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F217 Vampire - The Frankenstein Vampire


smellybeard

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Given the extension until October, I'll have a go at something simple: a silver-finished Vampire. I'll probably do a little bit of detailing but concentrate on keeping it straight and clean.

 

The Frog Vampire, to my eye, is probably still the best single seat Vampire, as regards shape. The Heller one is quite nice but noticeably short (c. 5mm) in the forward fuselage (and consequently hard to balance) and the MPM/Revell one is nicely detailed junk. In the longer term, I fancy kitbashing the Frog and Airfix and tarting up the Frog with some of the good bits of the Revell one I have but this one will be about getting to know the Frog kit again. It's more than thirty years since I built one.

 

I'll post sprue shots when I tidy my bench up and set up image hosting.

Edited by smellybeard
Correcting the spell checking idiot machine!
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The bench is still a tip but I think I have a camera and hosting figured out.

 

Unfortunately, when I examined the contents of the bag I found some damage. Both wing sets are quite bad and one of the tailbones is a bit wonky.

I think I have another somewhere, so this one might end up supplying it's single seat pod to an Airfix bash - or perhaps an Alan Hall inspired Venom bash.

 

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A visit to my local frog pond produced a replacement kit with the damaged kit thrown into the deal for buttons. 

The intention was to use the damaged kit for a bash but when I got home, a rummage through a venom box produced these...

 

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They're the remnants of a long paused DH.108 project.

 

I better get cracking.

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This is annoying; I can't find anything suitable in the decal spares box. I had intended to do something simple in High Speed Silver but I can't really put together enough bits to do something decent. I'm loathe to burst the spirit of a GB like this and buy a sheet but I might have to. I did, however, find the Republic of Rhodesia half of the SAM sheet and if was willing to go camo, all I'd need to finish that off would be stencils and serials.

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Don’t wish to sound like a spoiler SB, however AFAIK, The RRAF used FB.9’s rather than the Frog FB.5 version of Vampire. The conversion however is quite simple, just add a longer fuselage ‘bulge’ to the starboard engine intake. This represents the Air Cond pack that was a good thing to have in these hot and high places. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Sorry, no photos but progress to report.

The cockpit has had a little detail added and a fair bit of ballast too and the fuselage pod has been closed up. If I get myself organised to do a few of these, the way to go is a custom cast metal panel/floor/bulkhead/ballast. I may chop the pod at the main spar attachment bulkhead and add a couple of milimeters. It's a little bit short overall and teensy bit whimpey at the jet pipe.

Gun ports are drilled out to 0.8mm. They look a bit small. 

Tailbones (that started as an autocorrect but I think I'm going to stick with it) required a lot of fettling before sticking together. The wings have also had a lot of scraping and sanding done to them and work with a file inside the tailbone fairings. My plan is to set the tail up with sprue reinforcement inside the bones but I need to get the alignment right before I close up the wings. Hopefully it will just go together straight and strong. The Frog/Heller/MPM method is horrible; the Airfix is better but not easy to keep clean.

Edited by smellybeard
typos
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I tried but failed to leave the undercarriage bays as I found them.

Strands of copper wire work well as stringers because they don't melt into the wing if you get a bit too much dichloromethane on them.

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Inside...

You can see where I'm shimming up the tailbone joint now rather than swearing at what I can't see later on.

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Pod closed up.

Floor, bulkhead and a little bit of detail. Seat, main panel and stick will be added later.

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Edited by smellybeard
typos
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Prepping for surgery.

I hummed and hawed about this for a fair bit. The FROG Vampire pod is a little bit short and a bit crude at the jet pipe. I plan to chop it at the mainspar bulkhead and stretch it a little and trim some of that stretch off at the jetpipe. The rest will push the cockpit forward a couple of millimetres. The printed section I'm inserting was cadded up for the Heller kit which is a bit short in the windscreen area.  By moving the cockpit bulkhead aft a little and shifting around internal details, a significant improvement can be made to that kit. 

 

I hope it fits.

 

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It was a bit small in diameter and little longer than I needed but it'll do fine. I trimmed the length back to 2.75mm and can fill it back to the original surface.

The tailcone is a little fuzzy but it cleaned up really nicely. I'll figure out a jetpipe before I close it all back up

 

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Edited by smellybeard
Bloody autocorrect.
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An extensive search for a potential jetpipe was a complete failure. The jetpipe form an Airfix T.11 will fit but that's a last resort. Meanwhile the Ro-Beau fighter needs engine cowlings so the printer has been fired up. Two sets of cowls, two jetpipes and a spare extension for the Heller Vampire will take an hour and a quarter. Unfortunately, I have to watch it like a hawk for the first few layers to make sure that it sticks. If the feed tangles coming off the reel, it can jam at any stage of the print but I find most failures happen early on.

 

My decal situation has been resolved by a modern, conventional, bought solution. Sorry to disappoint.

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Four Beaufighter cowls, two jet pipes and Heller Vampire extension.

You can probably see that one jet pipe is cleaned up and the other is close to what it was like coming off the printer. Parts like these need a minimum 0.6mm wall thickness to print reliably.

 

The Beaufighter cowls will get Hasegawa fronts - that kit came with alternate styles - and  AdrianMF style cowl flaps.

 

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Will look forward to seeing what your 3D printer comes up with, the modelling subjects must be endless! 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

edit - Wow!! .. as I was typing, the above image was posted... they look great! 

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4 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Will look forward to seeing what your 3D printer comes up with, the modelling subjects must be endless! 

I have some ideas.

It's not great at detail and the surface finish is poor but the parts are strong when the layers are aligned correctly and it is dimensionally accurate and repeatable. It's probably at its best doing reenforcement structures for vacforms or other poorly engineered kits. As parts are repeatable, left and right-hand structures will match. I considered it for my vampire tailbones but the insides of the injected moulded parts are poorly matched. 

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The major components are all closed up and settling. Given all the cutting and shutting, I'd like to give all the joints time to shrink and settle before attacking them with knives, files and sandpaper.

 

It also occurred to me that as this model will be built from parts of different dead kits, I should go all Hammer Productions on the build title.

 

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Edited by smellybeard
Added images.
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