Twin-boom Tricolour(s): Irish and Italian Vampires

[Giorgio N]

Thanks guys !

Time to go back to Italy! The first operational unit on the Vampire was 6th Gruppo, previously part of 1st Stormo but moving to 4th during the re-equipment with DH fighters. This unit drew their Vampires (and their pilots) from NAVAR and officially started operations on August 27th 1951. Less than 30 days later the unit was in Germany for their first NATO exercise, after which they received the praise of many, including Gen. Eisenhower himself. In true Italian fashion, the unit soon started organising an internal aerobatic team and the first exhibition was the following year in Belgium. The Group then moved to 6th Stormo and this had in 1952 almost 40 Vampires on strength... and then was the first to leave them.

Just when the equipment of units with the Vampire was in full swing, the world was changing. As mentioned above a war was being fought in a country far away and that country was Korea. Here the American and their allies had discovered that the Soviets had not been resting on their laurels after WW2 but had worked hard. The result was that their MiG-15 was equal and in some aspects even superior to the most modern US fighters. For Britain the rude awakening came on July 29th 1951, when the RAAF 77 Sqn. Meteors first met the MiG-15. This and the following battles showed that Fighter Command's most advanced interceptor was hopelessly obsolete against the more modern fighters.

These events caused an immediate rush in the development of new fighters, most of which are not too relevant here. What is relevant here is that the basis of DH and Italy plans were now proven wrong. DH was well aware of the potential of swept wings for high speed aircraft and had worked on the concept themselves with the DH.108. They however believed that swept wings would have seen introduction into service gradually and saw the ideal evolution of jet fighters in this way:

1st generation: jet engine and straight wings (the Vampire)

2nd generation: introduction of swept leading edges allowing higher transonic speed (Venom)

3rd generation: full swept wings allowing supersonic speed (future types based on the work made with the DH.108)

The problem for DH was that others did not think that way and most skipped swept leading edges moving straight to proper swept wing designs. This meant that DH ended up being half a generation behind their competitors. While many air forces used the Vampire, very few replaced them with Venoms and the type was used mostly for ground attack missions.

DH plans to dominate the fighter market were already in danger for technological reasons when something even worse happened: the US made their types available practically for free... but this will be another chapter in this story.

 

Finally, let's see some work on the intakes.... the Special Hobby ones are bad, the Airfix ones are good. Using the Airfix parts on the SH kit is an option worth exploring but as I didn't want to buy an Airfix kit for the intakes only I simply cloned the Airfix parts in resin, something that I did easily. I've been casting my own resin parts for a few years now and while some parts are still difficult, I can do most without too much trouble. These intakes actually came out better than I expected.

The problem is, will they fit ? Of course they don't and I knew it before so I grabbed the first cloned intake, trimmed the part where it meets the wing, cut a small slice on the other side and tried to tack it in place with plasticene on the SH model. Here's the result

 

 

A gap at the rear on the top. I knew it before, simply both companies separated the intakes at a different location. IMHO no big deal, I can add plastic to the wing to close this gap. Fit at the wing root is not bad, maybe some sanding will be required.

 

 

Gap is a bit wider at the bottom, again no big problem. I may have to sand the root at a slight angle to have the intake fit better where it meets the wing. Again no big deal

 

 

Now things seen from the front are a different story... the Airfix parts are way thicker than the SH ones, the two wing profiles are very different. I still believe that I can sort this with careful sanding but I'm wondering if it's worth the hassle. Remember that this model will be painted in overall aluminum, the area will have to be properly prepared if I want a decent finish.

At the moment I've decided to... wait ! There's a big modelling show this weekend in my city and I may see if any vendor have one of the SH Vampire boxes with the improved intakes. If so, I may make resin copies of those rather than adapt the Airfix parts. Those should fit way better... even if they are not as good as the Airfix ones in shape

 

Edited September 27, 2018 by Giorgio N

[John Masters]

What an excellent short history of the demise of de Havilland as a fighter jet company.  And the kits are looking very fine.

[Giorgio N]

Thanks John ! Of course there's more to the problems that DH and other British companies had in those years and this subject could fill many pages of discussion. Without entering in the debate, I'll just mention that the appearance of the MiG-15 in Korea affected every European air force. The RAF itself had nothing to counter such threat as the Hunter first took to the air only one week before the Meteors first fought the MiG-15s. For this reason a good number of Canadair built Sabres were delivered to Britain. And as often has happened in this thread, these will come back in our story...

And now for a bit of general history.. One thing we often forget is that Europe was financially broken after WW2. The defeated countries had almost nothing left, the other countries on the continent had been ravaged by years of Nazi occupation and even Britain had to use so many resources that money was very scarce. The US on the other hand had plenty of resources and decided to use part of these to help rebuild their European allies. The reasons were of course not strictly humanitarian, there were sound economic and political reasons. The presence of American soldiers in many European countries during the liberation of Europe had also put many Europeans in contact with a new way of life and to those who had suffered years of war this way of life looked great ! The GIs run around in their jeeps drinking Coke and smoking cigarettes with exotic names, they fraternised with populations who had suffered constant abuses from the Germans, they offered chocolate to the kids. Of course it wasn't always fun and happyness and there were problems but on the whole the Americans were seen very positively. Even more important, they brought to Europe a new idea of freedom and  a more open society.

These things happened in italy as well and the fact that Italian immigration to the US had been strong also helped seeing the Americans as very close. Something similar happened at the higher levels... As said in a previous post, the British government had started working hard well before the end of the war to restore British prestige and influence in the Mediterranean. The close ties that many in the British establishment had with members of the Italian aristocracy were useful, the ties built during the cobelligerance years were pretty close. Italy however had changed during the war, particularly during the two years since the Armistice of September 1943. Many had fought in partisan formations against the Germans and the Italian society, particularly in the North wanted more participation. The old pre-fascist era parties could not represent the new society that had formed in the German-occupied part of the Country and a new elite came to the light. Most of these men had fought against fascism since the early days and their ideas had intercepted many changes in society that had occurred even before the war, when Italy moved towards industrialisation. Italy had changed but Britain didn't notice. British diplomats behaved like in the old colonial days, US diplomats on the other hand spoke a more modern language, more in tune with the way italians felt in 1946

I'm already using too much space here and I'll not go in detail into the many reasons why British influence quickly vanished in the post-war years, what matters most is that with the start of the Cold War Italy became closer and closer to the US. The US also had something to offer that Britain did not have: money. Plenty of money ! Money used to help rebuilding the country and later money to modernise the armed forces.

When it comes to defence, initially US funds were made available to NATO regardless of the final destination of the money spent. The Hunter program for example received a lot of US funds and so did other programs like the French Mystere. At some point however the US decided to make the most of it, they would have put the money but that had to go into US products. With the Soviet forces being more modern than anticipated, there was only one thing to do: make available the more modern US types, the Sabre and the Thunderjet/Thunderstreak. Italy was of course one of the countries that received US aids under MDAP and this impacted the Vampire career. 6th Stormo replaced the Vampire with F-84Gs in 1953, little more than a year after they received the DH fighter.

 

I finally made a decision on the intakes and it was a simple decision: as the GB is very close to the end I had to choose the fastest option and the fastest option is using the original SH intakes. Unfortunately I couldn't find an F.3 at the model show so no way to try the improved SH parts and I realised that sorting the Airfix cloned parts would have taken longer. At least I found a few interesting kits at the show..

Once I decided, I glued the intakes and the wingtips. These are moulded in clear plastic and are not a great fit.

 

 

When seen from the front, the intakes are not really good but I'll live with it

 

 

At that point it was just a matter of gluing the windscreen in place and priming the model

 

 

I used Tamiya's spray primer, as this dries fast I could then start spraying some proper paint, starting with the undersides

 

 

I have used Vallejo Air aluminum, this sprays really well but looking at the painted undersurfaces it looks too bright to me. The best option would be to mix some grey with it to tone the finish down. However I'll go with a different approach and I'll spray a final satin varnish cover on the model to achieve a similar effect.

[John Masters]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

it looks too bright to me

That might be true.  I have found that the Vallejo Air dries 'down' a bit.  

 

Your vamp is looking really great.  And thanks for the history.  The early Cold War was such a dynamic time and set the stage for the US to dominate the remainder of the century in many ways, some would say by utilizing a post-modern colonial approach.  That's all I'm going to say about that!

 

 

[Giorgio N]

Back after a week working on site, something that I like but usually leaves me wrecked for a couple of days... fortunately the new deadline means I can try finish at least one of the two Vampires.

Let's see the Italian one as this is a bit further forward than the Irish one. We had left the Vampires entering service with 4th Stormo in 1951 and I briefly mentioned that 6th Stormo left them in 1953. Overall the DH fighters served in the following frontline units:

4th Stormo, from 1951 to 1956 (replaced with Canadair Sabre Mk.4)

6th Stormo, from 1952 to 1953 (replaced with F-84G)

2nd Stormo, from 1955 to 1958 (replaced with Canadair Sabre Mk.4)

As can be seen the Vampire served for quite some time, 7 years  overall in the early '50s was quite a long time as aircraft development was very fast in those days. To give a rough idea of how things were changing, in 1951 the Spitfire was still operational in the RAF while 1958 saw the first flight of the Phantom II...

The delivery of Vampires to the combat units is not linear and 2nd Stormo received their aircraft later than the other units. This was the result of a "rebuild" program that the Air Force started in 1954 that saw 58 Vampires sent to Macchi with the intention of receiving 45 rebuilt aircraft. All these were delivered to 2nd Stormo in 1955. Or were they ???

I'll answer this question in the next chapter of this story, in the meantime it's worth noting that 2 units replaced the Vampire with Sabres and these were not US built. They were in fact Canadair Mk-4 that had previously seen service with the RAF. These were given by the US under MDAP and when the Hunter finally entered service they were made redundant. Being MDAP funded aircraft, they were US property and the Americans decided to have the Sabres overhauled in Britain and delivered to a number of NATO forces, including Italy. Many here will remember that the first issue of the Airfix Sabre kit included decals for a 4th Stormo aircraft (and I will one day build this too...). Didn't I mention earlier that the RAF Sabres would have returned in this story ?

 

The model has now received a coat of paint on the upper surfaces too. Actually I also repainted the lower surfaces as I had found a couple of spots that required attention and dealt with them. This meant repriming and respraying... let's say that fit is not good everywhere in this kit.

 

 

[John Masters]

Looking very nice Giorgio.  Thank you for the continuing history of these aircraft.  Fascinating.  Yes, indeed, development was extremely fast in the 1950s and 60s.

[Giorgio N]

Thanks John !

I should add that the dates I mentioned are for the Vampires in frontline units, a number remained in service for another year or two in secondary roles, with the test flight unit and with a number of commands as hacks.

Speaking of hacks, the Milan Air Zone Command used at least one into 1959 and being from there I'm tempted of building this aircraft ! It would make more sense however to build an aircraft from one of the 3 frontline units and here the decision is not easy. There are several pictures of Italian Vampires around but in not that many it's possible to see all colour details. Speaking of colours and markings, the situation is this:

Colour scheme: overall aluminum paint. Many had an antiglare panel in dark green, others didn't. Of the ones with the antiglare panels, some had the lower part in a different colour, probably red. This was likely a unit specific marking of some of 4th Stormo aircraft.

Stencils... in theory the DH built aircraft should have stencils in English, the ones built in Italy in Italian. Italian language stencils were also applied to DH built Vampires during major maintenance. All aircraft part of the lot sent to Macchi to be "rebuilt" had stencils in Italian (and the last ones also had MB Mk.4 ejection seats...) but as I said, more on these later... The problem is that even some very early Vampires that should have been from DH seem to have stencils in Italian ! Maybe DH delivered these with italian stencils from the start.

A number of 4th Stormo aircraft had black bands on the wings and tailbooms, some on the wings only. These bands are often associated with the aircraft used by the Cavallino Rampante aerobatic team, but they were actually applied to aircraft taking part in exercises in Germany.

The presentation of codes was standard for Italian aircraft, the Stormo number followed by the roundel followed by the individual number. The very first Vampires used by 4th Stormo however had the codes of NAVAR (S3-xxx) and these were also under the wings. Underwing codes don't seem to have been present on Vampires from other units.

Roundels were initially under the wings and on the tailbooms, later they were added over the wing.

 

In modelling terms, the colour scheme is no problem and is done. The stencils are a bit of a problem... most were identical in Italian and English, for example the various DTD markings. Others differed quite a lot. The SH kit stencils are mostly unreadeable so I may simply use the English ones and they'd pass for Italian. Some however can be read and should be replaced with stencils in Italian. I can print these on my laser so no problem, apart from the time it takes to draw them.

I'm very tempted of building an aircraft with black bands, the best known is 4-16 that had bands around the wings only. This is however the subject that everybody represents in model form ! 4-11 also carried bands on the wings only and was one of the Vampires used by the aerobatic team. Unfortunately the picture I have does not show the nose so I don't know if this aircratt had an antiglare panel. I have another picture where the code may be 4-11 and this shows no antiglare.

3-192 was another 4th Stormo aircraft, this time with black bands on both wings and fuselages (and the subject in one or Mark 1 1/144 kits), this is clearly shown with no antiglare panel and sure is a candidate.

Then there are 6-2 and 6-10 both of 6th Stormo that are clearly visible in pictures with no bands and no antiglare. These would be pretty easy but this unit only had the Vampire for a short time...

Finally I have pictures of a number of 2nd Stormo Vampires, all clearly visible, all with antiglare panel and roundels over the wings as well as below.

Speaking of Stormi, as I don't have specific decals for the Vampire all unit markings have to come from the spares box or be printed. I have several 4th Stormo markings in a number of sheets dedicated to WW2 fighters, there are some small differences between these and the ones used on the Vampire but nothing that can't be sorted with a cutter and a small brush. 4th Stormo also initially used a badge with no white under their prancing horse and I could easily print this variant on my laser.

The situation with 6th Stormo is even easier, as I have some badges again in sheets dedicated to WW2 fighters but at first glance the markings are identical. I only have to check the sizes but they look similar.

Different story for 2nd Stormo, I don't have any badge of the right size, the ones I have are for G.91s and look larger.

With the above in mind, I'm focusing on an early 4th Stormo aircraft. I'm happy with adding the black bands on the wings but if I can avoid masking the tailbooms I'm happier. Same with the antiglare panel, it's a feature typical of the Italian Vampires but with little time before the end of the GB I'm happy to avoid masking. So at the moment my plan is to build 4-11, with black bands on the wings and no antiglare panel. Roundels will come from tauromodel sheets, numbers and Stormo insignia will be drawn and homeprinted, most stencils will come from the SH box but others will be homemade. Sounds like a plan...

 

[John Masters]

You should publish a book on the subject!

 

'Vampires in Italy'...'Vampiri Italiani'

Edited October 16, 2018 by John D.C. Masters

[Giorgio N]

17 minutes ago, John D.C. Masters said:

You should publish a book on the subject!

 

'Vampires in Italy'...'Vampiri Italiani'

 

Don't think I could... all I know comes from other books already on the market 😁

 

First I can suggest is Di Terlizzi-Mattioli's "DH Vampire in Italian Service" that is still widely available and has notes for the modeller

 

https://www.amazon.it/Havilland-Vampire-italian-service-italiana/dp/8875650209

 

Then I'd suggest the Aerofan Special Nr. 5 titled "I Vampire Italiani" written by Cattaneo & Massimello, that is where I'm taking most of my historical notes from.

Both books are bilingual Italian / English

 

Edit: the books above focus on the history of the Vampire in Italian service and various technical details. They don't include the kind of general background that I added, this comes from a number of other sources. Some information on Italian Vampires can also be found on publications that discuss the type

Edited October 16, 2018 by Giorgio N

[Giorgio N]

As in my previous post I discussed the identity of "my" Vampire, it's time to talk about another case of identity that involved the real Italian aircraft... let's start from this post from Pete:

 

On 6/21/2018 at 8:44 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Just a small bit of information to add.

Years ago in Riyadh on the RSAF air base I came across a large wooden 

packing case full of Vampire tail booms. They all had Italian build/information tags.

 

In a later post I wrote: "The delivery of Vampires to the combat units is not linear and 2nd Stormo received their aircraft later than the other units. This was the result of a "rebuild" program that the Air Force started in 1954 that saw 58 Vampires sent to Macchi with the intention of receiving 45 rebuilt aircraft. All these were delivered to 2nd Stormo in 1955. Or were they ???"

 

Well, the two stories are very closely connected ! In fact those 58 Vampires were not rebuilt but were refurbished and sold to Egypt !

What follows here is a story that IMHO would be worth a movie and is a perfect example of the way diplomacy works, particularly in the Middle East.

Egypt's first jet was the Gloster Meteor, with the first delivered in 1949. In the same years the first Vampires were ordered from DH. Egypt in 1949 was officially an independent monarchy but practically was little more than a British protectorate and the king was seen by many in the Country as a puppet controlled by London. I'll not go into all the details that led to these events, and I suggest anyone interested to search for more info as it's a fascinating subject, but in 1952 a coup led by a group of mainly Air Force officers resulted in the establishment of a republic led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. The new government was firmly in favour of total independence of Egypt and this was not well seen in London, particularly because of the interests many companies had in the area, first of all the control of the Suez Canal. Really Nasser was not against Britain per se and he and the government were in favour of keeping strong ties with London, of course under the condition of having the Egyptians control the resources in their own country. For this reason the Egyptian Air Force continued to look at Britain for equipment. These efforts were met with mixed results as in British government there were very mixed feelings about the new Egyptian government. Some contracts were fulfilled, others were cancelled, embargoes were placed and lifted.

It was in this situation that in 1953 an opportunity arose for Italy to sell to Egypt a number of second hand Vampires. There were however a few problems... for a starter the Italian military forces were not allowed by law to sell efficient military equipment. Then there was the problem that Egypt was under embargo from Britain, something that would have prevented the sale of aircraft produced under licence from a British company. With these problems in theory the sale was impossible but we all know that when there's a will... and here all parties involved and even some not in theory involved had a strong will !

For Italy the sale was a good commercial opportunity. This however was not the most important aspect, the most impoirtant was the Italy was in those years closing several deals with a number of Middle Eastern countries for the joint exploitation of oil resources through ENI, the state owned oil company recently established under the guide of Enrico Mattei (who was later killed in a plane accident caused by sabotage...). The Vampire sale was a good way to strengthen the ties with Egypt.

Britain in theory was against Egypt and was trying everything to dislodge Nasser and bring a new puppet government in Cairo. At the same time the sale of these aircraft could mean money in DH pockets and the company was in favour as they could not sell Vampires directly. It also meant that Egypt would have continued to use British combat types, so keeping them closer to Britain at a time when the Soviet Union started offering their MiGs. It was a case of yes, we hate them but better close to us than to someone else.

Then there were the US... the US oavernment was in those days quite in favour of movements like Nasser's, they saw them as they were, nationalists that wanted modernisation. They didn't care if this meant kicking British and French colonial interests off these countries as they knew that the age of colonies was over and independent countries would have been better markets for them. The US was also concerned about any potential approach from Egypt to the Soviet Union, it was important to keep Egypt as aligned as possible to the Western world.

So everybody in Rome, Cairo, London and Washington had good reasons to see the sale go ahead, it was at that point necessary to find a way to close the deal without infringing Italian laws and without breeching the British embargo against Egypt. Here comes the rebuild program... The Italian Air Force would have sent 58 Vampires back to Macchi, officially to have 45 of them rebuilt. Macchi refurbsihed these 58 and officially sold them to Syria, a country with close ties to Egypt that was not under British Embargo. Syria would have then sold the Vampires to Egypt. In the meantime Macchi would have built 45 new Vampires for the italian Air Force.

In order to maintain as much secrecy as possible, the 45 new build aircraft for Italy received the same serial numbers of aircraft actually sent to Egypt. Most of these were as I said before issued to 2nd Stormo. The Italian built Vampires served alongside the DH built ones until replaced by more modern Soviet types.

During the time the sale went through the embargo was at some point lifted and Egypt received another few Vampires directly from DH, then the Suez affair changed everything... Again, this is only a brief summary of the whole story, part of this can be found in Brian Cull's "Wings Over Suez" (a great book), other parts in the Italian books I mentioned above.

In 1957 Egypt donated 4 Vampire FB.52 to Saudi Arabia as a gesture in an effort to improve relations. These were found to be ideal first jets by the local pilots (or whoever the RSAF employed as pilot...) and later another 15 were donated. This is how some Vampires with Italian stencils ended up in crates in Riyadh to be found by Pete many years later.

 

I find the story of the Italo-Egyptian Vampires so interesting that my progress on the model is almost not important... not much to show apart from the  black bands I airbrushed over the wings. I've now decided to build 4-11 as it's the simpler option while at the same time being an interesting aircraft.

 

 

It took me a lot of time to decide the width of the bands. I based this on pictures alone as the few drawings I found don't agree with the pictures... in case of disagreement between drawing and picture I always follow the picture.

I'm not convinced that the bands look totally right, they may have been a touch wider. However they fit with the various features on the wing. It could well be that the SH wing is not accurate and this throws the proportions of the bands slightly off. Maybe I'm just overcritical... I accepted the inaccurate intakes, I can accept slightly inaccurate bands 😁

 

I've also removed all masks from the canopy and windscreen. These will now be painted, the picture already shows the black primer applied to the frames. Black primer is perfect here as the inside of the frame was in black and this primer (Vallejo's) is very good under metal paints.

 

I can now start applying decals. The roundels will come from this old decal sheet

 

 

The sheet has roundels for the Vampire, although these are for the later scheme with 6 roundels. The fuselage roundel is the same size, not sure about the ones under the wing. No big deal in any case, I have other generic sheets of Italian roundels and plenty in the spare box. The Tauro decals don't look great on the sheet but I have to say that some close-up pictures of the Vampires show roundels not perfectly painted either...

 

 

[Col.]

Another fascinating post Giorgio, thank you, as you say the political intrigue involved in those times would make for a great if potentially confusing film.

[Giorgio N]

Thanks Col !

Should anyone make a movie on the subject, there should be a role for someone like John Cleese, he'd be perfect to convey the sense of farce I got when I first read of this.. 😁

 

[Grandboof]

Looking good Giorgio Those black bands look great 

Martin H

[John Masters]

Yes indeed.  Looking very sharp!

[Pete in Lincs]

Ah, Politics and diplomacy. A great story, Giorgio.

Have you ever watched an old British TV comedy called Yes Minister?

This sounds just like one of their scripts!

 

[Col.]

11 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Ah, Politics and diplomacy. A great story, Giorgio.

Have you ever watched an old British TV comedy called Yes Minister?

This sounds just like one of their scripts!

 

I was thinking exactly the same Pete  

[Giorgio N]

Thanks folks, glad you like the model and enjoy the story !

I know Yes Minister by reputation but never watched any episode. The show wasn't shown in Italy when first aired and when I started watching British TV directly it was too late for that. I've meant to search the show on the web in the past as I only heard great things about it, sounds like I have one more reason to do it ! 🙂

 

The model is approaching the end and so is the story of the Vampire FB.52 in Italy. It's worth at this moment looking at the other Italian Vampires, the night fighters.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the original Italian order included 4 NF.10 built by DH. 3 of these were delivered in late 1951, again to the Amendola air base,. One had to belly land on the beach on the Adriatic sea, fortunately without injury to the pilots. These aircraft formed the basis of the new SCOT, Scuola Caccia Ogni Tempo (All Weather Fighter School).

This unit was the first serious step by the Italian Air Force to form pilots and navigators for night and all weather fighters, the lack of which had been a problem for many years. During WW2 most italian night fighters were single seaters without radar and these struggled against British night bombers. The only few radar equipped multi-seater types were some Bf.110 and Do.217 supplied by the Germans. In the immediate postwar years this issue had been analysed and it was decided to start forming proper night fighter pilots and navigators, with a number of pilots attending training on RAF Mosquito NFs in Britain. The initial cadre of SCOT instructors came from these men and the same also delivered the second batch of NF Vampires in latr 1952, this time NF.54s again built by DH.

The NF.10 and NF-54s were never meant to be used operationally and only served with the SCOT, together with a C-53 modified with the AI-10 radar in the nose. The Air Force had already decided to wait for DH's next night fighter, the Venom NF but wanted to start training pilots and especially navigators as soon as possible. Then, as we have already seen, things changed and no Venom NF was ever bought by Italy. The next all weather fighter was the F-86K, a single seater meant to be part of a complex air defence system. The F-86K was a variant of the D specifically designed for use by NATO countries and was a huge success. It was also a success for the Italian industry as FIAT built a large number of these. In any case the adoption of a single seater meant that the role of navigator, that the Air Force was eager to introduce in their ranks after WW2, was not needed anymore. It would take almost 40 years before the Italian Air Force adopted another two-seat fighter and no navigator was trained for a fighter until 1995, when a group started training at Coningsby on the Tornado F.3 after 24 had been leased from the RAF as a stopgap measure due to the delays in the Typhoon program.

As an aside, Italy never adopted the Vampire T.11. All training for the single seaters was done directly on the FB.52 while the NFs were only used for their specific role. The Vampire was found so easy to fly that a training variant was not considered necessary. Things changed when the US types entered service and at that point a new jet trainer was required. With the MDAP in full swing the choice had to fall on an American type and this was of course the ubiquitous T-33... a variant of that F-80 that had been discarded when the Vampire was selected !

 

Decalling is underway ! I have placed most of the stencils I need from the SH sheet. These are IMHO a touch too fat but will do. I'm now drawing the Italian specific stencils and they should be a bit better based on my experience with decals I made for other models. Most SH stencils are used for the various DTD markings on the undersides of the moving surfaces, in proper British fashion of the day

 

 

The previous picture also shows how I added some depth to the wheel wells using an oil paint wash, nothing special here but IMHO is a good way to better define the detail in these areas.

It was then time to start checking the roundels... the Tauromodel sheet I showed in the previous post was totally useless for my subject. The Vampire specific roundels included are for a later timeframe, with smaller roundels on the tailboom and larger over and under the wings. Mind, they are not wrong, but they are right for a Vampire at the end of the type career. My model represents an aircraft at the beginning and needs different roundels.

Searching the decal stash quickly resulted in this other Tauromodel sheet:

 

 

The roundels for the AMX are almost perfect for the tailbooms of my Vampire ! I should also mention that when this sheet was issue the AMX had not entered service yet (yes, it is an old sheet!) and the roundels here proposed are wrong for this type. The AMX entered service wearing the low visibility roundels, that have a larger green disc, think RAF wartime C type. This was in a sense even better as I used roundels that had no other use.

Here I found a problem with the kit.... I like accurate kits, I know many modellers don't care much about accuracy but I'm one of those who cares. I'm not an accuracy nazi but I prefer if a kit is also accurate. I started liking accurate kits even more when I started making my own decals for one simple reason: if the kit is accurate, the decals will be easier to draw from official documents. If the kit is not accurate, an accurately reproduced decal will look wrong.

Something similar happened here: I have a great shot of the rear fuselage of 4-11 and this showed how the roundel was placed on the rear edge of an oval panel not far from the wing. So it was that I duly placed the roundel in that location, only to find out that something didn't look right and the roundel was too far forward compared to pictures of other Vampires. There was also very little room for the unit codes. Now did 4-11 have the roundels in a different place ? No, she didn't ! What I found was that Special Hobby have moulded the panel in the wrong place. In the end I measured the position of the panel on the Airfix T.11 and used this measure to place a new roundel on the booms. The final result was now much more accurate when compared to pictures.

 

 

Speaking of accuracy, I seem to remember that this kit has been criticised before. I'm sure there's a thread somewhere on this same forum. What does this mean ? That there is room for a new 1/72 Vampire ! Airfix, are you listening ? Your T.11 seems to be very accurate, why not add an FB.5 to the catalogue ?

 

Tauromodel decals of the era were not great and this shows in the roundel. This is also an old sheet and adhesion was not the best, something that I sorted with a drop of Klear. One other thing is apparent: the finish really is too bright, looks like natural metal ! A satin coat will hopefully sort the problem.

Ah, you don't know how happy I am to see that the model now really is of an Italian machine ! 😁

 

[Col.]

Once again an enjoyable read Giorgio and great to see your Vampire gaining her identity.

[Giorgio N]

Thanks Col ! She's now getting closer and closer to get her full identity: during the lunch break I managed to print the decals for the codes, the 4th Stormo shield and a few stencils. Here they are fresh from the printer:

 

 

Mind, these decals are tiny ! The codes are around 3.5 mm high and the rest is similarly small. Still all stencils are fully readeable, something that can't be said of the original SH ones... maybe I should have printed them all myself... No, I don't have the time for this ! I will use a few more homemade stencils on the Starfighter I'm building for the NATO/WarPac '60s GB. In this case however I already have a file ready for most of them.

[exdraken]

cavallino rapante....

 

  

 

small, but.... great!

[Giorgio N]

11 hours ago, exdraken said:

cavallino rapante....

 

  

 

small, but.... great!

 

Yes, the prancing horse of 4th Stormo, tracing its heritage to the personal emblem of Francesco Baracca, Italy's leading WW1 ace. The same Baracca had adopted this emblem from his earlier unit, the Piemonte Royal Regiment of Horse, a regiment established in 1692.

This unit is today the most recognisable fighter wing of the Italian Air Force and is considered an elite. 4th Stormo has always been the first to receive the main fighter types used in Italy: first with the Mustang, first with the Vampire, first with the Sabre, first with the F-104 and first with the Typhoon.

Of course for many the prancing horse is mainly the symbol of Ferrari.. Enzo Ferrari himself, when he was a pilot racing Alfas in the '20s, was suggested to use the prancing horse by Baracca's father who said tha the Prancing Horse would have brought good look to Ferrari's cars. To say that he was right is an understatement...

So the most famous car brand in the world and Italy elite fighter wing share the same emblem with the same ancestry. The two also have close ties and for a long time Ferrari road and racing cars competed in events against the Stormo fighters. Legendary is in Italy the acceleration race held in 1981 between the F1 car driven by Gilles Villeneuve against the Stormo Starfighter. To commemorate the ties between the Stormo and the Company, the Air Force in 1989 donated to Ferrari an F-104G painted in Italian racing red and carrying the codes 4-27, 4 of course for 4th Stormo and 27 as the number carried by Villeneuve's car. This aircraft is well known and has been represented many times in kit and model form.

 

Today the prancing horse also adorns the tail of a 1/72 Special Hobby Vampire ! Yesterday she was a generic Italian Vampire, today she finally is 4-11 !

 

 

I replicated on the model all the features I noticed in the picture. The 4 is painted as a stencil while the 11 is made of continuous strokes. The 4 is also smaller than the 11 and is carried slightly higher on the boom. The Stormo badge seems to be in black over the aluminum paint, could also be over a white shield but the picture is not too clear. As having no white makes things easier I'll keep it this way.

As the picture I have only shows the left side, I had to base the same details on pictures of other aircraft of the unit carrying similar markings. I concluded that the 4 was smaller on the other side too and that in this case it was the 11 to be carried slightly higher. Of course tomorrow someone will post a picture showing all sides of 4-11 and I'll discover I got it all wrong ! 😁

 

A similar study was needed for the underwing roundels... I've seen models that carried no roundels under the wings, but pictures of early Vampires to me seem to show roundels. I only have one picture that helps in determining the size and I based my choice on this. It is not of a 4th Stormo aircraft but of an early NAVAR one, so should fit in the same timeframe. Another picture helped determining the location as clearly showed the relative position of the roundel against one of the underwing DTD stencils. Again, tomorrow someone will show me a picture that will prove me wrong, in the meantime I've decided to go this way:

 

 

The roundels under the wings come from the Skymodel sheet dedicated to the MC.202 and are of much higher quality than the Tauro ones. I'd have preferred to have identical looking roundels, let's just say that the ones on the booms weathered more than the ones under the wings... 😁😁😁

There are a few stencils still to be applied to the model, after these it will be time for a semigloss clear coat and then glue all the various bits. Maybe I can finish this one in time...

 

[Col.]

Nice work getting all the subtle details of the markings in order

[Giorgio N]

I've tried to get all the marking details right but at the same time there's a good degree of guesswork in this model. The overwing red danger markings are one example, I've gone for one of the styles with Italian stencils, not sure if correct. In any case with the end of the GB approaching I'd better move fast.

Decalling is now complete, took me a while due to my decision of printing my own stencils. Now the model is ready for the satin coat while I've prepared wheels and other bits. I've also glued the tanks togethere, I may or not attach them to the model. To be honest I quite like it without.

While preparing all the smaller parts I realised that I seem to have lost the seat ! Very annoying, now I'll have to fnd a replacement. The Vampire seat is very similar to the one used in the Spitfire, I may take one from the many Spits I have in the stash (and replace this with a Pavla resin part).

[exdraken]

I really like your history lessons....!

 

So... where to source an adequate Fb.52 and decals in 1/48 from?!

[Giorgio N]

6 minutes ago, exdraken said:

I really like your history lessons....!

 

So... where to source an adequate Fb.52 and decals in 1/48 from?!

 

Glad you enjoied the story ! There's only one more chapter to write before the end of the GB

For decals, go to the Italian Kits website, they have a sheet dedicated to the Italian Vampires that includes both markings and stencils

Can't comment on the best kit, I'm not really up to date on 1/48 Vampires. In any case the FB.52 was identical to the RAF FB.5, apart from the few modified with ejection seats

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by Giorgio N