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A weathered Airfix Victor B.2 -Finished! *at last*


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A bit of a verbal update chaps!

The Blue Steel fairing has been glued on, the wings have been assembled, the fuselage has been buttoned up and the wings have been attached to the fuselage- it's getting to the priming stage to check for any areas that need sanding further.

I'll be away for a few days, so there won't be another update for a while.

 

Kind regards, :)

Sam

 

(I'm liking the new forum update- I can now set a Harrier as the background- Huzzah!)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm back!

Any guesses on the destination?

 

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Got it yet? :P

 

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It could only be RAF Coningsby! My first trip to an active RAF base and I have no problem at all in recommending it as an exquisite place to see the RAF's frontline jets up-close. We stood by the fence watching seemingly the entire contingent of aircraft start up, taxi out and take off, and soon after we had the pleasure of witnessing the Typhoon display practice, followed by the Typhoons returning for lunch and passing a mere 20 feet above us. Other highlights include seeing a Tornado taking off with full afterburners, a Typhoon doing a performance takeoff and a tour around the BBMF hangar. (A note about the Lancaster: we have tried to see it for going on 3 years now and every time it has cancelled or the weather has prevented her from taking off, and now to finally see her start up, take off over our heads and do an apparent display practice while waiting for her escorts was just incredible).

 

You might be asking- But why haven't you bought any models of the aircraft to mark the occasion and utilise some of the photographs taken as reference material?

Aha!

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(We didn't see an F-22 but it has been on my wishlist for a while....)

 

Victor time!

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-Tested some of the washes on the F-22 weapons bay:

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Right, that's it for now :)

 

Kind regards,

Sam

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Very nice shots Sam - looks like a great day out :) 

Good work on the Victor too - crikey she's a big beast eh?

Admirable filling and washing, very nice.

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Looking very good Sam. You have got to the sanding/priming stage pretty quickly, so very few problems or none at all ? Great photos from RAF Coningsby, the 41 Sqn Typhoon is pretty cool.

 

Robert

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21 minutes ago, Robert said:

Looking very good Sam. You have got to the sanding/priming stage pretty quickly, so very few problems or none at all ? Great photos from RAF Coningsby, the 41 Sqn Typhoon is pretty cool.

 

Robert

 

Hi,

Thanks! It's difficult to say- the detailing is top-notch, however some of the fit has been "odd" to say the least. I had to craft a shim for the blue-steel fairing, the instructions mislabel the part for the APU as the part used for a closed APU, the fit of the wing halves is exceptional, apart from where they meet on the trailing edge (inboard of the engines to be specific). The filling, as you can see, follows the traditional seam along the middle of the fuselage (although the fuselage halves meet below the cockpit in a slight anhedral surface- not sure how accurate this is).

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Me again!

 

Not much to report on the Victor font- more spraying and sanding :\

 

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Ooohhh look at that surface detailing!

 

In between Victor sessions, I worked on the F-22. Great little kit and one that has tempted me into looking for other 1:72 U.S jets (F35A, F16, F15 etc) from Academy.

 

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And this is an Airfix Harrier I did at the very start of the year, I'm hoping to use some of the same tonal variation techniques on the Victor's upper-surface camo

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Aaaaandd it's A level results day- I got into my chosen Uni (The University of Birmingham), so fingers crossed I'll be able to join the University Air Squadron and do postgraduate medicine later on :)

 

Kind regards,

Sam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm a late arrival to this build - I'm glad I found it. Your detail work looks cracking. :)

 

How do you find the Andrew Brookes Victor book? I see AbeBooks are selling it, so I thought I might get a copy for when I do mine.

 

Huge congrats on your A-levels. Very well done. :thumbsup:

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28 minutes ago, CurrantBunbury said:

I'm a late arrival to this build - I'm glad I found it. Your detail work looks cracking. :)

 

How do you find the Andrew Brookes Victor book? I see AbeBooks are selling it, so I thought I might get a copy for when I do mine.

 

Huge congrats on your A-levels. Very well done. :thumbsup:

Thanks for your kind comments!

 

I actually found that book on the Victor and one on the Vulcan too in a book shop in Falmouth (selling at a comparatively extortionate price) and picked them both up along with a non-fiction book on the Cold War. However on the small ferry back from Falmouth to St Mawes, the weather took a turn for the worst and after a handful of waves that rolled the craft through 30-45 degrees (really frightening!) my cold war book slipped free and fell overboard. Thankfully the Vulcan/Victor books are on my bookshelf all safe and sound.

 

The prices for the AbeBooks ones are in the region of what I should have paid, let's just put it that way ;)

 

Kind regards,

Sam

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12 minutes ago, cathasatail said:

However on the small ferry back from Falmouth to St Mawes, the weather took a turn for the worst and after a handful of waves that rolled the craft through 30-45 degrees (really frightening!) my cold war book slipped free and fell overboard. Thankfully the Vulcan/Victor books are on my bookshelf all safe and sound.

:yikes: That's the stuff of nightmares! The loss of the book, rather than the rolling, although I can imagine that was pretty invigorating. I'm glad the other two were saved. 

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On 8/17/2017 at 23:19, cathasatail said:

Me again!

 

Not much to report on the Victor font- more spraying and sanding :\

 

Ooohhh look at that surface detailing!

 

In between Victor sessions, I worked on the F-22. Great little kit and one that has tempted me into looking for other 1:72 U.S jets (F35A, F16, F15 etc) from Academy.

 

And this is an Airfix Harrier I did at the very start of the year, I'm hoping to use some of the same tonal variation techniques on the Victor's upper-surface camo

 

 

 

Aaaaandd it's A level results day- I got into my chosen Uni (The University of Birmingham), so fingers crossed I'll be able to join the University Air Squadron and do postgraduate medicine later on :)

 

Kind regards,

Sam

 

 

Ooooooh that harrier looks nice! About a week ago I bought 3 Airfix harriers for a tenner! 

Guess what I'm building next....

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Gosh it's been a while since the last update- my only excuse is that white is a horrible colour to spray; firstly because white paint always seems to come out "grainy", secondly because every bit of dust shows up clearly and thirdly because it shows up even the slightest fit errors. Regardless, I'm calling the white done and hopefully this should signal an increased build pace as I actually enjoy spraying camo colours!

 

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I put up some more shelves too:

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Despite previous comments to contrary, I decided to do the Meteor in camo colours- partly to test a bit of tonal variation and partly because (as with white) the silver showed up a few fit errors that detracted from the finish.

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I even managed to clear and reorganise my bookshelf too!

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Hope you're all enjoying the good weather recently! :)

 

Sam

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Very nice finish on the white Sam :) 

The shelves look handy and well stocked too - can you see the camouflaged models with the wallpaper in the background? :D 

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Morning all!

After A LOT, and I mean A LOT of blu-tack and masking tape, I've finally added the camo to the Victor.

I started with a layer of Vallejo white (multiple layers) followed by a gloss coat, I then masked off the demarcation lines and sprayed a layer of "pale blue grey", post-shading was then added with a watered down mix of white and grey, followed by a gloss coat. Blu-tack sausages and masking tape were applied and an initial coat of "medium olive" was sprayed, followed by varying mixes of watered down white and hemp/medium olive/brown that were utilised for the post-shading.... followed by another gloss coat.

 

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The base grey coat with post-shading applied

 

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And that's where I'm up to so far :)

 

The plan of action, for those of you who may be interested, is as follows:

-Add the majority of decals

-Paint the silver panel underneath the cockpit (anyone know what this is?)

-Add another gloss coat?! :D

-Wash with a UMP dark dirt wash

-Add the remainder of the undercarriage

-Paint, wash and fit the flaps, airbrakes, engines, gear doors and crew door *(not forgetting the ladder!) **(or the decals for the gear doors)

-Weathering time!

-Gloss coat?!

-Add aerials and any other details

-Matt coat

-Unmask

-DONE

 

...oh and I want to enter this into the competition at the Sutton Coldfield show next weekend....

 

Kind regards,

Sam

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The lighting is off in these images and hence the colours are too, but we're on the home straight!

 

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Let's review the plan:

 

-Add the majority of decals

-Paint the silver panel underneath the cockpit (anyone know what this is?)

-Add another gloss coat?! :D

-Wash with a UMP dark dirt wash

-Add the remainder of the undercarriage

-Paint, wash and fit the flaps, airbrakes, engines, gear doors and crew door *(not forgetting the ladder!)

-Weathering time!

-Gloss coat?!

-Add aerials and any other details

-Matt coat

-Unmask

-DONE

 

Red: Not done yet

Orange: Working on these right now

Green: Completed

 

So, the show is on Sunday, I have 1 and a half days left. Wish me luck! :P

(The next few photos should be of the completed model)

 

Kind regards,

Sam

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Amazing job with the Victor so far and well done on getting your Uni place,......good luck with your course. My lad has got into York studying Chemistry, but isn`t interested in the air sqn!

Cheers

           Tony

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Right, that was... interesting...

 

I finally managed to finish the Victor last night and I was quite pleased with it.

*Huzzah!*

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And so, as per my original intentions, I took it along to the IPMS show and entered it into the competition. After having made a few purchases I left for a few hours and returned after the judging. I then had a chat with one of the staff (who kindly relayed some of the comments from other modellers), who proceeded to say roughly the following: quite a few people liked the Victor and it scored quite highly, the only problem was that it scored 0 marks for presentation. "Why?" I ask. The (albeit courteous) reply was that it wasn't displayed with a base, according to the longstanding rules of the competition.

.............   >_>

Yeah, thanks for telling me that after the judging, thanks for not publishing said rules....

I wasn't expecting to do particularly well but at least advise people before they enter a model, or preferably before the show, what the rules/criteria are.

 

Nevermind- here are a few snaps of the Victor after all was said and done:

 

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Now which one to do next; Airfix Me262, Meng F35A (in RAF colours shades of grey :D), 1:32 Tornado Gr1 or a 1:72 Lancaster... decisions, decisions.....

I'll probably post an RFI up this week with a brief rundown of the build. Overall I highly recommend this kit without any reservations at all! (except if you're struggling for space I suppose- in that case steer clear!)

 

Thank you guys for following along with this build, it's been great!

 

Kind regards,

Sam  :)

 

Edit: After having re-read my comments, I just wanted to highlight that all of the staff were exceptionally friendly, the show was great and I'll definitely be going again in the future. I think the main takeaway from this is that perhaps competitions aren't for me :thumbsup:

Edited by cathasatail
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4 minutes ago, DAG058 said:

P.S 1/32 Tonka!

 

 

 

I'm with you on that one!

3 hours ago, cathasatail said:

Right, that was... interesting...

 

I finally managed to finish the Victor last night and I was quite pleased with it.

*Huzzah!*

DSC_0001.jpg

 

 

And so, as per my original intentions, I took it along to the IPMS show and entered it into the competition. After having made a few purchases I left for a few hours and returned after the judging. I then had a chat with one of the staff (who kindly relayed some of the comments from other modellers), who proceeded to say roughly the following: quite a few people liked the Victor and it scored quite highly, the only problem was that it scored 0 marks for presentation. "Why?" I ask. The (albeit courteous) reply was that it wasn't displayed with a base, according to the longstanding rules of the competition.

.............   >_>

Yeah, thanks for telling me that after the judging, thanks for not publishing said rules....

I wasn't expecting to do particularly well but at least advise people before they enter a model, or preferably before the show, what the rules/criteria are.

 

Nevermind- here are a few snaps of the Victor after all was said and done:

 

DSC_0002.jpg

 

DSC_0003.jpg

 

DSC_0004.jpg

 

DSC_0005.jpg

 

DSC_0006.jpg

 

Now which one to do next; Airfix Me262, Meng F35A (in RAF colours shades of grey :D), 1:32 Tornado Gr1 or a 1:72 Lancaster... decisions, decisions.....

I'll probably post an RFI up this week with a brief rundown of the build. Overall I highly recommend this kit without any reservations at all! (except if you're struggling for space I suppose- in that case steer clear!)

 

Thank you guys for following along with this build, it's been great!

 

Kind regards,

Sam  :)

Nicely done Sam!

John

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Sam I saw your Victor in the competition, very impressive beast indeed

 

I was in the company of an ex-RAF ground crewman whose only comment (adverse comment) matched my own

 

The camouflage on Victors and most other RAF machines is made up of smoother curves than you put on it

 

To me it looks as if you had little breaks in continuity of your blue-tac rolls which broke the smooth lines we expect to see

 

This is the only, and minor, quibble I could see

 

Its an impressive, beautiful model and would be a definite purchase is I suddenly found myself with lots of spare room to display in

 

And we have another of 'our' BM chaps caught out by the 'display on a base' convention, having heard it there's no way I'd display for competition without one

Edited by perdu
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