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A DH Vampire (another boring ehrrr... exciting 28 Sqn build)


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I thought I had it there for a moment.  I did.  I really thought I had it.  Subject matter with extra added interest.  

Don’t you feel somehow diminished by all these hordes of modelers who manage to find subject matter with extraordinary background stories, exciting histories, and tales of derring do ?   You know who you are mes amigos

 

What do I get?  Another mundane, dull, run of the mill, and oh so boring 28 Squadron aircraft.  I must have picked the most boring Squadron in the whole of the RAF to choose as my modeling subject matter. Not even a fancy nickname. Boring.

 

Those of you who follow my ramblings may remember some time back that I acquired this little bundle of joys.

 

P7200009.jpg

 

Two of those have since fallen off the top of the stash, somehow got assembled, and I'm now left with just the CA Vampire (with all its warts and carbuncle's)

 

So anyways, as always, I've been amassing what few photos there are of 28 Squadron Vampires which I can pretty much count on the thumbs of both hands. Yes, 'twas that many.

At some point in my google bashing I stumbled across this little beauty

 

28-squadron-christmas-card-image-1957-ed

 

That was 2 years before I was born.  I probably bought her a drink in Red Lips (which was akin to an initiation rite for those unsuspecting new arrivals destined for Sek Kong back in the 80's) sunk deep in the depths of Tsim Sha Tsui

 

Red-Lips-Bar-Kowloon-1970-0.jpg

 

Ah, nostalgia.

 

Enough of that.

I won't mention that fact that the aircrew of 28 conned Hot Gossip into making a trip to Sek Kong for a little party when HG were in mid tour back in the early 80's.  Just in case you were wondering, us groundcrew types didn't get within 100 meters of Sarah & Co as they were ushered off the pan surrounded by a bunch of salivating green flying suits, never to be seen again.

 

Enough digression and back to the (boring) matter at hand.  That one photo of a BOAC stewardess perched precariously atop a small portion of Vampire doesn't quite get the blood rushing to one's head does it?

Then I happened across this little snapshot entitled "Sek Kong Vampire and Audrey." with Tai Mo Shan just visible in the background.

 

Sek-Kong-Vampire-and-Audrey.jpg

 

Okay, we've got an aircraft with a 'Y' on its nose.  A little better I suppose, but still not one of those Cor, this is really interesting moments forever carved in the squadrons stone tablets is it?  Nope?  I thought so.

 

It was then that it happened. The thing.  The thing that made me think I had it. Immortality  At last.  Following breadcrumbs and diving into worm holes I somehow stumbled across this rather intriguing shot

 

Report-from-Bias-Bay-010-loading-onto-HM

 

That's interesting said I. Or maybe just words to that effect. Or along those lines. 

My interest was piqued further when I started chasing down the story and found this.

 

Report-from-Bias-Bay-007.jpg

 

Aha!  That's not your typical runway I noted observantly. What happened here then?

On further investigation I discovered that the pilot flew in from Singapore, somehow missed Hong Kong, ran out of fuel and had to perform an emergency landing on a strip of beach.

That beach happened to belong to China.  And a bunch of (Chinese) Pirates.

It probably wasn't one of his better days, but it was for me as I stumbled across this shot.

Wow!  That's it!.  That's the one.

 

Report-from-Bias-Bay-008.jpg

 

What a shot.  Mystery. Intrigue. Tension. Suspense. It has it all. The Army, the Navy, the RAF.  Interest in abundance.

What an absolutely wonderful diorama that would make.

Then I read all about the adventure here

 

It wasn't 28 Sqn after all

 

VG703 was part of the Vampire Trials Unit.  :crying:

 

Therefore, I'm afraid you are stuck with just another boring 28 boring Sqn boring aircraft, this time a Vampire.  Not even Gothic.

Gee up folks, it maybe not that bad - it's all relative, right?

 

It begins:

In the never ending quest for stash incrementation I appear to have purchased the Flightpath PE set

 

P7200010.jpg

 

Along with a nicely yellowed Sepia toned canopy from Aeroclub. That should add that nice vintage touch to the finished model.

 

P3060002.jpg

 

let's look on the bright side.  It's not a biplane :penguin:

 

Plastic has been fettled.  More to follow.

 

if I can be interested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Buck up, young man. IT'S NOT A BIPLANE! And, completion brings you a step nearer to your goal. 

(Whatever that was in the first place, I've forgotten).

Anyway, it reminds me that I did a quick (morning) crane course in Riyadh and was then put in charge of slinging and moving a Vampire

from the parade ground, between lots of buildings and finally putting it into the big Hangar ready to be tidied up for the museum.

Oh, what fun we had. Especially when an idiot guard refused to let us bring an Aircraft through/over 'his' gate onto the Airfield.

Cue Aircraft dangling for twenty odd minutes while they tried to find his Officer. Cue bo**king in Arabic. Such fun!

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This is interesting. I got this one in the stash, not sure if I'll build it as a Mk 5 or a Mk 3; either way it will be in RCAF markings. Read horror stories about this, and the Venom, so I'm really curious how you tackle this one.

 

Cheers,
Wlad

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Wasn’t this the  28 squadron Vampire that was stolen from Kai-Tak by an infamous female Chinese pirate named Audrey.

 

As I recall, Audrey seduced one of the aircrew, married him and then used her access to the airbase to smuggle one of her (male) pirate band - disguised as a BOAC air hostess - to the flight line. He then used poisoned stiletto heels to kill the crew chief and stole a jet. 
 

The intention was to deliver the airframe to communist China for a rich reward, but HMS Belfast, returning to Victoria harbour following a series of tests of a new crane-launched surface to air missile, was alerted to the theft. Belfast used her last remaining test round to damage the aircraft, forcing it to land on a Kowloon Harbour garbage-barge which subsequently delivered it to a popular tourist beach where the RAF reclaimed the airframe.

 

Audrey and the perpetrator were later cornered in the infamous ‘Red Lips’  👄 bar and killed in a gunfight with heroic 28 squadron ground crew.

 

Due to the embarrassment caused to the Royal Air Force this story remains highly classified but given your long association with the squadron @hendie I’m a bit surprised you haven’t heard at least something about it.

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On 3/16/2021 at 10:36 PM, hendie said:

I thought I had it there for a moment.  I did.  I really thought I had it.  Subject matter with extra added interest.  

Don’t you feel somehow diminished by all these hordes of modelers who manage to find subject matter with extraordinary background stories, exciting histories, and tales of derring do ?   You know who you are mes amigos

 

What do I get?  Another mundane, dull, run of the mill, and oh so boring 28 Squadron aircraft.  I must have picked the most boring Squadron in the whole of the RAF to choose as my modeling subject matter. Not even a fancy nickname. Boring.

 

Those of you who follow my ramblings may remember some time back that I acquired this little bundle of joys.

 

P7200009.jpg

 

Two of those have since fallen off the top of the stash, somehow got assembled, and I'm now left with just the CA Vampire (with all its warts and carbuncle's)

 

So anyways, as always, I've been amassing what few photos there are of 28 Squadron Vampires which I can pretty much count on the thumbs of both hands. Yes, 'twas that many.

At some point in my google bashing I stumbled across this little beauty

 

28-squadron-christmas-card-image-1957-ed

 

That was 2 years before I was born.  I probably bought her a drink in Red Lips (which was akin to an initiation rite for those unsuspecting new arrivals destined for Sek Kong back in the 80's) sunk deep in the depths of Tsim Sha Tsui

 

Red-Lips-Bar-Kowloon-1970-0.jpg

 

Ah, nostalgia.

 

Enough of that.

I won't mention that fact that the aircrew of 28 conned Hot Gossip into making a trip to Sek Kong for a little party when HG were in mid tour back in the early 80's.  Just in case you were wondering, us groundcrew types didn't get within 100 meters of Sarah & Co as they were ushered off the pan surrounded by a bunch of salivating green flying suits, never to be seen again.

 

Enough digression and back to the (boring) matter at hand.  That one photo of a BOAC stewardess perched precariously atop a small portion of Vampire doesn't quite get the blood rushing to one's head does it?

Then I happened across this little snapshot entitled "Sek Kong Vampire and Audrey." with Tai Mo Shan just visible in the background.

 

Sek-Kong-Vampire-and-Audrey.jpg

 

Okay, we've got an aircraft with a 'Y' on its nose.  A little better I suppose, but still not one of those Cor, this is really interesting moments forever carved in the squadrons stone tablets is it?  Nope?  I thought so.

 

It was then that it happened. The thing.  The thing that made me think I had it. Immortality  At last.  Following breadcrumbs and diving into worm holes I somehow stumbled across this rather intriguing shot

 

Report-from-Bias-Bay-010-loading-onto-HM

 

That's interesting said I. Or maybe just words to that effect. Or along those lines. 

My interest was piqued further when I started chasing down the story and found this.

 

Report-from-Bias-Bay-007.jpg

 

Aha!  That's not your typical runway I noted observantly. What happened here then?

On further investigation I discovered that the pilot flew in from Singapore, somehow missed Hong Kong, ran out of fuel and had to perform an emergency landing on a strip of beach.

That beach happened to belong to China.  And a bunch of (Chinese) Pirates.

It probably wasn't one of his better days, but it was for me as I stumbled across this shot.

Wow!  That's it!.  That's the one.

 

Report-from-Bias-Bay-008.jpg

 

What a shot.  Mystery. Intrigue. Tension. Suspense. It has it all. The Army, the Navy, the RAF.  Interest in abundance.

What an absolutely wonderful diorama that would make.

Then I read all about the adventure here

 

It wasn't 28 Sqn after all

 

VG703 was part of the Vampire Trials Unit.  :crying:

 

Therefore, I'm afraid you are stuck with just another boring 28 boring Sqn boring aircraft, this time a Vampire.  Not even Gothic.

Gee up folks, it maybe not that bad - it's all relative, right?

 

It begins:

In the never ending quest for stash incrementation I appear to have purchased the Flightpath PE set

 

P7200010.jpg

 

Along with a nicely yellowed Sepia toned canopy from Aeroclub. That should add that nice vintage touch to the finished model.

 

P3060002.jpg

 

let's look on the bright side.  It's not a biplane :penguin:

 

Plastic has been fettled.  More to follow.

 

if I can be interested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a biplane but a bitail nonetheless...

Oh I managed to be on page one !!

I have that same kit in the stash, So, I'll let you open the way...

Thanks for the side stories !!

Red lips was surely a great place to be Ahem... I presume !!

Beer and rashers at the ready !! Let's go to Hong Kong !!

Sincerely.

CC

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6 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Wasn’t this the  28 squadron Vampire that was stolen from Kai-Tak by an infamous female Chinese pirate named Audrey.

 

As I recall, Audrey seduced one of the aircrew, married him and then used her access to the airbase to smuggle one of her (male) pirate band - disguised as a BOAC air hostess - to the flight line. He then used poisoned stiletto heels to kill the crew chief and stole a jet. 
 

The intention was to deliver the airframe to communist China for a rich reward, but HMS Belfast, returning to Victoria harbour following a series of tests of a new crane-launched surface to air missile, was alerted to the theft. Belfast used her last remaining test round to damage the aircraft, forcing it to land on a Kowloon Harbour garbage-barge which subsequently delivered it to a popular tourist beach where the RAF reclaimed the airframe.

 

Audrey and the perpetrator were later cornered in the infamous ‘Red Lips’  👄 bar and killed in a gunfight with heroic 28 squadron ground crew.

 

Due to the embarrassment caused to the Royal Air Force this story remains highly classified but given your long association with the squadron @hendie I’m a bit surprised you haven’t heard at least something about it.

You silly twisted boy

 

AW

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Your builds are always interesting and informative, I'll take a seat and watch quietly whilst you work your magic!

 

   Stay safe           Roger

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53 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Great intro!  Is that a Sunderland in the background of the beach photo?

Thanks Adrian. Although it was a shame I had to step in to provide the historical context.

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Interesting, the Vampire that needed to be rescued is an F.3 - original extended wingtips with the rounded plan rather than the clipped square cut ones of the kits FB.5.

 

Anyway, the 28 Sqn markings are more interesting than some, shame they're another "My Little Pony" sqn.

 

Shall be watching with interest.

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Wot? No more biplanes? Shame on you!

I'll follow along anyway, since we can be pretty sure of high entertainment value even without watching you wrestle with bendy struts and invisible thread!

 

Ian 

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Vampire and Kai Tak.  Well I for one don’t need anymore than that.

 

Being a vampire driver in Hong Kong must have been a heck of a fine way to spend a few of your youthful years.

 

 Cue some hendie multimedia magic....

 

 

 

 

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On 3/16/2021 at 11:36 PM, hendie said:

Therefore, I'm afraid you are stuck with just another boring 28 boring Sqn boring aircraft

Ha!  Not to worry...for some reason I have a 19 Squadron thing going and I'm not even English, or a member of the Commonwealth.  Why?  I have no idea but I think it started with the sponsored Hawk STGB.

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OOh, this build seems to have picked up a bit of interest then. (though the term build may be a tad optimistic)

 

On 3/16/2021 at 7:57 PM, The Spadgent said:

Oooh Vampire. Well you’ve got me interested. 🧛🏼‍♂️ Blurghh. 

Johnny

 

Welcome aboard Johnny, grab your garlic marmite, just to be safe

 

On 3/16/2021 at 11:07 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

And there was me looking forward to you 3D printing a 1/48 landing craft.  Heck, why so unambitious?  A 1/48 HMS Belfast?

 

to be honest Crisp, I sooooo wanted to build a little diorama with the Vampire sniggled nicely in the landing craft - it would save me the embarrassment of this being another tail sitter

 

On 3/17/2021 at 5:17 AM, gingerbob said:

Trials, indeed!

 

I saw what you did there!

 

On 3/17/2021 at 5:47 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

Buck up, young man. IT'S NOT A BIPLANE! And, completion brings you a step nearer to your goal. 

(Whatever that was in the first place, I've forgotten).

Anyway, it reminds me that I did a quick (morning) crane course in Riyadh and was then put in charge of slinging and moving a Vampire

from the parade ground, between lots of buildings and finally putting it into the big Hangar ready to be tidied up for the museum.

Oh, what fun we had. Especially when an idiot guard refused to let us bring an Aircraft through/over 'his' gate onto the Airfield.

Cue Aircraft dangling for twenty odd minutes while they tried to find his Officer. Cue bo**king in Arabic. Such fun!

 

Nice one Pete

 

On 3/17/2021 at 7:13 PM, Wlad said:

This is interesting. I got this one in the stash, not sure if I'll build it as a Mk 5 or a Mk 3; either way it will be in RCAF markings. Read horror stories about this, and the Venom, so I'm really curious how you tackle this one.

Cheers,
Wlad

 

If you can build it as anything resembling a Vampire I think you'll be doing well.  I started this probably a couple of years ago now, and after a few short sessions, it went into the "I'll deal with this later" pile

 

On 3/17/2021 at 7:53 PM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Wasn’t this the  28 squadron Vampire that was stolen from Kai-Tak by an infamous female Chinese pirate named Audrey.

 

As I recall, Audrey seduced one of the aircrew, married him and then used her access to the airbase to smuggle one of her (male) pirate band - disguised as a BOAC air hostess - to the flight line. He then used poisoned stiletto heels to kill the crew chief and stole a jet. 
 

The intention was to deliver the airframe to communist China for a rich reward, but HMS Belfast, returning to Victoria harbour following a series of tests of a new crane-launched surface to air missile, was alerted to the theft. Belfast used her last remaining test round to damage the aircraft, forcing it to land on a Kowloon Harbour garbage-barge which subsequently delivered it to a popular tourist beach where the RAF reclaimed the airframe.

 

Audrey and the perpetrator were later cornered in the infamous ‘Red Lips’  👄 bar and killed in a gunfight with heroic 28 squadron ground crew.

 

Due to the embarrassment caused to the Royal Air Force this story remains highly classified but given your long association with the squadron @hendie I’m a bit surprised you haven’t heard at least something about it.

 

No, that was the other one Steve.

 

 

classic  Steve - thanks  :rofl2:

 

 

On 3/17/2021 at 7:59 PM, corsaircorp said:

Not a biplane but a bitail nonetheless...

Oh I managed to be on page one !!

I have that same kit in the stash, So, I'll let you open the way...

Thanks for the side stories !!

Red lips was surely a great place to be Ahem... I presume !!

Beer and rashers at the ready !! Let's go to Hong Kong !!

Sincerely.

CC

 

Sorry to hear you have the same kit CC. By all accounts it's a real pig to build - and there's a few bits need correcting along the way.  This could be painful.

 

On 3/18/2021 at 2:49 AM, Andwil said:

You silly twisted boy

AW

 

He's Austral.. oops, a geologist. He's a geologist AW.

 

On 3/18/2021 at 3:14 AM, Hamden said:

 

Your builds are always interesting and informative, I'll take a seat and watch quietly whilst you work your magic!

   Stay safe           Roger

 

kind words Roger.  I just sort of make things up as I go along.

 

On 3/18/2021 at 5:46 AM, Ossington said:

Red Lips! Not what I expected on a modelling forum! Ah, the smell of burning mosquito rings... You buy me dlink big boy?

 

Lady drink ten dollah!

 

On 3/18/2021 at 7:03 AM, AdrianMF said:

Great intro!  Is that a Sunderland in the background of the beach photo?

Regards,

Adrian

 

Sunderlands, ships, landing craft. Navy, Army, Air Force.  Seems it was quit the invasion Adrian. I'm surprised we didn't start another war.

 

On 3/18/2021 at 7:59 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

it was a shame I had to step in 

 

I corrected your typos for you Steve. :penguin:

 

On 3/18/2021 at 8:14 AM, Marklo said:

Not a biplane. I’m in two minds as to wether I should follow it or not. Surely you can stick in a second wing somewhere.

 

the way things are going this is going to be lucky to get any wings

 

On 3/19/2021 at 9:27 AM, Wez said:

Interesting, the Vampire that needed to be rescued is an F.3 - original extended wingtips with the rounded plan rather than the clipped square cut ones of the kits FB.5.

 

Anyway, the 28 Sqn markings are more interesting than some, shame they're another "My Little Pony" sqn.

 

Shall be watching with interest.

 

the kit comes with options for the rounded tips, which was shy I was looking (forlornly) at the vampire in a basket photo

 

On 3/19/2021 at 10:15 AM, Brandy said:

Wot? No more biplanes? Shame on you!

I'll follow along anyway, since we can be pretty sure of high entertainment value even without watching you wrestle with bendy struts and invisible thread!

 

Ian 

 

I have a feeling we'll be seeing a biplane make an entrance as a diversion before this build is over

 

On 3/19/2021 at 3:45 PM, Fritag said:

Vampire and Kai Tak.  Well I for one don’t need anymore than that.

 

Being a vampire driver in Hong Kong must have been a heck of a fine way to spend a few of your youthful years.

 

 Cue some hendie multimedia magic....

 

 

being a lowly rigger in Sek Kong provided me with stories aplenty Steve.

 

On 3/19/2021 at 3:57 PM, Head in the clouds. said:

The trailer for the films we see are to get you hooked for more, your trailer was gooood and I am hooked. Waiting in anticipation.

 

and like most trailers these days, what follows is probably going to be a big let down.

 

On 3/19/2021 at 4:20 PM, John Masters said:

Ha!  Not to worry...for some reason I have a 19 Squadron thing going and I'm not even English, or a member of the Commonwealth.  Why?  I have no idea but I think it started with the sponsored Hawk STGB.

 

arghhh see what I mean... XIX Sqn - even the name written in Roman numerals looks cooler than 28 Sqn.

 

 

Now, where do I begin with this?  Should I even begin with this?  I just checked and it would appear that I started the Venom back in January 2020 so I must have started this previous to that. Then I must have realized what a pig of a kit this is and put it to the side while attacking the Venom instead.  I took a few photos at the time but looking back on them now I have very little idea of what I was doing or more importantly, why.

 

Ever the optimist, I must have started on the PE wheel wells

 

P7200012.jpg

 

going as far as making up my own actuators to replace the flatly 2 dimensional offerings in the PE set.

 

P7200013.jpg

 

So if anyone can tell me why I chose to discard those and instead opt for the kit resin parts, I'd be very interested to hear.  

I think that I though the PE parts were too flat and even though the resin was less detailed, it was more three dimensional and would end up looking better in situ.

 

P7210014.jpg

 

As usual this was not a straightforward job. One, the resin wells were too thick. Two, the gap inside the wings was too thin. Three, the wing trailing edges were as thick as my dumb cat. Four, if you held the lading edges of the upper and lower wing together, the trailing edges shied away from each other and vice versa.

Oh, and Five, we had a little bit of warp to deal with.

 

P7210015.jpg

 

I seem to remember I spent many sessions sanding and scraping in an effort to get these two wing halves to play nicely together.  I also seem to remember that I did my shoulder in while scraping as this plastic is as soft as granite.

But eventually...

 

P7210016.jpg

 

Looks like I must be preparing to use the PE flaps then, judging by that last photo.

 

Ah, I was right!   Look - bits of PE

 

P7240019.jpg

 

Now the quality of Flightpath PE is of the highest order. That cannot be denied.  However, the accompanying instructions are not quite up to the same standard.  Or it could well be me.  Try as I might, I could not get the PE flaps to fit by attempting to follow the instructions, and ended up having to hacksaw into the kit in order to make things fit.

 

P7240020.jpg

 

Don't they look great?

 

P7240021.jpg

 

They'd probably have looked even better had I been able to close the two wing halves over them but alas, it was not to be.

It looks like I had to separate the flaps for some reason.  Now this may have been a hendecision. I think I may have done this so I could fit the flaps later as I didn't want them hanging off the wings with all the work that's coming ahead. By cutting them in two I've made it possible to fit them later in the build.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself now.

 

P7240022.jpg

 

and we haven't even gotten to the bad parts yet!

 

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7 hours ago, hendie said:

He's Austral.. oops, a geologist. He's a geologist AW.

Ah, he was stoned...that would explain it.

 

AW

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I have an Aeroclub Javelin canopy that yellowed badly. After one month taped to a west facing upstairs bedroom window I can CONFIRM it is now beautifully clear and waiting a dip in Future. It does work placing them in direct UV.

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de Havilland Vampire.

 

 

Hendiebuild.

 

What do you think?

 

Of course I am in with this one, mad at myself for not seeing it until Sunday morning, but now I am comfortably seated.

 

Let the 'tale' unfold...

 

 

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