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Dragon De Havilland Venom FB4


Dave C

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As far as I know, the only 1/72 scale single seater Venom kits are the 1956 FROG kit, the RAREplane vacform, the Aeroclub short-run kit and the forthcoming AccsGB kit. Dragon have only done the two seat NF3 and Sea Venom, and the latter got roasted on here for inaccuracy when it was first issued. Apparently it goes together well.

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9 hours ago, Richard Humm said:

Dragon have only done the two seat NF3 and Sea Venom, and the latter got roasted on here for inaccuracy when it was first issued. 

Can you refer me to the said critique.

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10 hours ago, Richard Humm said:

As far as I know, the only 1/72 scale single seater Venom kits are the 1956 FROG kit, the RAREplane vacform, the Aeroclub short-run kit and the forthcoming AccsGB kit. Dragon have only done the two seat NF3 and Sea Venom, and the latter got roasted on here for inaccuracy when it was first issued. Apparently it goes together well.

CMR did a range of single seat Venoms as well, plus there were  "solids" from Keilkraft, Skyleada and Veron back in the day

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1 hour ago, Dave C said:

Sincerest apologies guys, I made an error

the Dragon kit is the Vampire FB.5

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/DN5085

So a new query, is this Dragon kit an improvement over their Sea Venom and is it better or worse than the old Frog model

Personally I would avoid it and go for the Special Hobby kits are the most recent and build up well, they're far more accurate than the Dragon kit (although there is no argument there is no truly accurate 1/72nd Vampire out there).  The wing trailing edges are a bit on the thick side but as far as I'm concerned, the SH kits look more like a Vampire than the Dragon kit.  The old Heller kit is still a neat kit but it has raised panel lines which some people don't like.

 

SH have just issued the FB.9 version which includes the extended starboard intake fairing found on that mark and many FB.5s.  They've also issued an F.1 and F.3, Xtrakit and Azur have also FB.5 issued versions of the kit although some boxings don't include the extended fairing (ironically, the F.1 boxings do).

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5 hours ago, Wez said:

Personally I would avoid it and go for the Special Hobby kits are the most recent and build up well, they're far more accurate than the Dragon kit (although there is no argument there is no truly accurate 1/72nd Vampire out there).  The wing trailing edges are a bit on the thick side but as far as I'm concerned, the SH kits look more like a Vampire than the Dragon kit.  The old Heller kit is still a neat kit but it has raised panel lines which some people don't like.

 

SH have just issued the FB.9 version which includes the extended starboard intake fairing found on that mark and many FB.5s.  They've also issued an F.1 and F.3, Xtrakit and Azur have also FB.5 issued versions of the kit although some boxings don't include the extended fairing (ironically, the F.1 boxings do).

Many thanks Wez,

I will take your advice & go with the SH FB.9 and see if the Azur FB.5 is still available at a reasonable price

Apologies one last question, is the 1/72 Airfix Vampire T.11 accurate?

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20 hours ago, Dave C said:

I will take your advice & go with the SH FB.9 and see if the Azur FB.5 is still available at a reasonable price

Special Hobby also did an FB.5 and F.3 (also released by Revell), I would go for those personally.

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If going with the Special Hobby kit, better choose one of the issues with the corrected intakes. The first issues had very small intakes but this was corrected starting IIRC with the first F.3 issue, later boxes should all have the corrected parts. The original small intakes are quite noticeable and don't look good 

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On 29/12/2021 at 22:21, Richard Humm said:

Yes, Airfix used the one owned by the Vampire Preservation Group as the basis for the kit. It's probably the most accurate injection moulded 1/72 scale Vampire around, with the Heller FB.5 being the runner up.

 

I'd agree, the Airfix T.11 is a very good kit, they did a great job with that one.

 

5 minutes ago, Giorgio N said:

If going with the Special Hobby kit, better choose one of the issues with the corrected intakes. The first issues had very small intakes but this was corrected starting IIRC with the first F.3 issue, later boxes should all have the corrected parts. The original small intakes are quite noticeable and don't look good 

 

Good tip Giorgio, unfortunately I'd already bought a job lot of the earlier issue before I noticed/found out.

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On 12/29/2021 at 11:32 PM, Dave Swindell said:

CMR did a range of single seat Venoms as well, plus there were  "solids" from Keilkraft, Skyleada and Veron back in the day

Not sure if it's been mentioned (apologies if so) but fairly early on Frog did one too. I'd love one but I expect I'd need to sell an organ or three to afford it!

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ISTR there was a conversion published in an old Scale Aircraft Modelling which took a Frog Sea Venom and Vampire and cut and shut them into a Venom FB.4 which was, AFAIK, the only way of getting a single seat Venom for a long time.

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1 hour ago, Wez said:

ISTR there was a conversion published in an old Scale Aircraft Modelling which took a Frog Sea Venom and Vampire and cut and shut them into a Venom FB.4 which was, AFAIK, the only way of getting a single seat Venom for a long time.

 

A bit like what was done in this model:

http://hsfeatures.com/venomtm_1.htm

 

I've been contemplating an easier cross-kitting exercise with the Aeroclub Venom FB and one of the many Frog Sea Venom cones on the market. Yes the Aeroclub kit includes all the parts needed but I feel that the Frog wings would be easier to detail.

Of course now that a kit has been announced I may just build the Sea Venom as is and sell the Aeroclub kit..

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2 hours ago, Wez said:

ISTR there was a conversion published in an old Scale Aircraft Modelling which took a Frog Sea Venom and Vampire and cut and shut them into a Venom FB.4 which was, AFAIK, the only way of getting a single seat Venom for a long time.

 

Neil Robinson covered this conversion in an Operation Musketeer article he wrote for an early issue of PAM News.

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1 hour ago, AWFK10 said:

 

Neil Robinson covered this conversion in an Operation Musketeer article he wrote for an early issue of PAM News.

Confirmed here. PAM #14 - mid 1976. I did the conversion back in the 1970s and it worked very well, using the front pod end of a Frog Vampire FB.5 and remainder of the Frog Sea Venom. Nowadays one might think that this sort of modelling is nonsense but options were limited at the time as in fact they still are in a way - until AccsGB come to the rescue-albeit at a price ! It's still a viable and satisfying conversion using these now cheap kits today and such a  good modelling skill enhancing exercise.

At the time these were quite recent kits (Vampire 1971, Sea Venom 1973). I did try to use the remaning bits & pieces to create a Vampire NF but never quite got there with that one and it all seemed such a waste, things were much different then with not so much cash sloshing round.

Thanks for the memory.

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1 hour ago, viscount806x said:

Nowadays one might think that this sort of modelling is nonsense but options were limited at the time as in fact they still are in a way - until AccsGB come to the rescue-albeit at a price ! It's still a viable and satisfying conversion using these now cheap kits today and such a  good modelling skill enhancing exercise.

 

Not me! I did this conversion last year and I completely agree with you.  I have an Airfix Sea Hawk in the stash and I may get round to building it with the corrections that are outlined in the same article.

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Giorgio, you may as well just build the Aeroclub kit as a clothes horse for decals. It's a typical late 80s limited run kit so needs a bit of clean up but fairly easy to assemble, nothing I'm sure you couldn't handle. The lack of cockpit interior isn't much of an issue being black.

 

I'd a few tucked away plus one to finish.

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