Airfix 1:72 DeHavilland Vampire T.11

[Beggsy]

Having just signed up to the forums and now starting a new model, I figured I may as well jump right in with a WIP and see how it goes.

 

A friend at work recently finished a secondment and had to move back to the USA.  A few bits and pieces that he didn't want to take with him were given away, and upon spotting this knife rack, I immediately thought "model airplane display case"

 

 

A quick test with a 1:72 spitfire looked pretty good.  In a fit of ambition, I figured I could make it into an interesting desk lamp, with some LEDs in the top and a suitably shiny aircraft inside to diffuse the light (maybe even a small flashing orange LED to look like the beacon is on...we'll see) .  One small, shiny aircraft later:

 

 

As a relatively recent Airfix release, I'm expecting good things.  Let's see what's in the box:

 

 

 

 

There's some sinkage on the wings, but I reckon a bit of filler should see to that pretty quickly:

 

 

Construction will be mostly out of the box, no aftermarket details but I may do a bit of work on the cockpit as it will be fairly visible under that big canopy.

 

More pictures soon!

 

[Beggsy]

So, on to construction!

 

I couldn't decide whether or not to include the pilot figures, so I started prepping them anyway.  They looked a bit odd staring straight forwards, so I cut off the instructor's head and re-attached it so that he can keep a watchful eye on his student.  Better not miss any items on that checklist!

 

 

The cockpit seats and control columns were attached to the floor, and some sort of wheel (maybe trim?) attached to the port-side cockpit wall, and then all of the interior parts were ready for painting

 

 

 

All of the parts were painted with a mixture of Tamiya flat black and ocean grey acrylics, for a very dark grey.  I used the ocean grey simply because I had some lying around.

 

 

Details were painted with a toothpick, and Tamiya metallic aluminium dry brushed over the walls and floor.  Some grey weathering powder was used for further highlighting.  Most photos seem to show everything in the cockpit as various shades of dark grey, so I took a bit of creative license and made some levers red and yellow.  The decal for the instrument panel went on well after I trimmed away the carrier film around the top section of it.

 

 

 

The ejector seat handles were made from the wire from an electric resistor.  I find this is also useful stuff for clearing out blockages in my glue applicator (there's not a lot fits down that tiny tube!)

 

I'm going to put the cockpit together, and make a decision on the pilots based partly on whether or not I can get them in post-assembly.  It's going to take a while to paint them and I don't want them holding up the rest of the build.

 

That's all for now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jaffajake]

Nice work on the cockpit. The seats look very smart. 

[DAG058]

Welcome to the forums. You've made a great start for your build. This qualifies nicely for ten De Havilland Group Build that is going in ta the moment. Would you be interested in joining us with your build? See the link for more info and let me know if you want to join.

 

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/584-de-havilland-mega-gb/

 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2017 by DAG058

[Beggsy]

Sounds interesting, what do I have to do to join?

[Beggsy]

More construction progress.  In preparation for sealing up the cockpit, 7g of weight had to be added to the nose.  Having no lead fishing weights lying around (need to get some of them), I used left over screws (I put together a fair bit of IKEA furniture recently) and blue tack.  This got me to 5 grams, and I was able to stuff in a bit more behind the cockpit.  It felt pretty heavy, and some dry fitting showed that it was enough to avoid tail sitting.  Believe me, the screws are there, I just stuffed as much blue tack as possible in around them.

 

 

I was just able to squeeze it together without gaps (I think).  Both ejector handles have broken off (expected), but I managed to save one from disappearing into the carpet.  The engine intakes, duct and front fan all went on fine.  It's a shame the fan is completely invisible.

 

 

The tail booms were assembled, sanded and polished before being added to the main model, as I figure they'll be a bit fragile.  I added a few rivets on the vertical tails, using the box top as a guide.

 

 

All major components together.  Make sure to attach the landing gear to the booms before the lower wing panels.  I thought I could leave them off, but thankfully I test fitted first and found that adding them later would be nigh on impossible.  I'll need to be careful not to break those off.

 

 

Good news, the pilots are happy to get in and out without breaking their control columns off!

 

 

Polished and ready for the bare metal finish (I'm doing the one on the box top).  After this, I'll prime the nose seem in grey to make sure it's invisible, add rivets (which I doubt will be visible in photos), then prime the whole thing in gloss black (after the rivets, so they're not to pronounced).

 

 

The front and back canopy sections were attached using Microscale Industries Micro Gloss.  The front is a good fit, the back gets VERY close to those details behind the pilot's seats, but it does seem to fit with a bit of persuasion.  In this image, the main canopy is loose.

 

 

Canopy masked.  I'll come back and do the internal frames later, it's beyond my skills to mask them neatly all in one go.

 

 

Almost ready for paint.  I'm not entirely looking forward to the rivets (but I think it will be worth it in the end).  At least some of the structure is plywood and doesn't need any!  I'll hopefully get it primed early enought to let it dry overnight and while I'm at work tomorrow, so it will be well set tomorrow afternoon and I can polish it again.

 

More pictures soon!

 

 

 

 

 

[Val]

Excellent work, she's coming together a treat!

[DAG058]

On 26/03/2017 at 10:08 AM, Beggsy said:

Sounds interesting, what do I have to do to join?

 

Exactly as you are! Build a De Havilland model between the dates 18 Feb and 24 June, providing photos and updates as you go. Photos of completed builds go into a Gallery for everyone to marvel at. Interested? 

[Jaffajake]

Lovely job. This is coming along nicely!

[rob Lyttle]

On 25/03/2017 at 01:24, Beggsy said:

and upon spotting this knife rack, I immediately thought "model airplane display case"

Yep, you got it bad, beggsy!

You see, not everyone would think that....

That's a lovely result so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing the paint job and finishing.

Right on!

This group build thread sounds interesting. Looks like you qualify already.

Edited March 27, 2017 by rob Lyttle
add on

[stever219]

On 26 March 2017 at 10:40 AM, Beggsy said:

 

Polished and ready for the bare metal finish (I'm doing the one on the box top).  After this, I'll prime the nose seem in grey to make sure it's invisible, add rivets (which I doubt will be visible in photos), then prime the whole thing in gloss black (after the rivets, so they're not to pronounced).

 

 

You've done a lot better with he wing to fuselage joint than I did, more filler than kit!  If you can get hold of it small lead or steel shot also makes good ballast and can be secured with PVA adhesive.

 

As much of the Vampire structure was, like the Mosquito, fabric-covered moulded plywood a "natural metal" finish isn't appropriate; the aeroplanes were sprayed High Speed Silver, an aluminium-pigmented finish with a satin sheen, rather than highly polished or dead matt.  I've used Humbrol matt aluminium Metalcote for this finish with varying degrees of success, usually satisfactory, but automotive spray paints will also do the job.

[Beggsy]

7 hours ago, stever219 said:

As much of the Vampire structure was, like the Mosquito, fabric-covered moulded plywood a "natural metal" finish isn't appropriate; the aeroplanes were sprayed High Speed Silver, an aluminium-pigmented finish with a satin sheen, rather than highly polished or dead matt.  I've used Humbrol matt aluminium Metalcote for this finish with varying degrees of success, usually satisfactory, but automotive spray paints will also do the job.

 

Thanks, glad you spotted that before I started painting.  Was the whole airplane sprayed, or just the plywood parts?

 

8 hours ago, DAG058 said:

Exactly as you are! Build a De Havilland model between the dates 18 Feb and 24 June, providing photos and updates as you go. Photos of completed builds go into a Gallery for everyone to marvel at. Interested? 

 

Sure, sign me up!

[stever219]

2 hours ago, Beggsy said:

 

Thanks, glad you spotted that before I started painting.  Was the whole airplane sprayed, or just the plywood parts?

 

 

Sure, sign me up!

 

My pleasure.  The whole jet was sprayed, even the external bits that are aluminium.  I think it was down to a combination of uniformity of appearance and corrosion prevention.

[rayprit]

Be careful with "Blue-tac" over time it "leeches" as its oil based, may mist up your canopy in the future.  i use various sized small nuts and superglue

[rob Lyttle]

yeah, you can definitely see the style of it as a paint job. Quite a different appearance overall.

[DAG058]

15 hours ago, Beggsy said:

Sure, sign me up!

 

That's you in, welcome aboard! 

[Beggsy]

It's been a few days with no pictures posted, I've been very careful about leaving the main finish colours to dry before masking, making for slow progress.  Here's what I've been up to:

 

An overall coat of Tamiya Aluminium (an attempt to look slightly more painted on than a purely metallic finish) went on looking quite grainy, but after smoothing down with a micro-mesh cloth and a thin coat of Valejo Aluminium metal colour, we get this:

 

 

the drop tanks are pure Valejo Aluminium on polished plastic (just as a test), and I'm happy that the aircraft doesn't look quite as metallic as they do.  It may not be a perfect match for "High-Speed Silver", but I'm happy with it.

 

Next, the yellow bands were added.  Masking these was tricky around where the booms meet the wings, in hindsight I'd do the colours in the opposite order.

 

 

The wheel wells were brush painted with Valejo Duraluminium:

 

 

And here's were things went not-so-well.  I tried applying a panel line wash to the wheel wells and control surface hinge lines, but it spread too far and I ended up doign the whole thing, since lines with the was ending half way along looked silly.  I now think they're too dark (though they look a bit better in the photo).  Since I don't have the decals on, I'm considering light coats of the two main colours to try and tone the lines down a bit without completely obliterating them.  To see how that goes, you'll have to wait a bit as I'm away from home this weekend and probably won't get around to posting pictures.

 

 

More progress will be posted...whenever I get around to it.

[rob Lyttle]

That is a good looking little plane.

Is there any mileage in going over the lines with a cocktail stick to try to ease wash down a bit? I'm just on a long shot here as I've not used a proper commercial wash, but going for an all-over respray sounds.... well, not without its risks.

Good luck on this one 

[stever219]

I think your plan to lightly go over the panel lines has some mileage in it; left as they are they're too stark (see if you can find some pictures on line of Vampires in service wearing the High Speed Silver scheme and, hopefully you'll see what I mean).  Good luck with getting the demarcations at the edges of the yellow bands: artits' masking film might be less likely to pull up the original paint than masking tape, but probably won't be cheap.

[DAG058]

Looking good. I like the finish on your paint work, it looks very nice. I don't think the panel lines are bad, hopefully you'll get them sorted so you are happy with them though.

[Basilisk]

Great progress. White Spirit on a cotton but should be able to remove some of your wash (if oil based).

 

I like your riveted wings - it helps breaking up the monotone silver colour.

 

Cheers, Peter

[Beggsy]

Time for a bit more progress

 

A quick, light respray toned down the panel lines nicely.  In preparation for decals (and as a test for the final finish), I sprayed it with Micro Clear (the real aircraft appears highly glossy in photos).

 

 

I also attached the landing gear (hand painted) and the engine exhaust nozzle:

 

 

Finally, here's another view of the gear, close up:

 

 

Next up is the decals.  I'm going to leave off the black patch on the nose until the end, so that I can put it over the top of the gloss finish, rather than trying to re-mask it and apply a semi-gloss that exactly matches the colour.

 

Hopefully I'll have some pictures with decals tomorrow!

 

[Davek72]

Looking good Beggsy and welcome to the forum.   I have one of these about to start shortly so watching with interest.

 

Dave

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good afternoon Begsy

 Very so far

Patrice

[Beggsy]

Final photos!

 

Once everything was nicely set, it was decal time.  Looking at the sheet, I'm glad I chose the Vampire Preservation Society option, I don't think I would have had the patience for all the stencils on the other scheme!  Having broken off the pitot tube some time ago and lost it, I rebuilt a new one from some spare rod. I also re-attached the ejector seat handles.  They stopped me from being able to put the pilots in and out, but I don't mind that.  The canopy can still be removed to look inside.  I applied some light weathering under the rear of the engine using brown weathering powder (it's visible in a few photos of the real thing, though I suspect it gets cleaned fairly regularly) and gave it one final coat of gloss.  Lastly, I painted on the black panel in front of the canopy, which I feel should be a little less shiny than the rest, hence applying it after the gloss.

 

Here it is!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for following along.  I visited the hobby shop this morning for something else to build, so some pictures of that might show up shortly.....

 

Beggsy out.

 

P.S.  I just realised I forgot to take pictures after adding the two little whip aerials on the booms, made from un-raveled electrical wire and super glued into tiny holes made with my smallest drill bit.  It's now living on my desk at work, so no more photos to come until/unless I bring it home!

Edited April 8, 2017 by Beggsy
Added P.S. at end!