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Hi, everybody! (Aircraft by which Frederick Forsyth flied during service to RAF?) In discussion of the Vampire to scalemodels.ru http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2320&start=280 novella by Frederick Forsyth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Forsyth was mentioned "The Shepherd". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd In passing it became clear that Frederick Forsyth joined the RAF and was a jet fighter pilot according to English Wikipedia According to the Russian Wikipedia http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B9%D1%82,_%D0%A4%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA dates of its service 1956-1958 are mentioned. Interestingly by what plane Frederick Forsyte and in what squadron flied? Somebody can explain something? Probably someone has photos of planes in which it flied? B.R. Serge P.S. I looked for search in a forum all mentions of Forsyte. I read this topic: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234932052-vampire-in-forsyths-the-shepherd/?hl=forsyth Everywhere mentions of the novell, but words on what Forsyte flied during service to RAF

Well before I completed the F-84E, I did these. The YF-22 and one 23 were strip-downs and repaints of kits first built in the early 90s. The dark grey 23 has decals from the Dragon kit, bought specifically for them. The details - The YF-22 is the Italeri kit with Airfix decals. All the original kit was still in one piece, I just removed the u/c, added a bit of filler, and the nose probe from the Airfix kit too. Both YF-23s are the Italeri mould (one from a Revell release). Not too much weathering on them but the decals on the dark grey one silvered quite badly. The YF-17 is the Anigrand tooling. Straightforward if not too accurate at the nose end. The nose probe I added is a bit on the long side! The canopy was quite cloudy though. The X-32 is (IMHO) a gorgeous looking machine! This was the Revell boxing of the Italeri moulds, of which I have another, and may well end up as the X-35B. Accuracy, again, is not all there, especially in the back end, but I couldn't be bothered to make new vertical stabs or move the wing, OR put in an exhaust on the back left fuselage.. but I enjoyed making it - went together well! Finally the Gnat and Vampire make up the Brit end, Airfix versions of course. They went together ok, but not superbly. A bit of filler and rubbing down on a few joints that didn't want to mate up, and panel lines that didn't seem as fine as the aforementioned X-32. On the Gnat, I had a lot of trouble with the Alclad orange peel effect, despite being rubbed smooth and properly primed. In the end I opted for Humbrol Metalcote overall, along with their 209. The Vamp was painted too initially in Alclad, but I wasn't happy with it (I have seen pics of Vampires having what looks to me like a greyish metallic colour, whilst the Alclad seemed a bit too... metallic?? So I opted for Xtracolour High Speed Silver instead.) You will also notice some of the display stands in their naked formats - I haven't gotten around to stain varnishing them all yet Also, I put the YF-22 next to an F-22, just for comparisons.. Apologies if this is a tad pic heavy URL=http://s764.photobucket.com/user/jasman71/media/null_zps13090729.jpg.html][/url] Thankyou for looking

One of the many at the moment. I built this over 3 days, just fancied something quick and uncomplicated. Built OOB apart from a couple of bits of wire and tape in the cockpit, gave it an overall coat of alclad white primer followed by semi matt aluminium and tamiya flourescant orange and a final coat of alclad matt just to tone it all down a bit. It was an uncomplicated build, no problems noted. There are a couple of bits of silvering on some decals, but apart from that I'm fairly pleased with it. After all, it was supposed to be a chill out build. Not great pictures I'm afraid, my camera isn't up to much.

Here is a review of the CyberHobby 1:72 Vampire kit, including sprue shots: http://imodeler.com/2013/05/imodeler-review-cyberhobby-172-dehavilland-vampire-fb-5/ Sorry if this has been posted before, but I couldn't find anything. Sounds like CyberHobby has been up to its old tricks again - I can't believe that photo of the top/bottom forward fuselage seam. Ugh!! Is this really a new kit, or a re-box of something? Cheers, Bill

Morning sports fans. It a cold icy day here at the Jonnerstad, but there'll be partying on the streets of Oxford this evening if all goes to plan... Anyway in prep for the arrival of the much discussed Trumpeter vampire FB9, as I suggested I'm going to do a double build with Alleycat's resin kit of said Nosferatic di-boomer. It will be a compare and contrast job, and with luck we'll see how the Trumpy kit shapes up. First up though, the current 1/48th "Champeen" ( cue Rocky music....) The kit comes in a sturdy pizza box type carton, and with excellent well printed decals, some canopy masks, and very nice instructions including a stencil placement guide. My FB9 boxing has markings for 213 sqn ( both camo & High Speed Silver), plus another HSS one from 60 Sqn. Parts all come bagged, with clear cast bits, and white metal parts in separate packets. The main body of the Vamp is cast as one piece with separate front fuselage, booms and tailplane The main body has a little casting flash on the very fine & thin wing trailing edges, and the other main components have fairly large casting stubs, BUT they are easy to remove as the connecting edges are well defined and pretty thin. I used a heavy scriber tool to score these or a razor saw. The main body has a plug on the engine exhaust area, which needs removing, and the hole for the separate jet exhaust needs enlarging for this to fit. I used a new scalpel blade to shave it wider, then a piece of coarse foam backed sanding pad rolled into a cone shape to do this. Easy. The stubs on the booms run along the botton edge, and this needs a bit of a sand down after to smooth out the area ( Note- if you have never worked with resin, ALWAYS sand with a mask or outside, or wet sand. While the dust isn't toxic per se, its very fine and you DONT want to inhale it) On my castings there was an area on the tailplane underside where a small area of resin had delaminated - this needed filling with Mr Dissolved Putty and sanding smooth; as did a small blemish on the starboard upper rear inner wing. Nothing too arduous, and do bear in mind that these kits are hand made, so occasionally you will get the odd glitch. Theres a complete lack of any bubbles in the resin surface, and the detail is finely recessed much like a modern IM plastic kit, if not better. As far as I can see all the parts seem to not suffer from any warpage at all- which is testimony to the caster's art indeed. The perfectly cast clear parts are also formed from a transparent resin, and need careful removal from their stubs. I cut them with some stub spare and then sanded this back to the frames. Be warned the clear resin is pretty tough, so take your time. If I were to do this again I'd mask the parts with tape and use a very fine saw to cut much closer. However, as long as you are careful some nice parts emerge, though I think they'll benefit from a dip in Klear/Quick Shine to bring out their clarity. White metal UC legs and elevator balances are finely cast, with the nose wheel fork supplied as a separate part. 3 white metal weights which fit inside the forward fuselage are also included - a thoughtful and much appreciated touch Finally a PE fret provides seat belts, rudder pedals, UC door retraction links, Intake strakes and cockpit levers. Suffice to say that Alleycat's resin model is an excellent kit. If you've used resin conversions parts before, or just fancy a resin kit- then this would be a great introduction. At £45 it isnt cheap, but I would say that this price seems to be about par for resin kits nowadays, so I don't think we can accuse Alleycat of wanton profiteering either! As you can see I need to remove a few more parts form their stubs and clean them up. Then we'll hold for the Trumpy kit to arrive, so we can start to examine the parts against each other, and some plans from a source that I think we can all trust. TBC..... Jonners

So here it is a kit kindly given to me by a fellow BM member well over a year ago! I have kept looking at it and putting it away as its a bit different to what I'm used too. I'm not planning on starting it till the dragon vulcan b1s are done that said I want to build it this year but I need some advice in the mean time about the nature and methods of such a kit. I know little about the history of the kit but if looks unusual to me The fit it terrible on the fuselarge halfs I could fit my leg in there. The plastic is very sence and feels like resin The vac form canopy scares me as I have never done a vac form So if any of you chaps want to share tips and maybe photos of how I can improve the kit and the interior that would be welcome along with general discussion on variants schemes takes as I love the venom and would like to learn more so ..,, Here she is: She looks cute that's for sure ill probably build my plastyk sea venom alongside too Cheers Rob

My first completion of this marvellous little kit, and what else but a naval variant! Like others who have posted, I had difficulties with the position of the internal intake trunks (I seem to have fitted them slightly too low) with the result that I had some trouble fitting the lower wings (clothes pegs and Tippex to the rescue). My external intakes were also a little out of position, needing a little filler to hide the gaps. Airfix supply 2 pilot figures who look a little too modern for my tastes, so have been swapped for some older ones (who now look a little short!). The very fine 3-part canopy assembly is really very thin (almost vac-form in dimensions); as a result you have to be extremely careful when separating it from the sprue, especially as the sprue attachments are in fairly tricky and critical positions (on all 3 parts). This is helped by the unusually flexible and resilient translucent plastic, but could be problem for the less dextrous or patient modeller! Brush painting "silver" aircraft like these is always a challenge, even more so with the fluorescent panels. I used Humbrol Metalcote polished aluminium for the main fuselage and wings, applying 3 coats thinned with a little white spirit to slow drying and help it to self-level, before a Klear top-coat to seal in the decals. The fluorescent panels received a white undercoat, then 2 coats of the new Humbrol 209 Fire Orange. I had hoped that this would be easier to apply than the difficult Revell fluorescents I have used in the past, but the Humbrol paint is very translucent and still needs several coats to get an even covering. It is also gloss (unlike Revell), which means it seems to be intrinsically thicker, (and given its translucency I didn't want to thin any further), making the chances of brush marks or runs much higher. Finally, I added some simple wire ejector seat handles to my seats and a plastic strip radio aerial on the port upper boom, but otherwise the kit is built out the box. Nose weight is essential for these twin boom kits and the construction sequence allows you to add it at a late stage through the belly gun-pack fairing. Decals for an RN aircraft are my own selection from the spare transfers box, plus some home-made ones for the serial and side numbers, although I see that Hannants have some professional after-market ones coming along very soon! The home-made approach using clear inkjet decal paper has worked well for me before, but was a qualified success this time; for some reason the decals curled outward when applied to the kit, requiring liberal application of Klear to try and settle them on the surface. Nonetheless, a very enjoyable little model and the second build (another T.22) is now on the stocks and making good progress. FredT

For all of you Britmodellers on Facebook I've a little treat for you. I've loaded up the pics I took in the museum at Gardemoen, Norway 2 years ago. The collection is mostly aircraft used by the Norwegian Air Force but there's a couple of bonus planes in there! There are a Spitfire Mk IXc and PR Mk XI, Junkers Ju52, Heinkel He111P, Vampire single and twin seaters, 2 different F-84's, F-86 Sabres and Sabre Dogs, F-104 Starfighter twin seater, F-5A and B Tigers. Not the biggest collection in the world by any means but well worth a look if your ever near Gardemoen (about 1/2 hour out of Oslo). Handy for me that it's only 15 mins drive from where my sister lives! Please not that I'm not a great photographer but I hope some shots might be interesting or useful (The F-5's gunbay might help some modellers!). http://www.facebook.com/pages/MJW-Models/449805648412274 If you like the pics and want to see more museum/air display pics, please like the page and I'll post some pics from Flying Legends at Duxford too. thanks Mike

Just finished Airfix's latest, and what a superb little kit it turned out to be. No fit issues, a little filler required here and there, a nice cockpit and a wonderfully thin canopy. It captures the sit-up-and-beg look of the real Vampire T.11 perfectly, and the method for attaching the wings and booms has banished all memories of misaligned tailbooms on other Vampire kits permanently. It will not be the last Airfix Vampire that crosses my bench, that's for sure. Hmm... Norway... Kit built out of the box with addition of masking tape seatbelts. Painted with Vallejo Model Air (first time- very impressed) Aluminium and varnished with Alclad matt clear lacquer. Decals by Bright Spark.

Bonjour! In prep for the Alleycat vs Trumpeter vampire build-off, I'm just researching a few schemes. Now the overall blue Aeronavale one looks good, and I have the Eurodecals sheet with markings for that. But the other one whats caught the old eye is for an Armee De L'Air scheme, nicknamed "frog" ( Gallic self referential sense of humour, je crois que non!) which looks like an overall khaki green top with a sort of blue grey underside. But does anyone have any info on the colours? The CA Vampire boxing with the French decals had this scheme - so if anyone has that - then I would love to see what the instructions called for? Cheers Jeannoirs

Sea Vampire F1 LZ551 pics from Phil Chapman (Vulcanicity)