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As I mentioned in the chat, I fancy a bit of a challenge this time, so I’m going for Airfix’s Vampire in 1/48: All still in the bags right now, even if they have been opened at some point to fondle the plastic: Scheme is yet to be decided, but there’s a couple of things winging their way from the Big H (and I’m not referring to the man obsessed with pink primer) to help with that. From a quick skim over the instructions for both versions, it seems all of the parts are in the kit to make an FB3 as well, which might sway the scheme choice. I’ll have a better look to check before the off though. Roll on Friday! James

Ready for decals. A 1/48th - Airfix - DH Vampire FB.5 - markings from N°98 Sqn RAF Germany based at Faßberg in 1953. V.P.

Pilots Replicas is working on a family of 1/48th de Havilland DH.115 Vampire Trainer (two seats) kits. Source: https://www.facebook.com/390440134419981/photos/a.390448977752430/2158553184275325/ V.P.

Hi All, As I posted my DH Venom to RFI section together with a family shot of DH twin-boomers, I realised that I have never posted an RFI of my Vampire mk.I that I completed three years ago. So fixing a mistake now. I built this Vampire some time ago in parallel with Clear Prop's Gloster Whittle as the first production Vampire TG274 that was sent to Boscombe Down in April for trials and stayed there until it crash landed in October 1945. So this one never saw any operational use remaining a purely testing airframe. Special Hobby kit has already been for a while on the market and a lot of completed models were seen here so probably no need to talk a lot on the kit. One big fix that I attempted was an adjustment of the wing chord by cutting the leading edge and extending the intake lips to rectify the wing chord error made by Special Hobby. The error could not be fully removed by just cutting the leading edge, but anyway makes the Vampire looking less like a flying wing. More on that and on some other corrections is in my WIP thread. Otherwise the model is made out of the box with addition of CMK resin wheels. I also added some aerials and a landing light under the port wing and replaced the pitot which has been consumed by the Carpet Monster. The model was painted in typical RAF Day Fighter Scheme colors Dark Green, Ocean Grey and Medium Sea Grey - all paints are Tamiya Acrylics. Together with type C roundels with brownish red this scheme gives Vampire a very WWII look compared with post war scheme with silver undersides and Dark Sea Grey instead of lighter and blueish Ocean Grey. Hope you like it! Thanks in advance for any comments and appreciation! Cheers, Dennis

I'd like to share with you my new model - DH. Vampire Mk.I from Special Hobby in 1/72. Painting with Tamiya XF-82 Ocean Gray (RAF), AK Interactive RAF Medium Sea Gray BS381C/637 and Revell 68 Dark Green RAF. Dark wash from MIG Ammo. Finishing with Revell Clear matt. Unfortunately, the decals for the lower RAF roundels were damaged and I replaced them with decals from A-Model kit, which have a much lighter blue color. My bad. Thanks in advance for your comments.

My recently built Vampire model. It turned out that I had two Vampire FB.6 ´Pinocchio Nose´ kits from Special Hobby. Since their kits can be used to build different modifications, I decided to build a British FB.5 and purchased a decal from Xtradecal (X72191). This is Vampire FB.5 from 118 Sqn RAF Fassberg, Germany, 'Operation Coronet', 1953 (Exercises of the air forces of all NATO members over continental Europe). Work on the model was carried out in parallel with the Swiss Vampire: Painting with Tamiya colors (mix for PRU Blue) and Revell 68 Dark Green RAF. Dark wash from MIG Ammo. Finishing with Revell Clear matt. At the end - my Vampire fleet.

I would like to share with you my new model - DH. Vampire FB.6 ´Pinocchio Nose´ from Special Hobby. The kit contains resin parts for tanks and rockets. Colors: enamel Bright aluminium from AKAN (manufacturer from Russia, purchased more than 10 years ago) Dark wash from MIG Ammo. Decals by Cartograf are the best I've seen. Finishing with satin varnish (just a mix of Revell Clear gloss and matt). Thanks in advance for your comments.

Luftosvaret De Havilland DH100 Vampire FB Mk.52, Skvadron 337 Vaernes Air Station, 1953. Tiny little Vampire was nice little kit that I just planned to do 'in-between' - but proved to be more fun than I expected. I might re-visit 1:144 scale again in the future! Painted with Vallejo acrylics and weathered with Ammo products. And no, I still haven't managed to build a Vampire that is not a tail-sitter! So this one received a clear peg under its belly to keep it up

Hello everyone, Here’s my latest completion, the 1/72 Airfix T.11 Vampire, built as a T.35A Vampire of 2 Operational Conversion Unit, Royal Australian Air Force, c.1967. I don’t usually build jets (the last jet I built was over 10 years ago), so this is something a little different for me. The kit is another little gem from Airfix. The only fit problem I had with at the lower wing panel roots, and at the roots for the horizontal stabliser pieces, but these weren’t too much of an issue. I did replace the kit cockpit with the Pavla resin set, which I really think helps to set off the busy and cramped look of the cockpit. I also lost the nose gear side door at some point, so had to scratch build another. The glazing also needed a bit of a polish, but it fit like a dream. I had to mask and spray both the outside and the inside given that massive canopy was going to be displayed open. The model was finished with Alclad RAF high speed silver over gloss black, with the day glow being a mix of SMS Fluro Orange and SMS Fluro Red. Decals came from Xtra Decals. These decals went down nicely, but I did still have some issues with adhesion and cracking / tearing, even after clear coating (some of which required some fairly clumsy repairs – don’t look too hard….). I am still yet to master this brand, I must admit. I made a small base for this one, representing a small piece of tarmac (a pre-printed piece of cardboard), a unit patch, and a small label. The ladders and chocks were scratch built. All in all, this one took about 6 weeks from start to finish. This is a great little kit from Airfix which goes together well and looks great. Just make sure you add enough nose weight into the front end 😊 Thanks for looking – all comments and feedback welcomed! Cheers, BC

Hello everyone - here’s my latest project; the nice little Airfix T.11 Vampire trainer. I’ll start by saying, I don’t generally build jets. In fact, the last jet I built was well over 10 years ago (or more now)… So this will be a little bit of a diversion from my usual propellered fare. I intend on building this as a RAAF T.35A (which was pretty much is a T.11, at least externally, from what I understand). The RAAF flew the Vampire trainer for quite a few years, so there’s a few schemes to choose from (all of them pretty much silver overall, however quite a few wore various patterns of high-visibility / day-glow orange). I am thinking about a 2 Operational Conversion Unit (2OCU) machine from the late 1960s, with some splashes of day-glow orange. Needless to say, due to a fairly limited knowledge of the aircraft itself, I’ve decided to keep this one fairly simple. By all reports, the Airfix kit is lovely, with few vices. That being said, I did want to up the detail levels in the cockpit (the kit seats in particular are prominent, and, well, a bit plain). Somewhere along the line I had picked up the Pavla cockpit set for this one, so I decided to go with that. Detail on the set is nice, but a bit soft in quite a few places. Not knowing much about the Vampire, I pretty much left the cockpit set as is. The cockpit fits well enough, which is a bonus. Vampire cockpits are essentially all black, which on one hand is great (because it hides most things, such as my poor painting skills), but on the other hand it means that the detail can get lost in the dark gloom. So I painted mine dark grey, with quite a bit of high contrast dry brushing to pop out the detail. This was especially tricky on the instrument panel, where the raised dial details are quite faint. Careful dry brushing was needed here, coupled with an appropriate wash, and blobs of white glue for the glass on the dials. It all still looks a bit ho-hum, but given the panel is relatively small and will be a bit hard to see, I was happy enough with the end effect. Here is the interior with some paint on it. So far, so good… Anyone have any tips for building this kit? I have already looked to fill the large sink marks along the upper surface of the wing trailing edge. I also thought about dropping the flaps but I think that this will be a bit too tricky given the engineering of the Airfix kit. Cheers for looking, and feedback always welcomed! BC

Having recently finished building the lovely 1/72 Tamiya PR Mosquito in the Recce GB, I was looking to build a DH Hornet for this GB. Unfortunately, the two main offerings which are readily available (AZ and Special Hobby) seem to have some issues. I appreciate that others can cope with these, but in my limited experience of aircraft modelling I thought it was best to give them a miss at the moment. I did have my eye on the new Airfix vampire, but prefer the lines of the single seater. I then discovered the Cyber-Hobby Vampire FB.5 which gets some good reviews, so fingers crossed. I will be doing it in the 607 RAuxAF, RAF Ouston, 1956 markings for the below reason: In 1981 at the age of 16 and 2 weeks I got on a train in Cambridgeshire, next stop Newcastle. I was met by some ugly blokes in green uniforms, then after a 20 min trip in the back of a Bedford truck we arrived at my home for the next few months, Albemarle Barracks (AKA RAF Ouston). I had officially joined Her Majesty’s Army, Royal Corps of Signals! Anyway, to cut a long story short I used to run up and down the runways of RAF Ouston almost every day. Little did I know my feet were treading on the remnants of tyre marks made by Hurricanes, Spitfires, Defiants, Mustangs, Typhoons, etc. Oh and of course Vampires! George

Hi all, After some time away from CAD modelling and 3D printing, I'm back with new products! These are intended as a direct drop-in replacement for Airfix's 1/48 Vampire F3. Postage is, £4 (UK) and £8 (international). Drop me a message if you would like a kit. F1 Conversion - £15 CAD Individual parts breakdown https://www.facebook.com/WellsPropsModels/photos/a.107592737843774/335846051685107/ FB6 Conversion - £15 Long nose (with nose door) New cockpit (with integral ejection seat) Control stick Export variant main wheels As can be seen above, the cockpit is a one peice direct replacement for the Airfix kit part. As an optional extra, I intend to include the external fuel tanks and rockets. FB30/31 - £15 Elephant Ears intakes Export variant main wheels Control stick ADF Nose Bulge Cockpit (and ejection seat) Seamless Exhaust - £4 (+£2.50 postage UK only) Cheers Ben

HI Britmodellers, I am excited to present a build of the Airfix 1/48 Vampire with the brand new WellsProp conversion kit to make an FB.6. After the great success of the FB.1 conversion WellsProp hat offered another drop in conversion which allows us to make some seriously cool Swiss airframes... I'll be using the Matterhorn Circle decal set to make J-1102 with a sharkmouth. This marking was added at the end of her long service life. As you see this means we will also be fading the dayglo orange. The decals were available from Hannants and the sheet covers multiple subjects - the below is just a hint. The FB.6 involved a new nose and was also upgraded with Martin Baker ejection seats. These are provided as direct replacement for the kit parts. The quality is really nice and WellsProp's parts fit very nicely into the kit. You also get the late wheels. I have cleaned the mould release agent off using dish soap in this image. As 3D printed parts it's important to do this. I only had to fettle the locating hole in the nose undercarriage bay a little to get the kit to accept the new cockpit. Here's a dry run without the undercarriage bay parts: The new seat meant moving it further back and hence the cockpit has an inset. It's easy to cut a small amount from the kit upper fuselage to account for this. Looking forward to progressing this one.

The only combat use of RAF Vampire FB.5 and Meteor F.8 took place in 1951-55 during the Operation Firedog. Albeit the photos are known of the High Speed Silver No.60 Sq. Vampire FB.5s (WA237-WA276 range), the pictures of FB.9s (No.45 and No.60 Sq., WG, WL and WR serials) show them in camouflage - presumably DG/DSG over PRU. My question is whether are there any photos (or other documents) confirming existence of CAMOUFLAGED FB.5s over Malaya in 1950-56 period? Was this variant used only by No.60 Squadron? It is said that in April 1952 the ex-No.60 Sq. FB.5s were flown to Kai Tak to equip No.28 Sq. And these a/c (during their Hong Kong period) are sometimes shown as camouflaged. Were they repainted in HK or were they taken already camouflaged from Butterworth? The situation is even worse with Meteor F.8. It is said that only two aircraft were deployed with No.45 Squadron in 1955. No photos, no idea about the looks, even no serials are known to me. Does anybody know more details about these two specimen? Cheers Michael

I started a build in the Heller GB back in 2020 I was going for a quick out of the box build. 3½ weeks later it was ready for paint. But as usual when it comes to painting the build died. But this time I managed to get some paint on it before it went to sleep. Now almost two years later I found some motivation to restart. I started with decals when I saw something on the instructions. Position light in the wing tips. It might look nice but that would mean repainting and I forgot what colours I used . As it turned out, the kit took the decision for me. The letter on the fin sat in the right position and I added some decal fluid to it but when I got back it had moved. As I needed to sand and repaint the fin I could just as well do the position lights as well. Finished for paint (again).

Finally, I’ve managed to finish something! It’s the 1/72 Airfix De Havilland Vampire T.11/J-28C kit, which I started for the 2nd Blitzbuild. I didn’t finish for the deadline, but I did manage to build it in under 24hrs of work. Alterations from the kit are limited to the pitot replaced with Albion Alloys tubing after the kit one snapped off and seatbelts made from tape (first go for me). It was also my first attempt at dot filters. The day glow panels are also painted rather than the kit decals, which didn’t look very convincing. The build thread is here: Comments gratefully received James

Thanks Largescale32 Time to open a dedicated thread, isn't it ? Infinity Models (new plastic injected kit brand from HpH) is to release 1/32nd de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.3/.5 kits. Sources: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235064691-infinity-models/ https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235064691-infinity-models/&do=findComment&comment=3602067 So , now we are waiting the pics! 😉 V.P.

I fancied what I thought would be a simple kit to get back into modelling after a bit of a break, and this new Airfix Vampire kit is great. Apart from a bit of filing needed to fit the fuselage around the cockpit area, and enough noseweight for a workout session, it’s a lovely kit to build and includes all the parts needed to make an FB.5 (and FB.9 I think). All oob except for the aftermarket decals so I could do a City of Manchester aircraft. Based at what is now Manchester airport, these Vampires flew with 613 Sqn until all RAuxAF units disbanded in March 1957. The unit’s CO was also the chief test pilot for Avro at nearby Woodford. All comments welcome!

I picked out a couple of Vampire trainers from the stash. I had purchased a conversion kit for an early T.55 from High Planes Models. In addition to the instructions, there were decals but unfortunately none for a Swedish plane. They were called J 28C in Sweden. Pitot tubes, seats and tail booms with the early fins that the first three J 28C-1's had. And the most important thing. The early canopy with a lot of frames. The booms must be cut and replaced by the resin parts. I'm not totally impressed with the fit of the Airfix model, but it's probably 10 years old by now. I like a black cockpit. All the details disappear so no use to put a lot of work into it. I have drawn a new instrument panel for it that is more reminiscent of the Swedish one compared to the Airfix decal. Since, to my great joy, there are two canopies included in the conversion, I decided to build a J 28C-1 with the later fins as well. Paper instruments here too but I need to use seats from Pavla as there are only parts for one plane in the HPM kit.

Hi, Starting with these two, I'm building a 1/48 scale Airfix Vampire F3 for each of the North Weald based squadrons: 72, 601 & 604. This kit builds well in my experience, with attention needed for nose weight and careful forward fuselage alignment. 72 Squadron markings were assembled from aftermarket sources. This head-on photo, really emphasises the clean lines of the Vampire The Vampires join the existing collection of other North Weald based types: 111sqn Meteor F8 and Black Arrows Hunter (not pictured); and the Spitfire F22, PK624 which was the 604 Squadron hack.

Here's my latest. Definitely not a shake'n'bake kit, there's been a bit of work at my usual glacial pace to get this to the finish line! WIP at: Additions include the Flightpath detail set, brass tube for the exhaust, scratchbuilt lights (nav and landing), antennae, custom decals (and the odd Roodecal/Aussie Decal and Tasman Decals replacements!), etched nose gear door and scratchbuilt speedbrakes. Painted with Humbrol Aluminium, Colourcoats Luftwaffe DayGlo Red (primed with Humbrol 81 as white made the DayGlo too vivid) and Model Master for the remainder. All are enamels. Clear coated in Future and a lightly applied, dark brown wash was used. Reasonably happy with the result (apart from the cracked rear canopy - see WIP for details on that), considering how difficult this was to wrangle into shape. Finally, as a nod to how my skills have developed over the last 35 or so years, here she is with her successor, the Aermacchi MB326H. It's the old ESCI kit built from the box with my own take on the colours and brush painted - this one needs refurbishing! Comments and critiques welcome.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, my next project is Classic Airframes' DH Vampire Trainers kit. I've got the Flightpath detail set for it, too. After lots of work with a razor saw and sanding sticks, it's ready to assemble. I've made a start on the cockpit. Still need to paint the Face Blind Ejection Handles with yellow stripes before fitting it to the fuselage. I also decided to open up the holes in the intakes where they pass through the fuselage, which means you can see through to the inside of the fuselage (slightly). To that end, I scratched up a representation of the engine intake. It's not meant to be accurate, just something that looks like the engine. I'll also replace the exhaust pipe with a piece of aluminium tubing before closing up.

I would like to share with you a model of my favorite aircraft, done not so long ago. This is Azur kit, originally from Special Hobby molds, with decals for the French version. Nice kit. But in some places, putty was required. Model Master paints were used: Navy Blue and Bright Blue - an approximate ratio of 70:30.

So this is what happens when I get an idea in my head and get carried away. I had a look at an "in-box" review of Airfix's new tool Vampire and realised it was designed in such a way that would make a conversion really easy. I bought myself a kit and prepared my CAD mouse. Being fairly organised, I have a spreadsheet with all the kits I plan to build, needless to say, this was not on that list - but I've really enjoyed both the CAD, 3D printing and the kit itself. I decided I wanted something a bit different for the colour scheme, so I chose the Swiss markings (and I'm glad I did). It was brush painted with Hataka Medium Sea Grey on top and Ztracrylic PRU blue beneath, the Swiss cross markings were masked and the decals came from spares. Weathered using Mig Panel Line Wash. I've tried a couple new techniques; firstly, I bought an airbrush, so the satin varnish is airbrushed and, secondly, I am now taking photos using my airbrush spray booth and a big bit of blue-grey card - I'm very happy pleased with the overall result Thanks for looking - and these conversions are available to purchase from me! Ben

Hi folks! You can never have enough projects in progress So I thought in parallel with my other constructions I would commence yet another one. Two very early British jets. A Whittle/Pioneer/E.28/39 from new Ukrainian brand Clear Prop and an almost venerable now Special Hobby kit as a Vampire mk.I. The pair will share same top colours and of course some overlaps for interior painting so I'm looking for some synergy of this micro group build. Cheers, Dennis