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Gloster Meteor F.1

by Roy Caunce

Tamiya`s F1 Meteor was released a couple of years ago, with quite a lot of flak coming from the modelling press due mainly to the confusion between F.1 and F.3 features. The main problem was the inclusion of airbrakes in the wings which were fitted to the F.3. This also resulted with the undercarriage fairing blister on the underside of the wing being too short, although this was not a big problem to correct with a little filler and plasticard. 

Tamiya did later revise the kit with the correct wing, without brakes. 

The other problems with the kit in my opinion are that the cockpit is very spartan, and the seat somewhat undersize. 

The model is the revised tooling and is largely built from the box apart from the seat which was made from plasticard, as the kit part just looks so bad. 

I painted the cockpit interior black. I used the kit supplied decal for the instrument panel which used correctly can be very effective - just paint the panel gloss black then apply decal with lots of Superset & Sol and it should pull down into all the sunken dials. This was followed by a matt coat, then I applied Gloss varnish with a fine brush to all the instruments to produce glass effect of the dials. 

Paint was all Extra Colour - Medium Sea Grey underside, Ocean Grey/Dark Green Topside with Sky Band and Trainer Yellow wing leading edges. 

The kit decals were used for “EE227” YQ Y of No. 616 Squadron. This aircraft was used for anti V-1 operations during 1944. This airframe was later fitted with Rolls Royce Trent engines as the “Trent Meteor” and was the world's first turbo prop aircraft.

As a point of interest, the airframe measured by Tamiya is at the museum at RAF Cosford, which is an F1 fitted with F3 wings. Apparently the airframe suffered an engine fire which destroyed the wing, as a replacement, an F3 wing was fitted this being the current production wing at the time, so strictly the kit was accurate in its first incarnation for the aircraft at the museum ! 

Many thanks to the Museum staff who passed on this information on a recent visit.

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Model, Text and Images Copyright © 2000 by Roy Caunce
Page Created 29 November, 2000
Last Updated 26 July, 2007

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