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Airfix 1/72 Blue Steel Victor - Start of My V-Force Project


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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok big update time....

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First of all, I got her to this stage here. Everything is attached and ready to paint. The wings were finished without any major issues, just a little filler across a few gaps. 

The issue with the instructions calling for the wrong bit to be removed for raised flaps was easily resolved, I realised that you need to sand the part down instead, and remove a different part. Other reviews show what you need to remove instead.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the canopy and bomb aimer's window were carefully attached using Tamiya extra thin rather than PVA because PVA is not strong enough for this.

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Wow the fumes were strong...... My ventilation kind of sucks, so that was an evening spent not doing any more models.

 

Edited by Adam Poultney
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Here she is all primed and awaiting the Halfords appliance white gloss spray

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Next was to add a bit of subtle variety to the shades of white by painting panels in various greys first, this will be painted over so I don't know if it will even show up. Yeah I know my desk is a mess, but isn't everyone's?

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And the underside

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Edited by Adam Poultney
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And another update:

I started the gloss planning on doing it in 4 sessions (the fumes are strong, and again, my ventilation sucks), doing the half of the top, the other half, then repeating on the underside. But of course, this plan went right out the window. Like an absolute plank I decided to spray the top and bottom of the wing and fuselage at once to get it done in two sessions. Problem was I now couldn't put the thing down! So I was stuck holding the victor at an awkward angle for at least 30 minutes (it's quite tiring as there is a lot of weight in the nose) until it was dry enough to put down. And then there was supposed to be an amazon order arriving, which thankfully it didn't while I had to hold the model. But so far everything went reasonably well.

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Problem. I sprayed too close to the model and tired to wipe it off as I usually can with white, I airbrush it normally. Nope! Not happening. Made an absolute mess... This is after the clean up with isopropyl alcohol. Still not perfect and flawless, but it will have to do. It needed respraying. At least now I know which side will face the wall when she's finally ready for display.

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Another update incoming once I have pictures taken and uploaded.

Edited by Adam Poultney
I'm a plank
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Ok final update today, I promise!

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Got her sprayed. Only further issues so far are a small bump which knocked off the bomb aimer's window and everything sticking off the front, and a mysterious pink mark on the side of the fuselage. I think it came from the ink on the paper towel used to fix the previous mess up on the wing dissolving in isopropyl alcohol. Easily fixed.

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Masking tape and blue tack removed. Unfortunately, paint going its way under my home made mask (who needs to buy expensive masking sets when you have tape and a knife). She's on her own three legs now as well, the gear is assembled but not painted or attached. 

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Yeah.... That's going to be a pain to clean up...

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She looks awesome from this angle. Elegant and delicate, yet mean, imposing and deadly. I want at least 85 more, they only built 86 of them. Most were b1s and with no good 1/72 kit of them, this plan might be on hold (although I am excited for the mikromir 1/144 kit- if they do a Vulcan b1 as well I will actually have to buy at least 10 - EDIT: make that 45 plus two prototypes).

You might notice that a single decal has found its way onto the blue steel missile. I intend on doing most but not all of the tiny stencil decals, there has to be a few hundred of them!

Edited by Adam Poultney
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Update time for today:

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Started by cleaning up a bit of the white and needing with some washes for weathering (citadel ones because I have a lot of citadel stuff, even is it is kinda meh except for their washes which are excellent) 

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Decal time! Yes, I did put on the cockpit decals, this is a picture from before then.

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Errrrrr..... Problem? Thankfully that's on the part of the decal sheet for the camo scheme which I'm not building. I cut a gap between the water and the decals I need to make sure it didn't soak through to them.b8b528fc3890447b16e5c77c9548bcdc.jpg

Well that's a decal session over. Got one side's biggest decals almost all applied.

I also got the main gear legs painted and installed. Still deciding whether it's worth getting aftermarket wheels or do I continue with this completely straight out of the box........

Oh and I repainted the jetpipes at the back of the wing, they got a lot of white spray on them.

 

Here's a few closer shots of the weathering: 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update time again:

Decal work is all but complete now. I've attached the landing gear doors add the wheels. The decal on the top of the fin is a nightmare! I recommend cutting out the middle section and just painting that on. Still some stencil decals to do, the windows to remake, and small parts to attach. And a tad more weathering here and there.

I lost one of the arrow decals on the blue steel missile though :(

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Can't decide if I want to do the vulcan next, or the valiant. The valiant is tempting because it's a fairly easy build with no resin additions to be purchased... The vulcan is my favourite aircraft though, but I'd by buying resin intakes and aftermarket decals (I don't want to do XH558 because I'm not a massive fan of the wrap around camo scheme, plus the engines are wrong or something for XH558). Still debating whether to do a Vulcan B.1 conversion... I prefer the early Vulcans. Problem with that is it would require a lot of things I've never done before- rescribing raised panel lines, heavy conversion with resin parts, not to mention the cost.... Any advice on this is greatly appreciated.

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Nice result on the HP Victor, I done the Airfix Valiant, and used aftermarket intakes, but in the end although it solved some of the problem it also created another problem, and a lot of sanding was required to get everything smooth to the wing section, I used Tamiya white, polished with fine polishing cloths then airbrushed over using Tamiya white gloss to give an overall smooth look

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  • 4 months later...

Wow! Fast build. Great to see her come together. I have just picked up this kit and am struggling to find any WIPs to get hints from. Glad I found your build. I’ll tag it as a guide for my build. Lovely work. 😇

 

Johnny. 

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Errrr ok so I suddenly got 10 notifications from this thread......!

 

1 hour ago, The Spadgent said:

Wow! Fast build. Great to see her come together. I have just picked up this kit and am struggling to find any WIPs to get hints from. Glad I found your build. I’ll tag it as a guide for my build. Lovely work. 😇

 

Johnny. 

Thank you, if you have any more questions about things I found during the build feel free to ask, although I must admit that there are better constructed example around the internet. I plan on building a second in maybe a few months

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3 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

 

Errrr ok so I suddenly got 10 notifications from this thread......!

 

 

Sorry that’s me. I’m looking around for WIP builds and yours is the first complete one I could find. On BM too which is a bonus for sure. 🙌

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26 minutes ago, The Spadgent said:

Sorry that’s me. I’m looking around for WIP builds and yours is the first complete one I could find. On BM too which is a bonus for sure. 🙌

:D I'll take the likes lmao

You doing her in white or camo?

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Fascinating aircraft, the V-bombers!  Your Victor turned out really beautifully.

 

I've seen all three of the V-bombers on the online auction site on a regular basis, and I am so tempted to pick up all three but I just don't know where I would display such large models.  

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  • 3 months later...

I have finally gotten around to posting this up on RFI

 

On 27/08/2019 at 09:16, kev67 said:

Good tip to avoid paint creep in the future is to run Johnson Klear or similar around the edges with a paint brush of the masking before you apply your primer and top coat

Will try that on my next one.

On 27/08/2019 at 14:47, mdauben said:

Fascinating aircraft, the V-bombers!  Your Victor turned out really beautifully.

 

I've seen all three of the V-bombers on the online auction site on a regular basis, and I am so tempted to pick up all three but I just don't know where I would display such large models.  

You'll find somewhere, they're really worth the build, and especially now that Airfix are bringing out a new Vulcan next year :)

 

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