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DH Vampire F.3 - 1/48 Airfix


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IMG_20201117_172648_430

 

This is the same seat at the Vampire pictured in my Hornet. Earlier aircraft had the hemp coloured webbing-type harness, while later ones used a blue nylon looking material. I don't have the leather back padding fitted to this.

 

 

Edited by David A Collins
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Progress so far...

Echoing another builder's comments about the centre instrument panel alignment, YES it is tricky to put these two fuselage halves together with the side and central panels in place. But there's no other way except being pre-assembled, as you cannot add them afterwards.

 

The fuselage went together well but seemed to take forever to apply the glue around the entire plan-shape of the jet.

 

IMG_20211203_173722_216

 

 

Sorry there's no photo of the following due to forgetting to take a picture before glueing it all together, but here's a description of what was done:

 

I used the decals for the instrument panels.

 

The seat has been painted a red-brown colour. The seat back is a dark leather brown. The harness is a hemp colour with aluminium turn-buckle and shoulder strap adjusters.

 

The LH instrument panel received a yellow dot for the oil temperature gauge, and a red dot for the oxygen gauge on the RH side.

On the throttle, it's centre boss was painted white to represent the friction knob. On the RH electrical box I've added a red dot for the fire extinguisher button.

 

If there had been other levers (flap, airbrake, undercarriage and canopy release for example) the first two have red-orange knobs, the third a white knob, and the last is black/yellow striped.

Edited by David A Collins
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I am also in build with this model. Two things to note you going to find it difficulty in achieving the 17g nose weight. I have stuffed lead shot everywhere even beside the pilots seat. Secondly just like (Wez my esteemed ex colleague) scissor links are solid, and yes I have cleaned one, but then realised you can not see if the tork link is hollow or not because the U/C door/main wheel are in the way!
Sammy

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7 hours ago, sammy da fish said:

I am also in build with this model. Two things to note you going to find it difficulty in achieving the 17g nose weight. I have stuffed lead shot everywhere even beside the pilots seat. Secondly just like (Wez my esteemed ex colleague) scissor links are solid, and yes I have cleaned one, but then realised you can not see if the tork link is hollow or not because the U/C door/main wheel are in the way!
Sammy

I'm going to stuff the area immediately behind the cockpit rear bulkhead with weight. 

 

Martian 👽

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Hi Martin 

The further away from the balance point the better, so inside the nose cone of which I managed just 4g. I don’t think the U/C would stand much more weight. I would give 30g the maximum.

 

Further to above comment from K5054NZ I think you can build a Mk 5/9 from this kit, although you might have to replace the seat with an ejection seat for when in later service. Don’t know what type of ejection seat though, but I am sure somebody on here will enlighten us all.

Simon

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If you are really precise aligning the upper/lower fuselage halves and intakes, steps at joins and filler can be avoided.... there's no room for error though, as the compound curves of the shape would show up misalignment instantly.

 

IMG_20211204_131451_309

 

IMG_20211204_131519_347

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by David A Collins
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On 12/3/2021 at 6:55 AM, David A Collins said:

 

The part you refer to does look like a Graviner fire extinguisher, which could be brass. But literally every single piece of kit I've seen in single seat Vampires over the years is black.

Also, for the record of anyone wants to make an FB.9 from this kit, there is ducting from the extended intake fairing that runs through this same location for the tropical air-conditioning.

Thanks @David A Collins.  If the cylinder is indeed black would that make it an oxygen bottle rather than a fire extinguisher?   I know that, for example, oxygen bottles in Spitfires were often located just behind the pilot’s seat and that in Meteor NF. 12s and 14s they were in the port side of the navigator’s cockpit so having a single oxygen bottle in the [short-legged] Vampire’s cockpit makes a degree of sense.

 

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Hi, stever219

If these images help?

 

MOTAT's FB.9 doesn't show a specific fire extinguisher here, but you can see everything is painted black.

http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/pages/newvamp8.html

 

http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/pages/newvamp7.html

 

http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/pages/newvamp3.html

 

http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/pages/newvamp2.html

 

Edited by David A Collins
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Thanks for the head up David !!

Very good job on this really good looking kit !!

I'm sure that one or two of them will find a way to CC's castle....

It will help a lot for upgrading my load of Hobbycraft kits....

Can't wait to see it with paint !!

Sincerely.

CC

PS... I saw that my favourite alien @Martian is already on the frontline with this Vampire....

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4 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

I'm sure that one or two of them will find a way to CC's castle....

CC, you do not have a licence to crenellate the Naughty Corner. Return it to its original appearance at once.

 

David, this is a very useful and educating thread and is rapidly getting my kit bumped up the "to Build" list. The only problem is two socking great Zeppelins clogging up the bench.

 

Martian 👽

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This particular Vampire will join a 1/48 scale display of 50's North Weald based squadrons.

This will be the 601 example.

Airfix also kindly provided a North Weald 111 Squadron scheme Meteor F8 a while back. This has already been made, and awaits it's fellows in the cabinet. 

In the queue to be made are a second Vampire and Meteor for 72 and 604 Squadrons respectively.

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Nice work so far.  I have to say that - on my build at least - it's a bit of a "filler queen". The joint between the upper & lower fuselage was awful & I couldn't for the life of me see why!  Also adding the intakes resulted in gaps top & bottom; I tried to achieve the best possible joint on the tops but quite a bit of filler needed beneath!  I'm building as an FB9 so using the extended starboard intake & the squared off wing tips.  Looking at plans I considered the supplied parts a bit too thin so I attached the rounded tips & cut & sanded them to shape in situ, using the nav lights provided. 

Edited by Graham T
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Before applying any colour scheme or decals I always like to do some research. Manufacturers don't always get it correct, especially if something may have been researched from a restored aircraft. I prefer to check back to original photographs.

 

In the case of this Vampire VT812 - N of 601 Sqn, generally the scheme looks ok to the original photographs taken in the early 1950's at North Weald. However, there is one detail regarding the underwing serial that I think needs adjusting. For starters, the preserved airframe in Hendon has the serial too far outboard along the wing. The kit has a big gap between the VT and 812, but this gap does not coincide with the drop tank location. The gap is there specifically to allow the serial to be read with the drop tanks fitted.

 

A little research of original Vampire photos has shown that the correct spacing should be VT8 "gap for drop-tank" 12 on the undercarriage doors. 

 

This can easily be checked online if someone wishes to verify this finding.

 

For this I'll have to use some Xtradecal numbers for the 12 as they will need cutting in different locations for the doors.

 

Edited by David A Collins
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Mine is awaiting my attention, thanks David for highlighting the important point of the build. It does seem that Airfix has done a stunning job tooling the kt! 

Only one comment to make, something I suspected when looking at the kit in detail, and that I think the panel lines are somewhat overstated, particularly the removable hatches that are everywhere. 

 

This is a picture of a BAE Hawk, built in 1974. As you can see, there are no visible panels at the range photographed... 

 

XX154.jpg

 

Even standing close to the airframe the panel lines are no more than a couple of mm.

 

Looking at photos of Vampires in service they seem to me to be more like the Hawk than the Airfix kit. So I think I'll use Mr Surfacer and primer to soften the lines, somewhat. 

Thoughts? 

 

 

 

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