Jump to content

RNZAF Vampire


Recommended Posts

Hi all - so I've been working away on the little vamp... gluing things on, filling things in and lots and lots of sanding... :)

 

After a few nights of drawing lines and many aborted attempts at following those lines with a riveting tool - the wings were finally done. 

 

8fmEPLM.jpg

 

With that, I was able to glue the wing halves together and attach them to the fuselage. 

 

The fit was... okay I suppose - There was going to be gaps top and bottom no matter what way I put them in - so I opted to minimise the gap on the upper section and deal with a larger gap underneath. 

 

Uo9k8AN.jpg

vbvIBHf.jpg

 

At this point there were sizable gaps and steps all over the model - I would usually reach for the Perfect Plastic Putty to deal with these but thought I'd try another solution - Tamiya Putty - This was the first putty I bought but didn't have much love for the stuff. It never seemed to behave properly - coming off in clumps whenever I tried sanding it - turns out I was missing a vital piece of information - after applying, it takes a minimum of 6 hours to cure. Of course, it doesn't say this on the label , I just picked this up after reading some articles on the interweb. I've read that alot of modellers really rate this for filling large gaps so I thought I'd give it another crack... 

 

There was a step right in front of the cockpit, so decided to fix that first: 

 

54bWEhw.jpg

 

After letting this dry for a few hours, I sanded it back: 

 

wM2lLjz.jpg

 

Not bad - however I put another layer on there to fix those little holes where I hadn't pushed the putty down far enough. 

 

With that sorted I did a quick dry fit with the canopy front: 

 

UczsKSy.jpg

 

Not a bad fit... I will need to sort out a wee gap there but nothing too serious. PPP will do the job there I think. 

 

On to fixing the wing root seams - I wanted to fix these as much as possible as NMF paint jobs do stellar job of high lighting little gaps and imperfections on the model. 

 

I was going to go hard out on this! 

 

Firstly, some masking to protect my riveting work...

 

Xa9cGaA.jpg

8VOTlrU.jpg

 

Then a heavy dose of Tamiya Putty... 

 

MuHOndZ.jpg

 

WK0xTE0.jpg

 

Mmmm - It's possible I may have over done this :) Either way, many an hour of sanding lay in front of me. 

 

The following night, sanding began in earnest... Using varied sanding sticks and sponges, I whittled down the white stuff..

 

WCMUXS6.jpg

WwHjRrp.jpg

 

This is at about the half way mark - when this stuff cures, it really becomes rock hard so I needed to go in quite hard with the sanding. After a couple of hours, the filling job result started to present itself... 

 

GtszWgC.jpg

 

mBblLdo.jpg

 

TZUFyvD.jpg

 

So still alot of smoothing out, re-scribing and riveting to do but I thought this wasn't looking too bad - the wing root joins should be quite hidden which was what I was after. I did a quick test by brush painting some black over the joins - of course I forgot to the take a picture but everything looked pretty good - you'll have to wait for the primer to see if this assessment is correct :)

 

With the lions share of sanding sorted, I put together the tail assembly: 

 

7zW9WdI.jpg

 

I riveted the horizontal stabiliser before doing this of course: 

 

GUUUDk0.jpg

 

 

Then glued the tail in place - it was gappy :)

 

X8TEVv2.jpg

 

Doesn't look too bad here - I didn't take a picture of the underside which is much worse - I'll carry out the same procedure on these gaps and hopefully make them go away... 

 

So it's slow going work at this stage - I'm hoping to put some primer down over the weekend but we'll see how I go with the final prep first - I have a feeling there'll be a quite a bit of work involved... 

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

John

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 23/09/2019 at 10:32, Kitchen Modeller said:

Thanks Stuart 😀 I could have easily enough but thought I’d better hold back in case the landing gear couldn’t take the weight! It’s quite weighty as it is - but gives the model a nice feel -  like it has substance... 

I'm too late but I have to warn you - Vampire is _very_ tail heavy. I just built the very same kit ( or the Special Hobby original release from 2014 to be precise) - and I ended up with a tail sitter :( Lets hope you put in enough.

 

Nice kit, though - I enjoyed it a lot. Yours is coming along nicely, will be following how it goes.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Courageous said:

Looks like you had the same issues as I did with my Revell Vamp but I didn't attack mine with a bucket of cement :rofl:. Looks like your hard work is paying off but the primer coat will reveal all.

 

Stuart

Don't exaggerate Stuart - there's only half a bucket on there tops.:) I wasn't 100% how flush the wings were with the fuselage join so I wanted to give myself some leeway on either side - I still probably went over board though! As you say, primer will tell all. 

 

11 hours ago, SaminCam said:

This looks like a good fight! Gaps look like they're sorted, how much rescribing and rivetting is going to be needed? tips on how you deal with the curved fuselage for the scribing would be interesting. cheers mate

Thanks Sam :) I'm probably going to wait until after the primer before I properly assess how much rescribing is needed. Some lines will disappear entirely which is fine as most of the lines on the kit are not on the actual aircraft (or just invisible) I have some tools which I'll use for the curved parts - not looking forward to that must be said :)

 

3 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

Isn't this the special hobby kit in Revell plastic?

I think it is Adam yes. 

 

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

DON'T DO NMF!!  The RAF used an aluminium paint called "High Speed Silver" & this was also applied to export machines.  On top of which quite a bit of the Vampire was wood!  Xtracolour produce a good HSS paint.

Hi Graham - I was aware of that - however this build is an experiment in my use of Alclad paints - I want to see if I can achieve certain finishes with different shades and different techniques - Will this come out looking historically accurate? Possibly not but it's the journey, not the destination :) Seriously though, I looked at using some paints that are more geared towards HSS and model that were finished in them - alot of them looked fine but I want to see if I can push the boat out a little - which is where the fun lies for me.  Will I succeed? Who knows - but I'm betting I'll some fun along the way. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, reini said:

I'm too late but I have to warn you - Vampire is _very_ tail heavy. I just built the very same kit ( or the Special Hobby original release from 2014 to be precise) - and I ended up with a tail sitter :( Lets hope you put in enough.

 

Nice kit, though - I enjoyed it a lot. Yours is coming along nicely, will be following how it goes.

Thanks for that Reini - My fingers are crossed :) I guess it's possible that I didn't put in enough which would really annoy me as I had room to put in some more - I was afraid the landing gear wouldn't be able to take more weight! It certainly feels very heavy but I've never used weights before in a model so if I have or not is anyone's guess! Stay tuned to find out (exciting!) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I'm really enjoying this John. That's some serious filling and sanding accomplished there!

 

Well on the way now.

Thanks mate:) I have to say, I'm enjoying this build very much - It's nice trying out new techniques for things - whether they work or not is still debatable! Also, I just love this aircraft - such a simple but beautiful design - this won't be my last vamp - I have the Airfix T11 in the stash. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great job so far, when I did my Hobby Craft mk.1, I tried to check that the thing was sufficiently nose heavy by balancing the fuselage (temporarily stuck together with blue tack or similar) on a pencil at the same point where the rear undercarriage is. If it tipped forward convincingly, then there was a decent chance that the finished article would be a nose wheel sitter. If not, I meant I would need to add more lead shot somewhere. Just a suggestion, you understand! :)

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, clive_t said:

Great job so far, when I did my Hobby Craft mk.1, I tried to check that the thing was sufficiently nose heavy by balancing the fuselage (temporarily stuck together with blue tack or similar) on a pencil at the same point where the rear undercarriage is. If it tipped forward convincingly, then there was a decent chance that the finished article would be a nose wheel sitter. If not, I meant I would need to add more lead shot somewhere. Just a suggestion, you understand! :)

 

That's a great idea Clive - I'll try that on the model and report back in the next update :) Wish I'd thought of it sooner! 

 

3 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I was lucky enough to be invited to 331 Sqn's 75th birthday celebrations here at their air base in 2016 and part of the festivities was a Vamp doing a flypast - absolutely wonderful!

I saw an Irish Air Corps one fly at an airshow when I was 10 - it really left an impression:) 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Kitchen Modeller said:

That's a great idea Clive - I'll try that on the model and report back in the next update :) Wish I'd thought of it sooner! 

 

I saw an Irish Air Corps one fly at an airshow when I was 10 - it really left an impression:) 

I wish I'd told you sooner! :D

 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello folks - another update before the weekend comes to close... leaving off from last time I put some filler on those tail boom joins...

 

spacer.png

Again with the Tamiya filler... that was sanded off after a few hours and this seemed to do a good job of hiding those seams.spacer.png

 

Getting a little closer to primer time I wanted to sort out the canopy - on the actual aircraft, the front section has a slight dark green tint.

 

Vampire mk 5

 

I wanted to recreate this - so went about tinting my first canopy. I mixed up some Tamiya clear smoke and mixed in a little clear green - this was thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner - about 30/70 paint to thinner - I then sprayed the inside of the canopy very lightly - in a few seconds I had this:

 

kFgoYKn.jpg

 

I probably went a little heavy even though I was trying hard not to:) Colour is probably a little too green but otherwise I was happy enough. 
 

This was then masked up using the precut  masks - which fit pretty well. 
 

I added some details to the rear of the cockpit with some copper wire - just add a little more detail - I’ll paint this up later- added the gunsight also...

 

e0lxS5w.jpg

 

klYMZhT.jpg

 

I then glued the front section in place with Tamiya extra thin - I glued the rear section in place with pva glue so I can remove it later. 
 

m6FMTWt.jpg

 

It then occurred to me to test how nose heavy the model was with the @clive_tmethod - I blu tacked a round pen at the point of the rear under carriage...

 

q1K6dCH.jpg

 

Yay! She’s actively trying to face plant. With my fears allayed I was finally able to move in the knowledge I wasn’t building a tail sitter. 
 

The canopy was a pretty good fit but not without some little gaps so I put on some perfect plastic putty and wiped away the excess... 

 

hrVWMfI.jpg

 

Nfruabd.jpg

 

With that I decided to pull the trigger on the primer - I knew there would be issues still but I wanted to get a good idea of what needed work and what didn’t... so I mixed up the usual mr surfacer 1500 black - thinned with mr leveling thinner. I put on one light coat which gave me a good idea of where the problem areas where - before I thought to take a photo, I attacked the model with sanding sticks, smoothing out the rough areas. I also did some re scribing on spots where I’d wiped out the panel line. 
 

1kUSTxO.jpg

 

I use this tool from Tamiya which works great on those curved areas - I push it lightly along the panel line until I get a more solid path - then pull it until the line is sorted.
 

The second coat of primer then went on. This time putting down 3 coats...

 

RsEhKWg.jpg

c2CVEYd.jpg

EoPxxEj.jpg

0NNr4xd.jpg

So the results where mixed I think - on one hand those gaping seams are gone - however my over zealousness with the filler application resulted in some slight putty “hills” going over the wing joins. These are more obvious in some places- but other than this I think it came out okay - it was an experiment trying this so I’m chalking it up to experience. Hopefully it wont detract too much from the overall model. None the less there were still areas that needed fixing - mostly small scratch marks that I hadn’t picked up

on earlier so more a sanding I go... 

 

LNYUPK2.jpg

 

0YmGOyk.jpg


Well I got to the primer stage which I was happy about - I’ll just be remaining stuck on the primer stage for another wee while - however when the next coat goes on, it should be the last. Then we might actually  be close to getting to the fun part😀
 

Thanks for checking in! 
 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday 

 

John
 

 

 

  • Like 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great job, looking good! Happy that it's not a tail sitter :)

 

This all makes me wanna pick out the Airfix Vampire trainer from my stash and see whats that all about. Still missing decals for that though, will be doing it in Finnish markings.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really good WIP so far mate, she's throwing you some challenges but you're taking them all in your stride it seems.

 

I don't know why but the green canopy impresses me the most, simple things I suppose!

 

Crack on mate, almost to the fun bits. I want to see what you can do with the paint on her!

 

Geoff 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, clive_t said:

Looking good! Nice trick with the tinted canopy too :thumbsup2:

Thanks Clive 

 

12 hours ago, reini said:

Great job, looking good! Happy that it's not a tail sitter :)

 

This all makes me wanna pick out the Airfix Vampire trainer from my stash and see whats that all about. Still missing decals for that though, will be doing it in Finnish markings.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

 

Thanks Reini - I have the Airfix kit too - plus a big sheet of photo etch to go with it  - it will be another RNZAF one - not sure when I’ll get to if though... 

 

8 hours ago, Smithy said:

Great work John, the canopy looks superb!

Thank Smithy 😀

 

7 hours ago, Bugle07 said:

Really good WIP so far mate, she's throwing you some challenges but you're taking them all in your stride it seems.

 

I don't know why but the green canopy impresses me the most, simple things I suppose!

 

Crack on mate, almost to the fun bits. I want to see what you can do with the paint on her!

 

Geoff 

Thanks Geoff - I’m aiming to get the sanding scratches and those rough bits on the wing roots sorted out in the next day or so - then more primer and then paint (at last!!) so hopefully later this week😃

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So spent a bit more time on fixing duty getting this ready for paint... 

 

KhSZOOC.jpg

 

I worked the wing roots to attempt to get rid of those putty inclines - I found some more holes so plugged those with Alclad micro filler and sanding them flush. 

 

QBV42Wd.jpg

 

Rescribed and re-riveted the lost details... The model was then cleaned off in prep for the 3rd attempt at priming :)

 

OxaRYaK.jpg

2G5f7xQ.jpg

aLwvAB9.jpg

 

And got there in the end - I sanded down the model with P4000 - to P12000 sanding sponges - really more like buffing it - I also re-did some rivets that were almost invisible... And recribed some lines to define them a little more. Although this is the best iteration so far, it's still less than perfect - but at some point I think I have to accept that it's probably as good as I'm going to get it... so I'm moving on...! 

 

Next up is the glossly black base coat in prep for the Alclad - Previously I've used Alclad black gloss base for this - however, I really didn't want to use it this time as it's so hit and miss - and takes days to dry - I discovered that alot of folks use Mr Hobby GX2 for the this job - so thought I'd give that a go. 

 

I thinned it about 40/60 with Mr Leveling Thinner and sprayed it on fairly wet - gave it 2 coats - then gave a final coat with mostly thinner - 10/90 paint to thinner as apparently this makes it shine more and makes it go rock hard. 

 

7BkDc1m.jpg

 

0TWTNno.jpg

 

yPvQRF3.jpg

 

This came out pretty well and should be a good foundation for the alclad - It dried within minutes which is also a great plus - next up - painting begins...:) 

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Painting begins 😀 So as previously mentioned, I’m continuing in my exploration of planet alclad - so wanted to see if I could recreate the high speed silver with an alclad paint in my possession- I don’t have the full range and I suspect that the basic aluminum colour might have come closest. But the 2 colors I was playing with (which I had) was polished aluminum and dull aluminum. Here’s the pic of the bird we’re doing:

 

f9wVkaT.jpg

 

As you can see it’s a fairly dull light grey here - textbook HSS - however it does have a certain sheen - something that hhs paints that I’ve seen never seem to have - the refurbished present day version looks like this:

 

Vampire mk 5

Not 100% accuracy to the original as verified by the veterans who do the walking tours at the airforce museum here in Christchurch- but you can see the reflective quality to the paint. 
 

So going back to the milk bottle tops I prepped for paint:

 

WxVoHAF.jpg

So the one on the left is alclad polished aluminum- the color is off but it does have the sheen I’m after - the one on the right is dull aluminum- probably quite close to the correct colour but it’s proper dull. Zero light refraction. 
 

So my plan was to use the polished aluminum but then use some post shading, weathering and clear coats to bring it closer to what we’re after. 
 

So loaded up some paint into the airbrush and let rip:

 

FBtXEAU.jpg

2v5jaW1.jpg

dFDEK8i.jpg

64bXNxL.jpg

Depending on the light hitting it, it actually came out not too far off from that hss tone - but with the added bonus of being very reflective. I mean that light reflects off it - not that’s It’s thinking about that argument it had with the T11 next door. 
 

Next I went in with some post shading using a little alclad steel mixed with the base colour - I masked off panels and very lightly sprayed along the edges... 

 

W7ohMiv.jpg

ODNtGml.jpg

VpSFsBQ.jpg

0M5wTpB.jpg

j8jc2Xh.jpg

I was attempting to create that stressed metal look while also weathering the airframe - I realise that it looks very shiny in these last images - however this will be toned down later on. On the underside I didn’t mask anything and just freehanded the post shading.

 

zU34X6d.jpg

 

I went back over areas where the effect was too much with the base colour - these paints are pre-thinned so no need to worry about getting the mixes right. They dry very quickly which means you can paint a lot more in a short space of time. 
 

4f0mSJA.jpg

 

Hopefully you can gather what I’m trying to do here - it’s not going to be on the money in terms of accuracy but it’s certainly heading in the right direction- I feel anyways😀 This will get a couple of coats of aqua gloss - more in an effort to tone it down and also get it ready for decals and washes.  Hopefully happening over the weekend. 
 

Comments on this are welcome as always - am I heading too left field? 
 

Cheers

 

John

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...