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AVRO Vulcan Olympus Engine Fronts for 301 & 201 Variants 1:72 Member FZ6 Airfix have made a lot of Cold War modellers happy by producing a brand-new tooling of the iconic and beloved AVRO Vulcan using modern tooling methods in 1:72, completing their V-bomber trio in that scale. One of our members FZ6, who we’ll call Mark for our purposes has been beavering away in the background to create a set of engine fronts for the 201 variant of the Olympus engine with its smaller bullet fairing that is missing from the kit, and he also made up the 301 variant as well while he was at it. The reasoning behind this is that with 3D printing you can make a more detailed rendition of the intake fans and stator blades, and as Airfix have included both exhaust sections but not provided 201 engine fronts, it would give him and our members a bit more scope for modelling their favourite airframes. Mark has designed these sets to be an almost drop-in replacement for the kit parts, and each front consists of three layers that installs in a figure-of-eight double cup that fits over the rear end of the kit intake trunking, with two in each side. The holder has a gap in the inner edge to avoid fouling the bomb bay, but some sanding may be required to fine-tune the fit, so test-fitting is advisable. The second compressor face and forward fan are common between the two engine types, with just the front stators with bullet fairing swapped out to create 201 or 301 engines, and each of the two front layers will need sanding back to remove the carrier material and open up the triangular spaces between the blades. As you can see from the photos, I have done this for some of the parts as part of the review process, and I used an aggressive sanding stick to abrade the extra thickness from the parts quickly, which is easy to differentiate because it projects beyond the edge of the part slightly. Once the parts are prepped, sanding dust removed and after a brief scrub with Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA), it’s simply a case of painting them up and gluing the three layers into the holders with super glue (CA), then gluing the assembly into the painted intake trunking. Even though Airfix provide the 301 engine fronts in the kit, these replacements are much more detailed thanks to their part-count and the finesse of modern at-home 3D Stereo Lithography printing, commonly known as SLA. It is worthwhile replacing those parts for the detail improvement alone, but as previously mentioned, the addition of the 201 engines gives the modeller more breadth of subjects to choose markings from. Don’t forget to line up the stator blades on the front layer before adding the glue (I didn’t because I forgot, but they weren’t glued), as those tended to stay still in the trunking unless the engine was in the process of exploding. Conclusion The parts are well designed and printed, with no visible layering where it will be seen, and the only clean-up involves the removal of the backing carrier layers from the two front parts. If you have a new Airfix Vulcan, you’d be well-advised to pick up a set of these by having a chat with Mark on the forum. He’ll sell you 201 or 301 or both as you require. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of Mark’s good nature. Click the link below to visit his forum profile. [insert the FZ6 logo here when he becomes rich and famous]