lancfan's Japanese Vampire Trainer ** FINISHED **

[lancfan]

My third Vampire will be T.55 63-5571 of the JASDF preserved at the JASDF Museum.
Work will begin straight after the second build.


David.

[Narayan]

Interesting. Any pictures of what this will look like?

______________
Narayan

They may be drinkers, Robin, but they're still human beings.

A:B 2013 29:08 2012 20:05 2011 11:10 2010 44:12 2009 19:16 2008 16:03 Overall 222:59

[Ian]

http://airport.world.coocan.jp/635571a_7kx16.jpg;

No visible panel lines!

[Narayan]

Oooh! Nice!

______________
Narayan

They may be drinkers, Robin, but they're still human beings.

A:B 2013 29:08 2012 20:05 2011 11:10 2010 44:12 2009 19:16 2008 16:03 Overall 222:59

[aeroplanegripper]

That looks like a great scheme, I never knew the Vamp was used by the JASDF.

[PaulBradley]

They had one for evaluation. I have seen a photo of it in service somewhere....

[ShaunW]

Very interesting David, I'm another one who had no idea that the Japanese had ever evaluated the Vampire.

[Saxon]

That does look different with the meat balls. Should be a nice one when done.

[BlohmWolf]

You can make 3 vampires in a month, and I still am stuck with one.

[lancfan]

Pre-painting and intial assembly started the build off.


Cockpit assembly came next.


With the cockpit fitted into the pod and the noseweight in place the pod was ready to be buttoned up.

This model is slightly different in that the interior of the engine bay has been painted black to hide the kit interior, checking out the pictures of this on display it appears to be missing it's tailpipe and the tail seems to be slightly high which may suggest that the Goblin engine on diplay next to the Vampire may be the unit originally fitted to this aircraft. I have decided that this is how I will model this aeroplane, hence the black interior.

When the model has reached this stage the airframe is almost complete and will soon be ready for painting.

The airframe has been assembled, after building three of these things I have managed to save just one kit ventral antenae, these things are just too fragile and spoil an otherwise brilliant kit.


David.

[ShaunW]

Great start and good attention to detail David. After three of these kits in short succession, I bet you could build one in the dark now

[lancfan]

Thanks Shaun, and yes I'm getting rather used to this kit now.

With the wings on I filled the shrinkage marks on the upper wings before going any further.

The blind spots on the Vampire kit are the air intakes, if they are attached as per instructions it can be difficult getting the wing halves to fit properly. I prefer to fit the wings first and work on the intakes when the glue has dried.
Because the air intakes fit into shallow recesses the intakes must be cleaned up before fitting, I file a small radius to the inner edges and knock off the points where they disappear into the recesses, this makes it easier to pop the intakes in by tackling each intake separately, first placing a small spot of tube cement into each recess and then hooking the intake into the outer edge, clicking the part in position, finishing off by running liquid cement into the rear and outer edges, finally pressing the intake home.


Because I am lowering the main undercarriage position I have fitted the main legs before painting, the model is now primed ready for the Revell Aqua Alluminium top coat.


David.

[ShaunW]

Excellent work and tutorial on fitting the intakes, which seem to be the Achilles heel of this kit.

[MarkyM607]

Three!?! Should we rename you Vampfan??

[PaulBradley]

Great tips on the intakes, David.