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Curses, foiled again! Hobby Craft 1:48 Vampire Mk.1 *** COMPLETED ***


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Hi all, herewith my second attempt at foiling, hopefully this time armed with as many of the lessons as I can remember from my first attempt!

 

For a bit of background, I obtained 2 freebie Hobby Craft vampire kits (minus instructions and decals) at a recent club meet with the advisory that 'they are not very good kits...'. Well, having never knowingly looked a gift horse in the mouth, I took them anyway to file in the stash under 'Might Come in Useful One Day' .

 

Well lo and behold, having completed my first foil subject, I realised that there were schemes for the Vampire Mk,1 with a NMF - specifically those sold to the Swiss.

 

For a 'larger' scale model it's not overly burdened with detail, to be honest. In my case that's not a bad thing. I could have easily gone overboard on the after-market bling - of which there is a fair bit about - but as previously I was more about the foiling, so I decided to save my pennies for other projects yet to be revealed :)

 

So, to the build!

 

The office went together fairly easily, and is probably where the lion's share of the detail is to be found:

 

GjLqSpv.jpg

 

I then assembled the wings and the tail booms. I pinched an idea from a You-Tube clip showing the addition of some cheap-n-cheerful detail in the main wheel wells:

 

b0facci.jpg

 

I think I have enough to make a start on foiling, so I will hopefully make some progress there soon.

 

Thanks for watching :)

 

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Thanks Jonners, yes indeed you're absolutely right; I had read as much previously but thanks for reminding me. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that I would have forgotten - no excuses now though! :D

 

 

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Time to get some veneer!

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

[edit] Actually if you get some light yellow paint for the fuselage and some brown artists oil paint to swirl over it you could do a "naked vampire"!

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3 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Actually if you get some light yellow paint for the fuselage and some brown oil to swirl over it you could do a "naked vampire"!

The mind boggles!

 

Actually I have some sheets of marquetry veneer salted away somewhere, not sure how I would bond it to the plastic though!

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I think the forward (ie cockpit) area of the fuselage pod was plywood whereas the rear engine section used aluminium...but I’m not a Vampire expert! I remember being quite surprised, as a plane-mad teenager many years ago, to see plywood under the peeling paint on a Vampire that was on display outdoors at Fort Klapperkop in Pretoria. 

Jon

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Thanks all for your comments, much appreciated.

 

A bit of progress over the past few days, here and there. The fuselage had some weight added to the nose, both in front of and underneath where the office will be located:

 

0e8q6NV.jpg

 

A good 9+ grams of lead and Blu-tack, so if that's not enough it can jolly well sit on its backside for all I care!

 

I then zipped up the fuselage halves:

 

ECOoN1R.jpg

 

 I couldn't resist the temptation to add some simple detail to the seat, namely some seat belts cut from masking tape. The canopy will be fully closed for this model, so my bodging shouldn't be too obvious :)

 

Having consulted a book of cutaway drawings of this aircraft, I conclude that the demarcation line where metal meets wood is thus:

 

k5GwJMl.jpg

 

The other conclusion I came to was that the wings are moulded completely wrongly! They appear to have moulded the wheel wells into the wing upper surfaces! :oops:

The effect is that the wings show a slight, but noticeable anhedral attitude. Well, I'll forgive a lot of things but not that... so I glued some shims of styrene rod to the forward edges of both wing undersides:

 

GPPmbyM.jpg

 

That might be the author of other misfortunes further down the line - mainly with the twin booms, I would guess - but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!

 

Getting closer to foiling! :thumbsup2:

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Made a start on foiling today - well more accurately yesterday, but I managed to louse it up at my first attempt. I decided to sand the panels as I applied them rather than all at once at the end. All well and good, however my zeal in getting the finish I wanted was my undoing, as I managed to sand a sizeable hole in the foil in a very prominent place - so that all had to come off. As it turned out, removing the glue was even more of a challenge than removing the foil :(

 

So today battle was rejoined, and with a slightly defter touch on the sanding, I managed to get this far:

 

pPNZsZH.jpg

 

Note to self: sanding aluminium foil seems to generate appreciable amounts of aluminium dust, which in all probability is not a thing one would be wise to breathe in or otherwise ingest...

 

Thanks for watching! :thumbsup2:

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Excuse my ignorance but can you explain the sanding of the Aluminium foil please.

 I would like to have a go at foiling at some point so any tips are appreciated.

 

Duncan B

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4 minutes ago, Duncan B said:

Excuse my ignorance but can you explain the sanding of the Aluminium foil please.

 I would like to have a go at foiling at some point so any tips are appreciated.

 

Duncan B

Hi Duncan, I guess it's a subjective thing but the foil as it is applied is a little too shiny for my liking. On this particular project, though, I've used a much finer grade of abrasive than my previous one. I can thoroughly recommend having a go with foil, just pick a gash kit off your stash and get stuck in! :)

 

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A quick question for any Vampire experts out there - Peter Cushing, please put your hand down thank you...

 

So, I was thinking of taking young @AdrianMF at his word and actually finishing this naked. The model that is, not me. Quite aside from a ban from being on here ever again, it would probably violate the conditions of my bail.

 

Anyway, to that end I have been looking at masking all the non-plywood bits, and it occurred to me that these strips pointed to in the pic below are a bit odd. In any event, I imagine they would be metal in nature, but I can't find any reference as to their actual purpose. Should they even be there on a Mk.1, or is this another nause-up on the part of Messers Hobby Craft?

 

D8eppyW.jpg

 

Any assistance gratefully received thank you :)

 

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Thanks Troy, yes I have just found some new pics having included 'canopy rails' in my original search; among them are a couple of close-ups of a Mk.1 with those rails. Good news, I don't need to remove them!

 

Thanks again :thumbsup2:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I made an attempt at showing plywood panels using oil paints:

 

tam70TH.jpg

 

I'll set that aside for a few days for the oils to dry, then I will think about whether or not some sort of grain effect would make it look any better.

Edited by clive_t
Replace pic deleted in error (duh)
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On 5/22/2019 at 7:21 AM, Jonners said:

I think the forward (ie cockpit) area of the fuselage pod was plywood whereas the rear engine section used aluminium...but I’m not a Vampire expert! I remember being quite surprised, as a plane-mad teenager many years ago, to see plywood under the peeling paint on a Vampire that was on display outdoors at Fort Klapperkop in Pretoria. 

Jon

If the MK1 was built in same the way  as a T11 then this would appear to be true: When I was an assistant dust reduction officer at a Hampshire museum, I tried the age old scientific method of tapping on the fuselage with my knuckles and ours certainly had a metal behind to her woody body. the owner popped in one day  ( he also owns the Sea Vixen) and told me that Vamps were never BMF but painted aluminium all over or camo at the factory before they were given markings, if you wanted to be pedantic. Me, I'd spray the whole damn  thing in the shiniest chrome I could lay my hands on and give folk some Ray Bans if they objected...Slap on the foil I say and this time, shine it up good!

 

Me ( with a lot more hair) rigorously performing my maintenance duties:

 

T11.jpg

 

 

Anil

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Thanks for the input Anil, much appreciated.

 

Given that this kit didn't come with any decals, and I can't seem to source any replacements for the look I originally wanted, I've decided to do it as a bare (ie unpainted) finish - just for laughs! It was all about the foiling really, the finish was kind of incidental. Here's how it now looks minus all the masking tape:

 

ciXDTRc.jpg

 

AlYUd5V.jpg

 

Hopefully at some stage in the near future I can get the wings on and complete the foiling of the fuselage.

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1 hour ago, clive_t said:

Thanks for the input Anil, much appreciated.

 

Given that this kit didn't come with any decals, and I can't seem to source any replacements for the look I originally wanted, I've decided to do it as a bare (ie unpainted) finish - just for laughs! It was all about the foiling really, the finish was kind of incidental. Here's how it now looks minus all the masking tape:

 

Hopefully at some stage in the near future I can get the wings on and complete the foiling of the fuselage.

Go for it: It could be a freshly completed Broughton plane waiting for paint. If you get the Airfix Modelworld magazine, this month's issue has a zero stress way of doing plywood by Mike Grant ( he of the decals hall  of fame) and all you need is two tamiya colours and any random brown oil paint, it would be a neat way to do to the front fuselage? I've tried the USCHI wood decals which are very beautifully printed, the problem with them is trimming them to fit the panels if you want to cross grained panels...tried wet and semi dry , was truly a pain compared top Mike G's method. 

 

If you go down this route, get good Turps ( Hobbycraft do a real nice W&N one) and some Rustins driers for the oil streaking otherwise its days to dry

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I’m not a vampire expert but definitely a vampire fan! This is looking great so far Clive - you’re a braver man than me with this foil work but you seem to have gotten  the hang of it judging by these efforts. Love the timber contrast with the metal foil. This dodgy kit is going to look sublime when you're finished. Great work please continue 👍

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On 6/15/2019 at 12:29 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Nice one, Clive.

Thanks Pete, much appreciated.

On 6/15/2019 at 1:33 PM, azureglo said:

Go for it: It could be a freshly completed Broughton plane waiting for paint. If you get the Airfix Modelworld magazine, this month's issue has a zero stress way of doing plywood by Mike Grant ( he of the decals hall  of fame) and all you need is two tamiya colours and any random brown oil paint, it would be a neat way to do to the front fuselage? I've tried the USCHI wood decals which are very beautifully printed, the problem with them is trimming them to fit the panels if you want to cross grained panels...tried wet and semi dry , was truly a pain compared top Mike G's method. 

 

If you go down this route, get good Turps ( Hobbycraft do a real nice W&N one) and some Rustins driers for the oil streaking otherwise its days to dry

Cheers Anil, I will bear that in mind thanks :)

On 6/15/2019 at 1:34 PM, Kitchen Modeller said:

I’m not a vampire expert but definitely a vampire fan! This is looking great so far Clive - you’re a braver man than me with this foil work but you seem to have gotten  the hang of it judging by these efforts. Love the timber contrast with the metal foil. This dodgy kit is going to look sublime when you're finished. Great work please continue 👍

Thanks, the foiling bit has been less stressful than the 'wood' panelling bit to be honest.

 

Some more progress - the wings are now on. From above, all looking fine and dandy:

 

2P28iFV.jpg

 

From the underside... ooo, that's not good:

 

SJW16WZ.jpg

 

OK it looks worse than it is, it just needs filling and sanding a bit, then the foil will cover the rest.

 

Just for a small added bit of progress, I foiled the canopy. I decided to keep the thing in its 'closed' arrangement, as I didn't want to risk cracking it by trying to separate the front windshield from the sliding part:

 

HzYHRBs.jpg

 

Getting there - booms next, probably! Thanks for stopping by :)

 

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