Pete's Heller 1/72 Vampire

[stillp]

My BV141 is sitting in the spray booth as the last (hopefully) matt coat dries, so I thought I'd start getting ready for the next build. It's a Heller 1/72 Vampire I picked up in a charity shop for £4.99.
According to Scalemates it's a 1979 release, so just 40 years old - practically new compared to my last build.
Here's the box and sprue shots:

The bag was open, but all the parts seem to be there and undamaged. Shouldn't take long - only 40 parts, same colour nearly all over... what could possibly go wrong?
More later.
Pete

 

[Dave Ward]

Peter,
beware the tailboom to wing joints! - and find places to put weights
Dave

 

[Deleted member 4539]

This should be good .

 

[scottie3158]

Peter,
count me in always liked the look of this bird.

 

[stillp]

Peter,
beware the tailboom to wing joints! - and find places to put weights
Dave

Will do! Thanks for the warning.
Thanks Dave, Ralph, Paul.

Pete

 

[stillp]

Some progress. First mistake - I had a bit of trouble getting the bulkhead behind the pilot's seat to sit at the correct angle, so I used the RH fuselage side as a jig - then without thinking glued the cockpit floor/seat/bulkhead in place. Not a major disaster But caused some difficulty painting the cockpit interior. Luckily it's all black, and I managed to get in there for a little drybrushing with aluminium. I did have a couple of photos, but the camera I used has swallowed them and won't give them back. I think it's been working on behalf of the carpet monster.
After Dave's warning about needing some weight up front, I glued a few flattened airgun pellets under the floor and behind the bulkhead, then filled in with some steel shot, before closing the fuselage.

I'd thought it would be a good idea to leave the jet pipe out (it's fitted loosely in the photo above, to keep the fuselage halves aligned) so I could stand the fuselage upright, squirt some PVA in and follow it up with some more steel shot.

That seemed to work, it now feels rather heavy at the front end. Also tucked in some more under the floor and in the gun compartment:



Now, have you spotted the second mistake yet? See that collar around the jet pipe?

It should be inside the fuselage, butted up against a ridge there, so has to go in before the fuselage halves are joined! Luckily I was able to ease it out after softening the cement with some Extra Thin, sand off the collar and glue it in again - I had to guess how far in to set it but found some walkrounds online to help. Does this look about right?

Sorry about the state of the keyboard - the cat wanted a cuddle!
Thanks for watching.
Pete

 

[Archetype]

Looks good, and strangely familiar!

What’s modelling without a few tweaks.
Keep up the good work.

 

[stillp]

Thanks Chris.
The plastic is horrible. It seems to have a hard skin on it that contains most of the silver colour, when you sand it it's black underneath, so it's really hard to tell when you've sanded blemishes off. I think I'll need to brush a this coat of primer on it to show up the seams.
Pete

 

[wonwinglo]

It is amazing how many similar kits I have found in charity shops,probably gifts that never got built ? then relegated to a drawer,as expected you have to watch for lost parts that can migrate out of the boxes if not properly sealed but its sometimes a chance you take,neat little Vampire you have certainly maximised the spaces for lead shot !
Heller did some good stuff back in the day,how time flies was it really 40 years ago ! at that time I had my own model shop.

 

[JR]

Seems your having fun Peter.
Had that feeling of "oh damn shouldn't have glued that yet " many times

 

[Mini Me]

But really at 4pounds 99p you can't go wrong, with or without missing parts! Lucky B****! My sister-in- law is now working at the Goodwill Store downtown and I shall have her on the look out for the bargain kits as they come in! Loverly progress so far and keep us posted Pete,
and Listen to Dave, as I do recognize the voice of experience when I hear it. Cheers, Rick H.

 

[stillp]

Barry, a lot of my stash came from charity shops. By the way, that's not lead shot, but steel. Sold for weighting teddy bears, much cheaper than Liquid Gravity. Easier to clean up too when it spills over the workspace, a magnet in a plastic bag works wonders! Where was your model shop?

Rick, I do like a bargain! That was one of 4 I bought, and one certainly had missing parts - it was missing the entire plane (Airfix Skyraider), but had 2 sets of underwing stores. Strange though, some charity shops never get any model kits - my neighbour works at one, and she's never seen a kit donated, and she would, her son collects civilian aircraft models. It was a charity shop purchase that drew me back into modelling about 3 years ago. A Revell 1/24 Ferrari for £3.

Pete

 

[wonwinglo]

Barry, a lot of my stash came from charity shops. By the way, that's not lead shot, but steel. Sold for weighting teddy bears, much cheaper than Liquid Gravity. Easier to clean up too when it spills over the workspace, a magnet in a plastic bag works wonders! Where was your model shop?

Rick, I do like a bargain! That was one of 4 I bought, and one certainly had missing parts - it was missing the entire plane (Airfix Skyraider), but had 2 sets of underwing stores. Strange though, some charity shops never get any model kits - my neighbour works at one, and she's never seen a kit donated, and she would, her son collects civilian aircraft models. It was a charity shop purchase that drew me back into modelling about 3 years ago. A Revell 1/24 Ferrari for £3.

Pete

My model shop was in Coventry 'Barrys Models' in the Butts,used to be old style shop with proper materials,a meeting place for model builders too,if the internet had been around there then it would have been good but I relied on passing trade on a busy main road,ran it for 14 years then the old story the lease went up double.
Useful tip on the steel shot.

 

[stillp]

Small world Barry - my job was relocated to Coventry in the early 90s. Presumably you'd closed the shop by then?
Pete

 

[wonwinglo]

Small world Barry - my job was relocated to Coventry in the early 90s. Presumably you'd closed the shop by then?
Pete

the shop opened around 1987 closed around 2001,after that I went on to set up another successful model shop in Leamington Spa for the owner.

 

[stillp]

The upper and lower wing surfaces have no locating pins, so I used the fuselage to align the root end, clamped the tip then removed it from the fuselage and added more clamps.

The intakes, such a prominent feature of the Vampire, need quite a lot of cleaning up. The one in the photo has been partly done.
Pete

 

[colin m]

If I was a woman, I'd be saying, 'typical bloke, never reads instructions' However, I'm not a woman, but am very guilty of not always reading instructions. Maybe the women folk have a point.

 

[stillp]

Plodding on... wing sand intakes are now attached, canopy is on and masked, first round of fill/sand started:

The fuselage centre seam looks awful in these photos, but actually isn't bad, but sanding this silver plastic leaves a black line.
Heller seem to think it was a good idea to mould half the pitot on each half of the LH tailboom fin, splitting the sub-millimetre pitot along it's length. Of course the two halves don't line up, so I've tried to coax them together with some Extra Thin.

Not entirely successful, but it's too thin and flexible to sand smooth. I'll try to scrape it when fully dry.
The main wheels are separate, but the nosewheel is part of the leg, so I think after the tailboom assembly is attached I'll fit the main gear legs and doors, and the nosewheel bay doors, then get some paint on, and paint the nose leg separately. As far as I can tell the wheels bays and legs are painted silver, to match the airframe, so no masking needed! Just need to decide which silver paint to use - Vallejo Aluminium looks a bit too bright, so I might use thier Steel.

thanks for watching.
Pete

 

[Lee Drennen]

Looking good so for Peter the wet stuff is very near looks like

 

[Deleted member 4539]

Coming along.