Archer_VC10

I couldn't remember whether your previous SVC10 had Cunard titles or not... and I forgot to look it up. Thanks for the confirmation! 😉

Well... if you're going with Cunard titles, I would definitively extend the blue cheatline to the tip of the tailcone. The Super VC10s that were registered to BOAC-Cunard only flew like this during the first two years of the Super VC10's career with BOAC. BOAC-Cunard was dissolved after a final boardmeeting in September 1966. The metal tailcone turned up in the early 1970s, so there should not have been a combination of BOAC-Cunard titles and that metal tailcone. Have a look at photo 4 on the page about G-ASGD: https://www.vc10.net/Airframes/cn_854__gasgd.html. That shows what the tailcone looked like while G-ASGD sported the Cunard titles. Edit: there is a later photo from 1970 on that same page showing the same tailcone paint variation and by that time the Cunard titles were long gone.

Funnily enough, it was seeing that cheatline on your model that made me go back to those photos and realise that there has been a small change there.... On G-ASGD, I only have a photo from 1973 that shows the metal/grey tailcone end but photos of other Super registrations show it in more detail. My guess would be that it changed in the early 70s. Edit: I'm trying to find a photo that shows this part of the tail, but finding one on which the lighting is such that we can make out a specific colour is tricky. The photo below by Geoff Hall shows the Negus scheme, but you can see how the colour from the rear afterbody extends to that bit of tailcone. Whether it's metal or grey... on this image (from the late '70s) I would put my money on grey, but... read on... There are a couple of photos by Paul Davis on this page: https://www.vc10.net/History/Individual/GARVM.html that show the situation on Standard VC10 G-ARVM, based on that I would say that the colour is a metal colour, but how far it extended forward is the big question. And this is a crop from another photo (from 1974 or thereabouts) from Paul Davis: You can tell that the aft part of the tailcone has a bit of shine to it, which is not present on the light grey just forward of the engine nacelles. That's as far as my sleuthing can take this right now.

I may have worded that incorrectly. I think you're right in that there was a technical reason for the change, it was not just a whim by a colourscheme designer, but it appears to have been done fleet-wide on all the Supers and stayed that way into the BA colourscheme. So it was not a one off tailcone change. Also, the tailcone on a VC10 is not a separate part that you can take off. 🙂

It won't have been as easy as that.... there appears to be a point in time beyond which the BOAC Supers had a small natural metal tailcone instead of the cheatline running all the way back. These airframes never had APUs installed, it is not connected to that, but there may have been another reason to change it. Cleaning issues with drain lines in that area perhaps. Have a look at the first few photos on this page for example: https://www.vc10.net/Airframes/cn_861__gasgk.html (which are not in the correct order, I just realised...). There are more photos of other airframes that show this same change and the natural metal tailcone also survived the change to the 'Negus' colourscheme.

I see you're going for the variation where the cheatline did not extend to the end of the tailcone. Don't know why it changed... but there are photos of the same scheme with the cheatline running all the way to the tip of the tail as well. The second application of the cheatline looks good to me!

Looking good, even in light green primer! I like the new wing fences.

Yes, as far as I know each engine is some 11 inches further outboard, but if the kink in the pylon is the 'original' join line, they didn't just tilt the engines a bit nose up, they also canted them aft end outboard a bit. That's why they may also have removed a bit of material in my view, as I have never been able to confirm that there is just an insert between the original pylon and the Super version. In my view, the pylon trailing edge bit from the inboard engine to the kink is too short when compared to the Standard pylon trailing edge. I should have brought a tape measure... (From a 1965 Aeroplane special about the Super VC10, listing the changes compared to the Standard VC10.) I have been looking for photos of Standard VC10 pylons, but the best I can do is this: There are some photos of the test installation on G-ARVE on this page: https://www.vc10.net/Airframes/cn_807__garve.html They offer a bit of a comparison, but I do not have the equivalent photo of a 'real' Super VC10 pylon unfortunately. I would guess that the installation on 'VE was the same, but am not a 100% sure of course.

I don't know if this is going to make me very popular as it may cause a bit of a headache... There is a bit of a twist (or rather a kink) in the engine pylons on the Super VC10s that doesn't really show up on most models. It may be too small to make much of a difference at this scale, or it may be present on the pylons already but it's just not really visible. When they moved the engines outboard and mounted them three degrees nose up, they added a sort of 'spacer' in the pylon on both sides (probably cut some material away as well). You can also see this when you look at the rear/trailing edge of the pylon, it's not a straight line. Second photo shows an ex-EAA airframe, but the BOAC Super VC10 pylons were the same. The beaver tail between the engines is shaped slightly differently on this airframe, there were two types on the Supers. Probably not what you wanted to hear right now... apologies! And if you really want to drive yourself insane... there actually is a slight curve in the forward end of the large inboard wing fences. The front quarter or third or so curves slightly outboard. You can just make it out in the photo below, but I don't think that reproducing something like this on a 1/144 scale model is going to be good for you...

It certainly used to be on display, but this photo is from 2016 and was taken in a temporary addition to the museum. I'm sure they have rearranged some stuff since. CiervaC24 by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr Edit: I found two additional photos. CiervaC24_2 by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr CiervaC24_3 by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr

There are a lot of Fokker F.VIIa photos on this page, including a couple of this airframe arriving at Schiphol and under restoration: https://www.fokker-history.com/en-gb/f-viia Photos of the original Southern Cross are here: https://www.fokker-history.com/en-gb/f-viib-3m

Indeed there is. This is a single-engined F.VIIa. FVIIa_Aviodrome_2019 by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr

If you search for 'Fokker F.VII Aviodrome' in Google you will find plenty of photos of the F.VIIa that is on display at the Aviodrome museum. The colourscheme should be similar. There is a Dutch language thread on building a F.VIII model here: https://modelbrouwers.nl/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=49394&start=20 In that thread (scroll down to the KLM posters) they are discussing the colours for the same scheme and the main conclusion seems to be that the dark colour is most likely black, but there are some differing opinions. They used black on the F.VIIa in the Aviodrome and the only evidence for it being a very dark blue colour appears to be anecdotal at best. The period posters all appear to show it as black and the only colour photo may well be a B&W image that was coloured at a later stage, although this hints at very dark blue.... so take your pick.

The Buchon in the Cuatro Vientos museum appears to use a slightly different shade of blue. I only have this shot online right now. I can look for other photos if needed. Buchons by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr

This one is available: https://www.aviationmegastore.com/boeing-b47e-stratojet-1000th-stratojet-hasegawa-02350-aircraft-scale-modelling/product/?action=prodinfo&art=173362