Airfix 1/72 Vampire T.35 & T.55 flaps down, spoiler up

[Mountain goat]

Hi,

Last year, very soon after I'd started three Gnats (which have been completed - seen here and here), I thought to speed things along by starting another three - Vampires this time. Of course things seldom work out exactly as planned, and now, some time later, I've decided it's for the best to leave the production line workflow for what it is and build no more than two models at the same time. I have now caught up the Vampire build, leave one for later, and concentrate on two; the first a Swiss T.55, and the other a Rhodesian T.35.

Construction wasn't anything special - I added bits and bobs to enliven the cockpit somewhat - but the real challenge came recently when starting on the wings. I had planned from the outset to lower the flaps. Upon closer inspection, I came to the conclusion that adding extended wing spoilers

I thought I'd share the progress from that moment onwards.

Firstly I cut out the flap and spoiler area from the wing (inboard flap was cut out previously)

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Some plasticard

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Cut to fit

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Glued and used Gunze Mr dissolved putty as filler...

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...then sanded, used Surfacer 1000, sanded again, again a bit of Surfacer, sanding, et voilá.

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Now for the wing spoilers. I got out a strip of fairly thick Evergreen and sanded one side into an edge.

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glued another bit to it - this process speaks for itself I believe:

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Evergreen plastic paper-like sheet:

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Finally I sanded the spoiler into the appropriate shape and then I glued the thin sheet around it with Tamiya Cement. (Revell contacta, another glue I use often, is far too aggressive for thin plastic.)

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To be continued.

Thanks for looking

Jay

Edited January 24, 2016 by Mountain goat

[Blogs On]

Very neat.

[HOUSTON]

Jay,

NOICE ! Coming along very neatly ..

Good work ...

HOUSTON

[Martian]

Nice work on those flaps!

Martin

[rudi]

great work...like the flaps and spoilers.

[jean]

Why choose the easy way when one can do complicated...

Excellent scratch building on the flaps ans spoilers!

Congrats

JR

[Mountain goat]

Thank you for your comments! Greatly appreciated!

Forgot to mention the first time: in this project I've been making generous use of NABE3's excellent reference website (especially worthwhile if you're into JASDF, PACAF and USN subjects) - in particular the walkaround for the Swiss Vampire.

Meanwhile, happy to report I've been making a little progress: work shifted to the naked flap wells under the wing. First off - rIbs are called for! (the ones that hold a wing together - not the food)

Made a hole in plasticard.

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Drew a rib shape around it, then cut it out.

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Found its place!

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Drilled some more holes to simulate the spar.

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For the flaps themselves - I took the pieces of plastic I had cut out in my previous post, as they still approached the basic shape of the real thing, except with the top edge sanded to form a this:

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Next up, the heavily riveted skin. Again I took out the paper-thin Evergreen and made positive rivets by simply using the rear of the negative:

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Riveting done by Trumpeter riveting tool by the way. The sheet was stuck on the flap wedge with the thinnest layer of Tamiya Cement...

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... followed by sticking the flap unto the wing. Please ignore the hydraulic actuator, I forgot to make pictures after fitment of the flap.

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The actuator was built using 03 and 05 brass tubes from Albion Alloys, with the small plastic bits made along the lines of the plastic ribs shown earlier (drill, draw, cut).

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More detailing is planned, such as cross-ribs and wiring. Therefore: to be continued.

Thanks again for looking!

Jay

Edited January 27, 2016 by Mountain goat

[Darth Vader]

Holy cow you must have better eyesight than I've got.

Looks great can't wait to see it finished.

[ArmouredSprue]

looking really good

[alxzinbox]

I'm pretty sure the actual scale at which you're doing this amazing detailing is lost on most of us. The photos make it look larger than it really is. Looking forward to the next installment!

[Mountain goat]

Thank you for all your kind words. The build has slowed down a little due to low-intensity flu (though flu nevertheless).

I'm pretty sure the actual scale at which you're doing this amazing detailing is lost on most of us. The photos make it look larger than it really is. Looking forward to the next installment!

Thank you, I'm flattered! I probably should use everyday objects in the pics to lend scale, might be a fun exercise.

Jay

[Mountain goat]

Greetings esteemed modellers,

I’m happy to report some progress in the field of Applied Vampirology Studies, Section 72nd scale. As reported before, I’m building a Swiss T.55 and a Rhodesian T.35. The Swiss one will be representative of Vampires in the late seventies and eighties, and as such will carry the typical Swiss drop tanks (tanks, incidentally, that are nowadays regularly seen in the Airshow circuit, as the warbird Vampires you see there are more often than not ex-Swiss Air Force). The Rhodesian depicts an ex-SAAF bird in the early/ mid seventies era. For that version I’ve constructed rocket rails under the inner wing.

First, I’ll pick up where I left off last time: the finished flaps.

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Hinges were made with stretched sprue and thinly cut plasticard. Plasticard too for the rocket rails.

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Ribs in the interior of the flap recesses were made with plasticard and aluminium tape. Why tape, you ask..? I assumed that would be a quicker method than glueing bits of plasticard and getting in a mess - but it took pretty while anyway. Hydraulic hoses were added with bent stretched sprue. While I was at it, I stuck the landing gear on as well, as the gear and wheel wells will receive the same aluminium coat as the exterior, so no need to keep things seperate.

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For the Swiss tanks I took two drop tanks from the Esci F-5A and cut and sanded them to approximate proportions. No idea how long the thing’s actually supposed to be - it’s all dead reckoning.

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The minuscule pylons for the tanks were made by sticking three bits of thick plasticard together and sanding them into a shape resembling the real thing. Again, for this I used NABE3’s references, which includes multiple closeups of the pylon.

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Next up: the tank's braces, pitot tubes, balances, canopy, Surfacer, Paint, etc.

Thanks for reading!

Jay

Edited February 18, 2016 by Mountain goat

[Martian]

Some lovely work going on here!

Martin

[Antti_K]

Hello Jay!

This looks really good! The interior of the wing and flaps is spot on. Nice detailing indeed.

I was fortunate enough to "look after" a Vampire T.55 (ex. Swiss Air Force, now in Swedish markings) a couple of years ago. I have walk around photos as well as detail shots. Let me know if you need photos.

Best Regards,

Antti

[Tripio]

Hello Jay,

my hat off to you.

Once in my life I've accepted the challenge to build the internal structure of the wings but not from scratch.

Back in the 90's I used the old sheet of Eduard to do that, the model was made from Airfix, the old one I mean with Swedish insignia.

IMHO the kit itself was one of the bests from Airfix at that time.

Maybe I will make a trial with the new ones...

Regards,Laz

[Tomoshenko]

Wow. Lovely detailing.

[Mountain goat]

Thanks Martin! Not as great as your amazing detailing, but one can strive for something.

Antti - I might drop you a PM, thank you for the offer!

Laz - my Rhodesian one was slated to wear Swedish colours too but I changed my mind. And thanks too Tomoshenko!

Jay

[crobinsonh]

Love the detail work going on here. Very impressive.

[The Spadgent]

That sir is remarkable!!!

[Mountain goat]

That sir is remarkable!!!

Thank you! The Rhodesian is done - I forgot to add the Ready for Inspection link which is here.

The Swiss version, meanwhile, has been painted using white aluminium from the Vallejo Metal range.

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There's a build of two MiG-21F-13s going on as well, together with a Sabre, so I guess I should say I'm taking my time with this one.

Jay

Edited May 6, 2016 by Mountain goat

[TheBaron]

I could have given a 'like' to each instalment of this. Smashing work. Almost hypnotic to see the pieces come together from the raw materials.

Tony

[bearmatt]

Having a bit more time seems to be paying off in another way, instead of money! :-)

A pleasure to watch this WIP! Btw...any new pics?

I'm really impressed by how you made the rivet plate / spoiler! Great job

[Mountain goat]

Thanks bearmatt,

Nope, no progress as of now, but that'll change the coming week. First up is spraying the spoilers and a band on each boom plain orange. After that the decals: I'll use both Matterhorn decals and the Xtradecal set I also used for the Rhodesian one.

I tested a couple of the (highly accurate) Matterhorn decals and found that though they can be handled with ease, they don't bond with the surface very well - at least initially. Let's see how that goes. I'll use the Swiss markings from the Matterhorn set, except undersurfaces. The white crosses on the Xtradecal set are just a tad too stout, so I'll use them under the wings only - that way I save up accurate Swiss markings for a future build - such as a Vampire single seat target tug and who knows, maybe a Venom or two whenever an accurate plastic kit will see the light of day. Swiss Venoms... Mmmmmm (isn't that right WildeSau? ).

Jay

Edited September 9, 2016 by Mountain goat

[Mountain goat]

Hi,

 

Some progress at last, in fact I've gone through to the end and finished it today.

 

Sneak peek of the finished product:

 

 

First were the decals - almost all of them Matterhorn Circle as it turned out the Swiss portion of the Xtradecal set had its fair share of inaccuracies. Especially noticeable are the no step delineations which only show the correct pattern on the Matterhorn set. Not all peaches with the Matterhorn sheet however. They tend to give up adherence rather easily. I had larger decals detach from the surface by themselves (I used hot water and Micro Sol) - only future and a varnish coat settled them down. I followed all this by a coat of semi-gloss Mr Top Coat directly from the can. The orange portions were painted.

 

 

Next up: aftermarket resin wheels by Pavla and bespoke fuel tanks, both described earlier in the thread. (please ignore the fingerprint on the tank...) .

Thinking lubricants and other fluids must have leaked at least once in a while, I didn’t see any use in restraining myself when having a go at the belly.

The external fuel tanks (taken from Venom surplus) are extra worn -much as the way they often looked.

 

 

Here a shot of the interior of the flap wells.

 

 

Followed by the kit's ejection seats (with Nutella foil for harnesses, as described earlier in the thread).

 

 

Since I wanted to give this Vampire a worn look - (the Swiss kept the Vampire in optimum condition throughout its service though its age did show ), the finish was made a tad blotchy by weathering (using eye shadow makeup -much cheaper than Tamiya I must say) and light sanding - no idea if that’s visible though.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking! Please feel free to ask if you have anything to ask.

 

Jay

Edited September 17, 2016 by Mountain goat
wrong pic

[amblypygid]

Absolutely lovely, Jay. Great build, great finish; something to aim for when I start my next Vampire!