Completed - 1/72 Airfix RAAF T.35A (T.11) Vampire

[Brad Cancian]

Hello everyone - here’s my latest project; the nice little Airfix T.11 Vampire trainer.

I’ll start by saying, I don’t generally build jets. In fact, the last jet I built was well over 10 years ago (or more now). So this will be a little bit of a diversion from my usual fare.



I intend on building this as a RAAF T.35 (which was pretty much is a T.11, at least externally, from what I understand). The RAAF flew the Vampire trainer for quite a few years, so there’s a few schemes to choose from (all of them pretty much silver overall, however quite a few wore various patterns of high-visibility / day-glow orange). I am thinking about a 2 Operational Conversion Unit (2OCU) machine from the late 1960s, with some splashes of day-glow orange.



Needless to say, due to a fairly limited knowledge of the aircraft itself, I’ve decided to keep this one fairly simple. By all reports, the Airfix kit is lovely, with few vices. That being said, I did want to up the detail levels in the cockpit (the kit seats in particular are prominent, and, well, a bit plain). Somewhere along the line I had picked up the Pavla cockpit set for this one, so I decided to go with that. Detail on the set is nice, but a bit soft in quite a few places. Not knowing much about the Vampire, I pretty much left the cockpit set as is. The cockpit fits well enough, which is a bonus.




Vampire cockpits are essentially all black, which on one hand is great (because it hides most things), but on the other hand it means that the detail can get lost in the dark gloom. So I painted mine dark grey, with quite a bit of high contrast dry brushing to pop out the detail. This was especially tricky on the instrument panel, where the raised dials are faint and quite soft. Careful drybrushing was needed here, coupled with an appropriate wash, and blobs of white glue for the glass on the dials. It all still looks a bit ho-hum, but given the panel is relatively small and will be a bit hard to see, I was happy enough with the end effect. Here is the interior with some paint on it.








So far, so good…

Anyone have any tips for building this kit? I have already looked to fill the large sink marks along the upper surface of the wing trailing edge. I also thought about dropping the flaps but I think that this will be a bit too tricky given the engineering of the Airfix kit.

Cheers for looking, and feedback always welcomed!

BC

[Davos522]

This is going to be a stunner, Brad, especially with the orange to contrast with all that silver. And I've got you beat, I haven't built a jet since about 1972!

Dave V.

[pepperman42]

An interesting diversion. Looks good.

Steve

[RAGIII]

Wow! Stunning start to a cool project! One of these May end up in My collection someday. I believe that 56 squadron had at least 1.
RAGIII

PS: If it isn't too much to ask could you show the raw original kit  interior parts 

[Brad Cancian]

Thanks gents! Yep, definitely not my usual fare

Hi Rick - here's a pic of the kit parts. You can see the basic seats, instrument panel (which is a flat plate for a decal), bulhead with moulded in rudder pedals, and the rear cockpit coaming. All pretty simple. The Pavla parts are a definite improvement here.



Cheers,

BC

[RAGIII]

Thanks Brad! That kit Interior is indeed a bit weak OOB  Especially the seats. I think it was Verlinden that said the Seat is the Most important part of an aircraft Model Interior as it is the most viable component. I look forward to your next update!
RAGIII

[KiwiZac]

I've not had trouble with this kit (built it twice) but friends have complained of too-tight fit in some areas. Dry-fitting is your friend when it comes to New Airfix kits!

[Brad Cancian]

Slow but steady...



I crammed as much weight into the nose as I could; the instructions recommended 7 grams, but I think I managed to get in 8 or 9... I hope Airfix are right! I was also reliably informed (after the fuselage halves went together) that the Pavla instructions have one mount the control columns backwards, so I snapped these off and re-glued them, 180 degrees from their original orientation. The joys!

The fuselage halves fit together well, but the under-nose wheel well piece has a slightly rough fit, as does the upper wing / fuselage and the horizontal stabilisers to the booms (in particular, the fit around the stabiliser roots needs to be filled and re-scribed). I have had to shim some parts out already so that the fit is a little better. Still though, nothing too earth shatteringly bad, just what I would call 'standard' fare for Airfix these days, given the softness of the plastic in play.

Next, time to get the wings fitted, then the booms. I think things will go quickly from there.

Cheers!

BC

[RAGIII]

Excellent progress Brad. Looking great!
RAGIII

[Tim Mixon]

Very nice start Brad. No one would ever know that your out of your element building jet aircraft!

All the best,
Tim

[Brad Cancian]

Thanks Rick and Tim!

Slow but steady progress, I am now at the point of priming. I did have to fill in some sink marks on the upper wings, due to the flaps being moulded as a single piece with the upper wing. I also cut and repositioned the elevator and rudders, for a bit of visual interest. I thought about cutting the repositioning the flaps (often seen deployed on parked Vampires) but the engineering of the Airfix kit meant that this was going to be complex, so I decided not to do this.

The fit on the rest of the kit was, well, ok. The lower wing to fuselage joint in particular needed a bit of filler. I'll see how it looks under the primer; I expect i'll need to do more work to cleanup this joint. The booms have an aerofoil shape moulded into their sides, to match with the shape of the wing panels. These didn't line up well, and I needed to do a bit of bending of the wing trailing edges to get these roughly in line. Again, nothing earth shattering but just something to watch out for. Due to the thickness of the Airfix panel lines, I also expect i'll get some inconsistencies with the parts that I have re-scribed. Again, i'll see how this looks under a coat of primer.

I am also starting to play around with a display base. I'll be building a RAAF 2 Operational Conversion Unit (2OCU) aircraft, so I intend to mount this one on a wooden base with a small section of tarmac on one side, and the 2OCU badge and a small plaque on the other side. Here's my quick concept pic:



Next... priming and the inevitable cleanup...!

Cheers,

BC

[RAGIII]

Looks great and that Display will Be Awesome!
RAGIII

[Brad Cancian]

Hi all - small updates.

She's now primed. All in all, only a little bit of clean up needed on the upper surfaces and tail. Happy days.



The lower surfaces are a slightly different story.



I might need to do a little more at the wing root area; I did have a small amount of trouble with the lower wing fit here and this has come home to roost with some gaps. If I were to do this build again, I would consider gluing the lower wing panels to the fuselage before attaching the upper wing / centre fuselage / boom assembly (but even then, I suspect that approach may have introduced other fit problems). I am hesitant to try and get too clever here, as the panel line along the wing root isn't a simple straight line, and there's some nice detail at the wing root that Airfix have added. I may simply leave it as is; it should still visually come together under a coat of paint and a wash.

Now... I have a confession. I hate hate HATE painting canopies (probably why I build mostly WW1 aircraft - I much prefer rigging to glass...). I generally leave these until last for that very reason; I am very good at mucking up the masking, defying my view of physics and getting paint somehow under the masks, scratching the canopy at some point, or just generally making a mess of it all. The Vampire canopy is one that I have dreaded, given its compound curves, which presents challenges for masking and mask adhesion. Firstly, the Airfix canopy is a bit thick, which means the main bubble section is a bit distorted. No problem, I say, i'll just look for a vacform replacement... except, there isn't one that I could find online. Darn. Well, kit canopy it is. What makes this one even more of a mental roadblock for me is that I wanted to pose the canopy open, which on the vampire means a canopy that points straight up when open. This meant it would be super-obvious if I only painted the frames from the outside. So, this means twice the amount of masking would be needed... yay! Wanting to power through this most hated part, gritting my teeth, I gave the kit parts a polish with some Tamiya polishing compound, and a dip in future. The shape and thickness of the kit parts meant that there was still some distortion through the bubble section of the canopy, but it would be good enough. I used Eduard masks for the outside of the canopy, then hand-made masks for the inside, doing my best to try and match the exterior masks so that there wouldn't be too much interior colour poking out from under the exterior metal colour. Gritting more teeth, I sprayed the dark grey interior first, then the exterior with Alclad RAF High Speed Silver. I did this all in one go, as I know from bitter experience, that if I leave masks for even a few days I end up with problems with the masks staying in place (and the inevitable paint that finds its way under said masks). Carefully peeling the masks off, I found that thankfully, I hadn't made too much of a hash of it. Not perfect, but not bad for someone that doesn't do canopies very well. A sigh of relief; that'll do, sir...!





The little windscreen wiper is something i'll tackle with decal strip - no way am I going near that glass with a paint brush. There isn't enough whisky in the world that can steady my hand that much...

Next, onto the last bits of clean up, then onto some exterior paint coats.

Cheers!

BC

[KiwiZac]

Lovely work Brad, she's looking great!

[Brad Cancian]

Hi all,

Slow progress on the Vampire, but she has some paint now. Alclad RAF High Speed Silver for the base colour. The day glow orange was more of a challenge. I tried Vellejo model air fluro orange to start with - first time I had tried this brand - never again! That stuff is horrifically bad, poor pigmentation, instant airbrush clogging, just awful... So, off to the hobby shop again, and picked up some SMS fluro orange and SMS fluro red, mixed them about 2:1 and got the deep orange colour I was after. These are certainly fluro as well, with solid colour pigmentation that reflects colour at all angles, just like fluro should. And they spray beautifully. Well done SMS!




Next, perhaps a clear coat and some decals.

Cheers!

BC