The range of kits of the Meteor and other early jets has improved greatly in the last few years. This list isn't necessarily up to date but should have most of the major variations, If any are missing please let me know. I'll be adding links to good reviews of these kits and there is a gallery of Meteor models which your are welcome to contribute to. It wasn't a kit but the Ghost squadron even built a flying scale gas turbine powered Meteor Mk III.
Large Scale Kits: | |
Tamiya Meteor F.1 (1/48) |
A good quality kit of the first production Gloster Meteor. Readily available, it comes in two versions with the more expensive kit including a model of the V1 flying bomb. It can be also be modified to represent a prototype meteor. Early production kits incorrectly included the airbrakes which were only found one one of the prototypes, this was fixed later and now you get the correct wing. |
Tamiya Meteor F.3 (1/48) |
A good quality kit of the first major production variant of the Meteor. A small number saw service with 616 squadron at the end of the war. |
A.M.T Meteor F3 (1/48th) |
A.M.T., circa 1975, They turn up on a fairly regular basis on EBay. Its a very simple kit typical of A.M.T although it does seem to have a reasonably detailed cockpit. I picked one of these up on EBay although mine was missing the flying bomb. |
| Gloster E28/39 (Pioneer) | ARBA, circa 1998 Limited run Resin kit, Comes as seven large sections with two vac-form canopies. The dimensions are accurate but the model should be classified as rare. Now that we have injection moulded versions of the E28/39 in production it is unlikely to be re-released although it will build into a much more accurate kit. |
 Meteor F8 (1/48th) |
Pamela Veal Ltd produced a small range of 1/48th scale vacform kits in the early 1970's beginning with a Bucker Jungmeister and Sopwith Snipe under the Bi-Plane label. They were well received featuring above average detail for the time. Their third release was a Yak 9 around 1973 with the label changed to By-plane followed by the Meteor F8 under the label Slipstream. The Meteor was again vac formed with injection moulded undercarriage and an excellent vac form canopy. It featured decals for WF757/ J of 615 Sqn RAuxAF. It could only be purchased directly from Pamela Veal Ltd at around £4, they are probably now collectors items, Thanks to Norm Pratlett for the information and image (Feb 2010). |
NF14 (1/48th) |
Aeroclub, 1999. According to reports this makes up an excellent large scale kit of the NF14. It is a mixture of vac-form, injection mouldings and resin and ends up around 30cm long. Aeroclub also have an NF11 & NF12 and an F8 in this scale. I.D Models No. 4802 (1986) |
Meteor F8 (1/48th) |
Classic Airframes, Kit No 466. Described as an early production Meteor F8. This may indicate that it has the early style canopy but does apparently have both small and large intakes. |
Meteor F4 (1/48th) |
Classic Airframes, Kit No. 477. |
Meteor F8 (1/48th) |
Classic Airframes, Kit No. 478. Described as a late production Meteor F8. |
Meteor T7 (1/48th) |
Classic Airframes, Kit No. 479 |
Meteor NF11/13 (1/48th) |
Classic Airframes, Kit No. 480 |
| Eduard Meteor Detail Set (1/48th) | No details of contents are available, Retails for $12.00 (US) |
| Hi-Tech Meteor F1 Super Detail Set (1/48th) |
No details of contents are available, Retails for $14.00 (US) |
| Airwaves, F4 Conversion kit (1/48th) | Meteor F4 conversion set for use with the Tamiya Meteor F3 kit. Primarily includes new engine nacelles |
Tamiya ME262a1 (1/48) |
A good quality kit of the fighter version of the ME262 which entered service at the end of WWII. |
Tamiya ME262a1 (1/48) |
The A2-a was the fighter bomber version of the ME262, its production delayed the introduction of the type to operational service. The kit includes a nice Kettenkraftrad tow vehicle and ground crew. |
1/72nd Scale kits | |
Gloster E28/39 (Pioneer) |
High Planes Models, 1996 Limited run injection moulded kit with a white-metal nose wheel. Quite rare but can be found from time to time on EBay where you will compete with collectors to buy the kit. The one that I have had lots of flash and would not be for the inexperienced modeller. Click here for review. |
Gloster E28/39 (Pioneer) |
Frog, circa 1965 Much more readily available and not requiring so much skill to build or money to buy. It's main problem is scale as the fuselage is far too big even though the wings are actually closer to the correct size than the Highplanes kit. Click here for a full review. |
Gloster E.1/44 Ace |
Project-X (Maintrack), an out of production vacform kit of the prototype Nene powered Gloster E.1/44 Ace, it did not go into production although its tail design was used for the Meteor FR8 and FR9. Jean-Pierre Veret in France is very keen to aquire one of these kits so he can add a model of the aircraft to his collection. This is the vacform kit which in hands of Raul Hrubisko builds into the completed model by by Raul Hrubisko. |
Meteor F3 |
This is a kit of an early production F3 (short nacelle). On first examination the kit appeared quite basic but having recently built one the parts fit together exceptionally well. It builds into a nice model although it will need some weight in the nose and it is best to sand off all the rivets and surface detail and rescribe as in common with most early airfix kits they are far too heavy for a 1:72nd scale kit. I also thinned the undercarriage doors which took a while but makes a big difference. Click Here for a full review of the kit. Unfortunately this kit is no longer in production although they can easily be acquired on E-Bay with the sheer numbers available keeping the price reasonable. |
Meteor F4 |
Frog F 200, circa 1970. This is very much a collectors item and as such they are collectors items. If you want to build the kit which is a good base for many famous aircraft then try to secure the later Frog/Novo version or the PJ Productions kit from 1995 as these are less rare and more available. |
Meteor F4 |
Frog-Novo, PJ Production n° 721003 / 4, 1995, Not quite as rare as the Frog kit and based on the same moulds. These are easy to find on Ebay and are less of a collectors item. |
| Meteor T7 | Aeroclub conversion kit K 823 for Matchbox NF 1998, PJ Production n° 721009 / 10, 1999 |
| Meteor F8 | Frog F 326 P, 1956 Rareplane Vacforms, circa 1980 ( + FR 9 nose) Merlin Models n° 11, 1986 Aeroclub conversion kit K 824 for Matchbox NF, 1988 Aeroclub, 1999 PJ Production n° 721005 / 6, 1999 |
| FR 9 (Photo reconnaissance) | Aeroclub conversion kit K 825 for Matchbox kit, 1988 Czech Master Resin kit n° 110 ( + F 8 nose). Build as F8 or Israeli Air Force FR9 |
| PR 10 | Aeroclub conversion kit K 826 for Matchbox kit |
| Nightfighters | Matchbox, This kit can be built into all the nightfighter versions. It compares well against scale drawings of the Meteor nightfighters although like the Airfix kit is no longer in production although it too is readily available on E-Bay. It features correct profiles for the various nightfighter nose radomes and different tail sections as well as the clear view NF14 canopy. Sparse interior detail but a great kit if you want to build up your spares box. |
| Nightfighters | Meteor NF 11/12/14 : Rareplane Vacforms, circa 1980 Czech Resin kit, circa 1985 PJ Prpduction n° 72 1011 / 12 / 13, 1999 |
| Drones | U16 : Fineline C001 |
Vampire FB5/ J28B |
Airfix, This is a very nice kit which can be built into the J28B with decals for the aircraft from the Scandavian historic flight, The kit is currently not in production. |
Other Scale kits | |
| Meteor F8 (1/144th) | Welsh Models Vacforms PJ W 9, 1986 |
Other Accessories | |
| Meteor undercarriage | Aeroclub, white metal, V037 |
| Martin Baker ejection seat | Aeroclub, white metal, EJ001 |
| Target tug device for Meteor TT-20 | C-Scale, white metal, AC 34 |
| Large F8 intakes | PJ Productions, resin, 721107 |
All the kits are ( were !) produced in U.K., except the two Czech resin kits, and the PJ Production of Belgium (Rue A. Bodson 38, B-6280 Gerpinnes) who can also be found on the internet/ email. All are excellent kits. In the UK Aeroclub kits are easily available with out of production kits available from kingkit in Shropshire (kingkit@kingkit.co.uk) / EBay etc, the price depending on rarity. Czech Resin kits can be purchased from Amos Dor amos@adgrafica.com). A great deal of the information on this page has come from 72Scale.Com. This is a comprehensive site and 1:72nd scale model census although hasn't been updated since the end of 2007. It also has details of the decal sheets and many other accessories for the Meteor and other aircraft types. | |