John R

Argus books produced a couple of books of post-war jets which I picked up at an airshow but I haven't seen any since. They were also only military a/c. Here is another collection http://richard.ferriere.free.fr/3vues/3vues.html John

Just looked up the colours of various prototypes in Barrie Hygates book. Some are given as natural metal and the 707C as 'silver'. John

Don't be too quick. The drab finish it wears now may be due to age. compare the Supermarine 510 in its present state with its shiny finish when it first flew. John

Nice job. I like the neat way you managed to fit the canopy - not an easy task on a vacform. I suppose I really should have one of these in my collection but never liked the look of the two seater. Have you seen the real thing at Cosford? It is not as shiny as yours and I think that I read somewhere that it was actually painted silver. Does anyone know? I think the moulds for the 707A (which I really want) have been lost and I now wondering if it would be possible to make one using this kit with a new canopy as the airframe, apart from the cockpit was apparently the same. John

Missed this one first time around. I don't normally appreciate 'What ifs' but in your case I'll make an exception - especially in view of the effort it required. Well done!

I went to my account but there is no trace of one. Perhaps it was only for professionals. All I have is an 'ad free' account.

I think the '2' on the a/c has a bit more of a 'knee' at the bottom left hand corner than your version but thank you for trying. My solution was to scan a copy of a decal for a DH 110 'WG 240', assuming that the '2' was some sort of DH standard, and tweak that in Photoshop. The model is now decalled and complete and unless the decals fall off it is 'game over' as far as I am concerned. John

John, Considering its age and the tools you had available it was a pretty good job, shapewise. My corrections belonged in the section labelled 'rivet counter'. Doing stuff like this engenders great respect for the people who make the masters. When you start trying to find information to modify something you realise what they come up against. Phat Trev It went together quite easily except for the problem with the booms. The spacing doesn't match the drawing in the kit. The assembly instructions are somewhat terse. Construction seems a bit like assembling a vacform except the parts are solid. There is nothing in the way of a cockpit interior and I couldn't find anything in the kit in the way of u/c doors or mass balances for the tail.

I am in total agreement with John about FlickR. For all its foibles PB was good as the albums could have the same arrangement as that on my computer but I have yet to find another site which allows this. If anyone knows of a site that has a sensible file structure please let me know. I just wish I didn't think $399 was a lot of money!

For anyone interested the result is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235025668-de-havilland-venom-first-prototype-172-modified-aeroclub/&tab=comments#comment-2800925 John

The Venom started life as as the Vampire Mk 8, a thinner winged development of the Vampire with the original Goblin engine replaced by the more powerful Ghost. It first flew in September 1949. I’m not really sure how I came to be doing this project. I’m 76 and well aware that my declining faculties will be probably prevent me from finishing all the interesting prototypes and experimental a/c already in my stash, let alone the stream of Russian ones coming from Modelsvit. The Venom was not even on my radar as it did not seem to fit any of those categories. To me it didn't seem to be a particularly interesting or distinguished a/c. The only explanation I can offer is that earlier in the year there was a thread asking why there was no kit of the single-seat Venom and that whetted my interest as I like having something that nobody else has. At the same time an Aeroclub kit appeared on Ebay so I thought that I could whiz that together and it ‘would do’. Oh how we laughed! It’s taken most of the summer, albeit at a slow pace due to other seasonal activities. Venom_2017_08_21_31 by johnrieley, on Flickr Venom_2017_08_21_15 by johnrieley, on Flickr Venom_2017_08_21_33 by johnrieley, on Flickr On building, the first step was to remove most of the aerodynamic ‘bodges’ added to get it to fly right. This was made more difficult by the paucity of information about it. Having an ex-Swiss Venom up the road at Gatwick was a help but inevitably you need to know more as construction proceeds but at £7.50 a visit plus transport costs makes one a trifle reluctant to use this option. Next problem was that I could not get the booms to look right and ending up removing and refitting them slightly further outboard which then meant that the blisters over the u/c had to be replaced. Incidentally the top surface of the boom on the a/c is not straight. There is a slight hump which runs from the front to just aft of the wing. Vanes were added to the intakes and openings made for the air-conditioning (I think) inlets outboard of the intakes. The remaining major problem was the canopy and its fitting to the rails. I think that the canopy must have a straight section at the base which allows the canopy to slide along the rails. I could find no hard information on this and my Gatwick Venom had the canopy removed and the cockpit area covered. The decals for the lettering were produced at home. An unresolved item is the size and shape of the mass balances under the tailplane. Another unresolved item concerns the outer u/c doors. Some pictures indicate a slight bulging but I have been unable to ascertain the actual size and shape. Any help with those two items would be appreciated. The a/c was, I am told, painted in high speed silver. The model was finished by priming with Tamiya silver primer with a top coat of Alclad Klear Kote Gloss. All C & C welcome, particularly about anything I have missed or got wrong. John

Updated to use FlickR

Updated to use FlickR instead of PB. Interestingly I have still not been blackballed

Give it a go. Some years ago I built a Campini Caproni CC2, an old thing produced by Delta. It was all horribly warped and I tried to get the fuselage sides parts to mate by forcing them into position and holding them together whilst the glue set but it ended up being bent like a banana. I separated them and taped each to piece of stout metal sheet and soaked them in hot water for a while and then left them to cool. Afterwards I was able to complete the model ( its in RFI somewhere). Don't use very hot water. I came a cropper when I did it on an earlier model using near boiling water. It went soft and shrank and I ended up with more warps than I started with. I think that it needs a longish soak at moderate heat to allow the plastic to be heated all through. The water should be just too hot to leave your hands in, if I remember correctly. You can always try a higher temperature if it doesn't work. John

Thank you. I suspected that it might be something like that. I will not need the decal sheet. I managed to scan a decal of the right shaped '2' and with help from photoshop I now have something good enough to use. Hopefully the result will appear in RFI in the not too distant future.