A Thank You goes to Aires for this item to review and to IMPS/USA for allowing me to do the review.

Nicknamed the Flying Wheelbarrow by some, the de Havilland DH.100 Vampire was designed and developed during World War II. It entered service with the RAF in 1945, a little later than the Gloster Meteor. The Vampire was in front line service until 1953 and was finally retired in 1966. During that time it served with the RAF, the Royal Navy and numerous other countries around the world. In total, almost 3,300 Vampires were built.

A couple of years ago Trumpeter released a 1/48 FB Mk.9 version of the Vampire. See Pablo Bauleo’s excellent review of this kit. As Pablo mentions there is no pitot tube supplied with this kit.

Recently Aires Hobby Models remedied that situation. They have released an after-market resin pitot tube to enhance the looks of Trumpeter’s Vampire kit. Due to the fragile nature of this part Aires has seen fit to provide the ham-fisted modeler like myself with three tubes even though there was only one tube on the LH vertical stabilizer. Any tubes not broken can be a nice addition to the spares box. The high quality castings are produced bubble free and with very crisp edges. Even the ends of the tubes are hollow.

The tubes do not come with installation instructions; none are needed. The modeler will simply estimate the location of the tube and drill a small hole in the leading edge of stabilizer to accept it. The estimated location can be made by referring to the stabilizer pictured below.

For very little cost the modeler can add a little more realism to a nice and easily built kit.

Again, thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review sample.