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De Havilland Venom - first prototype - 1/72 - modified Aeroclub


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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.

p?i=ee4ed7b0ccef77ca3fde3d3558f0b6c3Venom_2017_08_21_31 by johnrieley, on Flickr

p?i=acd6d2dabd9f3697db503cbd990e83adVenom_2017_08_21_15 by johnrieley, on Flickr

p?i=596e397d2fe3376a5422379bb2ee3218Venom_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

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John, that's just marvellous and I agree with you that's it's always nice to have something different. I'm a fan of your skills, attention to detail and the fact that you now have a nice looking Venom in your collection - not many of us have one of those! 

 

Cheers.. Dave

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Great build and a good looking Venom John, especially building it as the prototype- a beautiful aircraft.  I have the 1/72 Aeroclub Venom fb.4 so very interested in your interpretation of the model and build techniques used

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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.

 

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Historical note

The Venom was one of the first four kits I produced in injection moulded plastic around 1983.  I did the masters, made the moulds and did the production. There was by then very limited backup from the mould equipment manufacturers (and since disappeared totally) and the other small competitors using the spray metal system with the exception of Skybirds were very secretive . A contemporary was VeeDay later Merlin.  I was using two small machines which I bought dismantled in cardboard boxes and rebuilt my self having previously only worked on cars and aeroplanes. the learning curve was steep. It was all self taught .The machine platern size was so small that the kit had to be broken down into small areas. Even Airfix kits had marginally more detail inside because of the wall thickness .  The reason for this was general thinking that to achieve plastic flow at low injection pressures (due to the low clamp pressure limitation of the machines and the frangible nature of the moulds) you had to have wider cavities , and this meant thicker plastic components.  I soon realised that this was flawed thinking and when I got larger machines and by mould experimentation i was able to change this around. Merlin never did work it out.

 

John

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