The Little World

Note: There are going to be a lot of Vampire posts in this column. If you are chiropterphobic look away now.

As another modeller noted in his daily build column, the quality of fit on a small-run cockpit can be a variable matter. I approach all cockpit tubs, floors, or structures with trepidation these days…with the exception of the Hobby Boss pre-cast ones. Everything else has the potential to be a bad fit and some of the short-run kits live down to that potential, no fear.

The De Havilland Vampire from Amodel is a Ukrainian kit. This doesn’t make it better or worse in general terms, but the pilot’s office is always the place where you are going to get your first inkling. In this case it has been a pleasant thing – there was only minimal trimming and fettling to get it in. And it is surprisingly detailed for such a small model – including a cast plastic throttle box for the port wall of the cockpit.

Still, there is the disquieting thought that the main airframe is composed of two tail booms – each in two parts – as well as the horizontal stabiliser plus two two-part wings with no locating studs and no tab slots in the fuselage. I am hoping that the precision money in the kit has been put into the wing root structure and that the dihedral is at least acceptable.

There is also the worry that a plane this short-coupled may be lacking space for enough forward weight to sit on the undercart. I suppose I’ve been lucky so far – never having to use a steel rod or clear plastic prop under a fuselage. It’ll come one day and I’ll just have to put up with it.