Alain Gadbois

A tiny Slave 1 would be nice. Alain

When you can’t distinguish the model from the real thing you can safely say… Brilliant! Excellent outside photo setting also. Alain

The nice thing about the Snowspeeder is the size, and the much better newer kits are quite small in comparison. I got a few MPC X-wings and a bunch of quite good AMT (?) Tie fighters donated by a friend in variously started condition many years ago. Started to check those recently and might get to build them after the Snowspeeder. Alain

Hope I will finish it this time around!

Hi all! Sometimes you have a kit that's started and then gets put back in the box for some reason. Then one day, you open the box and the interest suddenly picks up again. This cycle has repeated itself a few times in this project, mainly because there are so many things to do to improve this kit that I would get bored after doing some difficult part. Anyway here it is. Purchased around 1989 or 1990. A bit of a descriptin of what was done then: First step was getting rid of the raised details and recribe with the best references in various books. Some styrene has yelllowed with age! Replaced guns with aluminium tubing. The canopy framing is too thick, so is reduced and I will need to finish the job on the rear windows. The infamous gnomes! Compared to a 1/20 scale Tamiya F1 pilot body, which can fit nicely in the cockpit (see lower) and could give an idea of the actual scale of the kit. Engaving of the underside, done about 5 years ago. Central part to be completed. The much too shallow floor can be lowered by getting rid of the tub supplied and lower the bottom fuselage section, that has been modified (compare to the instruction sheet). The resulting underside, no glue yet. As you can tell, this part had been glued in place before I decided to improve the kit, necessitating ripping it out later. The engine section had also been glued in place until I couldn't live with the extra thick (cooling?) fins on the engine. Managed to chop nearly half out before putting the kit away one more time! And thus it had remained for the last few years until last week... bye for now! Alain

More goodies: Don't have anything on the seat specifically, however. Seems to be very similar to the Spitfire seat in general. Alain

Good cockpit photos of ex-RCAF Vampire F3. Painted light gray, but this helps to see details better! http://aviation.watergeek.eu/vampire.html

Canadian F3, 2 good cockpit photos. https://www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/canadian-warplanes-6-jets-de-havilland-dh-100-vampire

Nice project here! The masks give very impressive results! Alain

The firewall of the Vampire and Venom are of identical dimensions. The single seaters share an essentially identical forward fuselage. The Venom has a bulged engine cowl because of the wider Ghost compared to the Goblin engine. So, if both kits have correct scaled down dimensions, switching forward fuselages should be possible and not too difficult. Although there are many other details to take care of, of course, some I mentioned above. Alain

It’s doable for sure. It could pass as the same in a model, but I think the T11 cockpit opening is a bit wider than the night fighter. Check the tail plane differences and the main wheels have multiple small ribs, compared to the 3 large openings of the kit parts. Alain

Impressive! Also wouldn’t mind a Wellesley in that scale! Alain

I have the book « Wrecks of the Pacific » from the seventies. Astonishing aircraft remains from all nations. There were a few Petes in quite good condition. Would deserve to be restaured certainly. Alain

Are you thinking of grafting the Venom nose to the Vampire kit? Alain?

Excellent progress! Alain

Nice burn effects. The front view of the model and real tank match up very well. Alain

You have to find UV resistant clear resin. These do not yellow over time. Alain

Great work on the cockpit and handmade belts. Seems like a very fine kit. Alain

Looks like a really nice kit, and Canadien markings too! Note: RAF Vampires F3s were the first jets across the Atlantic Ocean, beating the US attempt ( F-80s) in the other direction by a few hours. Alain

I’ve been waiting for a nice 1/32 Jeep and other light vehicles to go with my 1/32 kits. Looks like I am actually more likely to be getting 1/35 aircraft that will fit with the available 1/35 vehicles I have already… I thought the 1/35 aircraft kits were heresy at first, but if they keep it, there is potential there in the future. Alain

Or a 1/35 P-51B!

Excellent start! I have info on the peculiar geometry of the louvers around the nose cowl if you’re interested. Alain

Nice work on the engine! What an elegant aircraft! Alain

These little sights really look great! Good luck with your build. I lightly sanded the raised rivets on the fuselage and they appear now as flush with a small skin depression around. Pretty good kit in general, and should look great with a few added and detailed bits.

Coming in with a heavily weathered Fw 190 D-11 or D-13 would be interesting! After flying past a B-17 with wide eyed passengers and crew.