Vulcanicity

Superb build, that's some very impressive masking results, and a neat job with the radome too!

Great build Dragan, cool colour scheme and done extremely well 🤘

Absolutely glorious, there's no better scheme for a Buccaneer than this one (maybe EDSG over white) and you've captured it perfectly. Love the subtle drybrush weathering on the ladder steps and grubby bombs!

Cracking build, you wouldn't know it's a vintage kit from looking at such a handsome model

Hi Bob, You assume correctly! I think I have a grip on all the differences in the pre-retrofit B.2 and have the Air Graphics conversion set, but just in case I've missed something? 1. Smaller fin root intake 2. Slightly different probe arrangement on nose tip 3. No IFR probe, tanks or "carrots" 4. Fewer intake vanes 5. No cooler intakes under engines 6. No Blue Steel cooler intake on under fuselage by bomb bay doors 7. Smooth tailcone Thanks,

Thanks all! So: it looks like there isn't some large crutch protruding round the sides of the bomb, or any kind of carrier visible above the bomb that I would have to model when attaching the YS, because the winching mechanism described so well by @Selwyn and @Retired Bob just attaches directly onto the lug/release unit on the top of the bomb and draws it up to the roof of the bay. However: the more I look at the original loading image the more convinced I am that there is a large cylindrical fuel tank in the bay forward of the bomb being loaded. The fwd bulkead is the busy looking structure behind the ground crew's middle back, not the smooth surface up and right from his face. If nothing else there should be a large retraction jack mechanism for the door there if it were the bulkhead! I take the argument that the CoG can be balanced in an aircraft like the Victor by moving fuel between tanks, and the argument that the bomb has to be on the CoG - after some head scratching I guess that as long as you seek to move/burn fuel in such a way that that its mass causes equal turning moment abount the CoG, no massive trim change when you drop the bomb even if it isn't on the CoG. Thanks for the heads-up re. the K2 kit. I'll see if anyone can spare of these tanks, as I'd like to try and replicate this fit I think!

Hiya, A long shot but does anyone have any images of how the Yellow Sun bomb was attached on the Victor bomb bay roof? The bomb has a small central lug on the top and there is a well-known shot here showing a practice round about to be hoisted by the lug into the bomb bay from above. The Air-Graphics bomb reproduces this lug and it fits perfectly onto one of five crossways structural members on the Airfix bomb bay roof - I presume these represent weapons stations on the real aircraft. If this is correct then the attachment is simple and no crutches/carrier frame is visible above the bomb. However I have seen photos of an bomb carrier beam used on the YS bomb with the Vulcan ( a rectangle with a curved top, attached to the top of the bomb and presumably winched with it upwards into the Vulcan's bomb bay), and was therefore wondering if there is a similar, more substantial beam to support the real thing in the bomb bay of the Victor? I suppose what I am getting at is whether there is any kind of additional structure that would be visible from below when the bomb is carried, and which would therefore need representing in model form. Second question: the linked photo shows what I take to be an auxiliary fuel tank in the bomb bay forward of the bomb. I can't work out which station the bomb would be attached to but presumably if this tank was carried the bomb would not be central in the bay, but some way aft. Was this tank often carried? I can't help wondering if there would be an alarming trim change when the bomb was dropped - the tank and bomb can't both be central about the CoG point! Either the aircraft pitches down when the bomb is dropped, or up, depending where the CoG is!

Glorious-top job! I especially like your NIVO mix, I think you got closer to the real thing than I did 🙂

Thanks @JWM @Elias it's directly photographed by me from the maintenance manual (AP) for the Heyford III held in the National Archives at Kew. You're welcome to make use of it! Note that the wires that connect the top of the spats to the points where the small struts join the bottom of the fuselage are crossed over. I don't think I've ever seen anyone get this correct on a Heyford build, presumably because photos of this area are so hard to find!

Cracking Hunter, nice to see a GA11 with rocket pods- was this a common fit?

Lovely work, these two look just as smart as display team mounts should do!

A real weathering masterclass 10/10!

Gorgeous Mossie, great to see a different Strike Wing scheme from the usual suspects and beautifully weathered too. Details like the overpainted fuselage code patch and the ladder really make this a stunner 😁

Ooh that's lush! There's just something about the Draken isn't there? The thing oozes charisma and you have really done it justice 👍

Thanks everyone! especially to @canberra kid, the seal of approval from the forum expert is massively appreciated after the slog I had with this build!

Spectacular! At least if you have had to throw out the dining table to make space, you can eat your lunch off the flight deck!

Glorious Mustang, love it! I too think the razorback P-51 is a much superior looking aircraft and you've really done it justice. Nice to see a SAAF scheme for a change too.

Amazing, how on earth do you do mottle camouflage like that with a brush?!

Beautiful restrained silver finish, looks just the job! Love the sea base too, even if it does look more like Cocos Islands than Cowes! 😄

Thanks everyone!

My builds seem to be like London buses - an 18 month gap and two come along at once! After the Canberra here's a bonus one My job as an ecological consultant takes me around and about a lot and I have a fair amount of solo time in hotels around late evening and early morning surveys. A couple of years back I decided to trial taking a small bag of modelling tools and a small build with me on these trips to make use of the "dead" time more profitably than sprawled in front of the telly (unless the snooker is on - snooker always wins), and to see if I can make the stash go down a bit quicker. After a couple of false starts I've now finished a build completely on the road, except for airbrushing. For obvious reasons these travelling builds have to be small, simple aircraft and the Dora Wings Vega Gull fit the bill. When occasionally daydreaming of what historic aircraft I'd buy if I came into a small fortune, I used to say something stereotypical like "Spitfire" or even "Hunter" - but these days I think I'd buy the sole surviving (and airworthy) Vega Gull, G-AEZJ. One of the most gorgeous British aircraft ever built and what a stylish, comfortable way to arrive anywhere. Unlike a Spitfire there's room for a glamorous plus one and a picnic hamper full of smoked salmon sandwiches, fondant fancies and a crisp white wine. You'd really cut a dash among the great unwashed in their Cessnas - you'd even turn heads among the Tiger Moth fraternity. The Dora wings kit is a beauty and I enjoyed it immensely as a low-stress relief from the Canberra. The only real issue was the side panels of the canopy (with the doors) which were a challenge to fit and needed considerable fettling to get them to sit flush with the spine and the windscreen. Alas I was only able to do so at the cost of a notable seam along the top where they join. Wanting an RAF machine and faced with a lack of references for sloping-windscreen Vegas in military service, I went with the kit option of L7272, supplied new to the British air attache in Buenos Aires in 1939. There are a number of very small, grainy photos of this aircraft online of which this is probably the best. Just about enough to give me a few clues as to the configuration of various options including venturi under the centre section and landing lights (both appear to be absent, so I filled and smoothed the aperture in the port wing for the latter). Anyway, hope you like it as much as I do! This is almost certainly as close as I'll get to owning or flying in a real Vega.

Well, it's been a while! I haven't posted any builds on here for about 18 months and frankly this is because my build rate has dwindled almost to a stop. Life, work and (particularly) copious DIY projects have eaten up a lot of my time of late and I have really been struggling with the "mojo". Still I have plodded along with this long-running Canberra project and it's now finished. I am moderately pleased with it and very glad to be starting something else! It's been a constant battle with modeller's block and it's proceeded so slowly that almost every one of my skills has been very rusty. Having done something around 150 British aircraft in 1/72 it always seemed odd that I had never got round to the Canberra, so a few years back I was pleased to pick up the S&M Models Canberra B.2 when it came out. I was keen to do a silver Suez-era aircraft and represent 9 Squadron, which inevitably meant a B.6 conversion as this unit were one of the first to recieve this variant and had them by early spring 1956. Photos of the Squadron's aircraft in Operation Musketeer colours seem to be very hard to come by but I did have this from Air Britain showing WH977 freshly back from Malta with the stripes scrubbed out - so I have based my model on my "best guess" of what 977 looked like a few weeks earlier when based at Luqa for strike missions over the Canal Zone. I made the mistake of reading the long-running Rumourmonger thread on this kit well after I bought it and discovered the fact that the original S&M release has a significant error in outer wing chord (now corrected in later MikroMir releases). Once seen it can't be unseen (well, not if you're me), so with some trepidation I set out to correct it. Thanks to the excellent Canberra SIG website and other information kindly sent by @canberra kid I had the correct chord dimensions at the outmost chordwise panel line. Taking the approach that seemed easiest pull off convincingly, I made a cut along the flap/aileron hinge line, set the cut-off portion at the correct chord using a template and a thin plasticard "bridge" on the inside, then filled the gap with a tapering wedge of 2mm plasticard sheet. Suitably filled and sanded I don't think you can spot the join. Other mods are as follows: Scratch built Avon starter bullets to represent the earliest fitment to the B.6 Reskit undercarriage bays and wheels (some of the best resin aftermarket I have ever used - stunning!) Accs GB interior etch set (pretty invisible in the coal hole!) Pavla Mk. 4 seat for the pilot Freightdog corrected tip tanks Various B.6 specific vents and exhaust ports drilled out and B.2 ones filled. Some minor cockpit scratchbuilding The Suez stripes are painted then masked over to spray the silver (Vallejo Model Air). This is my first attempt at an airbrushed silver coat and the result is OK, although I think I'd do better next time. I had a bit of a nightmare with the Windsor and Newton Galleria varnish - nice finish but horribly sticky, prone to wear off at the slightest touch and dirt sticks to it like flypaper. Don't think I'll use it again, which is awkward because I bought quite a lot! Decals are an unholy mix. The 9 Squadron markings were kindly sent from a (completely unobtainium) Model Alliance sheet by @Foghorn Leghorn quite some years back. National markings are from an Xtradecal sheet for a 6 Squadron B.2 and various stock sheets; the stencils are a mixture of some from the S&M kit and some from an ancient Modeldecal sheet. I resorted to cutting up an Xtradecal sheet of black lines for the dashed walkway markings! It's not my best model ever but I'm just pleased to have got it over the finishing line and finally picked up some momentum at the end. On to something else at last!

That's a great collection, I think the Moth Minor and Sabre are my favourites but they're all top notch 👍

Lovely build, I'd say you've done the Cat justice!

Terrific build and beautifully painted and presented. I can't see a Buffalo without shuddering to think of the poor pilots attempting to stem the Japanese advance. The white outlined codes are new to me, did Tamiya provide them like that?