Airfix 1/72 Avro Vulcan as XH558

[Beardylong]

Here’s my second RFI on Britmodeller, and my second model since taking up the hobby again. A 25 Year Falklands Anniversary boxing of the venerable Airfix 1/72 Avro Vulcan finished as XH558. Have been working on it for ages – I didn’t really appreciate what a big bugger it was until it started to come together – it was entertaining trying to shoe-horn it into my extractor booth!

The tool is 80’s vintage, dating back to just after the Falklands War and it’s really showing its age with nasty raised panel lines and more flash than Gordon! Also the fit of the wings was the worst I’d experienced, taking an awful lot of filling and sanding. I discovered Deluxe Materials Perfect Plastic Putty and happily ditched my nasty smelly Squadron White Putty. I syringed in the new filler with one of their Pin Point Syringe thingys and then smoothed it with a wet finger or paintbrush – hardly needed sanding. Pity I’d already sanded off most of the surface detail by then getting rid of the blobs of rock hard Squadron!

Airfix really should do a new tool for this aviation icon.

Loads more firsts for me with this build:

• First airbrush camo and so first time with yards of white-tac worms and Tamiya tape. I had to choose the largest surface area for a 1/72 model and both sides in camo for my first try. Should have tried a Spitfire first!
• First resin – Freightdog tail pipes – see below. And isn’t resin dust horrible!
• First panel line rescribing – again, I had to pick this model!
• More little bits of scratch building rectifying mistakes or lost bits.
• More confident weathering

I’m quite a fan of Vulcans so have lots of reference materials. The VTTS’ own books were the most useful with hundreds of great images along with the Haynes Manual and Aviation Classics magbook. Postings on this forum were also a great assistance.

Finishing off a 1/72 Airfix Control Tower next as part of a diorama build and then onto the Dambusters Lanc!

So happy looking and thanks to anyone who cares to comment!

Laying down the camo

Time to play dirty! Flory Grime all over my pride & joy, sloshing into my laboriously scribed panel lines.

And underneath, with loads of nasty raised lines ...

The Grime wash gave the model a nice 'used' look. I know they keep XH558 nice & clean but you can't disguise the wear & fading of a rather elderly airframe. I finished it with a gloss topcoat as it always seems to be gleaming in the pictures!

Didn’t have much fun with the decals. I don’t know what vintage they were in my 2007 25 year Falklands anniversary box, but they pretty much all suffered from silvering around the edges that no amount of MicroSol/Set could cure. Irritatingly some of the decals broke up on handling even after a coat of Humbrol Clear so there was a bit of patching needed.

From photos, I noticed that there was some discolouration around the front cockpit windows so I tried to replicate that.

You can just see the face of the co-pilot through the side window! Only noticed quite late in the day that there are two small side windows for the other crew shown as a recessed circle. Had I noticed earlier, I would have drilled them out & shoved some clear plastic in. I think I read somewhere that there’s a Deluxe Materials product you can brush on from the inside to imitate glass – would have been perfect for here.

The numerous hours spent rescribing the panels lines on the top surface were worth it in the end. I wonder what that white/silvery panel along the spine at the top is for?

Not sure what the odd shaped discoloured panel at the bottom of the tail fin is for – I saw it removed in a picture when they were doing servicing. Any ideas? I tried to replicate the fading seen on today’s airframe.

For the rivet counters amongst you, I followed the instructions from my 2007 pre VTTS kit which told me to put the pod on the side of the taper behind the tail fin. Not sure what it is or what it’s for, but subsequently I saw from photos that XH558 doesn’t have it. Rather than prise it off and have more filling to do, I’ve left it as a tribute to other Vulcans and even adorned it with the appropriate decal! It also told me to paint the air intake interiors white so had the joys of trying to paint them in camo once assembled.

The Freightdog Models tail pipes. I bought them after I’d assembled the wings to the fuselage but soon realised that they should have put in during assembly so my first experience of resin was a bit scary! Lots of sawing, hacking, sanding, filling, sanding etc. But I’m really happy with the result – much better than the originals.

I retro-fitted some extra nose weight just in front of the bomb bay after fitting the resin tail pipes as per the Freightdog instructions but it’s still a bit tail happy & will tilt back with a bit of a nudge! I scratch built a sort of coffin with one half of a Blue Steel missile, filled it with lead shot and glued it under the front wheel well. It’s not quite forward enough and also partially melted the roof of the well!

Couldn’t face the idea of rescribing the under-surfaces – would have taken me weeks! Apart from giving the surface a nice ‘used’ patina, hardly any of the grime wash stayed on the raised panel lines.

The bomb bay was a big disappointment on this model – the doors were really thin & flimsy. I built some ribs out of sprue which helped but in the end they were held in place with filler more than anything else! After it was all sealed up I found that you can get after market bomb bay detailing – will save that for my next Vulcan build!

Would have loved to have added some extra detail to the wheel wells – will save that for a subsequent build! Just a bit of dirty goo for this one.

Thanks for looking!

[arfa1983]

Looks good mate. Think I'll have to get one.

[DanSAR95]

I'm getting an airfix Vulcan in a few days and I hope mine ends up like yours. Your build looks well used which is a plus in my eyes as it looks very real. I'm brush painting my camoflauge so wish me luck. Regards

[Beardylong]

Oh, and meant to flat spot the tyres (all 18 of them!) before I fitted the undercarriages. Won't risk it now!

[Val]

Fantastic work

[robvulcan]

Very Nice !

Great results there. You have done a great job at copying her unique camo pattern and the odd centring of the wing roundels XH558 has.

Cheers Rob

[Beardylong]

Thanks all, and especially from Rob, the Vulcan meister! Your pics were particularly useful as the instructions from my kit were so woeful. I downloaded some more recent instructions from the web but they appeared to be the old fluffy ones just with a colour page tagged on the back. All the more reason for Airfix to do a new tooled version!

[cardiff guy]

looks pretty well done

Glenn.

[Mark4700]

A fine looking Vulcan. And you're quite right XH558 does have a gloss finish. 

[F-32]

Very impressive build of the old kit, looks just right