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Revell HP Victor B1 conversion. Yikes!


Timmas

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19 hours ago, Back in the Saddle said:

I’m building this too, but without the conversion kit. The original kit intakes are horrendous - resin would be a huge improvement. Hoping to get my own WIP up soon - might steal some of your solutions! 🙂

Yes the intakes are horrors o the base and I look forward to following your WIP. If mine is of any use, feel free to steal away! 😀

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9 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

I think they'll reissue it with a new Vulcan kit... Might be next year I thinks, they did say there is a big announcement coming so who knows. If they do I hope it's comparable to the original price...

What schemes would you like to see included? There are a number of unused options in the kit that could be taken advantage of...

I hope so. That would make me very happy! I'd like to see a tanker variant (as well as a Vulcan tanker too). Fingers crosse eh? 😀

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9 hours ago, general melchett said:

Great result Tim, you should be chuffed with this one, it's not an easy conversion but you seemed to have pulled it off.

Thanks General. It pushed me to my limit (and beyond) but I finished it in the end. :phew: Whether I'd want to do something that taxing again in a hurry is debatable! 

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16 minutes ago, Timmas said:

I hope so. That would make me very happy! I'd like to see a tanker variant (as well as a Vulcan tanker too). Fingers crosse eh? 😀

There was the tanker upgrade set released for the Valiant. I have a spare conversion with decals if you ever get the Valiant kit I would be happy to sell it. 

For the Vulcan, if it's a B2, I want to see a pure bomber for the first release, then a tanker for the second version, like the Victor. Of course I'd prefer a B1 but I find that very unlikely indeed.

 

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19 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

There was the tanker upgrade set released for the Valiant. I have a spare conversion with decals if you ever get the Valiant kit I would be happy to sell it. 

For the Vulcan, if it's a B2, I want to see a pure bomber for the first release, then a tanker for the second version, like the Victor. Of course I'd prefer a B1 but I find that very unlikely indeed.

 

Ah, I wasn’t aware of it and may very well take you up on the offer, so watch this space...😀

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On 23/10/2019 at 13:35, Adam Poultney said:

Just remember to mask off the middle canopy panel! So many don't on that kit... Will you be correcting any of the inaccuracies or leaving it as is?

I shall *try* to fix the intake vanes, but apart from that it will be as is. I can’t see the point investing too much effort on this one, now the Airfix offering is available...

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10 minutes ago, Back in the Saddle said:

I shall *try* to fix the intake vanes, but apart from that it will be as is. I can’t see the point investing too much effort on this one, now the Airfix offering is available...

Well I look forward to seeing it

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On 23/10/2019 at 13:35, Adam Poultney said:

Just remember to mask off the middle canopy panel! So many don't on that kit... Will you be correcting any of the inaccuracies or leaving it as is?

I shall *try* to fix the intake vanes, but apart from that it will be as is. I can’t see the point investing too much effort on this one, now the Airfix offering is available...

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1 hour ago, Back in the Saddle said:

I’ve noticed noticed the “KUTA GB XII” thread, so that looks like the ideal place to start...

 

I’ll have three months to finish the Victor (and Vulcan!) in my stash - l’ll post a link for anybody interested once I get the threads underway👍

Might have missed something... What's the KUTA XII group build building?

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  • 2 years later...
  • 7 months later...
On 10/10/2018 at 12:58, Timmas said:

I’ve been a BM member for about a year now and this is my first WIP.

 

I feel slightly apprehensive about this because: (a) I’m a comparative novice. having only just come back to the hobby last year after an absence of half a century; (b) I’m assembling a kit under the critical gaze of fellow Britmodellers many of whom are extraordinarily talented and experienced and; (c) carrying out the conversion is going to be complex.

 

I bought the Revell Victor before the Airfix one came out as it was the only one available, and I wanted it to accompany the Airfix Vulcan which was my ‘first’ build last year (and blimey that was challenging). I've since added a couple of the new Airfix Victors to my modest stash, but they're B2 and K2 variants, so I decided to convert the Revell one into a B1 as I think it's the most 'pure' in shape and form.

 

I have no idea how long this will take but I hope I’m up to the task. Please do give advice, point out errors and comment generally!

 

So, here goes:

 

I started with the cockpit. The Flightpath set contains some nice photo-etch for the instrument panel but as there is nothing for the rear crew’s panel I thought I’d make one. It’s not based on reality but I’m fairly pleased with the way it turned out, even if it is a touch over-scale. I made a mistake on the crews’ seats. I’ve seen the Airfix model features swivel seats but the Revell one doesn’t, so I decided to add interest into the rear of the cockpit by showing them turned. I then discovered that this wasn’t a feature on the early Victors because the seats were fixed. But having cut and glued them in place I decided to leave them as they were.

 

2018-10-01_12.27.55.jpg

 

 

My initial plan was to include the three crew members, so I decided not to paint the seat pads, just the backs and sides. I also made a table for the rear crew.

 

Crikey, the camera doesn’t lie does it. They look terrible...

 

2018-10-02_10.36.28.jpg

 

I’ve dry-fitted the cockpit into the fuselage halves to see how it fits, and how much is likely to be visible. No-one is ever going to see anything of the crew other than the pilot and co pilot...

 

2018-10-03_08.23.54.jpg

 

At this point I thought I’d dry fit the resin intakes to see how they fit. They’re really very nice and hopefully won’t need too much filler (at least on the top). The underside is going to need a bit of filler though...

 

2018-10-03_08.27.26.jpg

 

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They don’t seem to quite fill the slots in the fuselage on either side...

 

2018-10-03_08.28.54.jpg

 

 

 

Having done that I set about chopping the kit’s wings. Gulp. Not having done this before, I measured once, twice and three times before cutting but they didn’t fit the resin particularly well (and I didn’t take a photo). So I cut again, but this time along the wrong panel line and with a dry fit look as though they will go together quite nicely. I'm hoping no-one will notice that they're roughly 1.5mm shorter than they should be!..

 

2018-10-03_07.43.59.jpg

 

I’m puzzled by the shallowness of the rear jet exhaust ends though. They have very little depth, so I’ve decided to deepen them a bit. I’m scared stiff of wrecking the resin parts so I’ve been really careful, and held the drill bits in my fingers and turned by hand.It’s going to be a slow job. This is where I am with that so far...

 

2018-10-03_07.45.26.jpg

 

As a diversion from drilling resin I thought I’d take a look at the wing assemblies and slice some carrots. What bothered me was glueing the sections together so that they all joined at the correct angle. So I enlisted the help of a couple of flexible steel rules to act like spllnts...

 

2018-10-04_01.09.23.jpg

 

2018-10-04_01.09.52.jpg

 

That seemed to work. I’ve also added the metal wingtips...

 

2018-10-08_17.39.09.jpg

 

At this point I thought I’d attend to the pilot and co pilot. I have no idea why I’ve turned both their heads slightly towards port, but I have.

I’ve added some very simple detailing with strips of masking tape to their seats, and added the photo-etched pull handles...

 

2018-10-03_15.46.07.jpg

 

They’re now sitting in the cockpit. Incidentally the blunt nose pitot thngy was broken in the box. I'll be replacing it eventually...

 

2018-10-03_17.31.38.jpg

 

And so far she looks like this. Still dry-fitted apart from the cockpit and the plastic parts of the wings. I've filled the joints with plasticard and a touch of filler.

 

2018-10-10_09.11.23.jpg

 

There's still an awful long way to go. I might have it finished by Christmas 2019 !

 

All comments welcome.

 

 

Hi Timmas the progress on this conversion is brilliant. I have this conversion set as well for a b1 and i noticed when dry fitting the resin parts to the fuselage, that the top section fits perfectly but the bottom section is having some issues and won't fit in the slot. What sort of filler did you use to fill in the gaps around the resin. Thanks Ryan 

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