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Airfix 1/72 Valiant - Completing the trio


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Jason, I still have this little lot to work through, all review samples full of aftermarket stuff...actually, one Valiant did cost me.....a hamburger and a pint of Best Bitter off a SIG member..... well, it was a decent pint!

 

 

 

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Edited by general melchett
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3 minutes ago, general melchett said:

Jason, I still have this little lot to work through, all review samples full of aftermarket stuff...actually, one Valiant did cost me.....a hamburger and a pint of Best Bitter off a SIG member..... well, it was a decent pint!

 

 

 

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.....

Jealous.......

Want to share?

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6 minutes ago, general melchett said:

Jason, I still have this little lot to work through, all review samples full of aftermarket stuff...actually, one Valiant did cost me.....a hamburger and a pint of Best Bitter off a SIG member..... well, it was a decent pint!

My V-bomber stash is precisely half the size!
I suspect I am in a SABLE state (third definition down), but would readily make room for a 21st century Vulcan kit. Airfix, you know it makes sense. (Why not? My pleas for modern Phantom and Buccaneer kits were answered...)

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1 minute ago, Steve Coombs said:

My V-bomber stash is precisely half the size!
I suspect I am in a SABLE state (third definition down), but would readily make room for a 21st century Vulcan kit. Airfix, you know it makes sense. (Why not? My pleas for modern Phantom and Buccaneer kits were answered...)

The Airfix one is coming... They have scanned Vulcans, that's all but certain. I think late next year is most likely

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Just now, goggsy said:

Great work, hope it goes well. Just to rub it in, I picked mine up for 20 quid at a Hornby concession near me :D

...

20 quid Valiant?

What do I do to have luck like this?

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It used to have some great bargains - at one time you could pick up various iterations of the 1\48 Canberra at a fiver a pop. Sadly it’s gone now but in the swan song I got the 1/24 Typhoon for 70 notes. Most I’ve ever spent on a kit but I doubted I’d ever see it at that price again.

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Well consider my gob well and truly smacked, General! The Memsahib didn't put up a squawk about all that plastic invading the Manor? And you didn't even have to put out any quid for that lot (other than the pint and the burger) - nice little racket you got going there!

 

Bestest,

 

Jason

Edited by Learstang
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Quote

The Memsahib didn't put up a squawk about all that plastic invading the Manor? 

My dear Zhukov, as long as they're out of reach of the mop and duster then she's a happy camper.

 

Quote

And you didn't even have to put out any quid for that lot (other than the pint and the burger) - nice little racket you got going there!

Pay for them...good lord man, are you quite mad! no, no, no, the idea is, they pay me to build them:wicked:.

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13 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

Errr what am I supposed to do for the fin flash decals on the tail? There are details in the way..... a lot of decal solution?

If you're talking about vortex generators, you could cut thin slits in the decals for the generators to pass through, then paint the vortex generators the appropriate colour (red, white, or blue) after you've applied the decals.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

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1 minute ago, Learstang said:

If you're talking about vortex generators, you could cut thin slits in the decals for the generators to pass through, then paint the vortex generators the appropriate colour (red, white, or blue) after you've applied the decals.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

Probably the best way... Got any recommendations for the paints I will need to use for the low vis fin flashes (white, pale pink and pale blue)?

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54 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

Probably the best way... Got any recommendations for the paints I will need to use for the low vis fin flashes (white, pale pink and pale blue)?

Now there I can't help you, unfortunately - I'm sure there are some RAF colour experts here who can. My forte when it comes to colours is WWII Soviet colours.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

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Errr what am I supposed to do for the fin flash decals on the tail? There are details in the way..

Another option is to do what I did, cut the vg's off and add as 0.25mm plastic card after putting the flashes in place, this is a lot neater than trying to paint around them, use the others as a template.

 

As for the colours, use Xtracolor XO39  RAF Anti-Flash Pale Roundel Blue (BS454) and X040 RAF Anti-Flash Pale Roundel Red (BS454) available from Hannants. (use hyperlink) 

 

Xtracolour RAF low-vis colours

Edited by general melchett
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5 hours ago, general melchett said:

Another option is to do what I did, cut the vg's off and add as 0.25mm plastic card after putting the flashes in place, this is a lot neater than trying to paint around them, use the others as a template.

 

As for the colours, use Xtracolor XO39  RAF Anti-Flash Pale Roundel Blue (BS454) and X040 RAF Anti-Flash Pale Roundel Red (BS454) available from Hannants. (use hyperlink) 

 

Xtracolour RAF low-vis colours

Ughhhh more money on my Hannants order... What a shame.... The joys of being young, no responsibilities; it all goes to wherever will sell me models the cheapest :D Also is there an acrylic version? I'm not a fan on enamels. I've found one set (MRP: https://www.hmhobbies.co.uk/mrp-230-pale-roundel-blue-bs-172-30ml.html and https://www.hmhobbies.co.uk/mrp-231-pale-roundel-red-bs-454-30ml.html ), are they any good?

 

I'd rather stay away from scratch building new vortex generators as I'm really not very good at that sort of stuff... It's one of the things I've not yet gotten the hang of, working with plastic card. That and rigging..... So definitely not going to do that on an expensive kit like this one.

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I'd forgotten about MRP (strange as they're my favourite paints!), These are superb, perfect straight from the bottle as they don't need thinning. The two you've linked to are solvent based, as yet, they don't include them in their acrylic range. Definitely the best bet.   

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Update time:

The Valiant has seen a lot of progress since last I updated the thread!

Cannot forget to drill the holes for external fuel tanks. 

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Well, I did remember to drill through.

Side note, I would love to cast a resin copy of just the nose section and model one of the partial surviving airframes. Alas, I doubt I will manage to get another one of these kits, have neither the skills nor experience to cast it.

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Intakes......

Nope, you can wait until later.

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Nice and easy bit now, the wheel wells. Black primer, gloss coat, airbrush silver, bit of dirt and grime.

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Intakes.... Guess I'll build you now.

Well, they're not brilliant. Resin ones would be welcome. Anyways, I did an ok job of them, going by the three feet rule.

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One intake in, and bottom of the wing on. Here you can see that I now always put the starting date of the kit on the inside, and which airframe I plan on building the kit as.

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This is the other wing, with a reminder to attach the engine fans.

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The fuselage is ready to recieve the wings. All of the bomb bay bits are on (it's closed), and many test fits followed. I briefly considered not actually glueing the wings on for transport and/or storage for if she ever leaves the shelf after she's finished. The friction alone will keep them on. I figured I would probably end up breaking something delicate if I did.

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Here is the completed wing assembly

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The tailplane here, ready to be attached to the fuselage.

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Here she is with the wings, tailplane, and fuselage all together. She looks awesome! I am really hyped to get this build finished, I'm really enjoying it and really like the model.

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Yeah....... She's gonna need a bit of filler and a good sand.........

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Masking set is arriving soon, along with a masking set for my Revell He177 and the new Mikromir Victor B.1... I might get somewhat distracted from this build because of that Victor!

I'll also try to update my other current WIP threads I've fallen behind on tomorrow (Bf109 triple build - got a lot of progress there - and both Airfix Vulcans)

 

Also do people prefer long and fairly detailed updates with lots of pictures, or a picture of where I'm up to now, with a discription of what I've done and what I plan to do next?

 

 

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Speaking of the Victor kit, I think I'll do her up in antiflash white, I assume the kit scheme for XA940 is antiflash. Looks to me like it would be easy enough to leave the refueling probe off, so that's what I plan to do.

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Valiant is coming on really well, it's an impressive beast isn't it. Looks like you have it well under control. 

 

It's good to see regular updates as it helps when I come to build mine!

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 I assume the kit scheme for XA940 is antiflash. 

The decals can be used for both anti-flash or camo...XA940 was the only camouflaged B1 while being trialed with the Tanker Training Flight, just leave off the IFR probe and wing Mk20 pods/pylons.

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1 hour ago, general melchett said:

The decals can be used for both anti-flash or camo...XA940 was the only camouflaged B1 while being trialed with the Tanker Training Flight, just leave off the IFR probe and wing Mk20 pods/pylons.

Nice, anti flash and as clean as possible it is then!

When aftermarket decal sets are finally released I might have to do a few more, so I have a Victor B.1 to represent each part of its service

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On 6/26/2019 at 10:35 PM, goggsy said:

Great work, hope it goes well. Just to rub it in, I picked mine up for 20 quid at a Hornby concession near me :D

I got mine for £11.99 off eBay a couple of years ago. I still can't believe my luck! Getting a second for a good price has been less than successful........

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25 minutes ago, lasermonkey said:

I got mine for £11.99 off eBay a couple of years ago. I still can't believe my luck! Getting a second for a good price has been less than successful........

.......................

Very jealous!

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On 03/07/2019 at 10:11, general melchett said:

The decals can be used for both anti-flash or camo...XA940 was the only camouflaged B1 while being trialed with the Tanker Training Flight, just leave off the IFR probe and wing Mk20 pods/pylons.

Any idea what to do for markings on the fin? They appear to have been changed when XA940 was painted in camo. I can't find any pictures of her with just the fin flash on there, but I think most were painted like that at some point. Can you confirm this? 

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In her all-white bomber days she served with 10 and 15 squadrons at Cottesmore and had the standard Type D national markings applied. 

 

Here's a scan taken from an old magazine showing her in taking part in the 1958 press day while on the strength of 10 squadron at Cottesmore. The markings consisted of a small 10 squadron badge (red wings with a gold arrow) at the top of the fin, a red/blue stripe around the fin 'bullet' and squadron crests beneath the lower cockpit windows.

 

 

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