CMK 4037
1/48 BAC Lightning T.4/5 Conversion

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

Ever since the 1/48 Airfix Lightning kit came out, people have been wanting a conversion for the two seater variant. Finally all your prayers have been answered with this set from CMK.

Making a T.4/5 Lightning isn't all that easy, as the whole front fuselage is different. CMK answers this by providing you with two resin fuselage halves for the nose, with all the bulges and widening incorporated in. This meets up with the Airfix fuselage aft of the cockpit but in front of the wings. The wider spine along the top of the fuselage is included as a separate piece. Unfortunately, the instructions are not too clear on where to cut the Airfix kit for this conversion, but I'm sure that lining the parts up will make the cut readily apparent. In addition to the conversion nose, details for the landing gear are also provided, adding new main gear doors, main wheel wells, and wheels. Also included is a new nose cone with nose gear bay and new nose wheel doors.

With this being a conversion to a two-seat Lightning an entirely new cockpit tub needed to be included, and this is an outstanding addition. Starting with the tub, it's provided as a one-piece floor and rear bulkhead. Sidewall detailing is included in the fuselage halves. Two seats are included, and these are works of art by themselves. Photoetch ejector handles are provided as is a photoetch instrument panel and rudder pedals. A new instrument panel shroud finishes off the interior, all of which is very visible under the clear vacuformed canopy.

The final touch that CMK adds is a decal sheet, printed by Propagteam. This gives you three choices of two-seat Lightnings. The first one is XS452 of the RAF Akrotiri Station Flight in September 1975. This is finished in natural metal with a pink tail and a white section on the fuselage spine. The second choice, if pink isn't your color, is a 74 Squadron bird, XM974, from 1966, resplendent with the typical black tail and spine over natural metal. Yellow stripes are around the rear fuselage and wings. The final choice, also in natural metal, is XS422 from the Empire Test Pilot's School at Boscombe Down in the mid-1980s. This one is pretty basic, with just a red spine setting it apart.

If you're wanting to do a two-seat Lightning, definitely pick this set up. It'll take some work in getting the fuselage done up right, but once that's done the rest is a breeze and you'll have a model of one of the prettiest ugly British planes out there.