That silver plastic is taking me right back to the days of weekend builds and over powering smelly glue. I think I might need some silver plastic in my life soon.
Pete's Heller 1/72 Vampire
- Thread starter stillp
- Start date
I got bored with filling and sanding, so I threw some paint at it:
The tail boom joints weren't as bad as I'd feared after Dave's kind warning, just need a bit of sanding to square them off and a drop of primer.
I need to paint the fins and wingtips in 112 squadron's green - described as "Nile Green" by Heller, but nothing like eau-de-nil. Tamiya XF4 looks the nearest, so I changed my mind about using Vallejo aluminium for the main paintwork, and used Tamiya Flat Aluminium instead, as Tamiya paints don't work well over Vallejo. Of course I haven't got XF4, so I'll have to find a shop with some.
Pete
The tail boom joints weren't as bad as I'd feared after Dave's kind warning, just need a bit of sanding to square them off and a drop of primer.
I need to paint the fins and wingtips in 112 squadron's green - described as "Nile Green" by Heller, but nothing like eau-de-nil. Tamiya XF4 looks the nearest, so I changed my mind about using Vallejo aluminium for the main paintwork, and used Tamiya Flat Aluminium instead, as Tamiya paints don't work well over Vallejo. Of course I haven't got XF4, so I'll have to find a shop with some.
Pete
Well, I bought some XF4, and it's much too yellow. I'll try to get some XF5 tomorrow. If that isn't close I'll have to mix something. Conversion charts seem to give Sky as an equivalent to Heller 7021, but there are decals that should match the tail fins, and they're nothing like Sky - much stronger green.
Pete
Pete
D
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Looking good 
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I gave up trying to match the Heller colour for the tail fins, and just chose Tamiya XF5 Flat Green. I couldn't find a good colour photo of a 112 squadron Vampire with the green fins, and found several profiles, among which the green varies a lot. Couldn't be bothered masking, so I'm brushing the green. Might have over-thinned it though, I'm on the 4th coat with at least one more to go.
Pete
Pete
, thin coats better than obliterating everything .After 6 coats the green is not too bad, so a clear coat went on last night, and I've started the decals:
They're behaving quite well considering their age, though they did have a dose of Liquid Decal Film just in case. The underside decals are a bit tricky, as the serials extend over the main u/c doors, and the 112 squadron sharkmouth has to go over the guns and the nosewheel door. I'll let the upper ones dry before I try the underside. I managed to knock the 'eye' off the port side when applying the lightning flash, but after 10 minutes searching I found it on the floor and stuck it back on with Micro Set. Lucky or what!
Pete
They're behaving quite well considering their age, though they did have a dose of Liquid Decal Film just in case. The underside decals are a bit tricky, as the serials extend over the main u/c doors, and the 112 squadron sharkmouth has to go over the guns and the nosewheel door. I'll let the upper ones dry before I try the underside. I managed to knock the 'eye' off the port side when applying the lightning flash, but after 10 minutes searching I found it on the floor and stuck it back on with Micro Set. Lucky or what!
Pete
That looks good Pete I’m liking it
Looking good from here
Looking tidy Peter. It's still hard to believe that fuselage is mainly made of wood. The real thing, not yours.
Just the front half I think Colin, I think De Havilland thought that plywood wrapped round a jet engine might be a bit risky!
Pete
Archetype
FAA plane builder
My local museum is restoring one, and the engineers tell me the fuselage is built the same way as a boat!
Good point !
I saw one in bits at Hooton, on the Wirral. It was hard to imagine it ever flew !
De Havilland were the masters of wooden aircraft production, - but at times they were a bit over optimistic - their beautiful 4 engined Albatross was rather weak, and the wood structure deteriorated quickly.
It's often wondered if DH stuck with wood composites for too long, and when it came to the Comet airliner, they suffered through unfamiliarity with large metal structures.............
Dave
It's often wondered if DH stuck with wood composites for too long, and when it came to the Comet airliner, they suffered through unfamiliarity with large metal structures.............
Dave
