Nice to see another post war build Stik, got you on the roster. From the loks of that PE and decals, this has been in the stash a while.

Greg, hope the storm doesn't cause any major issues. We are just in for plenty of rain this weekend.

Cheers for that info Steve, i'll keep an eye out for that. Will have to find some surpplies, can't say i have seen Round 2 kits here much. If all else fails, i'll try Starship modeler.

Gammy and Bish, no worries. We are in the middle of the Great Lakes snow belt. The weather media tries to scare us, we laugh. Thank you for your well-wishes.

Stik is back, ....cool!!! A Vampire, never heard of it. Looking forward to watching it come together.

Greg, the vampire is one of several post war British aircraft that don't get mutch attention, even over here. The vampire was the first jet to cross the Atlantic and also the first pure jet to both land and take off from an aircraft carrier, flown by Cpt Eric Brown. It was in service with the RAF until the mid 60's, having been introduced in 1946. The Sea vampire was the Royal Navys first jet fighter.

Bish

Nice to see another post war build Stik, got you on the roster. From the loks of that PE and decals, this has been in the stash a while.

 

Actually this F.1 has been in my stash only a couple of years or so. I picked it up off a guy at IPMS who was thinning his stash. Now the decals and PE on the other hand I have had for many years longer for a F.3 in my stash for longer than those. I was going to do the F.3 in RAF, but after picking up the F.1, the F.3 is now slated to be a Mexican Air Force bird.

And for such a historically significant aircraft, the Vampire is seldom seen as a build subject.

ISteve: Very nice build of the Vb. (Must say that tropical equipment doesn't help the lines of any fighter. US fighters didn't need them because they were built to fly in Alaska or the Panama Canal.) Encouraging about the Airfix. I've got my sites on their Wellington - ugly plane but one the most important planes few have ever heard of. Eric

Bish, thanks for the interesting information on the Vampire.

First Jet to cross the Atlantic AND land/takeoff on a carrier....that's impressive.

Greg

Bish, thanks for the interesting information on the Vampire.

First Jet to cross the Atlantic AND land/takeoff on a carrier....that's impressive.

 

The design later morphed into the Venom/Sea Venom. Like the Wildcat into the Hellcat or Bearcat. Later the twin boom jet was carried to its ultimate development in the DeHavilland Sea Vixen. 

And like its predecessor the Mosquito, the Vampire used the same molded plywood for a good portion of its construction. 

You fellas really know your aircraft.

The UK came out of WWII with some very impressive technology. But for some reason in the next 15 years as technology grew more complex - and nationalism colored sales - they had a hard time putting all of the pieces together. (In some ways victory hurt the British economy more than defeat hurt Germany's.) On paper British airliners could have started the jet age in air travel. They were first off the mark. Maybe the resources spent to be first prevented deeper development - in any case the Boeing 707 ended up with the prize. British military jets were innovative (the Mig 15 prototype was fitted with a Rolls Royce engine) but there was nothing to match the F-86. I remember first driving a Mini Morris around 1964 - the same time the VW bug was entering the US. The Mini was a far better design - one of hsitory's best - transverse mounted front engine, excellent use of space, the heater sort of worked and it could take a corner without flipping over. That's the layout of almost every moderately priced car on the planet now. But the VW was very solidly built, more reliable and the company had pockets deep enough to establish a dealer network in the US and paired it with a classic advertising campaign. I remember reading the owner's manual on my first MGA: it suggested that you check the oil every morning and the company was sure Americans wouldn't mind living without windows. The horn was a button on the dash, and turning on lights an adventure. The third rate Italian designed VW called the Kharman Ghia outsold MGs even though it wasn't half the car. The flimsy dealer system and support even thwarted the incredible Jaguar XKE - I still dream about driving one. But they did get the Harrier right - one of great planes in history.

Yes, the British Aerospace Industry was a match for any on the planet until the ”White Paper” that said manned military aircraft were obsolete and missiles were the way of the future. The EE Lightning had ”supercruise” before anybody else even thought of the concept. The incredible TSR.2 was cancelled, and the Harrier would be the end of the line for pure British warplanes. All that followed would be international partnerships Jaguar, Tornado, Typhoon, Harriers beyond the GR.3...

Just like the “White Paper” that came along later which said aircraft carriers were obsolete and no longer needed. Had Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1983 instead of 1982, many ships (especially Hermès) that were crucial to the near run success of that operation would not have been there. 

Oh yes, I would put the Hawker Hunter on par with the F-86. Although a few years after the Sabre (1951 vs. 1947 first flights) it was a design with more potential and performance.

Well, when use Brits make a mistake, we don't go for half measures. We love to make things hard for ourselves. And destroying our own aviation industry was a right corker.

stikpusher

Yes, the British Aerospace Industry was a match for any on the planet until the ”White Paper” that said manned military aircraft were obsolete and missiles were the way of the future. The EE Lightning had ”supercruise” before anybody else even thought of the concept. The incredible TSR.2 was cancelled, and the Harrier would be the end of the line for pure British warplanes. All that followed would be international partnerships Jaguar, Tornado, Typhoon, Harriers beyond the GR.3...

Just like the “White Paper” that came along later which said aircraft carriers were obsolete and no longer needed. Had Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1983 instead of 1982, many ships (especially Hermès) that were crucial to the near run success of that operation would not have been there. 

Oh yes, I would put the Hawker Hunter on par with the F-86. Although a few years after the Sabre (1951 vs. 1947 first flights) it was a design with more potential and performance.

 

And we had not got rid of The Ark, they may never have invaded. And if they had, we certainly would not have lost the ships we did. And now we have not had a carrier for 7 years. Cleaver.

I may have to try this on the Meteor camoflage I’m currently working on...

Ah yes, I love those early Brit jets. They are utterly unique and so cool. Can't wait to see it come together!

-BD-

So... Bristol Fighter is coming along withthe top wing mounted, but wow have I learned about rigging...

I started this build with the intent to make an aircraft I don't particularly care about that I got for cheap to practice what I refer to as "biplane skills," which are essentially making wood effects with oils, dealing with that second wing and, of course, rigging.

Well, two of three ain't totally bad, is it?

ANd I did learn what I will do in the future regarding rigging, which essentially will be that I will make/buy eyelets/anchor points and attach those to the wings before I rig the thing, as rigging the EZ Line straight to the wing seems fraught with difficulty and I got super glue all over the place compared to the precision builds I see others producing.

Here are the pics of where I am now.

As you can see, there is too much glue, especially on that last pic. I glued the EZ Line to the Glue Looper more than I glued it to theplane, but I have learned a lot, so I will finish this one, then feel more confident going forward on other biplanes.

It's all very fun, inventing new swear words...

-BD-

 

Brandon, that is looking really good - it reminds me I need to start my Camel soon.

I find to keeps things neater when not using actual anchor points, is to drill a shallow hole at the required point. Use it to hold a drop of superglue while the rigging line is held in place to dry.

regards,

Jack

Brandon, thats looking nice despite the glue issue. Its a tricky one, i have thought about doing the rigging before painting, but then that means trying to the inside of the wings with them fitted, as well as getting paint on the rigging. On my 0/400 i did similar to jack and drilled holes at the junction of the struts and wings. But even that didn't look ideal.

The Hurricane Mk. I is progressing nicely; the detailed machine gun bays look quite nice and were fairly easy to assemble.  However, once you cram all those innards into the wings, getting the top halves of the wings to fit on is difficult, to say the least!  I had to shave down the wing spars in a couple of places (out of sight areas, so they’ll never be noticed) to get them to fit, then use just about every clamp I have to clamp them together once glued. Hopefully once the glue dries and I remove the clamps, they’ll STILL hold together!

https://pin.it/v2yfwcb6pyylvu

https://pin.it/mnoxffjisgm67r

 

 

As promised, some more progress pics.

I used black primer before putting down the Alclad aluminum (or as this is a Brit build: aluminium ). The primer is Badger's Stynylrez gloss black and it's the first time I've used it as a primer for Alclad lacquers. I'm trying to convert as many paints as I can to acrylics because as good as Alclad primers are, I want to get away from dangerous fumes for my hobby.

As you can see, they work well together without any ill effects.

I next drilled out the holes on the internal framing for a little more authenticity. I also needed to fill in the divot in the seat as that was not part of the metal seats used in the Mk. I: they were put in the later "resin" seats to accommodate the pilot's life raft.

 

Next came the interior base colour. Like my Mk. Vb build, I used Tamiya's Sky for the green and, to my eye, I think it's a good match for the bright green used in either Spitfire.

Did some more detail drilling.

I used the decal that came with the kit for the instrument panel and though not perfectly aligned, it came close. It can be hard to get the alignment right when you're trying to see the elements on a wet decal to match to the bumps on a gloss black background. With a lot of Micro Sol, it settled down nicely.

Next I detailed the cockpit walls. Some light scuffing with sandpaper and some touches with a silver Prismacolor pencil brings out the metal. A teeny, tiny brush helped with the rest.

The firing button on the stick was molded in the wrong position, so I removed it, made a new one with some thick CA glue and added the silver bar thingy behind the round part using a piece of EZ Line. I drilled out the pedals and may yet add some strapping on the tops of them.

I hope my Spitfire technical jargon doesn't go over everyone's head.

So, I'm all set to start putting together the cockpit tub. More progress pics soon.

Brandon and Steve, both of your builds are looking great so far!

 

And as for me, we are off and running! I have finished adding the PE for the cockpit interior aside from the seat harness, which is from a pre painted set and will add after painting. So far, so good...

 

 

here are the drilled out gun ports

 

 

And the birdshot added inside for nose weight.... hopefully this should be sufficient....

 

 

Tomorrow I will get it primed. I will likely work on other areas over the next few days such as the wings, tail booms, etc.

Brandon, your biplane looks very cool and it isn't even done yet. You are very brave, I'd be afraid to start one.

Steve, interior looking good!

Stik, good to see you under way.

And me, worms.........

Thanks Greg, it’s good to be under way on something new. Your Typhoon is looking pretty sharp there with the worms for painting the hard edge camo.

 

Some more progress this afternoon. Now the biggest problem with the kit is here on the rear booms...

 

 

If you look closely, you can see that the mounting holes for the stabilizer is not centered, but set too low between the upper and lower portions of the rudders...

 

 

so I made some new holes about 1mm higher and set on the midline

 

 

I’ll fill in the old lower holes in a bit... and lastly I built up the wings, in addition to the tail booms...

 

 

This kit really does build up quick and easy so far. If I wasn’t using PE, and building straight OOB, I’d be already painting the cockpit and perhaps have the fuselage together at this point. Not to mention having the wingtips on. 

 

So far, so good here....

 

Thanks, Stik. You think you're off to a slow start? If I'm not mistaken it's taken me over six months to painting.

And I have a comment about paint. If one looks at the paint on my worm post two posts up, it looks like there is decent contrast between the grey and green. In real life, there is not. The grey is very dark and it is hard to even see the green.

One of the reasons I chose Vallejo as my primary acrylic years back was the availability of so many colors. I'm starting to wonder about the color accuracy. Please don't get me wrong, I don't really care that much about accuracy, but I have a gut feel these two are not even close. I always fall in love with the pretty colors on the Eduard painting diagrams. My colors are never even close. Someone once told me Eduard is notoriously off in color, I'm starting to wonder........

Oh well, end mini-rant.

BD: Looks good to me! Frankly I don't see how you guys do rigging in the first place. I built one biplane and that's enough for me for a couple of years!

AA: Looks really good there too. They did a really nice job with the interior of the cockpit and the gun bays.

Steve: The cockpit work is impressive. Wouldn't worry too much about the decal being a little off, can't imagine there will be much to see with the cockpit closed up and I didn't even notice till you pointed it out. 

Greg: Sorry to hear your Typhoon has worms, have you tried taking her to the vet? All joking aside looks good! I went with the technique of blowing up the instuctions on a photocopier and then cutting the camo pattern out and taping it to the fighter.

SP: Crazy about the stabs like that. I built a few Hobbycraft kits years ago though not the Vampire. Always found them um... interesting kits. Decent in most respects though lacking a bit of detail and with some really cool subjects you don't see elsewhere.

Greg, I actually think that this kit is moving along quite rapidly. It is such an easy fast building project. Aside from the horizontal stabilizer placement situation, it really moves along fast.

Gamera, I agree about Hobbycraft kits. They make some great subjects, are priced very economically,  but are lacking a bit in detail here and there. They do tackle many long ignored subjects, and tend to try to cover whole families of an aircraft type from basic molds. For example they make just about every variant of the Me-109 B thru K, with the exception of the F series, up to and including the T, Czech Avias, and Spanish Buchons. With a little fine tuning and occasional AM products, they can be made into real gems with some modeling skills. But the multi version approach does lead to some detail compromises or shortfalls. Most of which only the serious fans & afficianados of whatever particular aircraft will notice.

Based on this Vampire, I am looking forward to building the F.3 in my stash one day soon and perhaps getting their FB.5 or FB.9 as well...

Well, these are my last updates for tonite on this. ...

 

first up, wingtips on!!! 

 

 

 

The separate wingtips are a legacy of multiple variants from the same basic molds. The F.1 and F.3 had rounded wingtips, while most later versions had clipped squared off wingtips.

 

And aside from the fuselage not yet being assembled due to needing to paint the cockpit, here is how it all looks now layer out. This is a compact aircraft.

 

 

 

 

 I am really enjoying this project more than I thought that I would. I had read so many negative things about this kit, and really I wonder if some of those guys are as hot shot of modelers as they are supposed to be, or if they are merely spoiled from building easy shake and bake kits. Really I have yet to come across anything terrible. This kit is not perfect, but it is no dog either.

 

More to come tomorrow.

Gamera

Greg: Sorry to hear your Typhoon has worms, have you tried taking her to the vet? All joking aside looks good! I went with the technique of blowing up the instuctions on a photocopier and then cutting the camo pattern out and taping it to the fighter.

Ha! I've been meaning to try the cut out method you did, darn it. Maybe next time.

stikpusher

Greg, I actually think that this kit is moving along quite rapidly. It is such an easy fast building project. Aside from the horizontal stabilizer placement situation, it really moves along fast.

That sounds just what the doc ordered, then. From comments you've made, something that moves along well should be good. I need something like that too after one completion in 2017.