Thanks again goes out to our friends and suppliers at Quickboost for yet another outstanding upgrade for a good kit, namely the Airfix Sea Vixen. If you are into Vacuforms, you could also use it on the Dynavector kit if you so desire (and have one).

These seats are designed for “right” and “left” sides, i.e. the #1 seat is for the pilot (Stick actuator), and seat #2 (as indicated on the pour stub) is for the “right”, or Radar systems operator position (in the “coal hole” as many called it).

This took maybe an hour to paint and dry; as there are no color instructions, I found a few internet pictures to determine the information I needed. The back pad was painted in leather brown, and the seat pad in dark green. Drybrush with white, pick out some details in silver, and it’s done.

Background

With increasing Allied air dominance in the European Theater in World War II, German armored forces found themselves in need of mobile and survivable anti-aircraft defenses to cover and protect their operations on all fronts. Originally equipping wheeled and half-tracked vehicles as self-propelled anti-aircraft platforms, the requirement for a more robust solution was quickly recognized. The solution came in the form of salvaged chassis from damaged Panzer IV variants retrofitted with anti-aircraft armament. One of the final variants to see combat operations was the Flakpanzer IV "Ostwind" (“East Wind”). The Ostwind’s single rapid-firing 3.7cm Flak 43 and increased armor was a marked improvement over its “Wirblewind” predecessor’s quad 2 cm mount. Of the 100 Ostwinds originally ordered, only 44 were completed by March 1945.

SAC continues their production of replacement landing gear parts for various kits. This set, engineered for the newly tooled 1/72 Airfix Vampire T.11, is a faithful and delicate copy of the kit parts, but undoubtedly stronger. In the photo below the plastic kit parts are on top with the SAC parts below them for comparison.

I was impressed with the thinness of the main gear doors and the smooth surface texture of all the parts. No pits, no holes, and compared with the kit parts, all was true, including the keyed axles. There’s a little bit of flash needing cleanup, but then, that exists on the plastic parts, too. A few swipes with a fine file will take care of it.

Vampire models are notorious tail-sitters and need a fair amount of weight in their small nose cavities, but the SAC nose gear won’t help much in that regard---it’s about the same weight as the kit’s plastic one.