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Revell 1/72 Vampire F Mk.3; 03934
Topic Started: May 2 2017, 07:06 PM (877 Views)
DH764
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The Mighty Fin
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Revell 1/72 Vampire F Mk.3

Part One....

Stages 1 and 2

After giving the sprues a rub down with soapy water and letting them dry the first thing I did was to paint the interiors of the fuselage .
As with most early RAF jets the inside colour is mainly black and in this case the cockpit floor is painted Aluminium.
The cockpit is made up from a total of 9 parts and is quite OK for this scale.
The fit of the instrument panel and rear bulkhead/headrest is really good even though the attachment points are rather small.
There is an option to place a decal on the instrument panel but I elected to paint over the raised detail and then dry brush dark grey to bring out the detail.....I also did this for the rest of the cockpit .
Adding masking tape seat belts will add a bit of extra detail to the seat which is without any real detail to it.

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Stages 3 and 4

I painted the Engine parts B36 and A10 black and then added Aluminium (Vallejo Model Air) and Gunmetal to both parts and then fitted these to the lower fuselage A1.
Great fit !
Not mentioned in stage 3 is the need to paint the "intake blanks" (curved lugs on sides of part A1) .....I painted mine Black.
In stage 4 we add what looks like a throttle quadrant (A5) and some instument panel (B47) to the cockpit side walls of the upper fuselage , A4.

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It was now that I added the cockpit floor to the lower fuselage .
I found that the location is not that precise ...just make sure the front edge is in line with the cut out for the nose join.
As shown in the photo I had the rear bulkhead fixed at an angle.....later found this to be incorrect ...it should be almost vertical.

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Stages 5 and 6

This is when we join the upper and lower fuselages together and the nose is added but , unfortunately , the instructions not mentioning something quite important to do before adding the nose !! :o
Can you guess what it might be ?? :slap: ....read on ! ;)

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Fit was Ok , definitely needs some filler/putty and there is a prominent seam to be dealt with either side of the front fuselage.
Nose cone was actually not a bad fit and just needed a few swipes of the sanding stick.
It was also now that I realised that I needed to adjust the rear bulkhead...a simple fix :thumb:

Stages 7,8 and 9

Wings are made up from a simple upper and lower half and also include the intake area.
First thing to do was to paint the intake areas Aluminium and then simply glue together.
At this stage we have to remove 4 small bumps on the underside of each wing , these are the mounting points for the RP rockets that the Fighter/Bomber version carried.
I gave the wings a quick rub down along the leading edges and thinned the trailing edges slightly before adding them to the fuselage.
Fit isnt the best but nothing that a bit of filler/putty cant handle.

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In stage 9 we also add the intake faces (parts A23 and 24) but thankfully I realised something before I added them.
The Vampire , being a twin boom aircraft , is one of those classic tail sitters and it was here I realised to my horror that I had forgot to add nose weight :shock:
I re-checked the instructions ....no mention at all of adding any weight so be aware !!!
Thankfully I managed to cram some small ball bearings into the fuselage through the intake area ...Phew !! :yipee:
Just hope its enough :hmm:

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More progress soon

Andy
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jacksdad64
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Aikidoka
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It sure does look like a cracking wee kit.

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CPNGROATS
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Andy, nice details, thanks for the tips on the kit construction, I might want to build one of these.... :woo:

Cheers,

ggc :codger:
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DH764
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The Mighty Fin
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Part Two

Stage 9 cont...

I added the intake faces , parts 23 and 24 and found the fit of these parts was not perfect and needed filler to smooth the join to the wing area.
I concentrated on getting the best fit at the top ....any bad fitting areas underneath will be hidden from view ;)

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Stage 10

I fitted the clear part wing tips (C5 and 6) to the wings and the fit was really good here , quite surprised :)

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I smoothed the join using a sanding stick and I think that is all that is needed to clean the join.....try not to damage the area around the nav lights though :thumb:

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Stages 11- 13

I made up the tail booms and then it was a case of cleaning joins and sanding down the areas near the rudder so that the parts were flush .
When I test fitted the elevator section (B48) I found that the tabs were too thick to go in the slots on the tail fins :-/
I spent less than 5 minutes sanding them down so they would fit .

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I dry fitted the elevator section to the tail booms and then dry fitted it to the fuselage .....not brilliant !

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After gluing the parts together and then a quick filling and sanding session later we have a much better join.....just a bit of good old TLC.

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So in summary the tail boom fit isnt the best but nothing that a bit of old fashioned modelling skill cant handle :thumb:

More soon.
Andy
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CPNGROATS
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:pop: :thumb:
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CPNGROATS
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Andy, nice progress, I enjoy the play by play narrative ..... :thumb:

Cheers,

ggc :codger:
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DH764
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The Mighty Fin
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Glad you like it :thumb: :thumb:

Andy
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DH764
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The Mighty Fin
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Part Three

Stages 14 - 27

Time to start the undercarriage ....the main wheels have separate hubs which makes painting them a lot easier and without the need to mask.
The main u/c legs are glued to the inner face of the u/c doors...a little bit fiddly so just take your time and they will glue on and stay on eventually :)

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The front u/c is made up from 4 pieces....a two part wheel ( not a brilliant fit and needed sanding back to shape ) and a two part leg assembly.
This build sequence allows you to paint the wheel before you attach it to the leg , which also needs to be painted now.
Painting during construction here is far easier than painting the wheel after gluing it in place which is normally a fiddly job but this was quite a straightforward task ....touch ups will be required later though.

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I then added the main u/c to the the build and the attachment was a very positive one with little movement once glued into position.
For a bit of added strength I then added a few drops of thick CA to each join.
The nose leg needed a bit of support while the glue dried....I found that adding the front nose wheel door gave the bit of support needed.

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I then added the two fuel tanks which are made up of two halfs and the best way to glue these together was by leaving one half attached to the sprue to aid alignment as there are not placement tabs on them.
These then just needed cleaning up with a few swipes of the sanding stick.

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Last thing to do before a visit to the paint shop is to mask the canopies ...an easy job as the frames are quite pronounced on the front section.
Just a small section of the main canopy was left unmasked to represent the framing and it will hide the sprue gate attachment points under a bit of paint .

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Those with good observation will be able to see the bit of clear sprue propping up the elevator between the booms....yes its still a tail sitter :slap:

More soon .
Andy
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Johni044
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John
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Great work Andy, not a shake and bake kit then?

I'm not sure if the U/C would take the weight to prevent it "tail sitting".
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DH764
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The Mighty Fin
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Part Four

Paintshop time !!

After giving the model a rub down with a damp cloth I then sprayed Vallejo Black Acrylic Polyurethene Primer with the airbrush and very pleased that there looks to be no problems with any of the joins so Ill let it dry overnight before starting to paint the top colour which I believe was High Speed Silver on the real aircraft so it wont be a too shiny paint job.
Will have to remember to paint the wing tips red for the RAuxAF 608 Sqn option :yes:

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Looks quite menacing in Black ....RAF Dracula Mk1 anyone :D

Andy
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Johni044
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John
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:yes: I blinked and there was part 4.
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DH764
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The Mighty Fin
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Part Five

With the primer dry I had to decide what colour to paint the airframe.....then remembered I had to paint the wing tips red ( I knew I would forget :D :yes: )

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The Revell colour callout is for Aluminium but this is quite shiny and I wanted something more like the High Speed Silver colour that the aircraft wore in real life that was not shiny shiny B) but more a "flat" silver that rapidly faded to a colour closer to a very light grey.
After a bit of research and help from The Boss (Thanks PB :thumb: ) I went for a colour from my fave range of paints .....Xtracrylix RLM 01 "Silber" ....yes a Luftwaffe WW2 colour on a post war RAF Fighter :D
Apparently this is a very good match for High Speed Silver as is also the GamesWorkshop/Citadel colour Mithril Silver ( now renamed Runefang Steel )

Airbrush out and on with the RLM 01

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After leaving to dry a few hours I then removed the masking around the wing tips and added the wheels.

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Klear/Gloss coat added for the decals which will go on in part six :)

Andy
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CPNGROATS
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:pop: :wub:
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arni
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A very nice bird,liked it in black but the silver is good too!
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Johni044
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John
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Looking really nice.

I've seen alclad polished aluminium used before, some people don't realise the cockpit pod is plywood.

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DH764
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The Mighty Fin
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Johni044
May 19 2017, 05:36 AM
.......some people don't realise the cockpit pod is plywood.

Count me as one :o

Andy
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Johni044
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John
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DH764
May 19 2017, 03:04 PM
Johni044
May 19 2017, 05:36 AM
.......some people don't realise the cockpit pod is plywood.

Count me as one :o

Andy
Yep, same construction method as the Mosquito.

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Venoms were the same, I think the Sea Vixen was the first all metal type they made.
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CPNGROATS
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That's logical, keep your skilled woodworkers employed, great reference pic....... :thumb:

thanks for sharing,

Cheers,

ggc :codger:
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jacksdad64
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Aikidoka
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Interesting photo John. Thats something I didn't know.


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arni
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Me too!
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