Barracuda Studios have released two neat sets of Gloster Meteor intakes designed for the Classic Airframes series of kits. You'll need to check your references to decide which style is correct for an individual airframe, but Barracuda's instructions give the following guidelines:

BR48008 – Small Bore Intakes, suitable for the F.4, and some F.8s, T.7s, TT.20s and nightfighters.

BR48009 – Large Bore Intakes, fitted to Meteors powered by the uprated Derwent 8 and 9.

The intakes are mastered by Lee Coll and are nicely finished with cleanly scribed panel lines. A real plus point is that the interior is totally smooth, so there are no awkward seams to worry about. The casting is flawless in the sample sets, and preparation for use consists of just minor sanding to remove the thin casting film at the rear. The well written instruction indicate that very little modification is required to the Classic Airframes kits, and either set should make for a nice, simple upgrade suitable even for modellers new to working with resin.

The instructions feature a useful head-on view down a full-sized Meteor intake and, ironically, this highlights a possible minor inaccuracy with internal contours of the upgrades; although the nacelle itself remains circular, the interior ducting becomes a vertical flattened oval at the wing leading edge fairing as it funnels the airflow back to the engine. Barracuda depict this, but their version has the flattened edges top and bottom, and their oval doesn't seem as narrow as the full-sized version. To be honest, I doubt few modellers are likely to worry, and I'd never had spotted it had it not been for Barracuda's own photo, but it does make it all the more tempting to peer more closely into a full-sized Meatbox intake next time I have a chance.

conclusion

Barracuda Studios Meteor intakes look to be a nice, simple upgrade for the Classic Airframes series. You don't see many of the kits appearing in on-line builds these days, so this release is a timely spur to go ferreting around in the Stash to dig one out.

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