dH Vampire

[Landrotten Highlander]

4 hours ago, quang said:

It’s just the natural coward in me.

at your earlier reply I had a mental image of some actress going: 'heh,.... wimp' with a wry smile.

 

Now you have confirmed that image

[quang]

2 hours ago, Landrotten Highlander said:

at your earlier reply I had a mental image of some actress going: 'heh,.... wimp' with a wry smile.

 

Now you have confirmed that image

Hey, I’m no Indiana Jones 

[geedubelyer]

Hi fellow gb participants,

 

I plan on commencing this build imminently and face a few unusual, self imposed challenges. 

 

Like many builds, Infinity encourage the builder to begin with the cockpit. 

My first venture off piste is to model this as a museum exhibit but not a pristine, renovated example. 

The Planes of Fame exhibit looks quite "tired" in most online images. 

I can't help wondering how intact the cockpit is 

 

For this group build entrant I'd like to allow myself a little latitude and not be too concerned with absolute accuracy.

I'd like it to be fun 

To that end I'm hoping to display the model missing much of it's instrumentation and switchgear. 

The yellowed main canopy will help disguise the mess if I stuff it up!

 

If anyone has any images of unrestored or dismantled I.P.s please add them to the thread to provide inspiration. 

 

The Infinity instrument panels actually have deep relief and look really good.

 

 

For this experiment though it's a bit unhelpful.  

I may try to scratch build a replacement so that I don't have to ruin the kit part by removing all of the lovely detail.

 

This is a quick and dirty proof of concept.

 

Now I just have to get my head around how to go about making it neat and tidy. 

(This is where a flat etched panel would be ideal.)

 

Edited March 14 by geedubelyer

[geedubelyer]

I have attempted to create the blind flying panel numerous times now but I have been unsuccessful. 

 

I shall move on to plan B which is to drill out the kit's instruments and hollow them out from the back to suggest the thin metal plate that houses the gauges. 

 

Keep your fingers crossed for me 

[Alain Gadbois]

Here’s a well worn Vampire that can be an inspiration for your cockpit:

 

 

Photos by Phillip Treweek

 

Hope this helps!

 

Alain

[geedubelyer]

Wonderful Alain. 

Thank you so much.

[Mark_C]

Here is one I found, Guy:

 

 

It's apparently a Mk. 2, but it should still give you some ideas.

 

 

[MikeC]

6 hours ago, Mark_C said:

Here is one I found, Guy:

 

 

It's apparently a Mk. 2, but it should still give you some ideas.

 

 

That's quite a rare bird - the mk 2 was powered by the RR Nene engine, and only a few prototypes were built.

[geedubelyer]

21 hours ago, Mark_C said:

Here is one I found, Guy:

 

 

It's apparently a Mk. 2, but it should still give you some ideas.

 

 

Thanks Mark, that's a great find.

I like that missing button on the grip. 

I think that's a feature I'll try to replicate 

Also good to see the gunsight mount with the gunsight removed. That's another feature I can use. 

Much appreciated.

Edited March 27 by geedubelyer

[geedubelyer]

After spending some time working on one of the kit IPs I 'm taking a different tack. 

 

 

The work involved in removing the instrumentation is too involved and the results are too rough. 

It's sapping any fun out of the build. 

To this end I have decided to use the shared reference photos (which still show many instruments in place anyway) as inspiration and will build the cockpit up but concentrate on giving it a dusty, used and well worn appearance. 

 

Onwards and upwards. 

[geedubelyer]

Taping the larger components together reveals some work ahead....

 

 

It could be an optical illusion at this stage but the forward fuselage looks to be too rounded?

 

 

There is a peculiar longitudinal line running along the lower half of the nose too

 

Those intakes are going to take some work 

 

Fortunately the aircraft I'm modelling has intake covers in place behind the vanes. This means I didn't have to concern myself with the trunking. A good thing because I was forced to cut the "Y" shaped trunking in two to allow a better fit at the intake lip.

 

 

 

Setting the obvious ugliness aside the parts that I've taped together don't fit too badly. There are no locating pins though so I shall use strip styrene to create my own. 

 

Cheers.

Edited March 31 by geedubelyer

[Alain Gadbois]

The cross section of the front fuselage is very much egg shaped (happy Easter!).

I don’t have this kit so I don’t know if it is wrong or not but it doesn’t look too far off.

Here’s a photo that might help you a bit.

 

[geedubelyer]

Thank you Alain, that is a super reference image. 

 

It isn't easy to see with tape all over. Kind of like disruptive cammo! 

 

I'm hoping that I can address any shape discrepancy when it comes time to do battle with those inlets 

 

Once again my choice of subject was fortuitous because much of the front fuselage sides are either bare, uneven plywood or huge gobs of filler 

 

There's plenty to be getting on with.

 

I started having a look at the wheel wells. 

The instructions are somewhat vague and are mirrored from one side to the other. 

The builder must decide which bit goes where by trial and error 

 

Blu tack to the rescue

 

 

The main section has some reasonable relief and should look good under paint and a wash. 

 

 

I confess I won't be paying much attention to these as they won't be seen. 

What is important is trying to make sure that everything is square and true so that the main gear sits correctly. 

 

I also glued a couple of details into the cockpit and was pleasantly surprised by how good they look and fit.

 

 

Edited March 31 by geedubelyer

[Mark_C]

This could be helpful regarding the nose:

 

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/94146-infinity-models-dh-100-vampire-f-mk3/page/4/#comments

 

Go to "mydesign"'s post about halfway down, on 8/23/22.

 

 

[geedubelyer]

Excellent Mark, thank you