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Colours used were arylic paints: Revell Aqua Sand 16 , Revell Aqua Braun 85 and lower surfaces PRU blue (using Gunze Sangyo 337). 

After the decals were applied, the model got a mat dull finish and this was achieved by airbrushing a varnish top coat of Johnson Future/ Pledge with a portion of 5% of Tamiya X-21 Flat base matting agent mixed in.

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The Iraqi Air Force was established in 1931 and used British military equipment. Iraq was a monarchy. Aircraft bases were at Habbaniya and Shaibah and training aircraft were Chipmunks and later on the Harvard. May 1953 six Vampire FB.52 and a single T55 trainer were obtained and the first jet fighter unit no.5 squadron established at El Rashid near Bagdad. During the following 2 years more Vampires were delivered also being flown from Habbaniya.

(for later developments of the Iraqi air force, look at this page)

The Airfix Vampire two seater T.11 model (kit no.A02058) in 1/72 scale was released in 2012. The Vampire T.11 trainer first flew in 1950 and had a side by side cockpit layout. The forward fuselage was made of wood. The RAF introduced this trainer in 1952 and it was also widely exported. 

The kit has about 55 parts in a bit soft light blue plastic. Panel lines are finely engraved and this shows the improvements that the "new" Airfix has made in tooling and accuracy. The canopy can be set open to show the nice but dark cockpit. There is a nice intake tunnel and good detail and pair of lower wing fuel tanks are provided. 

Decals are great with full stencilling and schemes are for:
(a) Vampire T.11 as flown by the Vampire preservation group in UK 2012 coded "WZ507";
(b) Vampire T.11 as operationally flown by the RAF at the no.5 training school at RAF Oakington, 1962;

Kit assembly proved to be quite straight forward.

In the nose, do not forget to add adequate nose weight. 

The seats appear to be of a later type and a few seat straps can be added. 

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The intake tunnel is seen below...



Clamps were used during glue setting.

Some gaps, particularly at the lower junctions.
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For fitting the tail booms some clearance needs to be made for installment.

Now the basic model is assembled.

 ...and a bit filler at the upper joints...

.... and lower joints... 

The first base coat was light grey to check for any flaws and errors. Revell Aqua no. 75 Steingrau is good for this use. Any corrections were made if needed.

The T.11 colour scheme picked was as per kit scheme (b) with silver dope and large dayglow orange panels. The Airfix colour scheme looks accurate and was taken as guide. 

Next paint followed was the orange using Revell acrylic no. 30 Orange.

The orange areas were masked off and next followed the silver paint using Revell Aqua acrylic no.90 aluminium (though silver can also be used). Note that the early Vampires were NOT natural metal coloured, many sections were still wood and primed. It got usually a "high speed silver" dope.

Tail tips were painted grey and the anti-collision lights at wing tips.

The model got a few coats of gloss varnish, in this case using Johnson Future/Pledge with the airbrush. This will help decals adhering to the surfaces without later "silvering" that may spoil the appearance.

Next came decalling. The decals in the Airfix kit are great and it took 3 hours to apply them all to the small model.

After applying all the decals, the model got again a protecting coat of Johnson Pledge/Future. 

Now the final parts like landing gear and so on were installed as per kit which is quite easy. The windscreen was installed and all cockpit details like the seats.

The canopy was set open and that completed a nice model. 

Royal Air Force Vampire T.11 of no.5 training school at RAF base Oakington, 1962

The Vampire in a "landscape..."

A nice series of Vampires in my World Air Forces collection...

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