it was used in carrier deck trails by the Royal Navy.

There have been a few Sea Meteor's here of Britmodeller already, in fact thats how I first came across it, so loads of good information to help out. The aircraft was silver/NMF for the trails and only later painted in the more usual for the Navy, Dark Sea Grey over Sky, once the trails were completed, I wanted to depict it as it was during the trails, so she’ll be silver/NMF…

EE337 was a modified F.3 with the addition of an arrester hook “some fuselage strengthening”, cannons removed and the fairings covered. It also had some arrester wire deflectors added the nose wheel door and the Main undercarriage doors removed, presumably so they wouldn't catch the wire either.

As I said above, I have the Tamiya kit, to help out a little, I have the Eduard etch (actually for the F.1, but what he heck!) and the Hi-Tech “Superdetail” set also for the F.1. The latter contains replacement cockpit side walls, a nicer seat, some nice flaps, rudder and wheels, all in nicely molded resin. The only bad point about this set is that the side walls are firmly attached to some hefty resin that was difficult to get off without damaging some of the detail.

Now, from what I understand, all apart from the first 15 F.3’s were fitted with the Derwent engine, not the Wellend engines that Tamiya supply in the kit, the Sea Meteor was not in the first 15 so the supplied Wellend is incorrect. Luckily for the modeller, what you can see of the engine from the intake is similar (enough for me anyway) so no real problems with the engines as long as you have them covered up. The main externally visible differences are that the Derwent had the shorter jet pipe and an intake on the top of the engine cover. Although not called out in the instructions, Tamiya include both long and short jet pipe, the short one being part C10 and the additional engine intake, part C11, they even have the location holes for the intake on the inside of the engine cover. The photo below shows the fitted short jet pipe fitted, and the intake location before and after fitting.

The kit has so far been built using some of the Eduard Etch and most of the Hi-Tech set. In addition to this I’ve added fairings over the gun apertures, and filled in the location holes for the main undercarriage doors. I left off the Gun sight as I figure, no guns, no sight…

scratch built the arrester hook, using one from the Sea Hornet as a template (I believe they really used Sea Hornet ones for the trail)

Oh, and of course, I’ve chopped and filled the flaps and replaced the rudder.

added the arrester hook deflectors to the nose wheel door

All the loose items, ready for painting

As you read this, the undercoat is drying....

Edited July 16, 2010 by OzH

[HOUSTON]

OzH..

I am going to enjoy something that is so different to the normal gray colored jets...

I like this and your work is so neat and looking good..best wishes..

Houston...

[Metallicus]

good luck mate this is a really interesting subject

[OzH]

Thanks for the comments...

And on to painting:

Halfords Grey Primer:

Tamiya Semi Gloss Black (didn't have any Gloss to hand!)

Various Alclad 2 Aluminum's, Dark in the wheel bays and undercarraige, Aluminum overall, Dull over the panel lines and the White Aluminum on the centre of panels and then an overall mist, hopefully looking just a little tatty...

[keefr22]

Very nice!

Keef

[Mark]

That one's onmy 'to do' list! Along with few other Navy subjects including the Wessex which I've just received your detail set for. Very nice it is too!!

Looking forward to seeing this one done. The metal finish is superb!!

[OzH]

Again, thanks for the comments and a quick update...

Decals on - kit suplied and spares box and an oil wash...

[model mob]

Hi Oz,

Nice work! I do have a question for you though, are the underwing codes placed correcty? I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that the codes, when viewed from below, could always be read from left to right the correct 'way up'. Does that makes sense? I guess I could say that maybe the codes need to be spun through 180 degrees?

In any case, nice work! Over to you.

Cheers,

Mark

[OzH]

Hi Oz,

Nice work! I do have a question for you though, are the underwing codes placed correcty? I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that the codes, when viewed from below, could always be read from left to right the correct 'way up'. Does that makes sense? I guess I could say that maybe the codes need to be spun through 180 degrees?

In any case, nice work! Over to you.

Cheers,

Mark

Feck!

Better change them over!

[OzH]

Well, after the cockup with the decals above, I then managed to crack the fusulage join, just in the process of fixing both of these when I received (thanks richc) a great overhead shot , clearly showing that EE337 didn't have the engine intakes, I had a little extra work to do...

Any way, all's well that ends well - these things are sent to try us....!

A few more pictures in Ready for Inspection...