Hole in the ground Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 I’ve not posted a build on here before, I usually haunt the whatif forum. But this is an attempt to recreate a specific aircraft - so this felt like the appropriate place. Im going to attempt to create LZ551/G famously the first (pure) jet to land on and takeoff from an aircraft carrier. In the current climate of limiting purchases to essentials only I’ll build with what I’ve got and use it as an opportunity to practice some scratch building and detailing. What I have is a 1:72 Revell Vampire FB.5, which isn’t a million miles away from what I want but there are a few changes that need to be made. Things I’ll need to do: -Hook and hook fairing -Tail modification - horizontal has to move up, verticals are squared off. -Wingtip extensions - the FB5 has squared tips, LZ had rounded. -Flap and airbrake extensions. (I want to pose this catching a wire so both will be deployed too) -I’ll attempt to add detail to the model as and where I can. To me that’s fairly major surgery but seeing some of the scratch efforts on here it will be small fry to some. I’ll add some phots once I’ve got something to show/questions to ask. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted April 3, 2020 Author Share Posted April 3, 2020 (edited) Ok. So a little bit of progress. I did a quick dry fit of the kit to see what I was working with. Its an old model with slightly raised panel lines - not too bad but something I am considering rectifying (I've never re-scribed a whole aircraft before). The fit is ok, the plastic is quite thick though, the aileron trailing edges are pretty chunky. There are some large injection markings and a little bit of flash. Overall I don't think its a bad looking kit. As identified above I've got a few mods to make to it in order to turn the FB5 into a Sea Vampire F1. I thought an easy place to start would be the wingtips. But I think that will require the wing halves to be joined. So, I actually started by adding a little bit of extra detail to the wheel wells, just to warm up. I did it now because I needed access to the reverse face of the wells. Nothing extraordinary (or accurate) just some extra bits to get a better feel than the empty bays. I had a look at the really useful walk-around here for reference. A couple of enjoyable hours fettling later and I have this. Finally, before joining the wing halves I have begun hacking out (see thick plastic comment above) the flaps, so that I can extend and pose them later. Thanks for looking. Happy to take and comments/criticism/advice (especially that last one). Cheers. Edited April 3, 2020 by Hole in the ground 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted April 5, 2020 Author Share Posted April 5, 2020 Wing tip progress. I filed down the clipped tips to the outermost rib. Then added some evergreen. It is just butt joined and I was worried it would be too weak for sanding down but seems to have been ok. One down. Just need to make its partner match. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisTheBear Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Wow, no-one in watching yet. I get a front row seat! Nice start so far @Hole in the ground! I have a 1/72 Vampire FB.5 kit somewhere in the stash so I'll be watching this looking for general tips. DennisTheBear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted April 5, 2020 Author Share Posted April 5, 2020 Thanks @DennisTheBear. Welcome, make yourself comfortable. I’m afraid you’ll have to supply your own drinks and snacks. If it’s the Revell nee Heller kit then it’s ok for its age. This is what I am ultimately trying to recreate: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted April 5, 2020 Author Share Posted April 5, 2020 A quick question if I may, and slightly looking ahead: I'm trying to work out what the underside colour was for the first deck landing. My go to reference Vampire LZ551/G by Sqn Leader M.J.Biggs has a pretty clear line on the matter: Quote The colour scheme for the aircraft for the initial trials was upper surface Medium Sea Grey and the lower surface Yellow... It would appear that before the actual deck landing trials as the aircraft was on Naval charge it was painted in accordance with AP 2656 (Naval aircraft, Monoplanes). This time with the upper surface Extra Sea Grey and the lower surface Sky. That would make her as she currently appears today. However I just found a video on youtube which appears to show a yellow underside. https://youtu.be/i0DDkzS6p7E Here's the thumbnail from the video: Its quite low quality but clearly shows yellow. Is the video a true colour video? Or has the video been recoloured incorrectly? I have tried to find a black and white version of the same footage (which would prove recolouring) but haven't been successful so far. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlow Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Hi Some stills on this page... https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/de-havilland-dh-100-sea-vampire-mk-10/ Bit of nice footage here. I'm no expert, but I'm not sure that you can't see some of the prototype P in a circle extending into the lower surface colour, which would indicate it isn't yellow??? Your video though is pretty convincingly yellow. This seems to be close to your image in nice sharper b/w.... https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/11/08/16/3A2C015D00000578-3917156-image-m-158_1478620896656.jpg though stack isn't smoking... Matt 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted April 8, 2020 Author Share Posted April 8, 2020 Right, so I think I'm coming down on the side of yellow underside (which will at least add some interesting colour highlights) - which suggests a medium sea grey upper surface. Unless someone can provide some compelling evidence between now and paint (don't rush it'll be a while). I've added a bit more detail to the wing structure behind the flaps, using the great pictures from Phil Chapman, posted here. Very rough but its something. I will try to get the very prominent jack in there too. I've identified some suitable greeblies from the spare bits box. It'll wait until I fit the flaps though. I'm pretty happy that the wing mods are done (still plucking up the courage to remove all of the raised panel lines). If I were to attempt this again though. I would definitely spend some time thinning the plastic around the flaps. It's way too thick and the plasticard back wall to the flaps that I've put in, is a fantasy. But I couldn't get enough access to cut away to get a realistic recess. So next big modification is the fuselage rear. Which requires the fuselage to be buttoned up. So on with the cockpit. Revell didn't supply a pilot so a quick rummage provided an airfix bod from a new pop tigermoth kit. The kit has a pilot with legs and one without. I like my pilots to have legs (no offence Bader) so plumped for that chap. Unfortunately he seems to have been very well brought up and is sitting with his knees quite close together... Unfortunately the wheel well protrudes into the cockpit and he therefore needed some persuading to part his ankles a bit more. I little bit of light surgery, a dip in some hot water and a little persuasion with a bit of sprue seemed to do the trick. A bit tight, but he does now fit. Next thing I did was to somewhat balls things up. The seat has a nub below it to keep the pilots bum slightly raised off the cockpit floor. The cockpit moulding has a hole just below where the instructions say to fit the seat. I saw it and thought, ah, positioning hole. Seat nub goes in cockpit hole. Except that the hole is way undersized to fit the nub on the seat. But I am not put off by such trivialities. So I enlarged the hole. After which I checked the instructions again. The seat is supposed to be raised of the cockpit floor. By making the hole fit the nub I've just removed the bit the seat is supposed to sit on. Im not sure why that hole is there. But it isn't to fit the cockpit seat in. So now I need to fill the hole back in. Excellent... Progress!(?) 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt-92 Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 58 minutes ago, Hole in the ground said: Progress!(?) It kept you busy, right? Nice job on the wing and flap section though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike romeo Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 Hi HitG, I was going to say that a work colleague is doing one of these but, looking at the pics, I think you may know him too. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. Regards Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted April 12, 2020 Author Share Posted April 12, 2020 Wow, bumped to page 5 already, I didn't think I had been away that long! Tough to keep up with the pace of everyone else. So a little bit of fettling and a lot of procrastinating later and Winkle is in his seat and the egg is buttoned up. Now the tricky bit of shaping the hook fairing. Im seeing a little bit of plasticard and a lot of putty in my future. Im not going to bother with fuselage seems at this point until I have the hook fairing in a reasonable state. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted April 12, 2020 Author Share Posted April 12, 2020 "Hello current me" "Um, hello past me, this is odd. I don't usually communicate with you like this" "Yeah, its just for the narrative... anyway, you are about to find something that's going to annoy you. I just want to let you know in advance, it wasn't my fault" "Ok, what..." It would appear that despite this being a pretty straightforward model. I still managed to make it via a system of 2 steps forward, 1 back. This innocent looking piece is the exhaust pipe. Which needs to go at the same time as closing up the fuselage. Fortunately past me (and current me) prefers to use Tamiya extra thin cement. So with a bit of judicious slicing along seams and with a bit of sprue as a wedge... I was able to jemmy the fuselage open enough to allow me to insert the offending article. No harm, no foul, just a slight rise in blood pressure. One to remember in future I hope - double check the instructions before buttoning up. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted April 14, 2020 Author Share Posted April 14, 2020 Ok, so the duck tail fairing for the hook has begun. One feature which was worrying me was the extension of the exhaust pipe tunnel. However in a flash of inspiration/coincidence I turns out that I have some leftover fuel tanks from a Skyhawk that have about the same inside diameter. Nice! Next was application of a generous amount of miliput white, followed by some fairly relaxing sculpting (once it had set overnight). From this: To this: Still some tidying to do but I think I have the gross shape mostly down. What has got me worried is that the hook originally had a rather shapely fairing over it: The best way that I can think to model it is to mock-up the hook in the raised position, fair it into the ducktail and then reposition it. How I do that without just having it permanently stuck up is something I've not quite worked out yet. Cling-film is something that in my head might work? Id appreciate suggestions if someone has any. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 Still going but I am finding new and novel ways to procrastinate. I am reasonably happy with the duck tail fairing for the hook. So the next job is the tail. The FB.5 fins need to go to be replaces by the squarer Mk1 cropped fins. This wasn't too bad a job, especially using the little paint stand to hold the parts in place (once I'd manipulated if into the right position anyway). So next step will be the horizontal. Now, to get this right I want the booms to be attached the wings and for the wings to be fitted to the fuselage. So, next task is some filling and sanding of the various ports and orifices. The results after round one of putty and sanding, slapped on a few light coats of grey to highlight the areas for improvement. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Lovely work! Cheers, Andre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatalbert Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 May i ask where you sourced your plans please 🙂 Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 26 minutes ago, fatalbert said: May i ask where you sourced your plans please 🙂 Neil Fatalbert, plans is a strong word... basically my go to reference is a small book: Vampire LZ551/G. Which has some good photos I’ve not seen elsewhere as well as a reasonable 3 view, which is nearly (but not quite) 1:72. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatalbert Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Many thanks ,i think i have that book.🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 We have wings! (note one smooth and one raised detail) Also this phot reminds me I need to sort out the excrescence behind the pilot... And we have wing panel gaps. Hopefully a relatively easy fix. It should also help blend in the hook fairing to the wing upper surface. Interesting to see the light showing through the wing trailing edges. The plastic really isn't that thin. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 Couple of rounds of putty to even the seems. Using miliput superfine. The first round didn't seem to penetrate the cracks very well and came away when I sanded it back (after leaving it to harden over night). So I tried to make a slurry with it by putting a small amount in some water and mashing it up with an old paintbrush. That seems to have worked. Have you lot got any tips for what is a good method for filling small cracks/panel lines? After I sanded it back the second time I decided that I wanted to give it an all over unifying coat to see where I was in general (this is principally a displacement activity). I think its looking ok. Except that the wingtips look a bit rough. I thought I had sorted them but they may need a bit more fettling. I mentioned that this is a bit of displacement activity because I'm supposed to be getting on to the tails. However, trying to get the booms square and true and then mount the horizontal in the right place is proving a bit of a faff. Added to that the booms are the worst moulded parts of the kit and there will be a large crevice on each one that will need to be filled at the boom/wing join. Plus I haven't yet come up with a satisfactory means of fixing the hstab and re-creating the bullet fairings. Putty is going to be my current solution (seems to have been the solution to a lot of this kit) but Im not overly confident. I may try and come up with a back-up solution. Happy to take other options from the forum's general advisory committee. Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 18 hours ago, Hole in the ground said: Have you lot got any tips for what is a good method for filling small cracks/panel lines? How about this technique?: http://www.arcair.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT029-Filler-WO-Sanding/00.shtm Very nice progress, I have a couple of Special Hobby Vampires in the stash (as well as a Rareplanes Venom vac). Cheers, Andre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted May 13, 2020 Author Share Posted May 13, 2020 16 hours ago, Hook said: How about this technique?: http://www.arcair.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT029-Filler-WO-Sanding/00.shtm Very nice progress, I have a couple of Special Hobby Vampires in the stash (as well as a Rareplanes Venom vac). Cheers, Andre Andre thank you for that, it looks like a very neat solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted May 13, 2020 Author Share Posted May 13, 2020 Tail feathers mounted. This seemed like a simplish step but getting everything to line up was a bit of a faff. I am reasonably happy with the results but I'm trying not to look too closely in case I spot something out of whack. Fit of the booms wasn't too great, one of them has been slightly undershot (shown above). The next challenge will be recreating the bullet fairings. I see more miliput in my future. Thanks for looking. Hopefully Ill have some more impressive* updates at some point. *clearly a relative scale and not a blip on what is achieved by some of the members here. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted May 14, 2020 Share Posted May 14, 2020 Impressive update! Lining up the booms of this type of bird can indeed be challenging, it looks like you pulled it off rather nicely. Cheers, Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hole in the ground Posted May 27, 2020 Author Share Posted May 27, 2020 So I did look a bit too closely and the horizontal isn't squarely mounted between the fins or horizontal. And I have been humming and hawing about how to make the bullet fairings. So this happened: I don't have a printer but there is a company near me who aren't too extortionate. It is a very simple facsimile but as my first foray into 3d printing, I'm hoping it will suffice. If it goes well I may try to add some surface detail. I'm getting it printed on an SLA so it should be possible to resolve things like control surface gaps (might get the surfaces printed as separate objects), but I'll wait out on the success (or otherwise) of this print first. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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