The kit is moulded in a light grey and quite hard plastic which is much harder than Airfix's normal plastic quality. Panel lines are sharp and finely engraved like the raised details where in use. Panel lines are too tiny in some places and likely you have to re-engrave lost details. If desired, the model can be built with the flaps in the lower position and the air brakes open. The detailing in these areas is excellent, as in the wheel wells too. Cockpit canopy can be posed in closed or in open position. The kit also includes the frequently used auxiliary fuel tanks under the wings. Pilot's seat is bad and should be replaced.

When choosing the individual plane to be built, it is worth noting that the Finnish VA-1...VA-3 planes had three-spoke early type rims when they came to the country. VA-4...VA-6 were equipped with a later type rim that is not included in this kit. The tires used in the planes had three different surface textures. In Finland, two "knob patterned" tire models and one grooved tire model were in use. All of them have resin kits. I chose Reskit's Vampire type 1 wheel set wheels (RS48-0249) with a "diamond pattern" tires for my model. In a picture of my source material, such were in use on a VA-1 plane at Utti in the winter of 1954. Another tire model was the "block tread" type found at AIMS (AIM-48P049). Grooved tires with a later type rim can be found from Reskit (RS48-0250).

Finnish planes had two antennas below the wingtips when they came to the country, of which the one on the right comes with the kit. The thin whip antenna (IFF antenna?) coming under the left wingtip is not included in the kit, so you have to make one yourself. The whip antenna was later removed from Finnish planes as unnecessary. In addition, the planes were later fitted with radio compasses, which resulted in a highly visible plexiglass cover appearing over their noses.

The kit contains decals and painting instructions for three planes.

- No. 601 Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, Royal Air Force North Weald, Essex, England, 1952
- No. 442 "City of Vancouver" Auxiliary Fighter Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force Station Vancouver, Canada, 1949
- P42408/AE-B, Gardermoen Museum, Oslo, Norway, 2019

Building the model

I started building my model by straightening the lower right wing, which was badly bent downwards at the joint of the fuselage and the wing. I was able to straighten it by heating it with a hair dryer and bending it straight by hand. Airfix has left gunports closed, as well as cartridge ejector chute openings at the bottom of the plane. I opened up the gunports by drilling and made new cannons out of thin aluminum tube and styrene rod. I also opened the cartridge ejector chute openings at the bottom of the plane.

I deviated from the building instructions and installed the cockpit floor, the rear wall of the cockpit and the nose wheel housing first. After that, I added tungsten weights totaling approx. 33 g (two sizes) to the nose cone, under the floor of the cockpit and behind the rear wall of the cockpit to prevent the tail of the model from swinging. Next came the engine's air intake ducts and the jet pipe, from which the visible seams on the inside must be removed. It is easy to do with a jet pipe, but due to the curved shapes of the air intake ducts, their seams are difficult to sand. After several times of puttying, sanding and painting, the seams finally disappeared and I was able to paint the inner surfaces of the pipes and fasten them in place according to the instructions.

Next I moved to the cockpit which contains a minimum number of parts. However, the most important ones can be found, i.e. the instrument panel, seat, control stick, radio device, sight and the trim/throttle lever system on the left wall. I added wiring and a couple of tubes of stretched sprue to the cockpit and replaced the kit's bad seat with a resin part from VK-Models.

I got the seat belts and some small parts for improving the cockpit from Kuivalainen's KPE48015 PE sheet. I didn't use Kuivalainen's PE instrument panel because it is designed for Trumpeter's kit. I used kit's own instrument panel and instrument panel decals on my model. Instrument panel's central part needs to be sanded little narrower and the space between the side panels must be increased to make the central panel to fit into place. The fit of the central panel is poor and installing it precisely between the side panels requires precision.

After the cockpit was completed, the basic assembly was quickly done, with the parts generally fitting well in place. There was a notch in the lower part of the right side of the nose cone that required puttying and sanding.

Compared to the photos, there are panel lines that shouldn't be there, and some panel lines are missing. The most visible panel lines to be removed are on the lower surfaces of the wings and on both sides of the cockpit. In addition to these, the panel lines above and below the air intakes are to be puttyed so that they are not visible. At the joint of the fuselage and the wing, below the rear fuselage, there are also panel lines that can be sealed over (see working stage photos below).

At the bottom of the plane there are two shaped covers for the ventilation pipes which have to be removed and then replaced with a thin brass tubes. Below the wing four maintenance hatches are missing, which I made from paper and glued in place with CA glue (see working stage picture below).

The wing tip parts (parts 15 and 16) are too narrow. I corrected this by gluing a thin plastic strip between the wing tip and the kit's tip part and then shaping the tip by sanding it to correct shape. The navigation lights (parts 7 and 8) are too large and require shaping to fit. I didn't use the parts from the kit on my model, but made new navigation lights from a clear sprue (see working stage photos below).

The kit includes two landing gears, one of which is for the later FB.5 version, where longer landing gear legs were introduced due to the increase in weight caused by the external load. The landing gear is similar, with the only difference being that the FB.5's landing gear legs are approx. 1,5 mm longer than the F.3's. I test fitted FB.5 landing gear legs to my model and they seemed too long. They mostly describe a plane in the air, with the oleo strut's without load and in the completely down position. I used the shorter landing gear legs in my model (kit's parts 29 and 30), which I think better describes the plane on the ground. In the instruction booklet parts numbered C9 and C10 have mixed.

It's good to take time for test fitting and glueing the nose gear in place. The nose gear is put together from three parts, which together form the nose gear and which also includes the wheel well hatch. Reference pictures should be used as help in this construction phase. It's also worth noting that the nose gear arm is vertical, unlike the landing gear arms, which are not vertical.

Finnish D.H. 100 Vampire FB Mk.52 did not have metal frame at the front edge of the sliding canopy and at the rear of the lower canopy edge. The lower edge of the rear part of the canopy was plexiglass in the area between the metal frame of the lower edge and the rear cone. The front edge of the canopy was also made of plexiglass. This is easy to see from a working stage photo or a reference photo at Finna.fi. In other words, in Finnish planes, the aforementioned areas in the canopy are left unpainted. If you build your model with the canopy open, it's good to notice that at the back edge of the windshield there was a visible metal frame which had a black rubber seal on the outside. The frame is missing from the kit's part so I made the frame by gluing a thin styrene strip to the rear edge of the windshield (see working stage photos).

Between the front edge of the windshield and the fuselage there is a seam which didn't exist in the real plane. I puttyed the seam and sanded it smooth. It's good to testfit the sight which comes under the windshield so it fits well in place before final gluing of the windshield, as there is a risk that the sight might support the windshield so it will not fit in place.

Faults and shortcomings that I corrected on my model, "work in progres" photos can be found farther down.

- Landing gear legs have been changed to shorter ones (kit parts 29 and 30)
- Gunports have been drilled open and the new cannons added
- Four cartridge ejector chute's opening have been opened to the bottom of the plane
- Wingtips and navigation lights are scratch built
- Four maintenance hatches are added to the the wings lower surface
- A frame is added to the rear edge of the windshield
- Wrong panel lines have been removed and some missing ones are added
- A whip antenna is added under the left wingtip
- A pitot tube have been replaced with a metal one

Extra parts used on the model

Reskit	Vampire type 1 wheel set (RS48-0249)
VK-Models	Pilots seat
Kuivalainen	Vampire FB.5 PE instrument panel, seat belts and some small parts to the cockpit (KPE 48015)

Painting and decals

My model depict's VA-1 in Pori in the summer of 1953. There is a good photo of the plane at Finna.fi website. VA-1's life cycle was short because the plane was destroyed on December 3, 1955 in Pori. During a low altitude dogfight training, the plane piloted by Senior Sergeant Juha-Visa Artola went in a spiral which was caused by trailing vortex of another Vampire and the plane was destroyed in the crash, the pilot being killed.

In the summer of 1953, the VA-1 had three-spoke rims and knob patterned tires. National insignias were without black edges and the aircraft-specific "black 1" had just been painted on the nose of the aircraft and the nose wheel hatch. The instructions were in English, and the plane had not yet been fitted with a radio compass and its visible plexiglass cover over the nose.

The model is primed with A-Stand's (A.MIG-2350) gray primer, after which it has been sanded. Next came a coat of Alclad's gloss black which is sanded with Mr Hobby's sanding cloth no. 8000. The model was painted with Alclad's High Speed ​​Silver and varnished with A-Stand's (A.MIG-2503) Aqua Gloss Clear before and after the decals. The final coat was sprayed with Tamiya's X-35 Semi Gloss Clear. For masking the canopy, I purchased Eduard masks (Vampire F.3 TFace masking set for AIRFIX EX835) which also include masking tape for the inside of the canopy.

The decals of the model are compiled from sheets from different manufacturers. The cockades are from a new cockade sheet commissioned by Pienoismallimarket (Design by BellTech 2023). They are high quality and have a glossy finish. The sheet contains cockades in five different scales, with and without a black border. Aircraft specific markings are from Galdecals 48-001 - Finnish Air Force - Part 1 sheet. The English instructions and small markings are from the kit's own sheet. The no-walking zone painting on the trailing edge of the wings near the fuselage is wrong shaped. I cut out the red edges from the kit's decals and assembled the correct markings out of them using a photo as the reference. The text inside the no-walking area should read "Keep Off".

The instructions markings on the decal sheet did not quite match the markings of the Finnish machines. Some instructions texts were also missing from the sheet. Some of the instruction texts were different and they were also in different places than of the texts of the Finnish planes. This can be seen on the reference photos. I had to use scissors, imagination and good photos when assembling the English language instructions texts on to my model. The end result was not perfect, but better than if it had been made directly from the kits decal sheet.

Paints used

The first figure which indicates sheen level of a color on FS number is dropped off. X=XtraColor, LC=LifeColor, HU=Humbrol, R=Revell, WEM=White Ensign Models, MrH=Mr Hobby Aqueous, Tam=Tamiya, ALC=Alclad. (Alternative paints between brackets).

High speed silver	FS - xxxx	ALC-125	Exterior, landing gear, gear wells and doors, flaps upper sides
Matt black	FS - xxxx	R6	Cockpit
Matt black	FS - xxxx	R8	Instrument panel
Jet Exhaust	FS - xxxx	ALC-113	Jet Exhaust
Tire black	FS - xxxx	MrH 77, (R9)	Tires
Grey primer/ microfiller	FS - xxxx	A.MIG-2350	Exterior
Gloss Black primer	FS - xxxx	ALC 305	exterior
Clear varnish	FS - xxxx	ALC 310-60	Exterior

Summary

Airfix has finally succeeded in making a good model of the D.H. 100 Vampire with exact dimensions and shape. Many other manufacturer have also tried but have not succeeded in it. The kit is moulded in light grey, much harder plastic than we are used to with Airfix. In my piece, the lower right wing was bent downwards, but I was able to straighten it by heating and bending it by hand. The kit contains few additional panel lines that should be removed and few missing ones can be engraved if one want to improve the accuracy of the model. If you wish the gunports can be drilled open and you can add new cannons out of a thin aluminum tube and styrene rod. The cartridge ejector chute openings at the bottom of the plane should also be opened. The kit was easy to assembly and the fit of the parts was good. The kit includes separate ailerons, elevator, landing flaps and airbrakes with which makes your model more interesting.
NB!
According to the instruction the model needs 17 grams weight to it's nose section so that it stays in the right position. I think it is too little and put 33 grams.

Hold the mouse cursor over a thumbnail for a while before clicking !

History
(Source: Wikipedia)

The De Havilland Vampire was a British single-engine jet fighter that became the second jet aircraft commissioned by the British Royal Air Force (RAF). Test flights of the Vampire began during World War II, but the type did not make it into combat use. The planes were used by the RAF as fighters from 1946 to 1955 and as training aircraft until 1966. 3268 machines were produced. A large part of the planes were used by the air forces of other countries, a quarter of the planes were manufactured under license elsewhere than in England.

The design of the Vampire began as an experimental project, unlike the Gloster Meteor, which was originally intended as a fighter jet for World War II in return for the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. The Vampire's first specification was the E6/41 in 1941. The design of the plane began with the number DH-100 in mid-1942, two years after the start of the design of the Gloster Meteor. The body of the machine was made of two layers of birch plywood with balsa filling in between. In order to save weight, a double-boom frame was chosen as the frame structure, structural simplicity was the reason why the plane's wing was straight.

Test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland flew the first prototype LZ548/G on 30 September 1943 at Hatfield, just six months after the Meteor test flights. The Mark I version went into production in April 1945. Most of the planes were built at the English Electric Aircraft factory, because De Havilland's own factory was still overloaded due to war production.

Vampire achieved many records in its time. Among other things, it was the first plane in the RAF to exceed a speed of 500 mph. It was also the first jet to take off and land from an aircraft carrier. On 3 December 1945, a modified RAF Vampire landed on the aircraft carrier HMS Ocean. In 1948, John Cunningham flew the then altitude record of 59,446 feet (18,119 m).

The type's first engine was the Halford H1 (later named Goblin), which produced 2,100 lb. (948 kp or 9.3 kN) thrust. The engine designed by Frank Halford was manufactured by de Havilland itself. Later MkI versions used Goblin 2 and Mk3 version Goblin III engines. The first production planes flew in October 1948 and the last ones were delivered in June 1949.

The first jet model of the British Royal Navy was the F20 aircraft carrier version of the Vampire. However, the inefficiency of the Sea Vampire's engine made aircraft carrier takeoffs difficult, so the planes served mainly as T22 trainers into the 1950s. The de Havilland Venom bomber used by the Navy was a development of the Vampire.

The machine was sold to at least the following countries: Australia, Canada, Finland, France, India, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland. In addition, used specimens were still sold to countries that had not bought them directly, for example Swedish Vampire machines were sold to South America. Almost 4,400 (?) Vampires were built, a quarter of which were licensed in the buyer's countries. When Vampire came to Finland in 1953, they were in use in 17 countries. Between 1946 and 1968, the Swedish Air Force had a total of 380 Vampire fighters and 57 two-seater Vampires in use. The last user was Switzerland, where the type was still in training use in the 1990s.

Vampires in Finland

The Finnish Air Force entered the jet era on January 22, 1953, when the first three D.H.100 Vampire Mk.52 jet fighters landed at Pori Airport, led by de Havilland test pilot George Thornton. In the summer of 1953, three "Vamppis" arrived, which was the aircraft's nickname in the Air Force. The machine codes were VA-1...VA-6.

Jet flight training intensified in 1955, when the Air Force received nine two-seater D.H. 115 Vampire Trainer T.Mk.55 machines. The machine codes were VT-1...VT-9. The Vampire Trainer was the first aircraft used in Finland with an ejection seat. The last flight in the Finnish Air Force with the Vampire Trainer (VT-8) was made by Colonel Aimo Huhtala at Luonetjärvi on July 15, 1965.

First, the 2nd Wing, (from 1957 Satakunnan Wing) flew with Vampires in Pori. At the end of the 1950s, the planes were moved to the 1st i.e. Hämeen Wing in Tikkakoski. The 3th Wing (from 1957 Karjalan Wing), main base in the 1950s was the gravel runway Utti, when jets could only operate there in winter. Vampire fighters served in the Finnish Air Force until 1965.

Technical data of the De Havilland D.H.100 Vampire Mk.52 (Source: Suomen Ilmavoimien lentokoneet 5 Vampire)