glueman

Oh no ....gonna have to smash it all up and start again Or ... I could just revert back to plan A. Speaking of smashing ... I nearly did smash it up out of frustration. The wing joins are giving me a headache. They are pretty bad so I used some white filler. After a bit of sanding they looked better ... but I've ended up with a shallow trough running along the wing join about half way from the intake tunnels down the wing ... argh. I'll see if I can fill the trough in a bit ... or I'll just have to leave it as it is. Hey Ho ... Pete

Thank you. As for the scheme ... TBH, I've not thought that far ahead. I could use what I've got and do XH558 or ... may be do the one at Newark (XM594) which was the very first Vulcan I saw in the flesh and went inside (last year ... Fathers Day treat). Pete

Managed to grab a few minutes and have a go at shaping the engine nozzles. Almost there ... still a little bit to do but they are looking the part. I've also glued the tail and wings in place, hence the filler along the wing join. More filling ... more sanding to do ... Front on view of the Vulcan. She is taking shape. I think I'm gonna need a bigger cutting mat. Still long way to go ...

Another update ... this time the rear of the Vulcan. A brilliant thing about this forum is that it is a bottomless gold mine of information, tips ... how-to do things etc etc. Before I started my Vulcan I found a brilliant thread by thankyousam and one thing that thankyousam described was how to make new tail pipes for the Vulcan. The thread can be found here. So ...thank you ... thankyousam ... all credit to you mate for the following photos. First job ... cut off the existing tail pipes and add plastic tube inserts ... Next job ... cover the tube inserts with Milliput. I'm in the process of sanding the tail pipes to shape. Watch this space

Hi Tom, Many thanks for your post. I put my hands up ... the information for the wind cover comes from your site Dimensional diagrams of the CSC Lander. Sorry, should have acknowledged you in my post. Making some progress with the wind covers. I've made the lower half and are trying to work out the best methods for making the upper part. The upper section is a very complicated shape. The top is flat ... the bit that faces to the balls is also flat but the rest of the top is curved. Did think about carving the shape from balsa but I may go for a series of horizontal slices made from plastic card to build up the shape and then cover in filler or Milliput and then sand to shape. It'll come to me ... eventually.,

Cheers mate. Had a look. Very interesting stuff. After a bit of surfing I managed to find some detailed measurements for the wind covers. Going to be tricky making the odd shapes. Pete

Hi Robvulcan, Many thanks for the detailed photos. I plan to add some wiring into bomb bay at some point in the not-too-distant future. Good to see how the bombs are stowed. Are bombs with yellow tips live and dangerous Pete

Sorry everyone for the extended time between posts ... it's just one thing and another at the moment. But I've made some progress with the Vulcan build First thing I did was to paint the bomb bay black. This was to provide an undercoat which would also act as some pre-shading. I wasn't 100% sure it would work ... especially after the first big mistake ... using satin black instead of matt black. What am I like??? But in the end, it wasn't all doom and gloom. A few coats of matt white later to hide all the black and the bomb bay turned out ok. Still might need a few more finishing touches but I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. And yes, spraying the bomb bay black did work really well. So far ... so good. Next big job was gluing the top and bottom halves together. The fit was reasonable especially at the tail end. Can't have enough clamps for this stage. I haven't really done much with the cockpit area. I've used the original decals and just added a few touches of aluminium paint here and there. Bit undecided about whether to include the pilots or not. Lastly ... the infamous fit of the air intake tunnels. This was the best fit I could get .... I really don't know why such a poor fit was allowed past the quality controllers at Airfix in the first place. Lot of filling and smoothing to keep me busy.

Hi Blanik, Thanks ... yes, you are correct about the tanks ... they are fuel tanks and not radioactive thermal generators. In all the excitement of the build I was getting a bit carried away. I'm actually working on the wind covers as we speak ... pesky little things, odd shapes and sizes. Cheers Pete

Thanks DC for your suggestion. I hadn't thought of making a mould and then casting the nozzles ... simply because I've never done that before. Like the idea of shaping a sprue. I did think about rolling some milliput into long rod and then cutting and shaping the rod. Size?? TBH ... I don't really know ... I'll have to check. Cheers Pete

Hi everyone, I'm currently scratch building a Viking Lander at 1/72 scale based on an article in the Airfix magazine of January 1977. I first built the Lander 37 years ago and want to build it again. The work in progress is documented here. I'm looking for ideas on how to make the decent engine rocket nozzles. They look something like this In the original article, Matt Irvine suggested using the nozzles from the Airfix Lunar lander. Don't really want to do this as the original Airfix kit of the Lunar Lander is pretty rare and expensive ... and I can't justify buying the kit and just using the nozzles. So ... any one with any ideas on how to make these nozzles? Thank you Pete

Seal your balls ... hmmm ... very gently perhaps. I'm in two minds whether to add a thermal blanket. Some photos show the balls ... 'naked' ... others show then within a rough looking thermal blanket. If I go with the rough blanket, then it doesn't really matter if they don't look spherical. Pete

Amazing paper kits

Another update to the Viking build. Sorry it is taking so long. I thinking building the real ting and sending it to Mars would be quicker then this build ... ah well. In the original Airfix article, the legs are attached to the body via two plastic strips forming an 'A' frame. Since then lots of images have been published to show that the legs are attached to a pillar type structure which I made from plastic square tubing cut at an angle. I added some detailing and a thin plastic 'sandwich' at the top into which the top of the legs will fit. Parts for the legs and pads. The legs are made from plastic tubing. The supporting arms are made from 'girder' shape plastic shapes and are supposed to hang below the body. Note the thin plastic rod at the very end of the legs. This bit will go into the 'sandwich' at the top of the leg support frame. First attempt at putting it all together. I must admit that I had two attempts at attaching the legs to the body. The first attempt looked a bit odd ... the body was too high and didn't look right so off came the legs ... back to the drawing board. The radioactive thermal generator (RTG) fuel tanks are 1 inch (25.2mm) diameter wood balls which will eventually be glued onto a thin brass rod that passes through the lander body. I thought this would be a better way to secure the balls to the body ... no giggling at the back. The lander is beginning to take shape. Next job ... building the RTG covers.

This build is a bit of a trip down memory lane for me as I first built the Viking Lander almost 40 years ago (37 to be precise!) and recently I got a hankering to build it again. The original model has long since gone ... so too has the original copy of the Airfix magazine. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when with the help of Mr Google and Mr Ebay I acquired a copy of the Airfix magazine, dated January 1977 containing the Viking Lander build. I found an old photo of me taken sometime in 1977 slaving over the Viking model. The only information I had at the time was the Airfix magazine and the Viking Project document you see in the photo (not sure what that was and where it came from). How times change ... now there are literally hundreds of photos of the Lander available on the net. My plan is to use the photos available to embellish the model (a bit) rather then being 100% faithful to the original instructions. The starting point ... the article in the Airfix magazine and some plastic card. I started with the Lander body. Following the description in the magazine article was a little 'interesting' as the drawing of the Lander body in the article isn't quite correct. The instructions suggest drawing a circle about 2 3/8 inch in diameter (ca. 70mm in today's money) and then marking off 9 sectors each of which span 40 degrees, then cutting the card to shape. So far so good ... until you compare the card shape with the actual drawing in the magazine. My first attempt was too small at one corner. Second attempt was also too small ... third attempt on paper drawn using a computer program ... also too small at one corner. It turned out the drawing was wrong as one radius was 38mm in length and not 35mm. Once I realised there was an error in the drawing and not my card, it was relatively straight forward to make the Lander body. I added some strips of card along the top and bottom sheets of the Lander to provide some support for the walls of the Lander body. The pink stuff you see is Plastic Weld which is just painted along the join to 'weld' the plastic sheet together. Top and bottom sheets glued in place. It's beginning to look like something now.

Wow, what an amazing cockpit. When I first saw it I thought it was something from Star Trek. Is that long thing by the third forward facing seat a type of periscope? Fantastic build. Pete

Wow ..... that was your article. This is amazing!!! Yes, lots of TSR 2 kits available now. I have two of them on the shelf waiting patiently for me to find some free time. I think the article is brilliant!! Pete

Hi Hutch, The magazine is dated January 1977. The description of the Viking Lander is just as I remember it (well, almost). Brings back memories. In fact I've recently found a photo taken of me actually building the Viking Lander. Can't see much of the actual model ... only me and some NASA material on the Viking Lander. Might scan the photo and post it. Pete

Good news ... I've just received a copy of the Airfix Magazine containing the Viking build by Matt Irvine. I did a bit of detective work using Google to find the date of the magazine, then plugged the information into Ebay and luckily one was for sale. Hit the Buy it Now button ... magazine arrived this morning. I feel a bit of nostalgic model building coming on Pete

Thanks for your replies. Plastic Bonsai ... oh ... missing diagram ... that makes sense. I thought it was just me being a bit dim. Martin ... Thanks for the clarification ... but I'm still not 100% sure ... yeah, must be me being a bit dim, Colin ... if anything I was only going to try a 1/72 scale build. I actually have the 1/72 and 1/48th scale TSR kits on top of the book case waiting for a 'modelling window'. I will try to hunt down the Airfix magazine to get part two of the article. Cheers Pete

Fantastic collection Rob!! I'm still trying to finish my first Vulcan Pete

Just wondered if anyone has scratch built the TSR 2 from the instructions in Airfix Magazine, June 1976? I've read the article several times but can't get my head around whether the fuselage is built as a series of boxes with sides or as an open frame. Thanks Pete

All may not be lost. To Be Continued ...

Yes ... a big plus 1 to more Sci-Fi movies without CGI. Another reason why 2001 is so beautiful to watch is the film stock that was used. If I remember it was shot on 65mm film in Super Panavision 70 format. Pete

Just got a 'pang' for a long lost model. I made a Viking Lander in the later 1970s. It was light blue in colour with bright orange wires, and was the 'bees-knees' ... my best ever model. Alas it has long since gone. The model was a converted Apollo Lunar Lander described in an article by Matt Irvine?? in an magazine but I can't remember which edition (Airfix??) or what year. I wonder if anyone here remembers or even has the article? Pete