had got both models to this stage just prior to

the Large Model Association static event at

Gaydon, and we were able to display my

model at this popular and very well attended

meeting, having many interesting discus-

sions with visitors, as well as receiving a

number of very positive comments.

With the model destined for Ali now being

complete to the ready to prime stage, my

good friend Ted and I loaded Ali’s Meteor into

my trailer and enjoyed an evening drive up to

Pinnacle Aviation, where Philip Noel gave us

a warm welcome - sorely needed given how

cold the evening was! We carefully unloaded

the model into the workshop, and spent some

time going through the details of the model

with Philip, and running through how the

model is assembled and disassembled, hat-

ches opened, parts removed etc. With this

complete we were able to turn our attention to

One of the pilots and ejection seats from Real Model Pilots; now painted and fitted into the cockpit.

Three of the panels that are fitted inside the cockpit,

outfitted with various scale switches, buttons and levers

At the end of the last article on the pair of

Meteor F.8 models I have been building I had

just received the 3D printed pilots from Real

Model Pilots, so work was transferred onto

these so that they could be completed and

placed within the cockpit to enable the rest of

the scale detail parts to be fitted around

them. After all, it would be somewhat embar-

rassing to do the work the other way round

and then find that the pilot and seat would not

fit into the cockpit, this being made particular-

ly important as the pilot, seat and part of the

floor are removeable as a single unit to obtain

access to the nosewheel steering servo and

the hydraulic retract system for the noseleg.

I did find that quite a lot of sanding and filling

had to be carried out on the pilots and seats

to get an acceptable and smooth surface, the

printing process does leave raised ridged

lines, which are minimal on reasonably level

surfaces, but quite prominent in curved

areas, and certainly could not be ignored.

Once both the pilots and their seats had been

sanded, filled and primed it was possible to

start painting them, small tinlets of Humbrol

paint proving ideal for this, as all the various

colours were available, and they cover very

well, so multiple coats could be avoided.

The clear canopies were carefully trimmed to

size and separated into front and rear sec-

tions, before being glued into place inside the

canopy frames, using R/C modellers glue

and large numbers of tiny but very powerful

magnets. I have been using this method for

many years now, and it really does work well,

with the magnets pulling the canopy tightly

into place against the carbon fibre frame -

masking tape having been used to protect the

canopy first. Excess glue was then wiped off

the masking tape, as this had to remain in

place until the glue had set; if any excess had

been left it would have proved impossible to

remove the masking tape cleanly.

With the models now approaching comple-

tion I was able to finish off the wiring and run

all of the servo leads into the nose to the

PowerBox Mercury unit, all the leads having

printed labels attached to make life much

easier for final set-up, particularly for Ali

Machinchy, as he will be doing this in a few

months time in the USA, once his Meteor has

been painted, detailed and then shipped from

the U.K. With the timing being perfect, we

AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER:COLIN STRAUS

Project Meteor

Colin Straus updates us on his ambitious Meteor F.8 build

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