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Airfix, 1/72 Avro Vulcan B.Mk.2 XH562


Mach82

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Having been totally snowed under work wise these last few months, I am now taking a step backwards and chilling, whilst immersing myself in a touch of model making. I know I have taken a huge chomp of the proverbial apple here, with this rather late entry, but I always like to face up to a challenge, especially on these 'classic' and not quite perfect kits. Growing up in a village just outside Waddington, the Vulcan left an indelible mark on my childhood memories and is in pole position of my all time favourite military aircraft. With this in mind I fully intend on completing this wonderful lady by the end of this group build and hopefully do her the justice she deserves.

 

I intend to build Vulcan B.Mk.2 XH562, 9 Sqn, RAF Waddington 1978. Mostly out of the box, but the addition of a few after market items; refuelling probe boom, resin jet pipes and decals.

 

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The box contents:

 

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Some of the 'in transit' detached parts...

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The after market parts .... The 202 tail pipes are incorrect as XH562 was powered by Olympus 201 engines but they are close enough for me and far closer than the kit ones.

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Just look at all those raised panel lines, sink marks and flash ....... Cant waste a minute here so I guess I had better get a crack on!!

 

Tools for the job ahead....

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'Breaking ground' ... A glass of wine, Game of Thrones on in the back ground, the long scrape and scribe begins....

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I best get on and hope to be back with an update soon .... 

 

Cheers for now :wink:

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Nice one !

 

It's not just the scope of the challenge that impresses me, but the wide variety of impressive tools at your disposal. :D

 

I just know that this is going to be a corker.

 

mike (big fan of all purpose 240 grit sandpaper for just about any application)

 

 

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Update 01

 

So it has been a busy week with all the scribing, sanding, filling and the odd use of colourful language ....... but progress is now being made and I am starting to get that warm fuzzy feeling seeing a Vulcan taking shape.

 

I started off with the intakes as I expected they would take the most time with the filling and curing in between sanding sessions. During the curing times, I was able to get on with the panel line scribing, which I find easier to do with the parts laid flat on the bench. Following assembly, it is then only a case of tidy up re-scribing the areas of seam filling and sanding damage.

 

Starting with the intakes... Ejector pin marks, part numbers stamped on the inside together with flash and misalignment issues, all quite easy to deal with and necessary even if a touch time consuming. Ejector pin marks and numbers sorted with a little filler and a sanding stick.

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After sanding as much as I dared, I removed the centre column locator pins and aligned the inboard and centre column seams as closely as possible before glueing the upper and lower intake parts together. To start with I only glued the inboard and centre column seams which were clamped and allowed to dry. After a few hours and when the inboard seams were dry, the outboard intake seams were glued together and clamped firmly. This gave the closest possible visible joints and prepared the intakes for the next part of the seam removing process. For the filler I use a 'brew' of Tamiya extra thin cement with some strips of styrene sheet which dissolves to form an easily sand-able joint with a close and invisible texture to the kit part.

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The 'filler' was brushed into the seams using an old extra thin brush pushed on to the end of a bbq skewer to give that extra reach required inside the intakes. Several layers were applied, each time blending into the intake sides.

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And after a little sanding its ready for a primer gloss white coat.

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Since very little can be seen inside the cockpit, it was totally out of the box, using only some trimmed and painted pieces of masking tape to make some seatbelts. The flight deck area was painted rubber black, slightly lightened with a touch of dark sea-grey to take scale effect into account. The supplied instrument decals proved sufficient for this scale, especially considering the limited visibility through the windows. I moved the scribed 'cabin' windows slightly aft and up (about 1mm, but in retrospect could have been a touch more) and drilled them out, to be filled later after the painting stage with some Micro Crystal Clear.

 

All the re-scribing is now complete. Here is a before/after shot of the lower fuselage.

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and upper fuselage...

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The Vulcan is a nose sitter, so I inserted some lead shot into both upper and lower halves of the fuselage radome area and secured it with some quick setting two part epoxy glue.

 

The Freightdog resin tail pipe assembly proved to be a perfect fit after removing the kit pipes using a razor saw and following the panel line as per instructions. The pipes were fixed using medium CA and any gaps filled using a filler made up from CA and talc. I fixed the jet pipes to the top half of the fuselage first as this would be the most visible join and needed to be as close as possible. When I mated up the bottom half of the fuselage to the top half, the alignment and fit of the jet pipe assembly was equally and surprisingly, just as good. Only a tiny amount of filler was required.

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Now to fit all the sub assemblies.... I elected to fit the intakes and join the upper and lower halves of the fuselage first to ensure the best possible fit, before attaching the wings. When joining the wings, I attached, first the upper part of the wing section ensuring a close wing/fuselage fit, then in the same manner, the lower section of the wing. Once the wing/fuselage joints were dry, I glued the edges of the upper and lower parts of the wing together. Considering the age of the kit, I fully expected there to be some fit issues in this area, but there was nothing too serious. However, the bomb bay and tail cone assembly was another story. These required some major work involving shims, various types of filler, and copious sanding/re-scribing .... you name it! All relatively easy, but time consuming.

Starting at the nose and working towards the tail little by little ... with a slight step to deal with along left fuselage side...

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After spraying the stark internals of the undercarriage bay, I closed up the bays using some blue tack holding the u/c doors in place. The crew access hatch was closed up by temporarily attaching the crew access door with some maskol wiped around the internal edge, forming a seal protecting the internals during painting. The cockpit and bomb aiming window was masked using a set of 26decals masks and after a final wipe over with a cloth dampened with acrylic airbrush cleaning fluid, she was ready for a primer coat.

 

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So this is where I am up to today. Priming and pre-shading is now complete. Later this morning I will inspect and make final corrections to any areas that may require it, then begin one of my favourite parts of a build, the painting stage.

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Its been just under a week of hard, but fun building and got there in the end. I see light at the end of the tunnel and now feel that the worst of it is over .... She looks like a VULCAN finally and is now ready for a touch of 'make up'.

 

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time for a look. I really hope you are enjoying the build a much as I am.

 

 :wink:

 

 

Edited by Mach82
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19 hours ago, mitchem said:

Nice one !

 

It's not just the scope of the challenge that impresses me, but the wide variety of impressive tools at your disposal. :D

 

I just know that this is going to be a corker.

 

mike (big fan of all purpose 240 grit sandpaper for just about any application)

 

 

Thanks Mike ..... I am feeling the pressure believe me :D .... but loving it all the same. 

 

My skills need all the help they can get, hence the need for the vast array of tools ;)

 

 

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2 hours ago, Mach82 said:

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I'm looking at my bag of elastic bands and now you've got me wondering if Mrs M will let me have some extra pocket money to buy clamps ? :D

 

Nice work there Mark and pretty impressive pre-shading.

 

mike

 

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Update 02

 

Just before progressing to the painting stage I did a final once over and was not happy with a flat spot on the left side of the front fuselage. It wasn't apparent until I had applied the primer and pre-shading. Back to the filler and sanding once again until satisfied.

 

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Happy now and its on with the first coat of light aircraft grey on the lower surfaces...

 

First coat..... the pre-shading showing up a little too much at this point but coming along well.

 

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Second coat.... Thats about right now so I will stop while the going is good and let it dry off thoroughly before masking.

 

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Once absolutely dry, I masked the lower surfaces in preparation for the upper surface Medium Sea Grey/Dark Green camo pattern ...

 

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I first laid out the camouflage pattern using a 3B pencil ....

 

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Then put down the Medium Sea Grey pattern, over spraying the guide lines slightly. Once dry, I added a few drops of Light Grey and thinned down the mixture in the paint cup. Using random squiggles, I softly highlighted the centre of each panel in the Medium Sea Grey areas. Once again, when satisfied with the result, I put it aside to thoroughly dry before the next step.

 

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The demarcation lines between the Medium Sea Grey and Dark Green were hard, and in order to achieve this, I used the White Tack worm method...  So once again back to rolling, bending and masking....

 

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The next phase will be the Dark Green camo, the Metallic Jet Pipes and aerials. 

 

I also made a start on the undercarriage by painting up the wheels (Rubber Black for the tires and Dull Aluminium for the rims) and legs (Gloss Black)...

 

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The wheel hubs were given a smoke oil wash to bring out the detail and have now been put aside to cure before adding some dust weathering to the tyres.

 

And that is about as much as I have got for this update. Once again thanks for taking time and stopping by and hope you enjoying the build.

 

:thumbsup:

Edited by Mach82
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Update 03

 

Now completed spraying in the Dark Green camo and the ceremonial un-masking ..... heres is what we have

 

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Once dry, some more masking with de-tacked Tamiya tape and filled in the antennae with a mixture of Gunze Radome and a touch of Desert Yellow..

 

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Finally for now, the jet pipes were prepared, masked and sprayed semi matt aluminium (alclad)

 

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... and now nearing the stage for some decals. 

 

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Before the decal stage, in order to keep the layers to a minimum, I will be polishing the paintwork with a polishing sponge rather than using Klear. I find that it tends to fade the paintwork realistically and give a true to life sheen on the surface. Only once decals are complete, will I spray a protective coat of clear before the final weathering stages and a very light satin coat.

 

Thanks for stopping by

 

:thumbsup:

 

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That's looking sharp Mark ! :thumbsup2:

 

7 hours ago, Mach82 said:

Before the decal stage, in order to keep the layers to a minimum, I will be polishing the paintwork with a polishing sponge rather than using Klear. I find that it tends to fade the paintwork realistically and give a true to life sheen on the surface.

.....and that's why your models look better than mine ! (It's the thought process and I'm not capable of thinking ! :D)

 

mike

 

 

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Wow. Your not hanging around with this. Great job. Good to see another one being built. I finally have all the decals on mine and hoping to do a wash tonight once the kids are down. 

 

Do you have good reference for all the stencil data? 

There is a great PDF here in the top left. There is information and pictures of XH562 also. 

Looking forward to seeing more of this. 

 

Cheers

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On 29/08/2017 at 10:05 PM, mitchem said:

That's looking sharp Mark ! :thumbsup2:

 

.....and that's why your models look better than mine ! (It's the thought process and I'm not capable of thinking ! :D)

 

mike

 

 

Thanks Mike. I think yours out do mine by a long chalk. There is now way on earth that I can get the finish on a civil airliner like you can. To be honest it fills me with trepidation when I stare at the Roden B720 sitting there in the stash, just waiting to be built - and that is next on the list so I may come seeking some advice where to start :wink: 

 

Mark

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On 29/08/2017 at 10:39 PM, snapper_city said:

Wow. Your not hanging around with this. Great job. Good to see another one being built. I finally have all the decals on mine and hoping to do a wash tonight once the kids are down. 

 

Do you have good reference for all the stencil data? 

There is a great PDF here in the top left. There is information and pictures of XH562 also. 

Looking forward to seeing more of this. 

 

Cheers

Thanks Mark. Yes thats a great source of information and a great help. Thanks for the heads up. Looking forward to seeing how your Vulcan is coming along.

 

Cheers

 

Mark

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17 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Wow! You are making it look so-ooo easy! Nice work on a difficult kit. Did I mention fast, too?

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks for your kind words Adrian. :like:

LOL .... easy it aint :deadhorse: but beating it into submission is half the fun. To be honest even under pressure, I have loved every minute putting this beauty together It also helps tremendously that she is one of my favourite all time aircraft. I must say thank goodness for 18 days worth of standby duty and not get called out. I am just hoping for another roster like this one when I get back from leave later this month so that I can crack on with another build ... this time the 1/48 Airfix Buccaneer :rage:

 

Regards

Mark

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Update 04

 

In between a few days at work (how totally inconsiderate! ;)), I have been getting down to prepping and applying the decals. The surface was carefully and very lightly sanded smooth, followed by a good buffing using an acrylic polishing stick. The sanding created a natural fading on the paintwork and the smooth surface allowed the decals to set with no sign of any silvering and no use of any decal solution (although some was at the ready nearby if needed).

 

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Once the decals had set after a few hours, the undersurface of the model was given a coat of Klear and a couple of hours later, the upper surfaces followed suit. This is in preparation for   the weathering stage which I hope to start tomorrow. I intend to use a clay wash and then remove it with wiping and sanding/polishing. A final session of weathering with oils and that should just about complete the majority of the work on this beauty leaving only the gear, crew hatch/ladder and various small, delicate bits to attach.

 

Whilst waiting for the Klear to dry, I cracked on with improving the crew access ladder. The kit supplied one is not really representative of the real thing so some scratch building was called for. I used some spare styrene and some brass rod to scratch build and enhance this ladder. It should look ok when painted yellow and attached to the inboard side of the entry door.

 

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Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to look.

 

Cheers for now

 

Mark

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Update 05

 

The day was spent applying and removing a clay wash. For this I used the Flory Dark Dirt wash - This is my go to product for this type of camo. The colour seems to work all round and bring out the panel lines without them being too strong. An added bonus is that the clay has a slight buffing effect which tends to blend in and soften the colour boundaries and 'wear' in the decals.

 

So here goes. Always a little hesitant before dirtying up a pristine surface ;)....

 

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The clay wash thoroughly scrubbed in making sure that no part is left uncovered. Then it is a waiting game for the wash to fully dry ... about 1 hour guarantees a fully dry surface for the next phase.

 

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Armed with a kitchen roll (slightly dampened) and some cotton buds the clay is slowly removed leaving some good panel lines and shadowing effects.

 

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Undersurfaces complete and now ready to repeat for the upper surface.

 

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Its never failed yet, but always a relief when the clay comes off ...

 

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As I was saying earlier, the clay wash filters and blends in the decals. You can see what I mean from the before/after photos that follow:

 

Before...

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After...

 

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And the tailplane.... Before...

 

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After...

 

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I intend to keep this one relatively clean and not over weathered so a few touch ups to do and then a little oil weathering and that should be about it before moving on to the undercarriage.

 

Thanks for looking in :thumbsup:

 

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Egad !

 

Masterclass which explains why clay washes don't work for me - my impatience never allows them to dry before I wipe them off. (I'm a former pupil at Mr Miyagi's school of scale modelling - "Wipe on....wipe off !)

 

Looking excellent already.

 

mike

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Update 06

 

She is now up on her legs! A fiddly task, but now complete and worth the effort.

 

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I know... the wheel wells look as plain as hell and time permitting, I might just put in some scratch built detail, but we will see how things go. Whilst on the underside, I did some work on the crew entrance door and steps. The moulded in steps needed to be removed and the interior of the door painted a matt black. NATO Black was used and created a good contrast with the yellow steps made earlier.

 

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The hydraulic door actuators were made using some styrene rod, painted chrome and fitted to the door entrance. I used white tack at the front edge of the door frame to assist positioning the jacks and holding the door in the correct position whilst the glue was drying.

 

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Having finished work fitting the crew entrance door, I fit the ECM plate under the right wing.

 

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And there she stands for the first time...... and not tail sitting.

 

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The inflight refuelling probe was a quick cut and splice job... and certainly improves the look. I will leave the fitting of this part towards the end of the build as it is certain to be knocked off with my clumsy fingers whilst manoeuvring ..

 

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The nav lights and beacons were made using and undercoat of polished chrome and then covered with clear red/blue.

 

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Some weathering to the crew access ladder, gear doors and aerials attached, and finally the crew windows completed using a dab of micro crystal clear.... she is just about ready save for  the refuelling probe and a touch more weathering on the undersurfaces with some oils and pigments.

 

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I made a small jig to hold the air to air refuelling probe on position whilst the glue dried. The cutting mat lines were used to help align the probe.

 

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So there she is .... I am calling this one finished now. I will be taking some photos in the next day or two and pop them up on the completed area. 

 

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Thanks for all your support and kind comment during this rather frantic build. Sometime, once I have had a breather, I will add some scratch built detail to the wheel wells to finally complete this lovely aircraft to my satisfaction. 

 

Cheers and thanks guys     :thumbsup:

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9 minutes ago, mitchem said:

Hell's teeth !

 

:thumbsup2::thumbsup2:

 

You've surpassed my high expectations and now you've got me wanting to build one! This wasn't meant to happen......

mike

Go ahead Mike ... you know you want to :D 

 

Its not that bad a kit ... I have come across a lot worse. I guess that all the bad publicity made me wary but once I got my teeth into it, I quite enjoyed it. Besides, how can one NOT love a Vulcan.

 

In fact the Vulcan bug has bitten me in the backside .... hard!!! .... I want to build another one too .... This time XM607, but I will first be gathering some of the aftermarket parts as I want to super detail the bomb bay and wheel wells. I have a kit back home in the UK calling me .... glutton for punishment I guess :rage:

 

Thanks for your support Mike ... it really spurred me on on this one :like:

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A beautiful looking Vulcan Mark, and good to see this older kit given a modern looking revamp. Great work all round and I particularly like the subtlety of the weathering, something that I don't do for fear of going too far. :thumbsup:

 

 

After struggling to get the kit ladder to fit properly on a recent 1/200 build I will definitely be adapting your ladder building technique on my future Blue Steel build.

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9 hours ago, nimrod54 said:

A beautiful looking Vulcan Mark, and good to see this older kit given a modern looking revamp. Great work all round and I particularly like the subtlety of the weathering, something that I don't do for fear of going too far. :thumbsup:

 

 

After struggling to get the kit ladder to fit properly on a recent 1/200 build I will definitely be adapting your ladder building technique on my future Blue Steel build.

Thanks John. :thumbsup:

 

 I am glad you enjoyed the build and the weathering. Thats the joy with the clay washes. If it starts to look over done, then its out with a wet tissue and off it all comes and redo it. The oils and more permanent washes, I use sparingly afterwards to enhance the effect. Little is more I tend to find, but you are so right as it is very easy to overdo things and knowing when to stop is the key. With regard to the ladder, I found that the small effort in the crew entrance hatch area really gave this kit that added something special. The kit part as is,just spoiled the whole look of the open hatch and worth the effort.

 

Best regards

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On 9/2/2017 at 11:04 AM, Mach82 said:

The surface was carefully and very lightly sanded smooth, followed by a good buffing using an acrylic polishing stick.

What a fantastic Vulcan! If I can ever pluck up the courage to do one myself, I will use your build as my guide.

One thing I would like to know more about is how you sanded and polished the surface.  What grit was the sandpaper?

Thanks for such an inspirational build.

Chris

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23 hours ago, PhantomBigStu said:

Brilliant work :) So glad there will be a vulcan in the gallery is mine effort doesnt make it in time.

Thanks Stu :D  Keep at it... it would be great to see the second one in the gallery.

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15 hours ago, chrish said:

What a fantastic Vulcan! If I can ever pluck up the courage to do one myself, I will use your build as my guide.

One thing I would like to know more about is how you sanded and polished the surface.  What grit was the sandpaper?

Thanks for such an inspirational build.

Chris

Hi Chris.

 

First of all thanks for you kind comments :like:

 

Regarding my sanding technique ... once I have completed the painting stage, I run over the exposed surfaces (the ones that normally get sun bleached) very gently with a 1200 grit sanding sponge ... and I mean very lightly - just enough to start to see a lighter shade in the colour. I do this in random patterns all over the the surface. I follow this up with an all over buffing using the two sides of a polishing sponge (you know the ones that ladies use on their finger nails - they are designed for acrylic varnish and work perfectly with model paints). My particular go to sanding sponges and polishing sticks are in the Flory range and I find work perfectly for the effect that I go for. If you find that you have over done it, its a case of respray and do it again. I try to create the effect that you see on real aircraft where although matt, from certain angles they do have a gloss/satin effect. Here you can see it on a F-100D I made a few years back.

 

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If you want any further details drop me a pm and will explain further.

 

Best regards

 

Mark

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