Pete's Heller 1/72 Vampire

[stillp]

Enjoyable little build this. Pretty good fit on most parts, but the location of some was a bit vague. Most decals went down well after a coat of Liquid Decal Film in deference to their age, but the tail boom roundels wrinkled, and I couldn't get them flat after several applications of Microsol. I cut the sharkmouth into three parts before applying, but it was a struggle to line up all three parts reasonably well. The other tricky decals were the '3' and '1' on the undercarriage bay doors, which were difficult to get to.

Paint is mainly Tamiya Flat Aluminium, with the jet tailpipe in Tamiya Titanium Silver. Gloss coat was Galeria Gloss, as I've been having trouble with Pledge recently - worked very well, although spraying clear over metallic was tricky to see where I'd been. Matt coat is Galeria again.
This represents de Havilland Vampire F.B. Mk. 5, 112 Squadron, Royal Air Force, pilot: Squadron Leader I.D. Bolton, DFC, Fassberg, Germany, 1951. The green fins, lightning flash and wingtips are the squadron identity.
C & Cs welcome!
Now, what next...?
Pete

 

[spanner570]

Great build Pete.
The teeth must have been a ball ache to fix, particularly with the wheels down attitude.

 

[stillp]

Thanks Ron. The sharkmouth was ... interesting. I measured across the decal and made a pencil mark on the backing sheet at the centre line. Then measured the width of the nose wheel door, marked half that width either side of the centre line, too a deep breath and cut the section to go on the door. Fitted that part first, then let it dry, then fitted the part next to it, then lined up the final part. Then spent 10 minutes looking for one of the 'eyes' that I'd knocked off, found it on the floor and stuck it on with Micro Set.
Pete

 

[Archetype]

An excellent looking vampire Pete!
Well done.

 

[colin m]

Nice job on the old dear. If you fancy the Vamp, I can recommend the new tool Airfix. I built one recently, it's a very nice kit. But as you've just built one, probably not.

 

[minitnkr]

Well done. One of my post war faves. Prolly wouldn't have parked it in the weeds for fear of FOD. Never had to walk a runway, but did the quarter mile a lot after catastrophic engine failures or crashes. Would the cannon ejector ports be closed? PaulE

 

[yak face]

Great looking build pete, some of these older heller kits build up superbly as youve proved here , if youre fancying trying another the Heller Saab j21 is a beauty of a kit ( and another twin boomer too!) cheers tony

 

[stillp]

Thanks chaps.
Colin, that's enough Vampires for now thanks" Who knows though, I might see the new tool Airfix going cheap somewhere...
Paul, the ejector ports would probably be open, and so would the business end, but It looks a bit like a Vampire, and that's good enough for me!
Thanks Tony, is that the pusher prop thingy? Again, if I see it going cheap... My main criterion when buying is whether it's cut price or not!
Pete

 

[yak face]

Thanks Tony, is that the pusher prop thingy? Again, if I see it going cheap...

It is pete and you can pick them up on ebay for well under a tenner , its a lovely kit , heres the one I did for the twin boom gb back in 2012 https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/heller-1-72-scale-saab-j21-a.14615/

 

[stillp]

You can indeed Tony, I'll have to think about one of those.

 

[flyjoe180]

Lovely result Pete.

 

[papa 695]

Cracking build Pete.

 

[stillp]

Thanks Joe and Ian.
Pete

 

[scottie3158]

Peter,
That is a cracking result.

 

[stillp]

Thanks Paul.
Pete