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Avro Vulcan - It's time!


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I've spent the last year reacquiring lost modelling skills, and I think I'm ready for a BIG project...

 

                                                                                                           ...with a little help. And to be honest, I feel some trepidation. Me, an unwashed Yank building a Vulcan?!? I may as well be putting a TSR-2 in USAF livery😨.

 

Anyway -  If anyone has a photo of a Vulcan farther along rotation, I'd appreciate it - especially closeups of the gear.

 

I'd like to model the photo below, but with the landing gear a bit more "up". I think I'll use acrylic rod (X4 with LEDs) to hold the aircraft over a base of blurred runway. This is going to be a slow build, because it's important to get this build right.

 

 9lX30bIOhBDoBFzRjsbk0fFV5IMg1pGLUTLOeh1K

image pulled from some site. I'll be happy to pull it down if necessary.

 

Major parts marked, scored and removed from main sheet

Lr-QnMSetLgh_WavW02wtizN2OZZmjfjJv_JKdEG

 

parts arranged, along with a few articles I've saved over the years. Let's do this!!!

 

va6a7fRQI6MVzp2hc1rk-C6G8HQTsqTGNKCmBLtu

 

Items in the bottom right will be molded in resin, since weight-bearing is no longer an issue.

 

Comments and advice are definitely welcomed. 

Edited by markmcguire25
sp
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Oh wow, a giant Vulcan! I'd love one of these!

 

I found these images if they're any help?

 

IMG44251548407733.jpg

 

IMG44261548407733.jpg

IMG44271548407733.jpg

 

If you don't have this book already I'd definitely recommend it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vulcan-Bomber-MK-Different-Angle/dp/1858218993/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1548408024&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=Bulman+vulcan+b2

 

Edited by Lord Riot
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1 hour ago, Lord Riot said:

I found these images if they're any help?

The first one helps quite a bit. I'll be scratch building the gear in the "up" position, so every angle helps. Thanks for the book link, too!

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Oh silly man! 😜 I haven't kept one of these.  Where on earth would I put it.  Suggestions on this site will be inappropriate.

 

This aeroplane started off as a joke on my trade stand at a Mildenhall Air show. Talking with my staff and customers about what the next big show stopper kit might be, after the Lightnings , I think, that it was Paul one of my friends who suggested it, somewhat tongue in cheek, I think my reply was something like "you must be ........joking". But the joke wouldn't go away. 

 

So I talked with the talented Brian Fawcett and a plan slowly evolved of how we could produce it, as it was too big for my vac moulder and whether my friend Gretchen's company also had a big enough machine. All the technical problems solved, I started to look for suitable drawings. It had to be a B.2 as I had worked on Vulcan Sqn's for almost 7 years. These actually came from my good friends at Airfix and I seem to remember that they were already in 1:48 scale. I still have them somewhere in the Matto Grosso of my studio.

 

The projected sale price worried me and it nearly caused the cancellation of the whole project. However consultation with my largest retail outlet, who like me were prepared cut down their profit margins, it was game on at £99.00.  I then made the massive (for us) moulds. The fuselage mould  having to have styrene foam blocks inserted so as the reduce depth of the vent drill holes.

 

Well, make the the thing we did. (Yoda)  Resin was still in it's modelling infancy and Brian got a military vehicle model company to produce the intakes and jet pipes. Some parts I decided to do in injected plastic but I think that the crew door and ladder were a last minute thing as I remember making the white metal mould for the late Peter Wright to start casting the parts  at some stupidly late time of night just before the IPMS Nationals.  I did test assemblies and  as a just reward for the original daft suggestion, Paul was given a full set of parts to make the show stopper prototype.   I don't think it was a myth that he sanded the main parts whilst sitting in his bath!  

 

Not only did Paul finish the model on time but he added some flashing anti collision lights powered via the ground power unit and mounted it on a hard-standing base. We had a show stopper.

 

My late wife Angela was to be the IPMS guest speaker that year and her speech was written in great secrecy. It turned out to be a totally humorous P.. take, from a female point of view, of our efforts from conception to birth, to produce the Vulcan kit, even telling how several grown men had gathered around the new 'baby', cooing in delight and then tentatively picking it up and with suitable noises imagining it flying around the workshop. Many folk have since said that it was the funniest talk they had heard in a long time.

We only made 200 of them and I had the last ten or so still in the store some two years later.

 

John

 

Neg963_zpsbzkohbdu.jpgNeg962_zpsrhe7rgaq.jpg

Technical bit, As you can see from the earlier photos, the nose leg goes up first and then the mains. The attached sketches should explain the rest. You will have to make some new parts as I think our main lower strut was based on tentative information and was just to support the kit weight and never intended to retract. Good idea about the resin bits. 

 

John

 

 

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:blink2: ----> :analintruder: ---------> :yahoo:-----------------> :frantic:

No way, Mark!

I'm the only bloke in whole South America who rejoices in the bliss of having one of these kits.

Yeh, me is... (and how dearly I've paid for it)

 

18 hours ago, markmcguire25 said:

 

Lr-QnMSetLgh_WavW02wtizN2OZZmjfjJv_JKdEG


Curious way of putting both fuselage halves together... :hmmm:Thought you wanted to build one like this?

 

jF3WK4v.jpg

 

6 hours ago, John Aero said:

Oh silly man! 😜 I haven't kept one of these. 

Hi, John! :worthy:

How do you tell the left resin intake from the right resin intake on the kit?

Cheers,

 

Unc2

Edited by Uncle Uncool
Ghost in the keyboard
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14 hours ago, John Aero said:

Oh silly man! 😜

John,

 

Thanks for the drawings, an immense help.

 

And especially thanks for the note. It's the equivalent of Carroll Shelby giving undeserved help with a Cobra build (shameless Texan reference 😉)! How could I not give the kit the build it deserves?

 

Mark

Edited by markmcguire25
sp
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On 1/25/2019 at 2:33 PM, Uncle Uncool said:

:blink2: ----> :analintruder: ---------> :yahoo:-----------------> :frantic:

 

How do you tell the left resin intake from the right resin intake on the kit?

Cheers,

 

Unc2

Unc2,

 

        Check the areas I've pointed to on the splitter plate and how far above and below the intake it extends. It would have been nice if the parts had L and R on them, wouldn't it?

 

8ev11O.jpg

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On 1/25/2019 at 6:42 AM, John Aero said:

Oh silly man! 😜 I haven't kept one of these.  Where on earth would I put it.  Suggestions on this site will be inappropriate.

 

This aeroplane started off as a joke on my trade stand at a Mildenhall Air show. Talking with my staff and customers about what the next big show stopper kit might be, after the Lightnings , I think, that it was Paul one of my friends who suggested it, somewhat tongue in cheek, I think my reply was something like "you must be ........joking". But the joke wouldn't go away. 

 

So I talked with the talented Brian Fawcett and a plan slowly evolved of how we could produce it, as it was too big for my vac moulder and whether my friend Gretchen's company also had a big enough machine. All the technical problems solved, I started to look for suitable drawings. It had to be a B.2 as I had worked on Vulcan Sqn's for almost 7 years. These actually came from my good friends at Airfix and I seem to remember that they were already in 1:48 scale. I still have them somewhere in the Matto Grosso of my studio.

 

The projected sale price worried me and it nearly caused the cancellation of the whole project. However consultation with my largest retail outlet, who like me were prepared cut down their profit margins, it was game on at £99.00.  I then made the massive (for us) moulds. The fuselage mould  having to have styrene foam blocks inserted so as the reduce depth of the vent drill holes.

 

Well, make the the thing we did. (Yoda)  Resin was still in it's modelling infancy and Brian got a military vehicle model company to produce the intakes and jet pipes. Some parts I decided to do in injected plastic but I think that the crew door and ladder were a last minute thing as I remember making the white metal mould for the late Peter Wright to start casting the parts  at some stupidly late time of night just before the IPMS Nationals.  I did test assemblies and  as a just reward for the original daft suggestion, Paul was given a full set of parts to make the show stopper prototype.   I don't think it was a myth that he sanded the main parts whilst sitting in his bath!  

 

Not only did Paul finish the model on time but he added some flashing anti collision lights powered via the ground power unit and mounted it on a hard-standing base. We had a show stopper.

 

My late wife Angela was to be the IPMS guest speaker that year and her speech was written in great secrecy. It turned out to be a totally humorous P.. take, from a female point of view, of our efforts from conception to birth, to produce the Vulcan kit, even telling how several grown men had gathered around the new 'baby', cooing in delight and then tentatively picking it up and with suitable noises imagining it flying around the workshop. Many folk have since said that it was the funniest talk they had heard in a long time.

We only made 200 of them and I had the last ten or so still in the store some two years later.

 

 

John

 

 

I remember when they were first available. I had saved the money and was ready to pull the trigger until I found out that my neighbor was short on rent. He was a veteran crew chief on B-29/B-50s so I gave my Vulcan funds to him. I still haven't found a Vulcan for my stash but I don't regret my choice. He was a good man.

 

Dale

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Further clarification for figuring out left and right resin intakes. Behind the splitter plate on each resin intake is an air inlet (for A/C I think) and when mounted correctly will be more towards the bottom of the intake than the top. Look at the following series of pictures and you'll see what I mean.

 

There are the D-shaped pieces in the kit which are marked L and R that go behind the intakes-number 25 in the instructions. I have not cut mine out to see if they match up with the respective area on the backside of each intake or if they are handed due to the opening in which they fit in the fuselage.

 

0oUMrE.jpg

 

fuXhWB.jpg

 

hCHdX3.jpg

Edited by TBC
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:analintruder: No progress on this build, whatsoever? ¡No puede ser! How come, huh? :crying:Me's sad now.

 

@TBC, mate... :worthy:

Thanks a lot for your help on the handed intakes. Awesome piccies as well!

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 7:37 PM, TBC said:

It would have been nice if the parts had L and R on them, wouldn't it?

Indeed! Oh, but I guess Mr Aero had a lot of other much more important things in which to think of...? :bleh:

Yeh, me does...

Cheers,

 

Unc2

P.S: Will we see any more progress during the weekend, Mark?

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  • 2 weeks later...

:waiting: Wow...!!! Thread's down to page 9 on this section I started hyperventilating while searching for it?

Nothing as of yet, Mark? Life's kinda on hold until then. Anxious anxiety. "They're" Vulcan build needs to resume soon.

Hyperventilating still (went to cuddle my own Aeroclub Vulcan kit).

Double post shows I really care? Right, yeh, yeh ,yeh...

Cheers 'em,

 

Unc2 

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I did write that it would be a slow build. Work has been crazy -  lots of travel and then I had to spend a full week at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, schmoozing and such. It's going to take me a week to recover.

 

Updates soon, I promise.

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  • 3 weeks later...

No real work on the jet, but I decided on the size, shape of the base. Still trying to decide how I want to mount the aircraft - exhaust with acrylic rod as the mount is likely.

VOXTXT1S-fRnYaOZLpemrMjysf1ikGnrgQ-tgpt7

 

Started finding wheels - these Canberra wheels are spot on in diameter and width, but the Vucan are five spoke not four. I suspect I'll end up having to build from scratch.

NfSSxg7NCGLv1kd-dQ79n_h1MjDFtCcMNoAMdvsN

 

The upper portion of the landing gear is happily accurate, so I'm using easy mold to copy that in resin (with lots of microballoons to save weight, since these wont be bearing a load)

O9zabvAeQObSUk9nsZuDt2fWKpNKlZOlaQ_C0hKs

 

Ordered some resin MB Mk3 seats that should need very little adjustment to be accurate. BTW - this website is great for finding the right bang seat;

http://martin-baker.com/

 

Found this - very helpful

iT9SitjSPsyb123MTootC8UxFDcp3o1cN3dZtvUu

 

And this - also helpful

 

That's about it for now. Work and family have been very hectic, so not much actual building going on. But at least I can get some research done in the wee hours.

Edited by markmcguire25
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Hugely interesting.

The Vulcan is so iconic...

I would suggest that acrylic rod may not handle the weight.

Stainless TIG welding  rod may be a better option , but something would have to be built into the model to receive the rod.

Another option may be to do a clear acrylic 'fin' secured along the bottom of the model down to the base.

Good luck!

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4 hours ago, markmcguire25 said:

Started finding wheels - these Canberra wheels are spot on in diameter and width, but the Vucan are five spoke not four. I suspect I'll end up having to build from scratch.

NfSSxg7NCGLv1kd-dQ79n_h1MjDFtCcMNoAMdvsN

 

Noooiiiceee...!!! :frantic:

Hi Mark!

Good to see this thread back on first page.

About the wheels; so how about using the white metal hubs in the Aeroclub kit and turning the Canberra styrene wheels on a power drill to get rid of those four-spoke hubs?

It's not a difficult task to do it. You just need to make several holes around the plastic hubs first.

Cheers,

 

Unc2 

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