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Vampier T.11 - Airfix 1/72


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Hello all

Been a lurker on here for a while so I thought I would share with you my experiences of the new Airfix Vampire.

First, it is a good kit with some lovely detail and panel lines that although seem a little deep actually look fine under a little paint - I hope you can see what I mean.

I built it pretty much OOB except for adding some seat harnesses from lead foil, seat top ejection pull handles and a few antennae around the place. After finishing it I saw some pics of the Duxford machine on which my chosen scheme seems to be based and found I had the wrong configuration of pull-handle so don't go copying me!

Construction wise it's a little smasher with almost self jigging boom alignment - be sure to follow the assembly sequence though otherwise you'll never get the booms into the wing. I chose (in my infinite wisdom!) to leave the main gear legs off until after painting then found out why Airfix suggest fitting them when they do! In the end it was all recovered by a little careful trimming of the locating blocks at the top of the legs - no harm done!

Airfix mould a number of protuberances onto one half of an assembly which presents challenges to not knock them off during the rest of the process. I managed to keep them all there until part way through the decalling when I managed to remove the fin mounted pitot. I replaced it with a small section of stainless tube. In retrospect I should have just removed it at the off and planned-in to replace it anyway - it would probably have been neater but I like a challenge!

I painted it with Alclad Aluminium and Precision Paints Fluorescent Red-Orange and, yes, it fluoresces incredibly in natural light!

Decals are fine with stencils aplenty and all behaved well with a little Sol though a white disc under at least the top-sides roundel is needed as the silver/orange contrast is just a little too much for the decals.

I would love to build another and when I find a scheme that does it for me I'll have another on the bench!

Anyway, enough waffle, here she is, I hope you like her!

Sorry about the picture quality but I seem to have mislaid my tripod in the move so these are hand-held so no depth of field.

Comments and critique very welcome - this is my 1st post here but don't let that hold you back! :)

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Cheers all

Rick

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