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De Havilland Vampire F.3 (A06107) 1:48


Mike

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De Havilland Vampire F.3 (A06107)

1:48 Airfix

 

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The De Havilland DH.100 Vampire was built to fulfil a wartime requirement for a small, lightweight jet fighter for the Royal Air Force. Although the prototype aircraft flew almost two years before the end of the War, the production aircraft arrived too late to see service in the conflict. Despite this, well over 3,000 examples were produced overall and the aircraft enjoyed a relatively long service life by the standards of the day. Powered by a single De Havilland Goblin turbojet, the diminutive and low-slung Vampire was capable of almost 550mph and had a service ceiling of over 40,000 ft. In common with many other fighters of the day, it was armed with four 20mm cannon, as reliable missiles weren’t yet in production. The prototypes for the F.3 were converted from F.1s, and around 300 brand-new airframes were constructed for the RAF as a single seat fighter, with a substantial number of those exported to Canada and Norway.  It ran a Goblin Mk.III engine, which was retained when the time came to upgrade the type to the FB.5, which was based upon the FB.3 with improvements.

 

The 20 Norwegian Vampires flew until the late 50s, as did the Canadian airframes, later replaced by Canadair Sabres, which Airfix have also released fairly recently.  The Norwegians bought Thunderjets to replace their ageing Vampires in active service, while the trainers were superseded by T-33 Shooting Stars.

 

 

The Kit

This is a brand-new tooling from our friends at Airfix, and it’s a modern tooling that has benefitted from Airfix’s adoption of LIDAR scanning of aircraft in order to get the overall shapes correct from the outset.  That’s a huge part of the battle for accuracy, although there are plenty of other pitfalls along the way, particularly when scanning restored museum examples.  The kit arrives in their red-themed top opening box, and inside are four sprues of grey styrene, one of clear parts, the instruction booklet with spot colour, two glossy colour sheets of profiles for painting and decaling, and a decal sheet that predictably includes some Norwegian and Canadian roundels as well as the British ones.  You have to be a little careful when judging the exterior detail of De Havilland aircraft of this era, as many of them made use of laminated wood in their construction, with the Vampire being no exception.  There are a number of engraved panel lines, raised and recessed details throughout, and some nice detail where appropriate.  One oddity in the kit is the strangely deformed pilot figure that I described as “He looks like he's been magnified from one of their old 1:72 70s kits, then had his legs stretched over a barrel after being broken just above the knee”.  I’m not going to moan on and on about it though, as very little of him will be seen below the shoulders in the cramped cockpit, and the hands-on-knees design is a little outdated.  He’s also an accessory, and many including myself will leave him in the box.

 

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Construction begins with a few choices to make on the underside of the aircraft, which has the fuselage gondola moulded-in.  You choose whether to pose the aircraft gear-up at the outset by inserting the main gear bay doors from the inside, with lips ensuring good location.  The fitting of the drop-tanks requires two 2mm holes drilling out under each wing, and there’s another smaller 1mm hole under the starboard wing for an aerial that slips through from the inside during wing closure.  With those decisions made, the intake trunking is made up from two Y-shaped halves that are fixed to the engine face moulded into a bulkhead and spars that double as gear bay walls moulded-in along with some nice detail where it will be seen inside the bays.  This is laid inside the lower fuselage and joined by additional bay sidewalls that are similarly detailed, completing the bays for the wheels-down option, and adding the nose gear bay door if you’re committed to wheels up.  There is another bulkhead/spar part that forms the rear of the engine and has a stator-mounted bullet fixed to it, and the two-part exhaust trunking added over it before it too is dropped inside the lower fuselage.

 

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The cockpit is based on a curved-fronted floor with a choice of bare seatbelted seat depending on whether you’re using the figure or not. I won’t judge, I promise.  The seat is a little chunky, but again very little will be seen, especially if you are using Pilot Officer Shapely.  The rear bulkhead has a fire extinguisher fitted and is joined to the floor by two small tabs that fit into slots in the bulkhead and back up against the seat, setting the correct angle for the part, as demonstrated by the scrap diagram nearby.  PO Shapely is fixed into his seat (or not), then two side consoles and the control column are inserted into slots in the floor, two nose gear bay walls are added to the lower fuselage, then the cockpit is glued in place over the rear section, while the front section is covered by an insert.  Some paint will likely be involved here and in the cockpit before things get closed up.  At the rear of the lower fuselage assembly a triangular detail insert is fixed to the rear of the aft spar to create the wing root later on.

 

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The Vampire was a twin-boom aircraft, and these are both made from two halves that are split vertically, and are slotted inside the trailing portion that projects back from the wing, keying into the spar and sleeving inside the skin for a strong join.  The upper fuselage is prepared with additional cockpit instrumentation that is installed on the sidewalls, and is joined by a choice of two main panels that glue under the front cockpit lip, and is detailed by applying the appropriate decal to it after painting.  The panels themselves are contoured, but are a blank canvas for the decals to bring to life, and it’s worth noting that the decals only contain the dials and outlines, so take care with the painting.  A scrap diagram shows the correct angle of the panel from the side to assist you.  The fuselage/wings can finally be joined together now after inserting the aforementioned aerial from within before you do so.  It’s likely to get broken off if you’re clumsy like me, so note its length and width before you proceed too far.  A scrap diagram shows the layout of the cockpit within the fuselage, showing through the transparent walls to give you a good view.  The hollow nose cone is fitted now with a 17g weight inserted, and the intakes are slotted into the front of the intake trunking, taking care to pick the correct parts, as there are three in the box.  The starboard side has a sharper splitter, while the port is relatively blunt, with a spare blunt intake left on the sprues.  The detail on the intakes is nice, having three delicate vertical splitters moulded-in.  The elevator panel is made of top and bottom layers, and is installed between the two booms, using the inherent flexibility of styrene to get them to fit.  The rudders and elevator are separate parts, and can be fitted at neutral or deflected as you see fit.

 

You have the option to fit the flaps to your model in the up or down position, with the up option being predictably the quickest.  The six flap sections are glued in place over the bays, hiding the detail away forever.  To deploy the flaps, you first add rib detail to the two inner bay sections, then add an actuator linkage to the flaps themselves and glue them into the bays, adding extra detail when they are in position.  The outer section is glued at an angle to the trailing edge of its bay recess.

 

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If you went for the gear-up option you can skip 19 steps, but if you intend to stand her on her own three wheels, the main legs are single parts that have captive doors added to the sides, and once installed, the outer bay doors and a substantial retraction mechanism is added within the bay, then the two part main wheels are popped onto keyed axles so that the flat-spots are on the ground once you’re done.  The nose gear bay has a side door fitted with actuator, then the short leg is built from two parts that trap the two-part anti-shimmy wheel in place, then it has the front bay door with hinge added before it is inserted into the front of the bay, and a retraction jack links the bay wall and the leg together.

 

The Goblin engine and most jet engines of the day were thirsty for fuel, so additional tankage was almost mandatory.  The two tanks for under the wings are each made from three parts, forming the curved upper section and pylon from two parts, with the remaining part making up the complete lower half.  The wingtips and ailerons are added, and again you can elect to deflect the ailerons if you wish to add a little visual interest to your model.  Two horn-balances go on the elevator undersides; a small tank gets attached to the rear deck of the cockpit; a pitot probe on the port fin; flush-fitting landing light under the port wing; clear wingtip lights, then it’s time for the canopy to finish off the build.  You have a choice of posing the canopy open or closed using the same parts.  The windscreen is glued to the front of the cockpit after putting the clear gunsight on the coaming, then you can butt the canopy up to the screen, or retract it level with the seat head armour for the open option.  That’s the gluey part over with.

 

 

Markings

There are three choices on the decal sheet, all over a base colour of high-speed silver, one from the RAF, RCAF and a preserved airframe from a Norwegian museum.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

  • No.601 Sqn., Royal Auxiliary Air Force, RAF North Weald, Essex, England. 1952
  • No.442 ‘City of Vancouver’ Auxiliary Fighter Sqn., RCAF Station Vancouver, Canada, 1949
  • P42408/AE-B, Gardermoan Museum, Oslo, Norway, 2019

 

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Decals are by Airfix’s usual partner Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.  As already mentioned, there are a number of decals for the instrument panels and many stencils to detail your model.

 

 

Conclusion

Pilot aside, this is a good-looking model of an important but sometimes overlooked post-war fighter from the same stable that brought us the Mosquito.  A thoroughly modern tooling with plenty of detail.

 

Highly recommended.

 

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Review sample courtesy of

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3 hours ago, Boman said:

Nice! Good to see the RNoAF option. It's difficult to see, but wonder if the stencils for the RNoAF option is in Norwegian or English?

They seem to be in English only on the decal sheet. Are the Norwegian roundels correct for the time period? They don’t seem a dark enough blue?

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Nice review @Mike and thanks for the clear photographs. Now I can see the inclusion of the extended air conditioning intake fairing to build a FB.9, however cannot see any evidence of the squared off wingtips - are these actually included? Could you also advise if there are any flashed over holes inside the lower fuselage piece to ‘potentially’ accept a set of 4 x 60Ib rockets and their respective launchers? 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

however cannot see any evidence of the squared off wingtips - are these actually included?

 

I'm not sure, but maybe D15/16?

Plus, the wingtip lights for them may be the smaller pair - parts 7 & 8 - on the clear sprue.

Edited by KevinK
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9 hours ago, Julien said:

They seem to be in English only on the decal sheet. Are the Norwegian roundels correct for the time period? They don’t seem a dark enough blue?

 

They would have been much better if they were printed in the same blue as the RAF/RCAF roundels. Preferably even slightly darker.

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Informative write up. But I have to question the wing tips. It looks like squared off ones only. I am sure the RCAF ones were  F3 with the longer rounded tips?

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13 minutes ago, Paul J said:

But I have to question the wing tips. It looks like squared off ones only. I am sure the RCAF ones were  F3 with the longer rounded tips?

 

Sprue D, parts 28 & 32, plus the lights on the clear sprue.

Edited by KevinK
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18 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Could you also advise if there are any flashed over holes inside the lower fuselage piece to ‘potentially’ accept a set of 4 x 60Ib rockets and their respective launchers? 

Hi Dave

 

One set of flashed over holes either side in the lower wing for the external fuel tanks as illustrated and also a couple of holes flashed over under the fuselage on the the centreline (if that's what you were looking for). I can't see any alternative to the rounded wing tips included in the kit parts. They may be there but Airfix instructions don't inclde a parts map so its always difficult to spot unused parts. I would assume however the mere fact that the kit has separate wing tips and the extra intake suggests that an FB.5 or FB.9 is certainly planned. So likely these will have to be on a additional sprue together perhaps with any armament options but I can't think of anything else to put on it... so seems a shame not to have included alternative tips on the main parts.

 

Edit: actually having missed the earlier post from @KevinK - I agree parts D15 & D16 must be the squared off wing tip parts (together with clear parts 7 & 8). They are quite small but I can see no reference to them in the instructions and on close inspection they do seem to have the same locating tabs as the rounded tips. :thumbsup:  Well spotted Kevin - I can now press on confidently with my 60 Squadron FB.9!

 

Rich    

Edited by RichG
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On 11/11/2021 at 4:48 PM, RichG said:

 

 

Edit: actually having missed the earlier post from @KevinK - I agree parts D15 & D16 must be the squared off wing tip parts (together with clear parts 7 & 8). They are quite small but I can see no reference to them in the instructions and on close inspection they do seem to have the same locating tabs as the rounded tips. :thumbsup:  Well spotted Kevin - I can now press on confidently with my 60 Squadron FB.9!

 

Rich    

I assume parts 27 and 28 are the longer stroke main landing gear fitted to the FB5 and onwards.

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26 minutes ago, john224 said:

I assume parts 27 and 28 are the longer stroke main landing gear fitted to the FB5 and onwards.

 

Ah yes! I had forgotten about the longer stroke undercarriage fitted to later versions - well done Airfix. Great spot John!

 

Rich  

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6 hours ago, RichG said:

 

Ah yes! I had forgotten about the longer stroke undercarriage fitted to later versions - well done Airfix. Great spot John!

 

Rich  

 

There’s something I’ve just learned today, and I thought I knew the Vampire quite well? 
Cheers and thanks.. Dave. 

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Got my one today, great looking kit, much better than the Sabre, even on very first impression.

I did wonder about the 2 sets of main undercarriage, interesting I also was not aware of the change in length, as they say everyday is a school day.

it is great to see that you can build a 3, 5 and 9 from the kit. From those that do not know, the leading edge wing tip lights for the 5 and 9 need a small section removed from the wing for these to be fitted, so all being well all should work out.
One down side my kit was missing one little part, I think it is the small detail part in the inside of the exhaust, I am sure I will get a second kit so I will clone one from that one.

 

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28 minutes ago, Ali62 said:

For those that do not know, the leading edge wing tip lights for the 5 and 9 need a small section removed from the wing for these to be fitted, so all being well all should work out.

 

Thanks for that snippet of useful information. I’m contemplating building my first as a FB.9, so this as well as the longer stroke u/c parts choice is most helpful. I did previously ask if there are any flushed over holes inside the inner lower wing piece to accept a set of 60Ib rockets, however don’t believe that has answered as yet. 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Hi Dave

there are dimpled holes on the inside of he bottom wing just outboard of the wheel bay, these are for the fuel tanks provided but there are, other holes provided.you can see the thinned plastic area in Mikes picture as shown above, see the 7th picture down, the close up of the underside wing, hope this helps.

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Thanks @Ali62, I can see the flashed over holes provided for the fuel tanks, but cannot see any others - happy to take your word for it. The rockets would have been placed between the mid fuselage and the start of the underwing boom section (somewhere). I’m sure I can ‘guess’ their location however it would be nice if there’s a bit more of a positive guide provided. Looks the goods though doesn’t it? 

Cheers.. Dave 

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