Woomera Meteor U.15 VT329 build

Well, I started taking photos after about 3 days of work, that's how long I needed to get to this point... Very confusing instructions, so back and forth to documentation, which is scarce on the F-4 and pre-ejection seat Meteor cockpits.
I decided to go for a 'very light' black... not even a very dark grey. The stick needs a lot of thinning out and the instruments panel is ok. 

The instructions show the rear wall slanted backwards (as for an ejection seat, I guess), even though the details of the seat are for the F-4. So the confusion is not even that the diagram is copied from the F-8 instructions... That got me puzzled for a while ! The back wall should be square to the cockpit floor, and the walls are correct. 

Based on the IPMS NL F-4 documentation (for an aircraft with similar serial number as this one), I decided to paint the cockpit floor interior green. The metal showing through is a bit overdone in the picture, but I think it's fine in the enclosed cockpit (and the NL airplane paint is very worn out too). 

The seat as cast seemed wrong, especially with that 'cushion' in the bottom, where the parachute should go... I decided to use the kit seat anyways and modify so it looks like it's hollow, and removing the square frame at its bottom. I used two small bit of tape to prolong the harness to its anchor point, making it look like it's draped over the back of the seat.
Again, I believe it's the wrong kind of harness, as the Sutton was phased out around 1945, but I gulped it down and accepted the compromise.
I can understand this confusion, but who designs a model and does not understand how a pilot's seats on his parachute ? 

The parts fit relatively well together (once you understand how they should go), but I glued only the front firewall/wheel structure and the cockpit's back wall, reinforcing both with spare blocks of resin.
I only taped the side walls and did not glue the instruments panel so that I could wiggle them into place after gluing the fuselage halves together. 

This wtll allow me to press the walls against the fuselage halves and glue them where they should go. 

From above... at at point where I'm finally happy with fit and details. The green floor adds a bit of color to the drab cockpit.
The seat was glued to two small 'rails' I added to the back wall. Again, not only is the detail missing but the instructions are very vague about how the seat should fit in the cockpit. I also added a lever to the side, meant to be used to raise the seat. 

At this point, new questions : Should the cokpit back wall fit before or after the notch for the rear canopy ? Where should the front cockpit wall line up ? Instructions are again vague and the combination of cockpit + front wheel well (and thus wheel) makes it quite worrisome...
 

Voilà, it's glued together (after a fair bit of sanding/mating of the fuselage halves), and looks ok. But the cockpit assembly is not glued yet. Basically, the least is glued ahead of time, the more chance you have to figure out where everything should go.
Here, you can see that the cockpit walls don't match the fuselage halves yet, so I'm glad they're only held by tape do far. 

Tryin to understand how the rear canopy fits the bigger picture... From the F-4 walk-around, the armor plating of the back wall seems to fit within that rear canopy. In fact, the pictures show windows on either side of the head rest plate, enclosing the rear canopy, which seems to make (sonic) sense). I may try to replicate that. 

Other models I checked out had a circular frame around the headrest plate, but I think how the rear canopy fits over it here should do the trick.
Overall, parts fit is good... once you figure out how they should fit ! 

Right... I would have liked to bring that front wheel wall further forward, so that it would line up with the wheel openings better, but given that the same part also dictates the fit of the cockpit's rear wall, I opted to focus on that and deal with the wheel well mismatch (unless I'm still confused and they should line up elsewhere yet !). 

Fuselage fit is good enough. I thinned out the tail a fair bit. 

Now on to the next main problem : look at that mismatch of the wing roots ! 

Same on the other side, of course... Should the fuselage be streched out to match that (and did I glue that part too soon) ? But then, how will the top wings fit ? they need to line up with the engine nacelles, so the puzzle becomes complex again ! 

So, it's too wide, but it's also too long ! 

Which part to cut ? Without the wings built up, it's har to tell... But I'm worried that the wing to fuselage fit will be bad too and was considering gluing the top of the wings to the fuselage before gluing them to the bottom wing part. Except the engine nacelles must also match... So that will have to be the priority. 

Cutting back the fuselage part where it matches the lower wing seems the best way to do it. The fuselage still needs to be filed down as it is bulged there, but the wing part is flat. 

I managed to re-open the bottom of the fuselage under the cockpit. Now, trying to decide just how much needs to be added... Still not enough !
I'm glad that the cockpit is still not glued inside the fuselage, or this would have been even more difficult. 

The evergreen strip actually needs to be flat (wider orientation) where the fuselage meets the wing to match it. The natural angle of the plastic at the back of the undercarriage opening is actually equivalent to the narrower orientation of that strip, so it 'just' needs to be trimmed down at the front end. Keeping it longer than necessary then allowed me to push it forward and get a more precise angle. The main part of that problem is solved (whether accurate or not, it does the job!). 

The fit of the engine front nacelles is ok, thankfully. Too bad they don't have an inner cylinder as the real airplane does !
I first thought of doing the nacelle cylinders in evergreen sheet, but found a plastic tubs of a similar diameter, which seemd the easier way to go. The pastic of this tube is annoying to work with, but it's resistant enough to carve the shape of the wing inlet. 

The result seems ok so far. I had to mark the matching parts since there are slight differences in the two nacelles' shapes. 

Nice ejection marks in those wheel pits ! So far, I've hidden one under a square 'box' and will probably just run up some wires to the round 'pump'. Otherwise, the parts nearly match the wing openings. 

I think it's easiest to add the jet exhausts last (after painting, probably). To avoid losing them in the wing and making sure they are pointed at the right angle, I made a simple rig with three old bits of sprue. 

I just reailzed that these resin engine fronts were a copy of the Tamiya F3 kit, whereas the F4 had different engines... So much for accuracy ! But the most confusing part is that the square front should not be there, it's just used by Tamiya to place it in their own forewing insert...
As for the very approximate shape of the back, I decided to fit a nail in the center of the piece (based on the engine face, of course) and sand it down to something circular by fitting it to my Dremel. 

The Engines are in, only a bit of painting done, but there won't be much more since so little will be seen in the end.
I inserted a pieve of evergreen strip between the two halves of the wing to match the wing root on the fuselage side.  

Same on the other side... I'm not worried about accuracy (wing profile) anymore, I would just like something that fits more or less. 

The wing-root now matches closely enough to proceed. 

That's a lot of evergreen used for a kit described as having a 'good fit' in several reviews online... I wonder if we had the same moulding ! 

For the back, I glued a piece of plastic to support the surface in the middle, otherwise there would be a gap when the lower flaps are pressed against the top wing. 

An attempt at improving the wheel hubs... I could (may yet) just buy the Eduard set for the Airfix kit...
The front gear leg needs detailing, which will be quite visible. 

Oh, those kit wheels ! I wish they at least were circular ! 

Improving and modifying the gear retraction mechanism... The part on the wheel side attaches to the gear leg, not the door (as the instructions seem to indicate). 

The detailed main gear leg. The articulation mechanism at the top has to be represented, and the notch where the retraction mechanism fits into the leg must be notched out. A few small details and general thinning is next. 

The evergreen 'triangle' is the part of the Whe well structure that is missing in the kit. 

The front wheel door retraction system added. 

Fom the front. And yes, that front wheel would never fit in the well... So much for scale ! 

The result when nearly finished. The drone antenna ahead of the fuel tank has been added too. 

A gap must be left between the front gear leg and its door. Unfortunately, I glued that door upside down after notching it to fit inside the well. No big deal, but the interior detail is inverted as a result. 

The main gear wells with the doors added. The bits of evergreen used to simulate the door hinges are not painted yet. 

On the side of the engine, the door is attached to the gear by a fine rod. 

The missing triangular structure inside the well is quite visible here. 

The plexi protection behind the seat is attached here. I made a piece to cover it from the back so it looks like it's in the structure. Good enough for me, but of course, a proper circular structure with windows above the armor plating would have been welcome from C.A. 

The front coming together, with another drone-specific antenna added to the spine, and the gunns plugged up (quite visibly on the airplanes). I then realized that a hood must be made to cover the area where the gunsight would be on an armed Meteor. (The gunsight is completely missing from the kit, except, strangely, its oversized glass mirror.) 

The paint scheme, before final touch up. I'm not very happy with how it turned out after too many lyers of white paint, but it will have to do the job... A bit of Archer decal simulates the footstep, which C.A. forgot. 

This photo clearly shows one big details that seems to be missing from all Meteor F.4 kits : the prominent air seal that runs along the moveable part of the canopy.
The window behind the pilot is also visible, as is the gunsight, needed for a normal F.4. 

I made the seal with strips of aluminium tape and painted it black. It runs around the front canopy and cockpit sides and joins the rear canopy's molded detail.
Some quite prominent tubing runs aong the base of the front canopy. I simply added thin metallic rods. The little hood that replaces the gunsight over the instruments panel on the U.15 is barely visible here. 

This nice shot shows the canopy area again and some details specific to the U.15 : no gunsight, plugged up cannon tubes, the big antenna underneath, the very thin one on the nose, the small one right behind the canopy. Some panel detail missing in the kit (including the foot well and lowered step) as well as the front stenciling (the arrows and large back panel are specific to this airplane : maybe mission markings?). 

Nearly finished ! The clear parts fit well, and the middle canopy even clips into place. It's a bit forward but hides the so-so details of the head rest...
I decided to paint the inside rim of the intakes in red, as they should be. It would have been easier to do it earlier !
No stencils yet, I worry that they will silver over my semi-gloss white.