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Issue 169 - http://www.modelairplaneinternational.com 35which is my go-to gloss these days so needed
to touch up the fi ns before going ahead with
the decals; I used a mixture of the kit decals
for a small amount of stencilling and the Aztec
sheet for the specifi c Mexican markings. The
decals behaved reasonably, although they
were a little brittle, the biggest issue being that
the rudder tricolour appears to be sized for a
different kit, and are distinctly too small, one
day I'll strip them off and paint it...Finishing
There wasn't much to do in terms of fi nishing,
the undercarriage is reasonably moulded and
detailed and fi ts very positively, the wheels are
nice, with separate hubs to simplify painting
and the drop tanks were painted yellow with
a red nose stripe, and fi tted with the help of
some wire pins. Standing the fi nished airframe
on its wheels showed just how marginal the
nose weight was, since it would only keep the
nose wheel down with a following wind! Indoing my balance calculations I'd forgotten to
allow for the fact that the undercarriage legs
are canted slightly forwards, that being enough
to shift to balance point, as an emergency
measure therefore, I had to glue some bits
of lead into the nose wheel well and disguise
them by painting them aluminium, ugly, but
better than a wire prop which would have been
the other possibility. If I was building another
I'd put a load of lead behind the cockpit
bulkhead as insurance. ■FINAL VERDICT
Revell’s latest issue of the Vampire is an excellent kit, courtesy of its Special Hobby/MPM origins, and
miles better than the older ex-Heller version. Other than the diffi culty in squeezing enough lead into the
nose there are no particular pitfalls and with some forward thinking to add some more behind the bulkhead,
or on the front of the drop tanks would solve this. The modest parts count and generally good fi t would make
this one suitable for a beginner. Thanks to Revell for the review kitEL VAMPIRO.indd 35 08/07/2019 15:20