Building the Revell 1/72 de Havilland Sea Vixen F.A.W. 2

The warbird that could

- Revell 1/72 de Havilland Sea Vixen F.A.W. 2 -

Introduction

box art of the Sea Vixen

    In 1946 the British Admiralty conducted discussions with de Havilland about its requirements of a jet-powered, all-weather, radar-equipped fighter capable of operating off of carriers. In 1947 the British Air Ministry issued specifications N.40/46 and F.44/46 for a similar night fighter to equip the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Air Force. de Haviland would submit its proposal for the DH.110 for use by both services.

    By early 1949 the DH.110 was expected to fulfil four requirements F.4/48, F.5/49 (a long range RAF fighter) N.40/46 (naval night fighter) and N.8/49 (naval strike aircraft). Later that year, the Royal navy procured the de Haviland Sea Venom in order to cut costs on development. On 26 September 1951 the first prototype took flight. It exceeded everyone's expectations. And even proved it could break the sound barrier, although only in a shallow dive, not in level flight.

    The Sea Vixen was to be Britain's first fighter jet to rely solely on missiles. Although technically a success, it's operational history was marred by a host of tragedies, and by the early 1970s the Sea Vixen was retired.

    Perhaps one of the best-known incidents was the 1952 Farnborough airshow disaster. This tragedy would forever shape the aircraft's public perception. Crewed by test pilot John Derry and flight test observer Anthony Richards. Following a supersonic dive from 12.000 m (40.000 feet) during a left banked turn at 450 knots (830km/h, 520 mph), the pilot pulled into a climb. The forces of this maneuver were so severe that the aircraft disintegrated in less than a second.

    In this article, we are going to take a look at this fascinating warbird in 1/72. I had a lot of fun building this model. And I hope you will have fun reading through this article.

Contents of the box

    Unfortunately, I forgot to take any photos of the sprues, instruction booklet, transparencies, or decal sheet. 😅So, we'll move swiftly along. I was building this long before deciding to start a blog. As such, I only took photos whenever I remembered. I will try and be more diligent in future articles. Although the next couple of articles will still suffer from this issue. Oops. 😓

Supplies used for this kit

    Just like last time, I'll start with a list of products I used for this build. Once again, this is not a definitive list. It's simply what I used. Feel free to experiment with different products and brands.

Tools:

• sharp hobby knife
• sanding sticks and pads (400 - 1500 grit)
• paint brushes (000, 0, 1, 2, 4)
• nippers (in my case still toenail clippers 😂 they still do the job)
• tweezers

Glue:

• Revell Contacta
• Revell Contacta Clear
• Revell Contacta Quick
• Revell Contacta Extra Thin

Decal application:

• Ammo by Mig Decal Set (A.Mig-2029)
• Ammo by Mig Decal Fix (A.Mig-2030)

Paint:

• Revell Anthracite Gray (09)
• Revell Metallic Aluminium (99)
• Revell Metallic Silver (90)
• Revell Matte Yellow (15)
• Revell Matte Beige (89)
• Revell Matte Fiery Red (330)
• Revell Matter Leaf Green (364)
• Tamiya Flat White (XF2)
• Ammo by Mig Ocean Gray (A.Mig-245)
• The Army Painter Rough Iron (WP3181)

Thinners:

• Tamiya X-20A
• Tamiya Airbrush Cleaner
• Vallejo Airbrush Thinner (71.061)
• Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver (71.562)
• Revell Color Mix
• Revell Aqua Color Mix

Weathering & Washes:

• Tamiya Weathering Master, series A (87079)
• Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color Black (87131)
• Vallejo Dark Rust (76.507)
• Vallejo Fuel Stains (73.814)
• Vallejo Burnt Umber (73.110)
• Vallejo Old Rust (73.120)
• Vallejo European Earth (73.119)

Masking:

• Tamiya Masking Tape (5mm)
• A4 printer paper (cut to size)

Varnish:

• Vallejo Gloss Varnish (70.510)
• Vallejo Satin Varnish (70.522)

Misc.:

• super glue
• lead shot (fishing lead)

The prep work

    Again, just like last time, there was almost no oily residue on the sprues, so I didn't feel the need to wash them. It might not be ideal, but I tend to skip this step whenever I feel I can get away with it.

The build

started painting the seats

sides and back of the seats painted black

ejection seat railing painted silver

side details painted silver

applied a dark wash

    I started this project by separating the seats from the sprues. Next, I painted the cushions in beige. Then I picked out the harness in yellow, and carefully picked out the buckles with aluminium. After this, I painted the back and sides in black. Which is the same color the rest of the cockpit interior will be. The next step was to paint the ejector seat railing and a few details on the sides of the seats in silver. I didn't do a very good job on the sides, but it doesn't matter as it won't be visible at all. 😅 But you can feel free to be as thorough as you like. 😁 Lastly, I applied a bit of dark wash on the seats to tone everything a bit down and make the seats look like they've been used.

cockpit partially assembled

pilot's side done, instrument panel decal applied

observer's side assembled

view of the observer's side

another view of the observer's side

    Next, I removed all of the cockpit components from the sprues. Then I painted the interior in black. Followed by carefully installing the control column, pilot and observer's instrument panels, the observer's radar scope which I painted anthracite gray, and the seats. Lastly I dry-brushed some aluminium metallic, to highlight some of the details and make the space feel more lived in.

dry-fitting the cockpit sub-assembly

engine air-intake ducts installed

checking fitment and position before gluing

exhausts painted

    Now it was time to do some more assembly. I first glued the air intake ducts in place, then dry-fitted the cockpit sub-assembly to make sure I get the position right before gluing it in permanently. Lastly on this step, I painted the exhausts in Rough Iron. It's not the correct color, but I really like the look so I decided to stick with it.

dry-fitting the upper fuselage half

observer's window installed and masked

    Up next, I first dry fitted the two fuselage halves. Once I had a good idea of how they come together, I installed the small transparency on the observer's side, masked it off. Then I glued the fuselage halves. There was a nasty seam-line along the length of the fuselage, which I intended to address, but forgot to. So... oops. 😅

starting work on the twin-boom tail assembly

inboard piece glued in place

twin-boom assembled

    Now it was time to tackle the twin-boom sub-assembly. This can be a pretty tricky process because it needs to be even and level. If you decide to build this kit, make sure you do a lot of dry-fitting to ensure everything falls into place as it should. When done correctly, You'll end up with something like in the bottom photo.

nosecone attached

    This next step, is where I made my first big mistake of the build. Yes, even bigger than not sanding down the ugly seam between the two fuselage halves. Here's what Happened.

    Before installing the nosecone, the instructions require you to add 35g of weight. I used lead shot for this purpose, which I bought from a local fishing supplies store. For the first 15g or so, I made sure to count the lead-shot based on the stated weight on the box. But for the rest I decided to just eyeball it. Thinking that, that would do it. Unfortunately, I didn't add enough, and this model will end up being a tail sitter. And, I'd argue, that perhaps even 35g isn't enough.

    So, if you are building this model for yourselves, make sure you add enough weight. There's more than enough space. You can place weight in the nosecone, you can place some weight just inside the fuselage. And there's a pretty large area in the front of the cockpit that won't be visible, where you can also add weight.

twin-boom attached

    Next, I glued in place the twin-boom tail section. The model is now starting to look a little bit like it's predecessors the Sea Venom and Sea Vampire. But much larger and with the distinctive Sea Vixen cockpit configuration. 😜

wing sub-assembly glued together

wing installed on the wrong side

installed parts needed for a folded wing configuration

preparing wing for the other side

both wings installed on the wrong side

    And this is where I made my second big mistake of the build. My plan was to have the right-side wing folded. And later buy another kit and have that one displayed with both wings unfolded. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying enough attention at the instructions, and I flipped the position of the wings. I probably still could have fixed it. But I was so disappointed I messed up, that I just tore the wings down, then glued them on the correct way and called it a day.

    All is not lost, though. As I just said, I always planned to get another kit of this aircraft. When I do, I'll make sure to follow the instructions more carefully and build it the way I wanted this one to be built.

fixed the wing positions and installed the cockpit

installed the observer's top window.

    After the heartbreak of installing the wings the wrong way around, I carefully pulled them off. Again, with enough care I probably could still have been able to do the model with a folded wing. But I felt too dejected to attempt to do that. Lastly, I installed the window above the observer's post. And got ready to prime and paint.

Painting the model

model primed and pre-shaded

top view

    Next, I primed the Vixen. Then I wanted to do something I've never done before, do some panel-line pre-shading. Now if you remember from my first two articles, I mentioned how using Revell paints in the airbrush forced me to have to tear down and reassemble the airbrush a lot? Well, my initial plan was to do the pre-shading with the airbrush. Unfortunately, because this was a cheap no-brand model. The threads of the nozzle and the threads inside the body were stripped clean.

    This meant that the airbrush could no longer create the vacuum needed to atomize the paint, rendering my airbrush all but useless. So I ended up doing the pre-shading by hand. And what you see are the results. Not bad. But it would probably look a lot better done with an airbrush. And with that, the Sea Vixen would sit on my workbench for the next 9 months or so, until I was able to save up for a new airbrush.

painted the belly white

a better view of the pre-shading underneath

added some mottling on the topside

it's not perfect, but I'm still learning

    Nine or so months later, with a brand new airbrush and compressor, it was time to finally get back to painting. First I painted the belly of the plane white. And since I still had some paint in the cup. I decided to try my hand at some mottling. The mottling didn't come out amazing. My excuses for that are, 1) This was a new airbrush. 2) And perhaps more importantly, airbrushing at this point was still a new thing for me so I was still learning. In fact, I'm still learning to this day. But I know I'll get better as we move forward.

started masking in preparation for painting the topside

masked off the rocket-pods

underside of the horizontal stabilizer masked

    After another thin coat of white on the belly, I moved on to masking the underside before painting the top. The tips of the rocket-pods will be painted the same color as the top of the plane so I masked those too.

bottom view of painted model

top view of painted model

another top view

    Next I painted the top of the aircraft with ocean gray. Which is actually the wrong color. It should be dark sea gray. But I couldn't find my bottle, so I went with the next closest thing I had. And it actually looks pretty good. So I'm not too bothered by using the wrong shade of gray.

a lot of touch-up needed

    Once I removed the masks, I realized I made another mistake. But this will be easy to fix, so I wasn't worried. There are also some areas where I didn't apply the masking tape properly, and some paint bled underneath. But I will correct that with a paintbrush later.

a look at the two tone paint scheme

drop-tanks and rocket-pods painted

closeup of paint-bleed on the tail section

close-up of paint-bleed on tail boom

    Next, I painted the drop-tanks and rocket-pods. And I decided to give you a closer view of some of the areas the ocean gray bled underneath the masking tape. Again, I will touch all of this up to make the model more presentable.

more masking

a couple of thin coats of whit applied

    Before moving on, I wanted to address all the overspray, so I masked all the parts that needed to remain gray. Then I applied about two coats of white matte thinned down quite a lot, at around 70/30 thinner to paint ratio. I also decided to cut a piece of printer paper and tape it to the tail section to avoid the white paint from getting where I didn't want it to and give myself even more extra work.

main wheels, landing gear doors, and gear struts painted

nose landing gear and bay doors painted

small details picked out on small nose gear door section.

    After doing all the necessary touch-ups on the aircraft, it was time to start painting all the small parts that were still attached to the sprue. Can you spot any mistakes? Hint: color of the exterior of the bay gear doors. 😅

more problems abound

    Once I removed the sponges from the gear bays, I noticed I had some more touching up to do. But I will get to it in time. Removing the sponge pieces also reveals the weathering I've done inside the bays. In hindsight, I feel it's a tad excessive, but once the gars and doors are in place, it won't be as visible.

    

    This was followed by a layer of gloss varnish to prepare the surface for the decal work that was to come. I also varnished all the bits on the sprues as well as the ordinances.

Applying decals

red top missiles and rocket-pods with decals

drop-tanks with decals

    Now it was time to give the aircraft it's identity. And I started by applying the decals on the drop-tanks, the red top missiles and the rocket-pods.

left nose decals applied

left tail section decals applied

top decals applied

right tail section decals applied

right nose decals applied

bottom decals applied

    It was now time for the main event. Applying decals to the Vixen itself. I started on the front left nose section. And slowly and systematically worked my way to the tail. Then I moved to the top, working front to back. Next I moved onto the right side of the aircraft, working from tail to nose. Lastly, I flipped the model upside down and applied the last few decals to the underside.

    To apply the decals, I first cut the relevant decals from the sheet, dipped them into warm water to activate the glue. Then I added a bit of Decal Set, to the area where the decal is supposed to go. Then I applied the decals to the Vixen, and after a few seconds I added a bit of Decal Fix. To makes sure the decals conformed to all the panel lines, then I sprayed a layer of gloss varnish to seal in all of the decals, and prepare the surface for some weathering.

Weathering

weathering the underside

simulated chipping

more simulated chipping

even more chipping and weathering

    I started the weathering process by first applying a pin-wash to all the panel lines. I only had black panel line accent color from Tamiya, I wanted to make some light gray wash with some of my old Revell enamel paints. Unfortunately, the ones that would have worked well, have dried and I had to throw them away.

    So I was forced to use my black accent color. To kind of make up for that. Instead of waiting for it to dry then carefully removing the excess with enamel thinners. I started removing the pin-wash almost immediately after applying it. I done this in an effort to cut some of the high contrast, especially between the black wash and the white underside.

    After that. I used a variety of Vallejo Weather FX washes to add some grime and oil stains in select areas around the aircraft, concentrating mostly in the aft section of the underside. Based on all of my reference images, the majority of the dirt and grime on this aircraft mostly accumulated around that area. The technique for this was to, apply a bit of wash, then with a paintbrush streaking it in the direction of the airstream.

    I did a bit of weathering on the top of the aircraft as well, but it's a lot more subdued there. Another first for me was adding some chipping to the nose and leading edges of the Vixen using the sponge method. I don't think it came out fantastic. But I'm quite happy how it turned out, regardless.

satin varnish applied

a bit more weathering done to the underside

some light weathering and chipping on the ordinance

top-down view

    The next step was to apply a thin layer of satin varnish. The reason is twofold. First, to seal in the weathering done in the previous step. Second, to dull down the glossy finish which I don't think looks to great at this scale. At this point I added a bit more weathering using some pigments. I mainly used, brown dirt from the Tamiya weathering master Series A set. As well as Vallejo European Dirt and a bit of Vallejo dark rust pigments. A bit of weathering was also added to the drop-tanks.

Final assembly

landing gear and ordinance in place

the Sea Vixen finally on it's feet

build is complete

    The last thing I had to do, was to install the landing gear, landing gear doors, the drop-tanks, rocket-pods and red top missiles. If you look closely, you can see the tweezers I used to get the aircraft to sit right. This was the time I actually realized I didn't put enough weight to the front of the aircraft. but at this point it was far too late to address that.

    There are certain things that don't look quite right, and there are areas where I could have done more. But overall I was really happy with how the Sea Vixen turned out. I'd go as far as to say, that it is my best looking model to this day. At least as of writing this. We'll see if that will still hold once I'm finished with my current build. But you'll have to wait a bit for that one.

Conclusion

    This build was really fun even with all the mistakes I made. Some big some small, it is what it is. As long as you can learn something from your mistakes, that's a win in the long run in my book. There are certain things I probably would have done differently. However, I was really happy with the end result, and that's what matters. If you're happy with your finished build, then anything else is just background noise. For the most part, anyway. You should still take in constructive criticism of course.

Final thoughts

    The model came together really well, and it has good detail across the board. That makes sense since it's a fairly recent kit, tooled by Cyber Kit back in 2011 and re-boxed by Revell in 2021. The kit comes together really well. Although there are a few fitment issues you might want to address. I ignored most of those on my model. 

    All in all the finished model looks really nice, and it looks even better in person. Again, I have made some mistakes, like not putting in enough weight and not paying enough attention to the instructions for building the model with folded wings. However, that's not a mark against the kit or the instructions. That's on me for not paying enough attention.

    At the end of the day, I'm really happy how this kit turned out, and despite all the mentioned mishaps, the Sea Vixen still turned out to be my best looking model yet. I'm sure that you can make it look even better.

    If you enjoyed this article or found it informative, consider bookmarking the blog, and checking in every week or so for any new articles or posts. Make sure to leave your thoughts and suggestions down in the comments bellow.

    Next week we'll be jumping back over the pond from where we came from. We will be sticking with the naval aircraft theme, and we will be sticking with Cold War era jets. But I promise this is going to be the last, at least for a while. But until then, I hope you have a wonderful day and happy modeling, everyone. Cheers!