Infinity Vampire in Stock at Sprue Brothers

[MikeC]

8 hours ago, Kagemusha said:

dragged down my builders kit of the Venom - probably started it about forty years ago before I discovered the delights of going out - from the attic, hopefully it'll allow me to produce something like...

Always nice to see an optimist .

[Rick Griewski]

On 7/28/2022 at 10:33 AM, Kagemusha said:

 

That's a Venom/Sea Venom, tut tut!

Oh darn I am stuck with the kit.  It has aftermarket so I better get on with the build. 

[Alain Gadbois]

On 7/28/2022 at 4:40 PM, Kagemusha said:

 

Received my email, order placed with a few other goodies, dragged down my builders kit of the Venom - probably started it about forty years ago before I discovered the delights of going out - from the attic, hopefully it'll allow me to produce something like...

 

 

Very exciting.

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

 

Alain?

[Kagemusha]

3 hours ago, Alain Gadbois said:

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

 

Alain?

 

Not all of it, the front end will require scratch building, the mid and lower fuselage definitely.

 

Received the kit a couple of hours ago, I like it, might buy another...

[SimonCornes]

It’s not a bad kit. Identical parts in both boxings and a resin compressor fan that’s not mentioned in the instructions! 
The one thing that got me was the nav light clear plastic split horizontally- and then I realised the plastic on the real thing is coloured !! Phew!!

is the control column grip right - oval? I’ll have to check the references but I thought it would be round-ish ? It’s a pity that you don’t get bulged main gear wheels though!

[Kagemusha]

Sparkit produce some 1/72 & 1/48 wheels, so perhaps they'll scale them up.

[Alain Gadbois]

9 hours ago, Kagemusha said:

 

Not all of it, the front end will require scratch building, the mid and lower fuselage definitely.

 

Received the kit a couple of hours ago, I like it, might buy another...

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

[MikeC]

8 hours ago, SimonCornes said:

Is the control column grip right - oval? I’ll have to check the references but I thought it would be round-ish

My memory tells me it was round, not unlike a Spitfire's stick.  My old Air Cadet squadron had VV217 on charge in the 1970s, so I frequently had the opportunity to get up close and personal.

[Tomjw]

It's £69.95 with free delivery at Jadlam in the UK. Might have to take the plunge...

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

[Kagemusha]

9 hours ago, Alain Gadbois said:

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

 

Thanks for the info on the wheels, the Venom fuselage is certainly wider than the Vampire's, just plonking the Sea Venom cockpit onto of the Vampire fuselage looks like it's the correct size - the cockpit fairing is different on both aircraft.

[Alain Gadbois]

4 hours ago, Kagemusha said:

 

Thanks for the info on the wheels, the Venom fuselage is certainly wider than the Vampire's, just plonking the Sea Venom cockpit onto of the Vampire fuselage looks like it's the correct size - the cockpit fairing is different on both aircraft.

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

[SimonCornes]

On 7/31/2022 at 3:32 AM, Alain Gadbois said:

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

The Infinity kit has both the 3 slot or multi finned wheel centres

[SimonCornes]

On 7/31/2022 at 6:02 AM, MikeC said:

My memory tells me it was round, not unlike a Spitfire's stick.  My old Air Cadet squadron had VV217 on charge in the 1970s, so I frequently had the opportunity to get up close and personal.

I found a photo of the panel and stick and it is 'kind of' oval with the cannon button in the usual place and of course the brake lever on the side nearest the panel, like a Spit - and I don't think provided. But it still doesn't look quite right to me. But will it be noticeable? I wish they'd do the etch in nickel silver (like HGW) then you wouldn't have to paint all the strap fittings! I think I'd prefer lead foil with those fittings to make up a seat harness though but thats up to me! 

[Rick Griewski]

My Mk.3 came yesterday (Mk.5 too) and typical for me I had to see what the fit was like.  I dropped other projects for a morning and I cleaned up the Mk.3 staring with the external parts. The clean up is painful in a few areas. The runners attach to the parts inside of attachment flanges. The intakes on the leading edge of the wing and the intake tube are a challenge. The order of assembly should help this along. The nose fit is rough on sides and front.  I bucked the instructions and assembled the top and bottom wings and then attached these to the fuselage.  There is too much play to get a good tape up. I will do the real deal and follow the top and bottom assembly method.  The many “extra” rivets seem problematic.  After all this I am still glad I bought both of the kits.