1/48 Vampire FB.6 - Airfix and WellsProp conversion

[mahavelona]

 HI Britmodellers,

 

I am excited to present a build of the Airfix 1/48 Vampire with the brand new WellsProp conversion kit to make an FB.6.

 

After the great success of the FB.1 conversion WellsProp hat offered another drop in conversion which allows us to make some seriously cool Swiss airframes...

 

I'll be using the Matterhorn Circle decal set to make J-1102 with a sharkmouth. This marking was added at the end of her long service life. As you see this means we will also be fading the dayglo orange. The decals were available from Hannants and the sheet covers multiple subjects - the below is just a hint.

 

The FB.6 involved a new nose and was also upgraded with Martin Baker ejection seats. These are provided as direct replacement for the kit parts. The quality is really nice and WellsProp's parts fit very nicely into the kit. You also get the late wheels. I have cleaned the mould release agent off using dish soap in this image. As 3D printed parts it's important to do this.

 

I only had to fettle the locating hole in the nose undercarriage bay a little to get the kit to accept the new cockpit. Here's a dry run without the undercarriage bay parts:

The new seat meant moving it further back and hence the cockpit has an inset. It's easy to cut a small amount from the kit upper fuselage to account for this. 

Looking forward to progressing this one.

[bigbadbadge]

Ooooooo  looking forward to seeing this progress,  a lovely scheme too.  I am waiting for the FB.31 conversion from Ben as want to do the yellow and black striped Australian machine. 

Good luck with your build.

Chris

[HOUSTON]

As Chris stated  lovely  scheme. 

 

I also think that the scheme chosen is superb.

NEAT start Sir to your build.

Looks great.

 

[k5054nz]

The WellsProp sets are on my radar to do the Venom based at my local field so I'm very excited to follow along!

[hopkp]

The seat looks very basic by the standards of other current 3D printed accessories?

Edited November 27, 2022 by hopkp

[k5054nz]

I can't speak to the Vampire but the Venoms were fitted with these:

 

[wellsprop]

On 27/11/2022 at 00:02, hopkp said:

The seat looks very basic by the standards of other current 3D printed accessories?

That's correct I designed this set to be an simple drop in replacement for the Airfix parts, with a similar level of detail to the original Airfix parts.

 

As I'm not Eduard and this is very much a short run "garage kit" conversion, I had to make compromises in the level of detail in the seat in order to make the conversion feasible for me to produce.

 

Fortunately, the cockpit is a dark black hole anyway, however there is a reasonable amount of scope for detailing the seat

[hopkp]

20 hours ago, wellsprop said:

That's correct I designed this set to be an simple drop in replacement for the Airfix parts, with a similar level of detail to the original Airfix parts.

 

As I'm not Eduard and this is very much a short run "garage kit" conversion, I had to make compromises in the level of detail in the seat in order to make the conversion feasible for me to produce.

 

Fortunately, the cockpit is a dark black hole anyway, however there is a reasonable amount of scope for detailing the seat

Can't argue with any of that!

 

Is there a Wells Props website where the conversion can be bought or is it just on Facebook?

[wellsprop]

26 minutes ago, hopkp said:

Is there a Wells Props website where the conversion can be bought or is it just on Facebook?

 

I'm only on Facebook and ebay at the moment, although I have been looking into a website https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225226945482?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=peZth9WcTQC&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=peZth9WcTQC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

As well as doing direct sells via Britmodeller! 

[mahavelona]

Hello everyone! As usual I totally failed to keep my build log updated but here's the lot in one go.

 

I really enjoyed this conversion. As to comments above - I'd say the parts you get are about as good as what Airfix give you, and it's all very hard to see anyway. I was very happy with the detail level.

 

Here's a cockpit shot:

Note I put a load of weight behind the cockpit there.

 

The kit fits together very nicely and the WellsProp nosecone was an easy addition.

 

I proceeded to prime the model with Mr Surfacer 1500 grey... Then sprayed Mr Colour fluorescent orange in numerous layers. Noting the faded appearance of the upper fuselage panel in the real photos, I used some micro mesh to wear this away during the painting process.

Then I put a bit of white into the mix to help me fade that panel...

Masking took a good few hours.

Then tamiya black.

And the wonderful Matterhorn decals!

 

More to come soon...