Aeroclub's 1/48
de Havilland
Sea Venom

By Tom Cleaver

History

De Havilland's Sea Venom was a two-seat development of the single seat Venom, which was itself an aerodynamic improvement of the company's first jet fighter, the Vampire, to take advantage of a 50 percent increase in thrust of the jet engine used. The Sea Venom was the second purpose-designed radar-equipped night and all-weather fighter, the first being the Douglas F3D Skynight. With its strange configuration: short central fuselage with tail mounted on trailing booms, the Sea Venom was a distinctive sight.

The airplane entered Royal Navy service in the spring of 1954 after a relatively trouble-free development, as the FAW Mk.20. The design was quickly modified in the light of operational experience in to the FAW Mk.21 with strengthened undercarriage and later ejection seats, and was finalized as the FAW Mk.22, which finally left first-line service with the Fleet Air Arm in early 1961. During its service, the Sea Venom saw combat as part of the carrier air force of "Operation Musketeer," the Anglo-French Suez intervention in November 1956. During this period, the airplane was primarily employed in its secondary ground-strike capacity, since there was no aerial opposition on the part of the Egyptians by that phase of the 1956 war.

The Sea Venom also served with the Royal Australian Navy - where it was designated the FAW.53 - from 1957 to 1964, aboard HMAS "Melbourne." As the "Aquilon," it was produced under license in France by Sud-Est for the French Navy, serving aboard "Clemenceau" and "Foch," in first-line service from 1956-65; intercept missions and some limited ground strikes during the Algerian War was the extent of its combat service.

The Kit (Click on thumbnails for full size image)

Aeroclub is one of the premiere vacuform model makers in the world. Starting in the early 1990s, the company produced a series of British fighter aircraft: the single and two-seat Hunter, single and two-seat Lightning, single and two-seat Meteors, and the Sea Venom, all of which were excellent kits for the more advanced modeler. The later introduction of the Academy Hunter and Airfix Lightning did not signal that these injection-molded kits were better, but it did result in their being taken out of production. The Meteor F.4 and F.8, as well as the night fighters reviewed elsewhere in this issue of IM, have yet to be replaced by injection plastic kits.

Aeroclub had begun by the time of the introduction of the Hunter, to produce their kits with limited-run injection molded plastic parts to supplement the vacuform parts, particularly for those areas of the airframe that would prove difficult for the modeler not already an expert in vacuform modeling. The Sea Venom has perhaps the largest amount of this "multi-media" approach in its construction.

The only vacuform parts in the kit are the upper and lower wings, which also include the rear section of the central fuselage, and the forward fairings of the tail booms. The parts are molded with the proper dihedral set in, which is a very good thing for the average modeler to not have to deal with. The forward fuselage, wheels, tail booms and horizontal stabilizer are all presented in limited-run injection-molded plastic. The honey-colored material is relatively thick, with engraved panel lines like the vacuform parts.

The cockpit is done entirely in white metal; a process of making parts for which Aeroclub is justly celebrated. The instrument panel, side and center consoles, and ejection seats are all molded in white metal. The rear of the Ghost 103 engine and exhaust are the only "rearward" parts in white metal. There is a bit of flash here that is easily cleaned up. The landing gear legs are also in white metal. All this weight ahead of the main gear wheel line assures that the airplane will be a nose sitter. The one negative to the kit is that the instructions assume the modeler has ample reference material already at hand, and can identify small white metal parts from the not-entirely-accurate representations of the same found in the instruction illustration.

Two vacuform canopies are provided, which capture the complex double-bulge shape of the original, and the canopy may be posed open, since the necessary equipment is among the white metal parts.

Decals are of good quality and allow the modeler to make a late FAW.22 of 894 Squadron with a wicked-looking mouth and eyes marking as seen aboard HMS "Albion" in 1960 or an Australian FAW.53 aboard "Melbourne in 1959.

Conclusion

This model does not look so difficult that a modeler with at least a couple of limited-run injection-molded kits would have that much difficulty constructing this. The end result will be a good-looking early naval jet that should attract the interest of anyone who has an interest in naval aviation.