1/72 Airfix Vampire FB.5 “Sharkmouth Squadron”

Gallery Article by Orlando Sucre Rosales on Sept 24 2014

 

      

Hello, fellow modelers!

This year I took on the goal of finishing some of those old tooled raised-panel-line models that have been resting unfinished for several years in my collection. It’s easy to put these models aside when one builds several newer recessed-panel-line models in a row. The difference lies not only on the panel lines, it’s also the level of detail, the quality of the fit and of the decals.

In this article I’d like to share with you my Airfix (ex Heller) Vampire FB.5 in 1-72 scale. When I knew that Cyber Hobby released a newly tooled Vampire FB.5 in 1-72 scale, I seriously considered to abandon my almost fully built Airfix. Later I found reviews claiming that Cyber Hobby’s Vampire isn’t free from mistakes and assembly problems, and taking into account its high price tag I thought it would be better to put a little effort into making a decent model out of my old Airfix kit.

Despite its age, Heller’s rendition of the Vampire show some good features, such as very thin undercarriage doors with internal detail, a deep boxed in nose wheel well, somewhat detailed main undercarriage wells, a two-piece cockpit canopy and separate aerodynamic brakes. Nevertheless, it also has its low points, such as the absence of underwing stores and pylons (the FB.5 was a fighter bomber capable of carrying rockets, bombs or drop tanks,) poorly molded undercarriage legs and the poor fit between the front and rear parts of the canopy. Another low point is related with decals: the underwing codes and roundels for the RAF version are oversized, as is the shark mouth decal intended to cover the rear nose undercarriage door. Besides that, some of the data decals aren’t opaque enough, so they virtually disappeared when applied over dark painted surfaces.

 

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I built this model OOB, as almost always. I had to rescribe some of the panel lines lost due to sanding, besides that I’d like to point out that despite I tried in several ways (filing and sanding) to get a good fit between the front and the rear parts of the canopy, I didn’t have any success (the parts are different in size and shape at the matching surface, and the rear part didn’t sit over the rear flat part of the cockpit,) so I opted for an open canopy. I glued the airbrakes in a wrong open position, following my intuition instead of my references LD. The kit’s instructions didn’t help, as these indicate to glue the airbrakes in the closed position, but I thought it had no sense to have separate airbrakes if one doesn’t have the option to glue them opened.

I chose to finish my Vampire with markings from the RAF 112 “Sharkmouth Squadron.” As the Vampire FB.5 served for several years in the FAV (Venezuela’s Air Force,) the only way in which I wouldn’t have chosen the sharkmouth markings would have been having decals for the FAV version. Well, maybe these will be released some day in the future, I hope.

A interesting history regarding RAF 112 squadron’s aircraft, camouflage and markings can be found on the Internet at the following liks:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2000/03/stuff_eng_profile_112sqn1.htm http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2000/03/stuff_eng_profile_112sqn2.htm

My Vampire was finished mainly with Humbrol and MM enamels, plus Xtracrylix and Polly Scale acrylic varnishes. I added white in different proportions to the camouflage colors in order to get a scale effect and to increase the contrast between these colors. I also kept weathering to a minimum: I only accented gun bay and control surfaces’ panel lines, and added exhaust stains on the horizontal stabilizer’s undersurface.

I hope that you’ll like my model, which I dedicate to the memory of my father Orlando. Besides teaching me how to recognize Vampires flying over Caracas’ skies when I was a little child, he introduced me to the scale models’ world when he gave to me my first aircraft kit 42 years ago.

Greetings from Caracas, Venezuela, a “rich” country were many basic products, such as powdered or liquid whole milk, shampoo and liquid dishwasher, to name a few, have virtually disappeared from the supermarkets. What a weak future for our nation’s children in school age, who have to be feed without enough milk.

S.O.S. Venezuela! God save us all!

Orlando Sucre Rosales

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Photos and text © by Orlando Sucre Rosales