Guerre d'Algérie...1/48 De Havilland Vampire Mk.5 , Armée de l’Air
11/2022
So, my dad´s French at war theme is almost at the end now, this is the second last model...for now.
The new Airfix kit is neither really good nor really bad. The detail in some areas is nice, so are the open flaps options. A major issue is the fit problem of upper and lower fuselage half. Had to do sand and cut away some pieces of the bulkhead behind the seat and the cockpit side instruments to join the halves together. Don´t know if my dad did something wrong but the gunsight was too large, so he used one from the sparesbox.
The model is a tailsitter. The instructions call for 17g noseweight, my dad added about 30g to be on the safe side. Sadly there´s hardly any space to add weight, used airgun ammo and filled the nose, foot space and the forward areas of the wing tanks. Painted with older selfmixed green and blue-grey paints, Berna Decals used.
Build thread here
https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235108250-guerre-dalg%C3%A9rie148-de-havilland-vampire-mk5-arm%C3%A9e-de-l%E2%80%99air/
In the early fifties, France received a bunch of completed and also still to build up Vampires, used by the Airforce and the Navy. Soon France developed a more powerful license version, the Mk.53, also called Mistral. Best to distinguish by diffently shaped air intakes.
During the Algerian War, mostly Mistrals saw combat, but also some original Vampires were used. The Model shows one of these from EC 1/7 "Provence", stationed in Bizerte/Tunisia in 1956.
Really nice result, Reinhard @grimreaper
Great achievement on the painting and weathering.
Another Spreitzhofer gem!
Model looks great!
Nice work on this one. That’s a scheme I’ve never seen. I trimmed some material off of the bottom of the cockpit side consoles in mine too.
Well-done build and finish. All good.
If you put the weight right behind the cockpit in the space in between the air intake trunking, you can get plenty in without a problem and get a nose sit. And yes, the fit of the upper and lower halves is "problematic."
But compare this kit to the Hobbycrap Vampires, and there is no comparison.
And the really nice resin kit, which I don't think is still in production, was $80 when it was in production.
The end result, as your dad has demonstrated, looks good. One helluva lot better than what would be sitting there if it was from Hobbycrap.
Very nice - that scheme isn't usual for a Vamp, so nice to see something different!