1:72 Gloster Meteor Mk.IV - F4

The silver era of the British jet fighter

The F.4 version meant a fundamental step for the Meteor. It was given more powerful Derwent engines, shortened wings and a pressurized cockpit, and it was precisely this version with which Britain attacked speed records shortly after the war. The sheet offers three of its guises. The oldest belongs to the aircraft VT328 of No. 263 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, stationed in 1950 at the Church Fenton base in North Yorkshire. The machine was silver all over, as was then the custom with jet fighters.

The second choice aims at training service. The aircraft VW256 with the letter P and the number 20 served in 1952 with No. 207 Advanced Flying School at the Yeadon airfield in West Yorkshire. It too was silver, and in addition had prominent yellow training bands, which the builder, however, has to mask and spray himself, because they are not on the sheet.

The third variant leads to Denmark. Meteors served with the naval aviation there and the machine with the number 464 belonged in 1950 to the 3rd Naval Air Flotilla at Karup in Jutland. Unlike its British siblings it carried camouflage: dark green and dark gray on the upper surfaces and light blue-gray underneath. It is precisely this option that makes the sheet an interesting offering for a collection of postwar Nordic aviation.

The motifs are released from the backing paper with water. It is recommended to cut them out one by one and to lay them onto a smooth gloss surface, because silver finishes give away every irregularity under the film without mercy. Residues of adhesive are best wiped off once dry with a cotton bud moistened in clean water.