Dragon 1/200th Vulcan B1 Conversions. On going.

[robvulcan]

Good day fellow Britmodeller's and welcome to my first build thread in a very long time.

In this thread i will convert a 1/200th scale Dragon Avro Vulcan to from a B2 variant to a B1a.

As some of you may know i have built a few of these and really love the kit.
I have an idea to cover most the vulcan's variants in this scale in various schemes also and mount them on a stand of some sort perhaps all in flight in formation in order of age.

I have long been fascinated by how different b1 vulcan's and b2 vulcan's were and i just really love the early kinked wing shape.
there is just something about it that appeals to me and i don't know why but i love it.

So the difficulty is in creating that shape and i'm not good at maths at all being dyslexic but i found a rather quick and crude way.
I downloaded a b1 silhouette image of the net and used the flat screen of my lap top to size it against the kit part (i couldnt have done this in 1/72 so there are some advantages to 1/200 when you like doing stupid things like cutting its wings off!)
Then i used a piece of plain a4 paper and drew out with a ruler the shape of the silhouette. this became my plan. then i had a 1/200th b1 shape to use joy!
Next i put another piece of paper over that traced out the shape with the ruler again then cut this out and then masking taped it to the vulcan along the wing join line and then carefully used a fine tip marker to outline the wing edge. Then took a dremel to it and then a file to tidy up. then i took the bottom half of the kit and drew on the next parts to be removed and this is what i have a lovely b1a vulcan in 1/200th (well getting there anyway's)








here are some photos of the real thing the photos are not mine but im very gratefull of there existance and it is very sad no b1s remain.





and a line up of b2s so for those who are not aware of the huge difference in wings you can have a look.


time for a coffee!

Edited March 3, 2015 by robvulcan

[Andrew.S]

Nice job!

[robvulcan]

cheers!

[HOUSTON]

..That is TOP NOTCH build.

Nicely displayed too..great photos.

[robvulcan]

thanks houston,. i may yet turn this into a multi build thread as i may do a b1 along side her in white and a b1 in silver we will see. however i will do more with this one next job is the air intakes.

(however in this scale i think im going to cheat and leave the air intakes the normal size. it was 2 mm of each half for a 1/72 scale vulcan so go knows how small a margin it is in 1/200 however i reckon there is a bigger chance of screwing it up in this size. i think its a compromise i can live with !

[general melchett]

Nice start Rob, I've pm'ed you re the wing planform,

Cheers,

Melchie

[robvulcan]

Thanks general will post more soon just got farnbourgh the golden years dvd on as I build 1949 to 1959 fantastic footage.

[robvulcan]

Good morning here's were I'm up too

Sprayed the intake mounting pins white as these are visible when assembled

Sprayed the intake halfs white and tidied them up

Once glued they will have wet and dry 1200 passed through and another spray of white

Started to fit the parts Bombay , Bomb Aimers window, nose gear doors etc

Here she is loosely fitted with b2 xh533 quite a big difference isn't there!

Canopy sprayed inside to make opaque as ill be painting the windows black

And 300 series engine faces I've decided to leave the intakes alone as the dragon ones seem to pass for large or small intakes they could be a bit wider I reckon for b2 however they look ok.

But I would like to try make the turbines look like 104 series engines.

It would be nice to see photos of all variants of oly engine turbines if anyone has them.

Right more coffee I reckon this is fun!

[robvulcan]

So pleased and full of optimism i have marked up another for a white b1 which will have the small tail cone too

Jubilation

[perdu]

mad

you're mad

1/200 scale

I can hardly even SEE a Vulc at 1/200 and you are modding them

mad, truly mad

and doing some blooming good stuff with them from what I can see

I like that the new one is getting the pointy tail, ah yes, them was the days

I was a kid and Vulcans were too

I'll be along with this one Rob

b

[robvulcan]

Update this seems to be turning Into a 2 bird build.

Here I have cut out another b1 plan form and here you see the lower half marked for removal as with the b1a

Here are the both of them. The left will be the b1a and now has canopy fitted.

The right one will be a white b1 with full shade roundels and a large cross of Lincoln on the tail

Here we see the intake halfs now glued and loosly fitted to the fuselarge. These will be run through with wet and dry then coated white again to smooth them.

I will have to paint the front parts of the intakes raf MSG and raf dark green

First then fit the intakes and then mask them off with blue tak.

So when I do the white lowers I will get no bleed and I can also peel back the blue tak and line up the green grey for camo patterning later. I do love the design of these intakes it does make life easier. I just must not forget to fit the engines!

. This is the only thing I don't like about the pit road kit as the intakes and engines are one piece which makes painting a PITA.

[robvulcan]

mad

you're mad

1/200 scale

I can hardly even SEE a Vulc at 1/200 and you are modding them

mad, truly mad

and doing some blooming good stuff with them from what I can see

I like that the new one is getting the pointy tail, ah yes, them was the days

I was a kid and Vulcans were too

I'll be along with this one Rob

b

Hahaha yes I am mad but you got to be to live in this world.

You put a smile on my face there I tell you.

1/200th yes small yes but there still just a bit bigger than the ever popular 1/72 spitfire!

And there alot easier to mod than a 1/72 vulcan now that I've done once and that was a long time to cross the finish line and I become familiar with milliput then too.......... It took hours and hours to sand I swear I lost weight that weekend.

These are easier glad your watching I'm very new to WIP I've not often done them but my iphone makes it alot easier to do

[robvulcan]

Well good morning to all you good folk. I'm half asleep this morning due to a disturbed night shift but also got to progress a little further in betwean last night.
I'm now enjoying a coffee and here is the update

The b1a intake mounting pins had blue tak placed to mask them


The b1a intake half’s were now dry and run through with 1000 grit wet and dry rolled up so it gently conforms to the tunnels
To smooth out a little



These were then mounted on blue tak along with the b1 intake halfs and sprayed white I'm using humbrol matt white from their amazing rattle cans




Now the b1a forward I takes we're sprayed raf dark green hu163 from a humbrol rattle can.





When dry they were masked with blue tak and ready for humbrol rattle can hu 165 medium sea grey






The b1 is treated in the same way but as its all white a bit easier regarding the amount of work on the intakes




Ill be doing more now so update soon cheers Rob

Edited March 21, 2013 by robvulcan

[robvulcan]

Ok back again the b1a needed a retouch after the masks were removed so that had been done and test fitted with the intake in place they are a great design allowing you to achieve this in this scale

Hopefully they will end up looking my my b2 xm650

As for the b1 its now been attacked and had its rear end cut off ouch!

Now I can start getting the new tail cone ready.

[robvulcan]

Next job is to start to turn the blue steel missile into a core for the original pointy tail cone

And tidy up the rear end

I cut the fins off and cut the one half mostly away at the kit line

It's almost like these were made for doing this

The B1 vulcan really was cute compared to the B2 almost a sporty vulcan

I'm defiantly commited to this now there is no back tracking at this point

[Dave Fleming]

That's clever, using the Blue Steel body as the basis for the tail

[robvulcan]

Thanks Dave i used the same technique on xh533 thats what started this madness i also used in on vx777. the falklands boxing also comes with two tail fins so you can use one to make a fillet to extend the tail too. pretty good a model kit with built in hidden conversion kit.

to think i only dabbled with getting back into modelling a few years ago then join this site and you end up doing mad stuff like this i love it.

[robvulcan]

Hello it's me again with another update now the modded blue steel is glued in place the centre pin of the missile is butted against the Molded Bombay rear

It sits rather conveniently on a ready made plinth !

And the missile were cut lines up with the back fairing lovely stuff!

This shows were the milliput will go to make the tail and that the tail will need a fillet to extend it

[Dazzio]

Damn rob, loving this build. Brave of you to attempt this much. As already said, using the Blue Steel as an tailcone... genius! At first you had my curiosity, now you have my attention.

Kind Regards,

Dazz

[robvulcan]

Thanks Dazz just looking at them now and seeing what i can do this morning

[robvulcan]

Afternoon not the most productive day but I think I earned that due to the good start I've had so far.

I spent much time pondering over the engine faces I was thinking of doing the big engine bullets but lets face if not many are going to see it and then decided to use modelers licence and just use the 301's

Maybe I deserve a lashing for that!

Anyway the b1 is catching up with the b1a here the b1 has the canopy fitted and the TFR thimble removed from the nose

She's still loosely fitted with the tail blue tak'd on its good to keep checking I find it helps me visualise were I'm going better.

I remember my uncle telling me when he was a kid "they didn't always come with instructions","you had to know your aircraft"

That's good advice he also told me don't start another till you finished the one your working on or you will never finish it..... He was right there I have a few that have been in that state for years my victor is now 5 years in the making I don't know why as I love them anyway I digress.....

She now has the bay fitted and the front wheel doors plus the window! Don't want to close it up and forget that

The engine faces for both kits were primed with rattle can humbrol 27 then brush painted with excellent citadel boltgun metal a dark. Metallic shade with flow improver added to make the paint self level and key to the hu27 then on top of that before its totally dry I added a thin coat of citadel chain mail once again with flow improver (Windsor and Newton)

And then on top if that once again with flow improver a bead of citadel black wash and left to settle and dry in its own time so it floods into the detail. Once dry I added a bead of johnsons klear and let dry and level.

All this is to build up some dimension to the face and give some depth to the engine plus a dirty greasy look and also the klear to build the part and make for a tighter fit so the glue has little chance to run and destroy paint and detail.

These were then press fitted

Then humbrol poly glue run around very carfefully so not to disturb the part and make a balls of it !

Then check for glue disaster but there looking ok even if there not quite right for a b1

Next I can fit the intakes then close them both up then the hard part begins removing small mouldings and filing the wings edges etc

....

[robvulcan]

I have now fitted the intakes and later ill fit the halfs together

Now ill be off to model zone and get some more paint and hopefully some milliput sadly my local model shop has closed down due to the council putting the rates up apparently.

I was told the council had apparently said they would rather raise the rates and have the shop empty than to keep the shop open on the old rates.

its a shame how many model shops are closing. im gratefull we have model zone et al. but there is nothing like a friendly local shop thats unique and a joy to go too.

Edited March 22, 2013 by robvulcan

[perdu]

the fan faces look good to me Rob

lovely work mate

bill

[general melchett]

Nice job Rob. Remember to remove the under wing box oil coolers at the front ends of the engine exhaust tunnels as the B1 didn't have 'em, also are you going to rescribe the aileron/elevators ?. (vortex gens might be a bit of an ask in this scale !!!), Whatever it's looking good mate, (bring it along to Cosford with you I'd like to take a gander !

Melchie....

[robvulcan]

Hey general yea vortex gens I'm going to overlook however I have already started to remove all the chunks and bits as I did with vx777
It's amazing how much bits were added to the b2 that slightly bruise the original smooth sleek looks.
I find this runs true with many aircraft such as early variants of the harrier buccaneer hunter victor etc seem to all develop bumps swellings and put on weight like the rest of us do lol.
It all adds to character with age but that's what I love about modelling you can always turn the clock back to old times. It model the present day. Or model alternate reality’s future past and present.

I do intend to do my take on the B3 Vulcan in this scale I'd need some help making wings and skybolts from scratch and a brain storm developing livery’s as I imagine barley grey might have been the chosen scheme.

Ill sure being some to Telford/cosford to show (hoping i can get there) you my humble offerings.

I've never transported models on mass any tips. At least one advantage to my odd modelling style of often ignoring easily broken parts and wheels up. But that's cause of space and other people knocking them but also because I'm a shameless man child and I can't resist picking them up and enjoying a quick fly hahaha.
I get a lot of satisfaction from looking at the interesting shapes from all angles and how the light casts off them and how's colours change in different lights for me that helps me see if I've caught the planes character. I suppose I see it as more an artists view than modelling. That said I can be a detail freak too but I also like to keep the fun free element to it. But one day when I get and can afford the Space ill make more with wheels down and have some nice cabinets built

Also I do like to photoshop these using gimp that's a bit of a hobby in its self.

I will be doing the control surfaces. The hardest and nastiest part of this will be filling all the flipping panel lines on the wings first. Any suggestions welcome

Cheers Rob

Edited March 22, 2013 by robvulcan