Sten Ekedahl

Looks just like normal MPM kit building. Been there - done that - got the T-shirt!

Looking very good! I have done the same conversion, using the Paragon parts, although in 1/72 scale. It is ready for painting, but unfortunately the project has stalled. A bit of warning if you don't already know about it: All Mk.XII aircraft were conversions from either Mk.V or Mk.VIII airframes. Since your model has a retractable tailwheel ant a pointed rudder it is a former Mk. VIII. Be sure to check your references when choosing the markings so you get the correct ones for a former Mk.VIII aircraft.

There was an article in an IPMS UK Magazine some 15 years ago about how to correct the inaccuracies in the kit and also add some extra details. I have the magazine somewhere deep in my stash and can try to dig it out if someone else doesn't have it more accessible.

Thanks Andy, that settles it; Mach Poo goofed and I will rescribe the extended rudder. Aha, the Valiant drawings in the Warpaint book is done by Richard Caruna. My past experience is that his drawings are not to be trusted as the absolute truth...

Humbrol no. 94 is supposed to be a fairly good match for this colour.

Very nice result from a substandard kit! I have the original Fujimi release, and from your pics in the WIP forum I must say Heller has certainly not made any improvmets on it, rather the opposite! I only discovered this project yesterday, otherwise I could have alerted you to the vacformed Falcon/Squadron replacement canopy for this kit. To say it is a great improvment over the kit parts is a massive understatement!! But the downside of using it is that you would have to put a lot of work into detaling the cockpit since everything can be clearly (pun intended!) seen through it!

A true masterpiece!!!!

Thanks for the answers, Andy. Although I'm still not sure about the correct height of the rudder. The dielectric fin top panel only goes as far back as the rudder hinge line. The horisontal dark line behind this, level with the lower edge of the dieletric panel and that looks like the top of the rudder (if it does not continue to the top of the fin) is actually an unpainted dieletric stripe according to the official maintenace drawings found in the Areofax book. Furthermore Vickers' general drawings, although scetchy, of both the Mk.1 and Mk.2 clearly show the rudder to be of the same height as the fin. Also a cutaway drawing from the RAF manuals, of the fin and fixed tailplane structure shows the rudder hinge line all the way to the top of the fin with no fixed fin area above the rudder. Several years ago I saw and took a few pictures of XD818 while it was still at Hendon. Naturally I never looked for this particular detail at that time, and none of my photos shows this area. And in 2006 when visiting Cosford, in conection with Nationals at Telford, the new Cold War section of the museum, where XD818 has been moved, had not yet opened at the time. (But I succeeded in taking a load of photos of the TSR.2, including both cockpits! ) Conclusion; still undecided about that rudder... Guess I will have to concentrate on other areas of this bl...y kit for the time beeing. There is still a lot to do for a masochist! I will borrow the Warpaint volume on the Valiant from a friend to check the remaining accuracy issues and decide what to fix and what to ignore. Or maybe I'll take a break from modelling and watch the forthcomming olympics instead.

I've got this kit and the Eduard etch too, but I haven't started building it yet. It has received a few bad reviews both in terms of fit and accuracy. However it looks nice in the box. One of the worst faults is apparantly the main gear legs that are too short and the prop blades being too narrow. More about this here. IIRC Pavla makes a good corrected prop and spinner.

I have just restarted my work on the Valiant. Haven't yet decided how far I'm going to go with correcting all the faults with this kit. Several of the posts in the WIP forum has been very helpful so far. Main work till now has been done on the fin and tailplane so far. Had to resort to a big wood file to reduce the thickness of the trailing edges! One observation though; according to the engraved lines on the fin, the rudder does not seem to go all the way up to the top of the fin. But from what I have been able to make out from photos (mainly in the Aerofax book) this is incorrect as the rudder should go all the way to the top of the fin. Can anybody confirm this? Second question: Before being paited white, were the early Valiants finished in natural metal or painted High Speed Silver? I know the prototypes and the early development airframes were natural metal, but how about the early production ones? I'm planing of building XD 826 from 7 Sqn. in 1957, using the Kits at War decals and this is a "silver" aircraft. Final question: I have decided that the vortex generators have to be replaced (too thick and also assymetricaly applied). However the question arises, were these fitted at the time of delivery or were they a later modification?

Hello! Inspired by Skii's wonderful TSR.2 on this forum, I dug out one of my two kits of it. Plans are to build one more or less out of the box but with the CMK intake and exhaust covers in place to cover the worst areas of the Airfix kit, and the other one with all the rest of the aftermarket goodies I have bought; i.e. the CMK exterior set, armament set, undercarriage set and the Pavla cockpit set. The article in SAM vol. 29 #1 by Keith Peckover is very helpful, but I have discovered one area where I need some further advice. When fitting the insides of the CMK resin air brake compartments, do you just cut away the moulded interiors on the kit parts and glue the resin parts on the inside of the fuselage, or do you cut away even more of the plastic in order to glue the resin part in the opening with the edges of the resin part level with the outer surface of the fuselage? TIA

I was inspired by that article in Scale Models and decided to do the same, many years ago. After having cut the fuselages of both kits it turned out that the diameter differed by 2-3 mm! Never completed the project... When meeting Ray at Donnington a few years later, I asked him how he had solved this problem. Turned out he didn't remember the fuselages having different diameters! Go figure!

Cut the rear fuselage on both kits in line with the trailing edge of the wing and fit the Frog/Novo rear end to the Airfix fuselage. If you want to go a bit further towards accuracy, the exhausts should be canted slightly inwards. Another easy improvment to the kit is to saw off both sides of the all flying tailplane aling the line close to the fin. Then re-atatch them with the rear edge slightly dropped. This is a typical feature seen on all parked Javelins.

I built an Airfix U-2 (and a Special Hobby U-2R/TR-1 at the same time) a couple of years ago. I had to spend several hours improving all flying surfaces to at least resemble something looking like an aerofoil section, first tool was a big wood file! As is, leading edges are square and trailing edges about six scale inches thick! I also had to use a lot of Milliput in several places. The best fitting part in the kit was the canopy. After many, many hours of filing, filling, sanding, rescribing, a coat of SnJ and some old Microscale decals it turned out a very nice model that even received a few awards at shows. Conclusion; it can be made into a goodlooking model - but it certainly does not build itself!

The Paragon set is currently available from Hannants, see this link.