1/72 Vampire F.3

[Lord Riot]

I couldn’t get motivated for the Sea King yet, too much interior stuff needed, so I thought I’d try a simple (hopefully!) build. 
 

This little Vampire should fit the bill, an all-over silver finish and simple cockpit. It’ll sit nicely with my Meteors, Sabre and Javelin, (Hunter and Swift at some point) in this scale.

 

Nice box art, I haven’t made a Special Hobby kit before but it looks nice, lots of detail for its size and five decal options.

 

 

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Oooooo nice kit, this builds up very nicely indeed, just do test fitting and all will go well.  The boom to fuselage joints were okay too with only minimal filling,  you'll enjoy this one.  

Chris

[Marklo]

I built their 1/48 JU87A; a funny mix very refined in places very rough in others, came with a lovely resin interior, bit no location pins on the main parts and fit wasn’t great although the overall shape and molding quality was good.  
 

Will follow along, with interest.

[Lord Riot]

Made a start on the Vampire, it is truly tiny, especially after doing a 1/48 Canberra! I want a nice simple build out of the box, but I did add a few belts and a cushion to the seat.

 

 

I test fitted the fuselage, I think this build might involve liquid putty.

 

 

Speaking of the Canberra, this 1/72 Vampire is almost exactly the same size as a 1/48 Canberra tip tank!

 

[Marklo]

Nice job so far.

 

I just read that Airfix is releasing a 1/48 F3 Vampire this year, must get hold of one.

[Lord Riot]

A bit of progress on the Vampire. Firstly, I finished the little cockpit and squeezed in as much nose weight as space allowed in the fingertip-sized nose. There was no indication of weight in the instructions so I just packed in what I could fit.

 

 

The fuselage halves weren’t the best fit, so needed some liquid putty as expected.

 

[bigbadbadge]

Excellent progress, cockpit internals look good. 

Chris

[Marklo]

I’d be looking to pack some lead shot into the wing leading edges as well just in case. So far I haven’t had a tail sitter but it was a job to get enough weight into my moskito!!

 

With very little space in the nose I put a lot of weight into the front of the nacelles to get it to sit right.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Marklo

[Lord Riot]

There wasn’t much space in those tiny wings, I’ll just have to hope I crammed enough in! I’ll try and stuff more weight in through the intake area behind the cockpit though, not convinced I’ve added enough.
 

It’s starting to look like a Vampire now with the wings on. They needed liquid putty top and bottom too. Not the best fit this one.

 

[Marklo]

I also ended up drilling a hole behind the cockpit and putting more poo-poo on there too. If yours doesn’t sit right that would be your last option.

 

Making sure I get it right in my F117  

[alt-92]

The disadvantage of going that close to the CoG is that you need to add waaaaayyy more weight. 

The ideal spot is as far ahead as you can get.

With all this lockdown business it may be more of a bother getting some fishing weights but they are better than nuts and bolts

 

 

[Marklo]

4 minutes ago, alt-92 said:

With all this lockdown business it may be more of a bother getting some fishing weights but they are better than nuts and bolts

eBay is your friend and they’re very cheap too. 
 

And yes the law of the lever applies;  the effect of the weight is it’s mass multiplied by its distance from the center of gravity.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Marklo

[Lord Riot]

The tail booms are on, and did need a bit of putty around the join. The tail plane was a nice snug fit though, didn’t even need glue. I’ve tried to line everything up as straight and symmetrical as possible.

 

 

 

Having fitted the booms it obviously did need more nose weight! A lot more. I folded up and cut up a couple of nails and two small screws and fitted them wherever I could. There really isn’t much space and I’d already filled the nose cone. I managed to slide two thin nails either side of the seat and once painted black they look like part of the cockpit. The rest is stuffed in through the intakes up behind the cockpit bulkhead.

 

 

It worked, I think. Just. Though I’m slightly worried that it’s so finely balanced even the paint could tip it backwards. The canopy and nose wheel doors might help counteract that, hopefully. It’ll tip back at the slightest touch, but for now it sits right.

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Excellent progress, looks great .  Mine will tip back if touched but does stand on the U/C okay too.  I did add some just behind the cockpit as well.  

I do love the stance of these lovely little fighters.

Great work 

Chris 

[Lord Riot]

All smoothed over and pretty much ready for a coat of silver spray.

 

[bigbadbadge]

Very nice, can't wait to see the paint on

Chris

[Marklo]

Looks good so far. On my Horsa build I actually used brass sheet for the seats and the cockpit floor and bulkheads as I had nowhere to put weight. I’d say if you were still stuck you could still either put some weight in the leading edges of the wings or just behind the cockpit. Both would require a little painful surgery first

 

Of course you could always resort to a clear sprue prop under the fuselage

[adey m]

On 15/01/2021 at 18:38, Lord Riot said:

cushion to the seat.

 

and now where is he going to put his parachute ...............  🙄

[Lord Riot]

59 minutes ago, adey m said:

 

and now where is he going to put his parachute ...............  🙄

 

Ah. So it is just an empty bucket seat!? There’s still time to whip that cushion out.

[adey m]

9 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

There’s still time to whip that cushion out.

 

He probably would not have had a chance to climb out and use his parachute anyway, probably better to be comfortable  ............

[Lord Riot]

Offending cushion removed to make room for the parachute pack.

 

[Lord Riot]

It’s a bit of a strain on the eyes making a masking tape mask for such a small windscreen.

 

 

I needed to cut down the gunsight to fit under the windscreen too, otherwise it just gets pushed into the cockpit at a weird angle.

 

 

Windscreen in place so I can spray it and hopefully it won’t leave any join lines. I’ll leave the canopy off for now as I’ll display it open.

 

[bigbadbadge]

Looking good   yes it is rather small .  My last 72nd model was around half the size of this which strained the old eyes a bit!!! Never again. 

Crcking job.

Chris

[TallBlondJohn]

Tailsitting - another option is to take weight out of the tail with careful sanding and scouring. Can make that little bit of difference. Are the booms solid - could they be drilled out?

 

I have this in the stash, so vested interest!

[Lord Riot]

1 hour ago, TallBlondJohn said:

Tailsitting - another option is to take weight out of the tail with careful sanding and scouring. Can make that little bit of difference. Are the booms solid - could they be drilled out?

 

I have this in the stash, so vested interest!

 

The booms are hollow John, but with a thin file you could possibly scrape out a bit more plastic. Too late for mine now, but my advice would be stuff as much weight in the nose as possible and then as much as you can behind the cockpit bulkhead. Unlike me, do that bit before gluing the fuselage together!