'V' Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 (edited) Hi lancfan, You're making speedy progress, just to tempt you even more I'm going to indulge myself. A converted MB ......... now you want to get on even more !! 'V' Edited May 16, 2012 by 'V' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 14, 2012 Author Share Posted May 14, 2012 That looks great 'V' I hope that mine will look as good. David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honeybee Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Hi was talking to a V force veteran (groundcrew) at the Perth show the other week and he was telling us how the Blue steel had to be mated to an airframe which usually wasn't always the one they'd selected. When they eventually got the a/c and bomb in sync with each other they then had to put the explody bit in, this didn't usually like the combination it was given. He told me it regularly took up to 2 weeks to get all three components to agree to work together. So much for a 4 minute scramble. Regards Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 15, 2012 Author Share Posted May 15, 2012 (edited) Paul, that is amazing and sounds so like this country, common sense should say that if the installation depended on chosen paired machines then those should have been the machines used with reserve pairs on standby in case of mechanical failure. David. Edited May 15, 2012 by lancfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnT Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 (edited) Nice build and enjoying it - looking forwards to the rest I have several books on the Victor and its quite a story. Anyone wanting copies of the whole saga can drop me a pm and I will copy the relevant parts so they can think about whether they really want all the trouble that goes with a Victor Blue Steel aircraft when modelling!! The Victor operated Blue Steel with only 2 Squadrons, Nos 100 and 139 out of Wittering (Vulcan Squadrons were 617, 27 & 83 at Scampton) Ground clearance on the aircraft was a problem (and why the Victor was never really considered for Skybolt) The Vulcan bomb bay was 6 feet above the ground and the Victors ended up with 14 inches (35.6 cm) between the loaded weapon and the ground As most already know the Blue Steel had its lower fin adapted to fold through 90 degrees on both aircraft but on the Victor the upper fin was removed altogether for loading and replaced once in the bomb bay. - that must have been quick ! Both the Vulcan and the Victor required extensive mods to have Blue Steel fitted but the Victor more so than the Vulcan. On the Victor a short summary of the changes were Removal of bomb bay doors and fairing that fitted around the weapon Once installed replacement doors were fitted around the weapon that closed after launch to maintain the aerodynamics of the aircraft The Victor could not take the additional bomb bay fuel tank that the Vulcan could when Blue Steel fitted so under-wing tanks were installed (edit - From a look at Roger Brooks 2 vol. work on the Victor the photos seem to show Blue Steel Victors in all white without tanks and tanks on the low level camouflaged Victors but perhaps there were times when this "rule" was not followed?) The Victors wings were subject to modification Fixed droop leading edges were installed The famous Kuchemann Carrots were added to the upper wing surface The ram air inlet for cold air to the tail fin anti icing pump at the base of the fin was changed (for the 4th time) At the extreme rear of the fuselage a new housing was designed to take the Red Steer tail warning system with 6 aerials in small blisters around its circumference The feeling appears to be that Blue Steel was an effective weapon for its day but that it was expensive and not an easy system to develop hence no Blue Steel Mk2. Also the US were wooing us over Skybolt but that's a whole other story. I do like the model of a Victor with 4 Skybolts underneath but that was never really a starter. The ground clearance and aerodynamics seemingly were too big a problem though HP proposed a further modded Victor with a changed wing and taller undercarriage. Anyway anyone wanting copies just pm me their addy and I can send photocopies Edited May 15, 2012 by JohnT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 15, 2012 Author Share Posted May 15, 2012 From reading the info above it seems to me that the victor was never going to be a viable in the long term as a launch aircraft and bombing up the thing should have been seen as not being practical. I have decided that my Victor WILL be XL231 as a normal bomber, although if I find a few more clear shots of the kneeling trailer used by the victor I will scratchbuild one of those to display an Airfix missile. David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Whittingham Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 HI David, It's looking good! i'll be watching with interest! TW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 (edited) Cheers Tony, the fuselage has been been rescribed to replace the original raised line details and the wing location has been masked to protect the fuselage from the filler that will certainly be needed after the wings are fitted, since taking the pictures the nosewheel bay has been lined with thin plastic card to hide the join. More progress later tonight. David. Edited January 1, 2018 by lancfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'V' Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Hi lancfan, At the rate you're going you'll have time to do all three !! I see what looks like a resin plug where the refuelling bay was ? is this some aftersales accessory ? I ask because I had to plug the holes with various strips of plasticard on my B.1; B,1A, and B.2 now one of them has now developed fine cracks. Made me laugh when I saw you masked the fuselage wing slots Before adding wings, I call that good forward planning, me, I did my masking when I saw just how much filler would be needed. I always thought building any of the bomber versions was more work than producing a half reasonable Valiant from the Mach2 kit ....... although I may have put up with more inaccuracies on the 2 x Valiants. 'V' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 Hi 'V', No it isn't a resin plug it is actually Miliput pushed into the hole and smoothed down before it hardened. I glued a plastic card roof in the gap before joining the fuselage halves so that the miliput could not dissapear. Having now been sanded smooth and then polished with wet and dry it should be invisible when painted. David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 (edited) David, thought I'd add my penny's worth, good job on the Victor so far, I'm doing pretty much the same with an SR2, but that's a much longer term project. I built a B2R a few years back and used just about every add on going, plus of course the obligatory scratch built parts, but now that a few more bits and pieces are available for us to use I thought I'd tackle the strategic recon version. Terry Grey does some great enhancement sets for the mark 2 including a one piece tailplane with accurately shaped 'bullet', new intakes, new fin leading edge extension, ECM tail cone wingtip extensions, restyled flaps and best of all, new canopy. This last one isn't for the faint hearted though as its only an acetate wrap to fit to the hole created when removing the old cockpit area which sadly is too shallow, (ie the windows don't come down low enough, very evident from any side view). You have to mask the windows off yourself, no easy task but improves the look 100%. The refuling bay is simply cut out and replaced with a piece of fuselage cut from a spare Victor kit so that it fits perfectly, (I believe some one makes new bomb bays too). The old problem of making sure that the outer wing panels are horizontal to the ground line still exists, (if you don't alter it the 'carrots' end up pointing at the ground!), I fixed mine by simply cutting off the outer wing attachment stubs and gluing them on level and then filling in the step that this created...seems to work. Also the undercarriage placement is wrong, the main gear should be right in the centre of the main door not to the rear of it, (as you look in profile, 2nd photo shows this), I think MB did this to try and prevent a tail sitter!. Other than that it's not a bad kit really, considering its age, though a fair bit of work is needed to bring it up to standard.. This one I made back in 2008 before a lot of Terrys stuff was available............roll on the new one... (By the way, out of interest the B2's instrument panels were matt black in the early days only turning light grey after conversion). Cheers, Melchett... Edited May 16, 2012 by general melchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Hi general Melchett, like your build of XL162. Spotted the early cockpit panels from checking out pictures online and corrected my cockpit before closing up. I am deliberately not going into resin for this build, instead I decided to practice traditional skills to improve all the models. Cheers, David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 (edited) The inner wings have been scribed up and are now glued in place onto the fuselage. The fin and the canopies have also been fitted. David. Edited January 1, 2018 by lancfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Vader Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Looking very , very nice.Ive got one of these in the to do pile. Infact ive started improving the dreadful intakes and that was as far a I got. I cant decide on a scheme as well.Might be a Blue Steel carrier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 20, 2012 Author Share Posted May 20, 2012 (edited) The Victor is progressing slowly, will update when I get chance to take more pictures. The search for Mandator information is very slow despite a very helpful suggestion by Mechanix (cheers) that led instead to 1/76 scale white metal kits of the Thor Missile complete with trailer and tractor unit and the Sentinel aircraft tractor. One door closes and another one opens as they used to say - - David. Edited May 20, 2012 by lancfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Nice progress so far David Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 27, 2012 Author Share Posted May 27, 2012 (edited) Here is the underside after priming showing the area where the centreline hosereel refuelling unit has been replaced by miliput. This is a more general view of the topsides with the fuselage and fin/tailplane in primer, the wings are currently being worked on to backdate them to basic bomber standard - and make them fit, of course. David. Edited January 1, 2018 by lancfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F111Fan Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Great progress David, really coming together now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloegin57 Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 (edited) Hi everyone, I will be building the Ex. MB Revell kit of the Victor K. mk 2 converted into an all-white B. mk 2, XL231 of 139 Squadron at RAF Wittering in 1962.I will scratch build the modifications and use the markings from the Air Decal Anti-flash Victor sheet. David. Hi David, I'll be following this particular thread with more than passing interest. In August 1962 when I was posted from the Trials Unit at Cottesmore to 139 Squadron, I was allocated as Airframe Fitter (Rigger) to '231 on Pan 13 at Wittering. This lasted until that aircraft was returned to HP's in late '63 and we moved over to the first Retrofit (Blue Steel) aircraft XL158. This was ended in March 1964 when the crew system was terminated and the Centralised Servicing Policy was introduced and we belonged to nobody. I escaped Wittering in November 1964 due only to the fact that my Father worked at Record Office Eastern Avenue Gloucester and "fixed" things. There are a lot of questions in this thread that I could answer most of which I have passed over to The General in previous correspondence so I'll let him explain. During the bad Winter of 62/63, '231 was used to de-ice the main runway several times after, that is, we had broken her free of the ice on the pan using hammers and screwdrivers. Just a couple of things. The outboard intake vane needs to be removed for a pre-Retrofit aircraft. It was only added after the Conway R.Co.17's were installed and then only to prevent the engines from sucking the intake skin in. Secondly, if you have the bomb doors open you will need a bomb bay tank fitted (painted aluminium). During a trip to Mexico, one of the Mexican Press asked what the tank was. He was told "La Bomba". They all scattered. You will also need to fit the Nose Flaps on to the leading edge of the outer mainplanes, as well as extending the wing tips. Of the Victor B.2's as originally built, only the last batch XM714 to XM718 had the drooped leading edge fitted from new. 231's first two Crew Chiefs, under whom I worked on both '231 and '158, were the Late Chief Technician "Tommy" Tucker and Chief Technician "Mickey" Rooney. They taught me a hell of a lot (and kept me out of even more trouble than I was usually in !!). Regards Dennis Edited May 29, 2012 by sloegin57 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 29, 2012 Author Share Posted May 29, 2012 (edited) Just a couple of things. The outboard intake vane needs to be removed for a pre-Retrofit aircraft. You will also need to fit the Nose Flaps on to the leading edge of the outer mainplanes, as well as extending the wing tips. Of the Victor B.2's as originally built, only the last batch XM714 to XM718 had the drooped leading edge fitted from new. Dennis, thanks for the info but I really needed to know that three weeks ago when the wings were being buttoned up, now that the model is almost ready for paint I am not sure if that can be corrected without serious damage. If by nose flaps you mean the leading edge slots they have been included, also the wing tips were extended and you will see from the pictures that the bomb bay is closed. Regards David. Edited May 29, 2012 by lancfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancfan Posted May 29, 2012 Author Share Posted May 29, 2012 (edited) The model is now primed and a light coat of white has been applied to reveal those last minute imperfections that always slow down any model of this nature. There are a few detail parts to be fitted before the main coats are applied but with luck the model may be finished in just over a week. Â David. Edited January 1, 2018 by lancfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Looking great! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev67 Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Looks excellent what you have done, does anyone know if the Rareplanes Victor is any good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Looking good so far! Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 That's a heck of a job you've taken on. Looks like it's going well though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts