Middle-East Vampires (Airfix T.11 and Xtrakit FB.5)

[Kelly_Johnson]

Hello to everyone!

After some break in a hobby I'd like to start off WIP topic here with two de Havilland Vampire models in 1/72:

Xtrakit DH.100 FB.5

and Airfix DH.115 T.11

 

DH Vampire is the one of the most interesting looking and important aircraft of my favourite era of 50s - the years of early jets and most advanced piston aircraft. I prefer to build planes participated in actual conflicts, so both Vampires will be from Suez Crisis period.

The kit from Xtrakit (wordplay, yeah=) will be used to reproduce Egyptian Vampire. Like this one:

 

Airfix T.11 will be transformed to Jordanian aircraft flown by King Hussein himself. Yeah, I know that this aircraft not participated in Suez Crisis, however it has very beautiful azure blue/middle stone/dark earth camo and from the same era too=)

I will use Printscale and DP Casper decals in my build

The problem with DP Casper decals is that it gives Egyptian FB5 Vampire with number 1567. This particular aircraft was shot down by Israeli Ouragans in 1955 before the Suez conflict. My plan is to change the number to different one from 1500 - 1550 or 156x ranges.

Also I have some goodies for my models to brighten up the build:

Resin from CMR for T.11 model as well as Pavla's wheels and two nonejection seats (Jordanian T.11 has no ejection seats)

 

Eduard photoetched set for FB.5.

 

So wish me luck, friends, the build seems to be loooooong enough=)

[bigbadbadge]

Welcome and good luck.  I am doing the Xtrakit FB.5 at the mo and have the T11 next to the bench for when I get s spare bit of space on the wor in progress shelf.

The Xtrakit goes together well .

Chris

[Kelly_Johnson]

9 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Welcome and good luck.

Thank you!

 

T.11 looks like very straightforward build. Xtrakit/MPM also goes together well, however it has a lot of issues. According to my preliminary research I can say that it just one big issue🙂 But I will try to solve them all😉

Here I have reviewed Xtrakit/MPM model some time ago and collected all its problems in one place (sorry, text in Russian, so use Goggle translate, please. In any case most pictures are self-explaining).

 

[bigbadbadge]

1 hour ago, Kelly_Johnson said:

Thank you!

 

T.11 looks like very straightforward build. Xtrakit/MPM also goes together well, however it has a lot of issues. According to my preliminary research I can say that it just one big issue🙂 But I will try to solve them all😉

Here I have reviewed Xtrakit/MPM model some time ago and collected all its problems in one place (sorry, text in Russian, so use Goggle translate, please. In any case most pictures are self-explaining).

 

Thanks, too late for mine as just about to put a panel lines wash  on it and then will be pretty much done.

Chris

[Kelly_Johnson]

Comparison of Xtrakit and Airfix Vampires clearly reveals differences between them.

Fuselages have similar diameter and shape but wings - not. They have same chord at the tip but the difference at the root is about 2,3 mm. The difference is in the angle of the leading edge. The trailing edge of the Xtrakit and Airfix wings has same angle and shape.

It is widely accepted that Airfix model has correct geometry which means that Xtrakit model is in trouble

First of all, the air intake lip moved 1,75 mm forward.

The shape of the air intake is wrong. It's too small, and narrow, and triangular in cross section.

The main wheel wells in Xtrakit Vampire are at the correct distance from the leading edge of the wing. But since its angle is incorrect, they turn out to be displaced forward by almost 1,8 mm. It's too much for 1/72 scale!!

 

To make Xtrakit Vampire wing right, one should cut it along the main spar. Then remove triangular section to obtain right length at the root. Relocate wheel wells. And reshape (make new, actually) the air intakes. Meh....

I have pondered this problem a lot. And finally concluded, that the easiest (but not easy) solution is to use another Airfix T.11 model (!) to possess correct wing as well as air intakes and part of tail booms.

So some kitbashing is coming to my double build project=)

 

[Kelly_Johnson]

FB.5 stabilizer is also too wide. Compare it with the same part from T.11 model:

Chords differ in more than two mm!

I cut away central part of FB.5 stabilizer, glue remaining parts together and get correct chord length:

Panel lines was removed in the process. Anyway, they were in wrong places. Later I will rescribe them correctly.

[bigbadbadge]

Wow, that's interesting,  how different manufacturers come out with the different dimensions.   The planned corrective surgery looks good. 

Chris

[Kelly_Johnson]

15 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

 The planned corrective surgery looks good. 

And some more surgery is coming=)

T.11 boom glued together. Nothing special.

FB.5 booms. Something is missing and something looks unnecessary. Booms also too narrow in comparison with Airfix counterpart.

 

As long as I decided to use Airfix wings in FB.5 kit, it also looks like good idea to use section of booms too.

I cut FB.5 tails and attached them to T.11 booms=)

0.4 mm wedge-like plastic insertion between halves of FB.5 tails was necessary to adjust the width of the Airfix and MPM parts.