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1:72 Airfix - Vampire T.11 - Rhodesian Air Force circa 1973


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Greetings fellow modellers,

I'd like to share the results of the first of several 1:72 Vampire builds. I'll be sharing the others when they're completed. I posted a short Work in Progress here on how I did the lowered flaps and brakes.

There's not a lot about the kit I can tell that's not already said multiple times. I think it's a nice kit - I found the build fairly relaxing and didn't get many surprises in regards to fit and such. The kit is quite accurate, though in my opinion suffers from rather deep and wide engraved panel lines.

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The kit was built OOB except for Pavla main wheels and Albion Alloy tubing for the pitot tube. The decals were sourced from all kinds of places - the kit decal sheet, the Xtradecal Foreign Operator sheet, an Xtradecal sheet for Lightning F.3s and some other tiny bits (like a small yellow arrow pointing at the windscreen) from whatever I could find.

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I built the Vampire up as a T.11 in later Rodesian service. It says 'T.55' in my work in progress, as I'd initially planned to do one of the ex-SAAF Vampires acquired from South Africa in 1972 to beef up the aging fleet, but I decided to go for an 'original' instead for reasons that frankly now escape me. The T.11s like the model depicts were delivered in 1955 and as far as I'm aware came relatively fresh from the factory.

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This example is finished in the last colours it flew in before written off on September 1973, namely in early Bush War camouflage and Rhodesian republic markings. The T.11s wore no national markings on the wings; boom roundels and fin flashes only.

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I threw some weathering at it to simulate the effects of a warm climate and hot sun beating down on the wing surfaces. Two-seat Vampires were often waxed in Rhodesia, so I tried to replicate that too - the aircraft looked very glossy at times, though for the scale effect I tried to tone that down towards a satin sheen.

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Hope you like.

Jay

Edited by Mountain goat
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She's lovely :) I'm not normally a fan of of jet aircraft but she's just simply lovely :) I was born October 73 so funny to think she was flying the day I was born lol

Thank you very much - but I'm afraid you missed her just by a month - as she was w/o in September of that year. :doh:

Jay

Edited by Mountain goat
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Very nice! I'm planning a FB5 (yes I know it should be an FB9, but this is as close as I can get and still build OOB) in the same colours, so this is a good piece of inspiration.

That's a stunner!

Great work.

Cmon Airfix, scale it up to '48, you know you want to!

Such a gorgeous scheme and very well made too.

Hello,Jay - An exquisitely finished and displayed Vampire indeed. ;) All the best,Paul.

Very nicely done indeed. Incredible cockpit detail.

Looks good in camo

Thanks everyone! Much appreciated!

Mike; I intend to show off some more of the cockpit as soon as I can - I'm trying to find an adequate camera for the job and the right lighting. Shame I didn't take any pics during the build :banghead:

Jay

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What a fabulous build and hard to believe the amount of detail that you've crammed into such a small cockpit - very well done indeed Jay!! :Tasty: :tasty:

Love the scheme too, great to see something away from the normal silver birds!! :coolio::thumbsup:

Kev :)

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What a fabulous build and hard to believe the amount of detail that you've crammed into such a small cockpit - very well done indeed Jay!! :Tasty: :Tasty:

Thanks Kev - the detailing was fun to do!

Jay

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Cracking Vampire :)

ScottC

Thank you Scott!

Now that is nice, it makes a change from all the silver ones....

I like it. Nice to see one in different colors.

Cheers,

Michael

Excellent work, the open canopy and flaps set it apart from the more usual builds. Nice to one that isn't overall silver as well!

Cheers

John

Thanks, I had always wanted a Rhodesian Vampire - a brown/ green Hunter will be its companion.

Simply beautiful!

Cheers

Jerzy-Wojtek

looks great, nice work

That's a really excellent model Jay - thanks for sharing :)

That's really really nice work, looks like 1/48 scale!

Thank you for all the comments and compliments guys! Makes the build more worthwhile.

Jay

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