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XL426 was the 44th Vulcan B.2 built by Avro, making its first flight from Woodford aerodrome on 23rd August 1962. It entered RAF service with 83 squadron in September 1962, based at Scampton. This Vulcan was one of those constructed as a Blue Steel carrier, serving initially in this all white scheme. XL426 was chosen by the CO of 83 squadron, hence the wing commander’s pennant on the nose. It flew in these colours until central servicing meant the removal of the unit markings on the fin, and shortly after a repaint into grey/green camo during the mid 60s. After serving until 1982, XL426 survives to this day in taxiable condition at Southend airport: https://Avrovulcan.com/xl426 This is the new tool Airfix kit, and I encountered similar issues to my first build, namely lots of filler needed, particularly around the nose and tail cone joins and tail fin to fuselage join. The Blue Steel bomb bay also needed a fair bit of filler, and even the undercarriage legs. I made this one oob except for the aftermarket decals to make an 83 squadron aircraft. All comments and suggestions welcome as always. I need to take a few weeks off modelling now to focus on my rehearsals for a part in ‘The Scottish Play’.
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I couldn’t resist starting another big V-bomber, and after a couple of fighters plus green/grey camo Victor and Vulcan I’ve decided to have a break from blu-tack worms and masking tape and do this one all over white. Standard box shot that we’re all familiar with by now … I’ve ordered an Xtradecal set but am still undecided on the serial. I was hoping to do an XJ range of 83 Sqn, but I can’t find any evidence that those wore the unit’s antler marking on the fin before going to the OCU in 1962 to be replaced by later build XL range Vulcans. Therefore, I think I have some options; an XL serial with 83 Sqn antler, or an XJ serial in 12 Sqn markings. Or I could just do XM602 oob. I’ll see how the build progresses. Here’s one I prepared earlier … Some reference shots; early 83 Sqn XJ serialled Vulcans, but no antler, sadly. Another question: Should I use the same Humbrol gloss white spray as I did for the undersides of XL444 and my Victor K.2? Or should this Vulcan be satin?
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Hello everyone, Here's the kit for the true masochists. The model itself is quite nice actually, nice details, molding is fine, PE included is great, but the kit is engineered that way that it sucks all the fun from the building process. Especially the suspension. Anyway, the model I built should represent the tank belonging to 1st RTR, as photographed on 2 August 1940. It is still wearing the markings from the time before reorganization, when 1st RTR was part of the Heavy Armoured Brigade. However, at this point, 1st RTR was already a part of the 7th Armoured Brigade. The photo was taken during one of the initial raids against the Italians. Following initial skirmishes, 1st RTR participated in Operation Compass as a part of the 7th Armoured Brigade, and it was one of the units that were engaged in the chase across the desert to cut off the retreating Italians. It participated in the battle of Beda Fomm, suffering only light casualties. I don't know what exactly happened to this tank and its crew afterwards, but it probably ended up in Tobruk during the siege. When Rommel joined NA theatre with Afrika Corps, 'B' and 'C' Squadrons of 1st RTR were moved to Tobruk. They were there during the whole siege as a part of the 32nd Army Tank Brigade. The regiment broke out of Tobruk with the rest of the 32nd Army Tank Brigade and 70th Infantry Division, in November 1941 during the Operation Crusader battles. It was until mid-February 1942 that 1st RTR used their old and worn Vickers Lights and Cruiser tanks that they had from the beginning of the campaign. They were replaced in february with Honey and Grant Tanks, when 1st RTR joined 1st Armoured Brigade. You may notice that this is not the standard Caunter camouflage. The scheme itself is standard Caunter scheme for Vickers LT, but the paints are not. Instead of Portland Stone / Slate / Silver Grey combo that became standard later on, these tanks were painted in a higher contrast combination during Caunter scheme trials. It is not know which paints were used exactly, but the suggestion I got from @Mike Starmer is that it was Portland Stone, Green (for example No. 20 Olive Green) and very dark grey, almost black. This combination was not accepted because the contrast was too high. Model was mostly built out of the box. Spare wheel was not included in the box, so I used one from Universal Carrier Tamiya kit (not sure if it is exactly the same, but it is close enough). Also some stowage and POW canisters were added. Painted with a combination of MRP and Gunze and weathered with pigments and MIG's nature effects. And here's the real thing: And the replica my daughter built Thanks for watching and thanks for feedback. Cheers, Nenad
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I’m probably going to start another new tool Airfix Vulcan soon, and will be making it as an all-white aircraft using aftermarket decals for 83 squadron. According to Craig Bulman’s ‘Vulcan B.2 - From a different angle’, the first B.2s delivered to 83 squadron in 1961 included some in the XJ serial range. I was hoping to make XJ782, but the only photos I can find show this aircraft carrying only the squadron crest on the nose, not the antler on the fin. It gets even more confusing here as this aircraft has the CO’s pennant too, yet in the Xtradecal set it gives XL426 as being that of the CO in 1961, yet Bulman’s book suggests that aircraft didn’t join 83 Sqn until 1962! My question is basically this: Would I be wrong to add the antler marking to the fin of XJ782? I’m assuming (hoping!) it must have been added very soon after the above photos were taken. Does anyone know for sure or have any images to show it? I’ve seen a photo of sister XJ783 still with no antler in Sept 62, so fear it may only have been applied to the later Blue Steel Vulcans on the unit. Anyone know? The only reason I was going for 782 is because I already have an XL serialled Vulcan in gloss camo, and over time I’d like to do a wraparound XM, a camo/light grey XM603 and this, as a white XJ. But I really like that antler marking! Might have to rethink.
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At the second attempt, I got the new(ish) Airfix Vulcan to a satisfactory standard! Apart from the serial and squadron badge decals and a bit of scratch building in the bomb bay, the kit is oob. I used Tamiya spray cans (AS-30 and TS-81) for the camo, and a can of Humbrol gloss white spray for the undersides. The wheel wells and bomb bay I sprayed satin white for contrast with the underside. Please feel free to comment so I can improve for my next one … or two … XL444 was apparently prone to technical issues, so spent a fair bit of time in servicing, but there are still plenty of reference photos of the aircraft out and about. It first flew from Woodford on 12th October 1961, being delivered in an all white scheme to 27 Sqn the following month. It was back at Woodford on 18th September 1964 for a refit before re delivery to the Scampton wing in June 1965. It served with 617 Sqn as part of the Scampton wing before receiving the unit markings on its fin in May 1971. It ended its service days with 44 Sqn at Waddington in September 1982.
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Hi all well well well what a couple of years I’ve had in regards to modelling after I finished the airfix 1:48 Gloster Javelin in October 2020 and the 1:200 raf Poseidon in January 21 i totally lost my modelling mojo no matter what I did I just didn’t feel it so I took 6 months away from the bench. fast forward to summer 21 and the release of the new Airfix Vulcan I knew had to have it so I purchased it straight from airfix and was determined to get myself back into it so as soon as it arrived I got stuck in. I also had on my shelf of doom the trumpeter 1:144 Vulcan so decided to get that finished at same time. I throughly enjoyed the build of the airfix Vulcan from start to finish the trumpeter Vulcan was ok. I used top notch camo masks on both kits and used Tamiya and mr hobby paints throughout. The trumpeter Vulcan I finished as XH558 using the kit decals the Airfix Vulcan I finished in the markings of XH562 using aftermarket decals from xtradecal both models were completed in February 22 Thank you and Enjoy
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Sorry, not the superb new Airfix kit, but the much more affordable (and still OK) 1983 mould, dressed up to represent XM597 during Black Buck 5, the first of the Shrike anti-radar missions. The same aircraft undertook Black Buck 6, the only one of the Black Buck missions that actually hit its target as intended, but ended up with a broken refuelling probe, diversion to Rio and internment! The aircraft now sits outside at the Museum of Flight in East Fortune, near Edinburgh. The kit is very basic with raised panel lines and the hard thick plastic makes it a bit of a beast to build. But I got there in the end and it definitely looks like a Vulcan. Due to the current (and possibly ongoing) absence of many Humbrol enamel tins from the market, I had to use a Humbrol rattle can for the upper surface Medium Sea Grey. It worked surprisingly well for a first attempt, but sadly it did not match well with the tin of MSG I used to touch up areas such as the cockpit canopy. The Shrikes, pylons and adaptors all came from the spares box (ex Hasegawa I think). The jammer came from an old ESCI kit. I added some sprue detail in the cockpit and boxed in the access trunk in order to leave the hatch open. None of this can be seen, of course!!! ....and although I didn't use it, I couldn't resist mounting the kit's Blue Steel missile on a maintenance frame!
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Hi everyone, Much like the bus analogy, I haven’t posted In ages and then two come at once! This Is the build I completed for my model club Falklands war 40th anniversary group build competition. It is the Great Wall hobby Vulcan and the Anigrand Victor (my first resin kit!). Vulcan went together no issue, decals were a bit rubbish however. The Victor was a little more work… having never handled a resin kit before it was a bit of a shock to the system to say the least, but very proud that I completed it! The Vulcan is the infamous XM607 and the Victor is XL189, the aircraft involved in the last refuelling bracket prior to the attack on port Stanley airfield. I used the excellent XM607 book by Rowland White, highly recommended! I hope you enjoy It was something a bit different for me and I definitely enjoyed making it! Cheers, Ash! N.B - I am fully aware that the GWH Vulcan depicts a Olympus 200 series engined aircraft, rather than a 300 series aircraft, so the model looks ‘wrong’ for XM607. But it doesn’t bother me 🤫
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Afternoon all, Here's the latest model to take off from my bench - the new-tool Airfix 1/72nd Avro Vulcan BMk2. After grafting on some very long-term projects of late I decided I needed something relatively straightforward for a system reset and mojo reboot and this proved to be just the project. I found it an absolute delight to build - actual construction only took four evenings and the whole model was completed in just under two weeks. In fact, it's the first model I can remember in absolutely ages that I didn't put down for a few weeks and return to it later as I'd lost interest - I just wanted to keep going! As with most of Airfix new-tool kits, tolerances are very tight indeed and therefore I gave each surface to be glued a quick swipe with a sanding pad and this meant an almost perfect fit for all components. I was really impressed with how the intakes went together, and with a quick swipe of Milliput White they look seamless with the minimum of effort. I wanted to do a later version than is currently supplied in the box so bought an Xtradecal sheet to make a 101 Squadron machine based at RAF Waddington in the mid 1970s. Two type of jet pipes are provided in the kit, and I had no idea which were fitted to this aircraft so went with the same as the one currently preserved at Duxford as they seemed of the same vintage. The kit's bomb bay is beautifully rendered and with some careful painting comes up beautifully out of the box. If you build this kit, don't waste your time detailing the interior of the cockpit as next to nothing can be seen - I just did the absolute basics. Xtracolor enamels were used throughout and I gave it a satin varnish as these machines seemed very well maintained in service and other than a few streaks and stains here and there, I kept her reasonably clean as period photos suggest. I recommend this kit to anyone looking for a large and impressive model in their display cabinet but not requiring a huge amount of effort - it's a pleasure! Tom
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Hello all First off massive thanks to @John B (Sc) who supplied me with some replacement undercarriage as mine were completely mis-moulded. So quite a learning curve on this one, and she was placed of the shelf of doom a few times, but I just had to finished her. There are a number of mistakes both mine and Airfix's but am pretty happy. So OTB apart from I rebuilt the engine cowlings and tried to 3d model and print the Dash 10, and treated myself to the aftermarket probe. I only managed to rescribe the top half. Ok I don't think XM607 needs any introduction around here (I also tried some focus stacking, which has mainly worked but there are a couple of artefacts on the photos) And to try to keep me sane, I thought it would be fun to build her baby sister, never tried a resin model either. Thanks for looking, hopefully I learnt a few lessons. Cheers Lee
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This is the old tool Airfix Vulcan. Glad they put it out to pass as the moulds were getting really bad. Thanks to @bentwaters81tfw for a set of intakes from an original tooling, the ones in this were really bad. Decals from before Airfix started using Cartograf and were not great. Still its finished and of the Shelf O' Doom. Even in 1/72 it fills my large photo tent!
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So I've been asked to do a custom build for a friend, he asked for a 1:144 Vulcan, thankfully I knew the LHS had one on the shelves so could pick that up straight away. I've got the Hataka cold war RAF set in the post. Excellent start. Checked which bomb bay he wanted (conventional) and if he wanted the undercarriage up or down (down). That meant it would need a base of some kind, so I showed him the V Bomber base from Coastal Kits, liked that. Then he suggests doing it taking off so I've got a blurred runway on order, a trumpeter display case arrived this evening. If I do it rotating I need to do surgery on the tiny undercarriage so my options are one acrylic rod under the centre of the aircraft having just lifted off, or 4x 5mm rods coming from the engines. I'm kind of loathed to drill a big hole in the underside. Any one got any other ideas? TIA Chris
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Hi everyone! I'm seeking some advice and hopefully being pointed in the right direction please? I am toying with the idea of building both the Vulcan (XM607) and the Victor (XL189) in 1/72 and in the refueling position ahead of the final run towards the Falklands during the Blackbuck 1 mission. The issue I am facing is finding a stand or connections that are suitable for both aircraft, which as you know are quite large! If anyone has any advice, tip or where I can look to achieve this, it would be massively appreciated. Thanks in advance! Cheers Mike
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Hi guys, Heres the first model ive made in about 20 years. Its of Vulcan XH536 which crashed on a welsh hillside in february 1966 whilst on low level training in bad weather sadly killing all 5 crew. The wreckage was spread over a large area. I chose this aircraft as I enjoy walking and exploring the many crash sites locally in the brecon beacons, including this one that i visited in the summer last year. There was not much information on the aircraft for reference, other than a few pictures of it as an Avro display aircraft at farnborough air show, before it was transferred to the RAF where it was part of 9 sqn. It was one of the first to switch from the antiflash white to the low level camo/white underside and it was possibly one of the first to be fitted with terrain following radar (hence the low level trials). I used pictures of aircraft from a similar period so it may not entirely accurate, but I used the brighter roundels from an xtradecal as per the aircraft of that time. They also had the white belly, black nose and tail tip. This was the first time I had used an airbrush, filler etc and also had to get creative with the large empty holes at the back of the engines. I think this has turned out quite well for a first model, and the large size was actually a help! Hope you like!
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Well I have a few 1/200 Vulcans to build, or rather will have on the 25th. By a few I mean four plus the one I already have stashed for a total of 5, plus The four I’ve already built. It’s not a very big kit, a little bigger than a 1/72 Spitfire, and goes together well enough. I’ve already built 3 of the 5 schemes that are included across the two versions of the kit, including the only white scheme, 617 Sqn’s XL321. I want another white one.... or five white ones..... So I did the only logical thing and printed my own decals. Obviously we’re not meant to start before the GB starts, but no rules about aftermarket and what’s the difference between that and making my own. This is a test sheet I made, and I will probably be printing a new sheet tomorrow with better decals and other things I need on there which I have designed (or borrowed an image of for some, until I get around to making my own version) since. This will probably be a 617 Sqn aircraft or 9 Sqn aircraft, each with quite nice tail insignia. 617 Sqn: 9 Sqn:
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Having had some recent disasters with modelling on other kits, I’ve decided to build a 1:144 scale GWH Vulcan as a mojo booster. I’m going to do this as close to out of the box as I’ll probably ever go on a vulcan kit, with only a few mods and unnecessary complications..... except that I’m going to use Trumpeter Vulcan jetpipes on the Great Wall Hobby kit because I want Olympus 301s and the GWH ones are currently attached to my most recent Vulcan, XH561, which is based on a Trumpeter kit. I ordered a decal set for this from Hannants, despite my large collection of Vulcan decals I never seem to have the right roundels in the right scales. The set I’ve ordered is Printscale’s 1:144 Anti Flash Vulcan sheet with markings for a B1, a B1a and three B2s. I only need this for he roundels and I could do with some more serials in pale blue, I don’t plan to go with any of the schemes provided in the decal set. Link here Some rather nice box art, although this is the box from the previous GWH Vulcan I butchered to make a B1a This is the one from this kit, same plastic just an extra frame of plastic and more decals. K2 parts stashed for future plans First thing for an anti flash Vulcan is to get rid of the RWR fairing on the tail. Very simple to do that. Some filler around the joint between the halves of the tail may be required.
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Well here I am again with a shiny new Vulcan kit on the desk. Well, actually, two of them... And a third yet to be delivered (smaller 1/200 kit that one). These will be my sixth, seventh and eighth Vulcan models (just imagine the 1/200 kit is there as well). First of all, the box art is beautiful! While it won't make suitable reference material, it's lovely. 9/10 for that (lost 1 because they put a TFR blister on 558) What's in the box: So, I suppose since this is a fairly new kit, sprue shots are in order. I'll try to point out all inaccuracies and flaws in the kit, but bear in mind I'm being pretty harsh here. It looks like a good kit and on first impressions, better than the GWH kit in the same scale. Although my pictures don't show it, they appear to have the same incorrect radome panel lines as the old tool Airfix kit, when this is painted black as it was on many earlier examples (especially white ones) the incorrect line will have a significant impact on how the Vulcan looks in my opinion. I will be correcting this if I do such a scheme. The conventional bomb bay here is pretty much wrong, to me it appears to bulge out far too much and is missing the seam that should be down the middle where it opens.... If someone ever makes an aftermarket etch or resin open bomb bay, I'd love one! Oddly the Blue Steel Missile is missing its lower fin. Quite an annoying omission in the kit as the conventional bomb bay looks wrong to me And here's the decals, markings for two aircraft are provided. They'll do for the casual modeller with a passing interest in the Avro Vulcan but I'll be using aftermarket ones or perhaps the GWH K2 ones if I decide to turn one of these into a K2. Painting guides are provided, but should be taken with a pinch of salt. Check references. XL361 is the first scheme, to make an accurate representation of this airframe, you'll need to remove the TFR blister on the nose and only add the right side ECM plate. Scheme B is XH558 in the VTTST scheme, again take this with a pinch of salt. Remove the TFR blister and only add the right side ECM plate for that scheme, but also the ECM heat exchanger (box thing in the side of the tailcone) needs to be removed.
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Recently I finished this model, it's an extensive conversion of en early Vulcan B1 based on the 1/200 Dragon/Cyberhobby kit. There is currently no kit available of the Vulcan B1 or B1a, either the early straight wing or more standard Phase 2 kinked wing, so the only option is a conversion. This is my third Mk1 vulcan, the other two being B1as based on the GWH kit. Anyway, this model represents XA891, my favourite Vulcan out of all of them. '891 was the third production Vulcan, on of the five (7 including prototypes) with the straight wing. Later the aircraft was refitted with the standard Phase 2 wing seen on most Vulcan B1s, and became a testbed for the Olympus 200 engines in development for the upcoming Vulcan B2. Unfortunately this one crashed in 1959, but all the crew survived - the first time that happened on a Vulcan. The real thing: Back to back with a Vulcan B2, XM595, in the same scale. Didn't mod the intakes, they look too narrow for a B2 anyway and without putting them next to my B2s they look fine My three Mk1 Vulcans, all conversions. Left to right: XA891 early B11 1/200, XH500 B1a 1/144, XA906 B1a 1/144. I'm just missing a standard B1 and a prototype now... And a few photos of the major modifications in the build: Original wing with 40° sweep marked out on the kit New tailcone from milliput Extended rudder using a donor part from another kit and some plastic card
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Just finished the first of two Trumpeter Vulcans today. I'll write a brief summary review of the kit after the images as it's fairly new. I used aftermarket decals from Fündekal and some spares from a GWH Vulcan to improve on the kit, such as the wheels and pipes under the engines. Some small mods were made such as reprofiling the nose to remove the TFR blister and the tail cap to remove the RWR fairing. Ignore the incorrect engine type, these will be replaced with ones closer to Olympus 201s when I get another GWH kit. Next to my first B1a conversion One can never have too many triangles My model flying over RAF Waddington (thanks to @robvulcan for editing this) Here's the WIP thread, still ongoing as I have a second one of this kit I'll be starting on Friday and plans for even for Tin Triangles Brief summary review: Accuracy 4/5 Fit 4/5 (intakes 3/5) Detail 4/5 Quality of moulding 4.5/5 The good bits: .Well shaped intakes .Correct tailcone angle .Fairly easy build .Wing shape is spot on .Option for blue steel missile or conventional configuration .Well detailed IFR probe (not used on my build) .Correct landing gear length an't forget that beautiful box art! Main issues: .Incorrect nose profile .Poorly designed jetpipes, only has jetpipes for Olympus 301s, but decals for 201 engined Vulcans .Bomb bay doors lack detail and are incorrectly shaped. These need a rescribe at the very least. .Missing fin for the Blue Steel Missile (I didn't use this option) . Parts of the engine moulded too the ECM plates- these should be seperate as they should still be visible when the ECM plate is not installed under the left wing as was the case on most Vulcan B2s .Weak landing gear . Incorrect radome shape (corrected on my model) .Incorrect paint guides .Decals should be replaced with aftermarket Conclusion: Overall a good kit that can be built to a respectable level of accuracy with a little effort, although aftermarket decals are a must. Unfortunately, they only moulded one set of jetpipes which limits you to just under half the Vulcan B2s built, and if you can't find a replacement for the pipes under the engines which are moulded to the ECM plates you're limited to a very small number of airframes. Of course you could overlook the jetpipes as I have here. Compared to the Great Wall Hobby (Pit Road) Vulcan in the same scale, it's probably slightly better and slightly more accurate but both have their advantages and disadvantages. I would absolutely recommend this kit to anyone who's built a few kits and has some filler for the intakes- you will need it.
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I don't really know which section to put this under, so I'm just going to put it in WIP Aircraft. They are decals for aircraft so this kinda makes sense? So...... Recently I've been building a 1/144 Trumpeter Vulcan and a 1/200 Cyberhobby/Dragon Vulcan and have come across a bit of a problem with decals for these. I wanted to do an anti flash white Vulcan with the trumpeter one, it doesn't come with decals for that scheme so off I went to browse around to find a nice aftermarket set and well.... No sets of pale roundels or fin flashes in that scale. There are decal sets with a lot more in that I don't need which have them, but I just want those bits as I have the rest. So I asked on here if I missed anything and it seems I didn't.... Someone suggested printing my own. Although this won't be much use for my Trumpeter one because I want to get that off the desk soon to make room for other projects, I decided hey why not give it a shot.I have a suitable inkjet printer, no one does a set in 1/144 of just the roundels, fin flashes and serials, so why not..... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force_roundels <-- this is useful I can't print white but have got a thing somewhere that can cut all sorts of shapes in various sizes, so if I can get it cutting circles and rectangles of the right size I can make masks to paint a white background with when I do full shade roundels (obviously this won't be needed with pale shade which goes on white anyway). First thing is to know the sizes of the roundels. Vulcans had 84" roundels on the wings and 54" roundels on the fuselage. The ratio of the diameter of each band of colour was 3:2:1, so that made the wing ones 84", 56" and 28" bands, the fuselage ones are therefore 54", 36" and 18". Bit of simple maths to convert, plugged it into a spreadsheet and I had the correct sizes which I can hopefully print accurately. Not long later I had some roundels made and printed on normal paper as a proof of concept that my printer can print the colour right and I can get the size accurate. They look perfect size and the colour looks right to me. Can't exactly measure with digital calipers but they look right. These ones in 1/144 scale should be 1.482cm(3dp) which converts to 84" This is pretty much what the design process looks like.... Shapes, recolour, resize. Things with curves in other than basic circles are harder but I should be able to manage. Fin flashes are 36" wide and 24" tall, with colour bands in a 1:1:1 ratio. Each band is 12" across, this was simply rescaled and I had the fin flashes done. So far I've got roundels in both sizes, fin flashes and the X, H, L, 0 and 1 done in the correct font. Resizing these is easy, I printed them in 1/72 scale as well so I could compare to decals in my folder full of V force spares (yes I have a folder for all my V Force stuff). If I get to printing I will certainly be doing a set in 1/72, 1/144 and 1/200 for each scale plastic Vulcan kits are available in, and also doing them in full shade colours, which very early examples of seemed to be more bright and vivid than later ones (particularly on white and silver painted Vulcan B1s). It's an excuse to build lots of Vulcans! So here it is so far: Here you can see my size roundels are pretty much in agreement with the Xtradecal ones for a Victor (also 84" and 56"), and Airfix's ones seem to be too small (I measured them when I built my second 1/72 Airfix Victor and I think they are about 5 scale inches short iirc) Fin flashes look about the right size compared to the Fündekal set. The wing roundels are the same size, but my fuselage roundels are bigger. I think the Fündekal ones are 48", 6 scale inches small so that makes my ones approximately correct. Now the question is where do I get good decal paper from, and how do I print half decent decals?
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Finished at last, after a ten month build, and my first RFI. I really wanted to do this kit justice as the Vulcan is my favourite aircraft. My first encounter was in the early 70's when as a 9yr old we moved to Pontefract, Yorkshire and I remember the daily flights of Finningley's Vulcans over the town. Then there was the Vulcan scramble I witnessed at the 1977 Finningley air display to mark the queens Silver Jubilee. Anyone who has seen a Vulcan scramble will remember the sound waves travelling through your body and the ground shaking beneath your feet. The Vulcan was and still is, awesome in the truest meaning. I last saw XH558 flying at the Yorkshire air show at Church Fenton last year. I admit now that I had a tear in my eye as I watched it fly away for the last time until it was out of sight. So as you can appreciate I really wanted to do this kit justice, abs make it as accurate as I could as my own personal tribute. Hopefully I've achieved that. I started by rescribing the whole aircraft before I even began to glue anything together. I thought that it would be easier, then it would be a job of cleaning it up to make sure they meet when the parts were joined. I did think that I'd scribed them too deep, but looking at it now I'm happy with the results. Then there are the corrections to be made to the kit to accurately depict XH558 as she is now. First job was to remove the TFR radome off the tip of the nose. And at the other end, the cooling air intake (the elongated box) that fits on the right hand side of the tail is not fitted to XH558. I've also hollowed out many of the various air intakes and made the ducts inside the splitter plates inboard of the air intakes. I replaced the engine jet pipes with resin replacements. The kit comes standard depicted with Olympus 301 series engines and XH558 is fitted with Olympus 201's, the 201 jet pipes being narrower and longer. The other thing I wanted from the outset was to display her wheels up in a way that shows off the iconic Vulcan wing shape. I also wanted the underside to be clutter and hence stand free, so I had the idea of brass tubes up the exhausts and thanks to a friend who made the wooden base I have managed to achieve it. If anyone is interested, the work in progress thread is here - Vulcan WIP Here are the pictures I've taken so far. I managed to get some outside today as well. Hope you like. And finally here's a couple of pictures of her in her new home in pride of place. Thank you very much for looking, hope you liked it. Mark
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Avro Vulcan B.Mk2 (03931) 1:144 Trumpeter via Pocketbond It is hard to think of a more iconic aircraft to represent the RAF Strike Force at the height of the Cold War than the Avro Vulcan. It is also sometimes hard to believe it design work was lead by Roy Chadwick who deigned the Lancaster. Even though both fulfilling the same role the two are widely different. The Vulcan was the third of the V Bombers operated by the RAF, her sisters being the Valiant and Victor. The Vulcan was the more technically advanced aircraft and was considered a greater risk. The first prototype flew in 1952 with production B.1 aircraft from 1955. The design was improved to the B.2 standard with better more powerful engines making the aircraft suitable to carry the Blue Steel stand off missile. The Vlucans would loose their nuclear role in the 1970;s and switch to conventional support of NATO. It was in this later role and right at the end of their service life that Vulcans would fly their most famous sorties. In a major feat of aerial logistics they along with their Sisters the Victors would Stage from Ascension Island to Bomb, and provide Radar Suppression on the Falkland Islands, a round trip of nearly 8000 miles. The Kit This is a new tool kit from Trumpeter which has been done in collaboration with Bachmann/Pocketbond who are the official imported for Trumpeter into the UK. As well as offered as a Model Kit it is also offered in N Gauge and OO gauge train/aircraft sets celebrating XH558 the last airworthy Vulcan. The kit has fine engraved panel lines and the underside has an insert to build either the conventional version the Blue Steel Carrying version. Construction starts with a rudimentary cockpit, as lets be honest you wont see much through the small windows. Next up the intakes are made up, with representative fan fronts at the ends. Next up the tail is constructed. The intakes are then added to the lower wing/fuselage section, and the cockpit to the upper section. The two can then be joined together and the tail added. At the rear the exhaust can be added, and then underneath the landing gear is made up and installed. For the underside centre the appropriate insert for a missile armed or convectional Vulcan. Lastley the gear doors, canopy and refuelling probe are added. Markings There are 2 schemes provided in the kit; XH558 In the wrap around Scheme XL361 with Camouflaged top surfaces The decal sheet is printed anonymously, and looks like it will pose no problems. Conclusion Its good to see a new tool Vulcan in a scale where most would be able to display it. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of UK Distributors for