The Little World

No apologies for going from the bare kit parts to the glued-together carcass…it has been a busy two days. The model building club’s rooms have air conditioning and so does my computer room – I have repaired to them to escape the 40º plus heat in Perth. My workshop goes far above that on a sunny day if there is no wind, so when it is a question of modelling you do it early in the morning or after dark. Really a case of the quick or the fried…

On the other hand, if you lay down a coat of lacquer paint or varnish before 10:00 o’clock, you can be sure that it will be good and dry by sundown. Aqueous acrylics take longer to dry but they are still pretty swift during spring and summer.

The various parts of the Vampire have fallen together and have been so well engineered as to forgive me assembling the wings in the wrong order. Even after this faux pas I was able to flex them enough to snap onto the fuselage and have it all come into perfect registration. 90% of the assembly here has been done with MEK, as the pink seams attest.

I was sorely tempted with this plane to mount the canopy and mask it in place, rather than painting it with a bow pen – you’ll see why later. But I gave in in the end and just taped off the cockpit. I love Vampires as they have a neat round tailpipe that just fits over the painting stand spigot. So I’ll need to get up early tomorrow, sand seams, and then lay down an undercoat before the heat rises.

And yes, I did remember the lead nose weight. The tanks are on just for show – they’ll come off for painting.