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1:144 Vickers Viscount 701. Converted from S&M Models 800.


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Vickers Viscount 701. Early BEA Scheme.

Converted from 1:144 S&M Models Viscount 800.

 

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The Viscount served BEA very well from 18 April 1953 when series 701 G-AMNY operated the worlds first regular turboprop service, until the last service flown on 28 March 1982 by 806 series aircraft G-APIM. Incidentally, G-APIM is preserved at the Brooklands museum.Such a significant aircraft deserves to be modelled, and when I found this decal sheet at classic-airlines.com, the project was on!
As I had a few of the S&M 1:144 Viscounts in the stash, I decided to try modifying one from an 800 series machine to a 700 series. The major difference was to shorten the forward fuselage by 8mm and try to reduce the bulging of the engine cowlings. I'm not after a competition winner here, just a bit of enjoyment from enhancing a basic kit.

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Cutting out & rejoining the fuselage went remarkably well, and the join vanished under a coat of primer. I also did quite a bit of reshaping of the kits nose area as it is far too blunt as it comes 'out f the box'.

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I reshaped it side to side & top & bottom with Milliput and sanding until I got it to look like it does in photographs. The noseleg was also shortened a touch, and an air intake fashioned from a section of sprue, and glued on the underside near the trailing edge of the wing. Paint on the fuselage & cowlings is Alclad highly polished aluminium, as these aircraft had almost a mirror like polish to them. I did the wings in a duller aluminimium from Vallejo 'Metal Colour' Aluminium to provide some contrast. The white is Halfords appliance white.
The decal sheet does not have any white printed on it, so the white top demarcation with the silver fuselage sides had to be vary carefully masked to give a white pinstripe under the Peony cheatline. Likewise the badges on the nose needed an underlay cut from white decal sheet. The underlay was applied first, then the 'BEA Sir Ernest Shackleton' decal on top.

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Because I had reshaped the nose, the peony trim was a little fiddly to apply, but I did it in sections to leave white stripes in in, and it wasn't too difficult.
The 26 Decals detail sheet was used for the panellines & wing details. It adds hugely to this model and is almost essential.

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I'm reasonably happy how it turned out, I'm trying to use up the 3 S&M kits I got at a bargain price and this seemed like a good way to use one up. With the BCAL 800 that's 2 down and 1 more to go, with a British Midland waiting its turn on the workbench now!

 

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Thanks for looking,

 

John

 

 

<Edit>18 Dec 2017</>

A short update... Ian (Turbofan) noticed that this livery had 'BEA' logos on the upper & lower wings, and very kindly produced some decals for me;

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Easily applied;

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Thanks Ian!

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Lovely looking models there John. :clap2: I used to see these at my local airfield (Elmdon, Birmingham) in my childhood.  I've had an interest to do a conversion of an airliner and this seems to be the simplest I have seen; so I may just follow your recommendation and have a go myself.  Thanks for posting the images, and the details.  Is that cut approx 5mm forward of the wing root?

 

Mike

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Great job. That polished Ally looks fantastic, esp the Cowlings. Really is a great looking model. I like the cars too. Is that green one a Humber Hawk or Super Snipe Estate?

 

 

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Hi John,

Another stunning Viscount! Classic BEA livery, I think this scheme is made for the Viscount, it looks so much better than on the Vanguard. I agree that you need a shiny metal finish for this one and that 26 detail sheet really does give it some life.

I wonder what the little black marking is on the tail?

I'm working on a couple of AA Viscounts at the moment and I hope they come out looking this good. Comparing your work on the nose with the AA kit and I'd say it's spot on.

Looking forward to the British Midland when it's finished, that's one of the ones I'm working on too!

Cheers,

Ian

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2 hours ago, Turbofan said:

little black marking is on the tail?

Think its a Dielectric panel..Its where the wires end up !

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Thanks for the feedback guys, much appreciated as always.

4 hours ago, bootneck said:

 Is that cut approx 5mm forward of the wing root?

 

Mike

Mike, it is, but with hindsight I would have done it 10mm forward, as the wing root was awfully close to the join when it came to cleaning it up.

3 hours ago, bzn20 said:

Is that green one a Humber Hawk or Super Snipe Estate?

Well spotted! It is a Humber Super Snipe borrowed off my son's N gauge railway layout. Adds a little interest to my cardboard hard standing base courtesy of a Shreddies box & felt tip pen!

3 hours ago, Turbofan said:

Hi John,

 

I wonder what the little black marking is on the tail?

 

Cheers,

Ian

Ian, I think it is part of the radio fit, seen on the early Viscounts (Edit - BZN20 beat me to it!). I struggled to find evidence of the aerial fit of these early Viscounts but the bits I have done are correct as fat as I can tell. The preserved ones (Duxford & ex-Cosford exhibits) have the later fits they were retired in, even though they are both painted in this scheme.

This is a fabulous site for All things Viscount.

I'm looking forward to seeing your 2 AA Viscounts, if one is in Midland, what are you doing the other in?

 

(Aaagh photographs - just noticed one of the nose wheels is sitting a tad higher than the other. I'll cut it off & reset it!)

 

Cheers

 

John

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1 hour ago, Viking said:

Mike, it is, but with hindsight I would have done it 10mm forward, as the wing root was awfully close to the join when it came to cleaning it up.

 

Thanks John.

 

Mike

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1 hour ago, bzn20 said:

Think its a Dielectric panel..Its where the wires end up !

 

1 hour ago, Viking said:

Ian, I think it is part of the radio fit, seen on the early Viscounts

Ahh that explains it. I've had a look through my few books with Viscounts in and there aren't many with the dielectric panel but yes there are some.

 

1 hour ago, Viking said:

This is a fabulous site for All things Viscount

This site should come in very useful thanks for pointing it out!

 

1 hour ago, Viking said:

I'm looking forward to seeing your 2 AA Viscounts, if one is in Midland, what are you doing the other in?

It's my latest addition to my BA Negus fleet! I also have a couple of decal sheets for the BEA Peony livery for a future 'aircraft that diverted/trained at Blackbushe' theme. Lots of great 50's stuff from when Blackbushe was the main diversion airport for Heathrow.

Cheers,

Ian

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25 minutes ago, Turbofan said:

but yes there are some

They don't have to black. Another of Vickers finest.. The VC10s are on the Dorsal Fin, both sides of the Fin  and have been airline scheme colour EG Dk Blue with BOAC or White with RAF C.Mk 1s "Transport/Air Support/Strike Command's schemes and are Fibreglass panels .

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Superb.

Considering the base kit this is a really stunning result John.  As you know, I have a couple of these ready for the day when I can get some time to devote to the hobby.  I just hope they turn out as well as yours have.  In the meantime, I'll just have to sit and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

 

Chris.

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That's really beautiful John, thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

 

I have an F-RSIN 700 at a fairly advanced stage and I hope it turns out half as well as yours. 

 

Out of interest what did you do with the props?  The original S&M ones are pretty horrible but yours look spot on.

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That is really nice! Always had a soft spot for the Viscount, spannered on the 800's that NZNAC had, and its the only aircraft type that I actually enjoyed being a passenger in!

 

When I see a model of that standard it reminds me why I build big ugly armoured vehicles where the mistakes can be passed off as weathering or wear and tear.

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Brilliant - really clever work, John.

 

I also very much like how you achieved the various metallic tones in paint which looks especially effective.

 

Regards

 

Dave

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21 hours ago, Skodadriver said:

Out of interest what did you do with the props?  The original S&M ones are pretty horrible but yours look spot on.

Dave, they are the kit props, (I couldn't find any replacements!) but heavily modified.

I trimmed each blade left & right by nipping just a sliver off, to make them narrower in chord. I then scraped each one from hub to tip with a new scalpel blade, doing both sides to thin them. Very slow and boring, so I only did one prop unit at a time over 4 separate evenings.

 

John

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Stunning job,can never have too many of these gorgeous classics, well done .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Cheers Michael.           

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2 hours ago, Viking said:

Dave, they are the kit props, (I couldn't find any replacements!) but heavily modified.

I trimmed each blade left & right by nipping just a sliver off, to make them narrower in chord. I then scraped each one from hub to tip with a new scalpel blade, doing both sides to thin them. Very slow and boring, so I only did one prop unit at a time over 4 separate evenings.

 

John

 

Boring or not the result has certainly justified the effort!

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Great work.  They brought back memories of my first flight (Windsor to Vancouver) at age 9.  Many years ago now.  Thanks again.

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