23 Sqdn. DH Venom T5

[PR19_Kit]

SUCCESS!

I tried just painting the extra silver bits yellow, and with two coats it was almost perfect, and the third coat is drying now.

I LOVE it when a plan comes together! 

[PR19_Kit]

It's taken me TWO YEARS to get this far with this T5!

Not the most sensible way of doing it I suspect, but at last it's ready for some decals.

[TheChronicOne]

Now we're talking.... that looks good. 

[PR19_Kit]

I'm definitely losing it.............. 

I spent much of y'day evening and this morning drawing up decals for the PR19 prototype, the Defiant IV, the Avro Leeds and the Venom T5, and this morning I printed a couple of them out.

Then waited for them to dry out, maybe 20 mins or so, and went and sprayed them with the clear varnish..............

...........except it wasn't, it was Halfords Grey Primer! 

I only gave one sheet one blast of the primer, and they might be OK with some careful trimming, but I could have invented the 'pre-weathered decal'. 

[scooter]

I'm definitely losing it.............. 

I spent much of y'day evening and this morning drawing up decals for the PR19 prototype, the Defiant IV, the Avro Leeds and the Venom T5, and this morning I printed a couple of them out.

Then waited for them to dry out, maybe 20 mins or so, and went and sprayed them with the clear varnish..............

...........except it wasn't, it was Halfords Grey Primer! 

I only gave one sheet one blast of the primer, and they might be OK with some careful trimming, but I could have invented the 'pre-weathered decal'. 

Chalk it up to quarantine-related Groundhog Day syndrome.

[PR19_Kit]

Who ever it was in the Air Ministry or RAF who decided that underwing serials should go across the landing gear doors should be SHOT! 

It's bad enough fitting them on a kit and using its supplied decals, but when you've printed your own and have to make them fit it's a veritable nightmare. On this Venom I'm having to use the Vampire gear doors fitted into the original Sea Venom's wings with a mixture of SAC Venom legs and Vampire wheels. Trying to trim my own serials to fit that lot is driving me NUTS! 

[The Wooksta!]

In my post war universe, the RAF and the FAA decided against putting serial numbers underneath the aircraft for security reasons.

Apparently, I can do anything in whiffworld...

[PR19_Kit]

That would have been a very good idea!

[PR19_Kit]

Just the landing gear to go now.

[PR19_Kit]

At last, after two long years of effort, the Venom T5 is finished, and not before time either!

It's really not one of my best models, it's very rough and ready, as you can see in the pic of the cockpit area below, and I don't think the mixing and matching of the Airfix T11 nose, the FrogSpawn Sea Venom wings, booms and tail, and the Aeroclub Venom fuselage worked at all well. I'd like to try another one, but with better source material.

So this is a Venom T5 trainer from the RAF's 23 Squadron while based at Coltishall and flying Javelins in the air defence role. I might have flown in this one on my first ever jet flight had de Havilland actually built it and the RAF had ordered some, but I had to make do with a Vampire T11 instead. It was 23 Sqdn. that gave me the chance though, so I'm very grateful to them.

I could have sworn they were flying Venom NF3s back then in 1960, bit apparently not, although there were some NF3s on the ramp at the time.









And no, the T5s didn't have the underslung mass balances on the tailplane like most other Vampire and Venom derivatives, they had internal balances instead. (Try as I might, I could NOT get the pesky things to stay in position!)

And yes, the scrappy bits of the underwing serials around the main wheel doors are missing, the high G turns produced by the pupil pilots caused them all to fly off.................

[NARSES2]

Worth the wait Kit 

[Old Wombat]

Nice one, Kit!

[Tophe]

Good twin-boom model!

[The Wooksta!]

It's alreet, I s'pose...

[chrisonord]

Very nice  Kit and well.worth the effort.  How's the blood pressure  by the way...
Chris