Airfix 1/72 Vampire T.11

[mperegrinefalcon]

Hello again people! First build in while, havent had time to build AND make a thread post, so ive just been doing a little bit of building on the side. No fear though, schools almost out, and I should be back into the full swing of things durning summer holiday. I picked up the Airfix 1/72 Vampire at my local hobby shop for the amazing price of $12.99 (in british pounds that is 8.95). An absolute bargain for the quality of the kit, which you will see in a little bit. I want to start with a little history lesson of the aircraft.

History:

The De Havilland Vampire was the second operational british jet fighter, second only to the Gloster Meteor. It entered service in 1945, and a total of 3,000 were built. It was the first operational jet fighter to haver a single engine, and was used on the front line until 1953, after which it was retired to ground attack, and pilot training. It was retired from the RAF in 1966, getting replaced my the Hawker Hunter, and Gloster Javelin. It was an aircraft that broke many records before it was retired. One of which being it was the first fighter to cross the Atlantic.

The model I will be building is the T.11 variant, which is a trainer model. This variant has 2 seats next to each other, and is the first jet trainer to feature this.

Specifications:

Power Unit: One 3,500 lb.s.t. de Havilland Goblin 35

Wing Span: 38 ft (11.58 m)

All-up Weight (A.U.W): 11,150 lb (5,057 kg)

Max Speed: 538 mph (866 kph)

Ceiling: 40,000 ft (12,192 m)

Range: 840 miles (1,351 km)

The history lesson is over, you can relax. Now we can get to the part you have all been waiting for, the kit.



Standard Airfix, the box art is incredible. The sprues:



The main fuselage and wing parts. The detail is amazing. Everything is very crisply moulded.



More amazing detail



The two pilots have a tiny seem along the sides, but is easily removed in seconds with a razor. There is not a spec of flash on any of the pieces. The kit comes with drop tanks, but because this is a trainer I will not use them, as they were rarely used for training operations. I pressume that they didn't use them so that there would be less volatile, extremely flamable jet fuel on board if the aircraft impacted the ground.



Clear sprue looks good, but is a little thick. There are a few flaws in the clear plastic as well. I think that is just the scale, I have never encountered a perfect canopy on a 1/72 scale before.

Now this part surprised me immensely.



Can you notice it? The colour call out is in...COLOUR!!!!!!!!!! I did not expect this with how cheap of a kit this is. The instruction are the basic Airfix instructions, nothing special. I look forward to getting started on this kit, it looks like it will be a joy to build.

That is it for this update, I should have another coming this weekend, but this week is finals week, and I probably should be studying for those instead of writing this.

[mperegrinefalcon]

Real quick, cant forget to give my sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Vampire

http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/airc ... pire-t-11/

[Lysus]

That is it for this update, I should have another coming this weekend, but this week is finals week, and I probably should be studying for those instead of writing this.

Nice! Great choice. And yeah, hurry up and finish those finals so shlubs like me can spend a million hours grading them and get back to their neglected builds...

[mperegrinefalcon]

Hello again everyone!!! I have been working on this model a lot, so a lot of progress in this update!
This kit is going together swimmingly, and I have not encoundered any problems so far.

I have the cockpit all primed up in this picture..



I had forgotten to put the trim wheel on the side, but managed to get that in before I closed it up.



The cockpit is base coated in Tamiya XF-69 Nato black.



Hand painted details on the side panels and seats.





Hand painted these tinny figures. I'm happy with how they turned out, especially since these are the first figures I have ever painted. With how well the cockpit turned out, seems like a waste to put them in. Desisions....





The main fusalage together with the wing and twin tail booms in place. Everything is fitting together very well, although some seam lines and small gaps need filling.



Canopy in masked and in place



I put a few grams of weight into the nose, it said 7 grams, but I dont have a scale to weigh that small amount. I just made sure the CG of the model was in front of the rear wheel bays. I was able to slip the fishing shot into the hole left by not having the front wheel bay in.



The wheel bay in place



I'm liking how this kit is turning out so far, and I cant wait to paint it.
Until next time, bye all!!!

[Sturm]

Nice choice! The Vampire has always got my interest, has a very sci-fi look.

[Les]

How is this project coming along? We have less than 13 days left for this SiG!