1964 - The world's most beautiful airliner - Airfix VC10

[Natter]

Hello All.  Back when this GB was suggested I mentioned that the Airfix VC10 and the Airfix Bren Gun Carrier kits were new moulds in 1964; the year I was born.  The VC10 has been patiently waiting for attention since then.  The boxing is a later 'Sky King' issue with British Airways decals, which although eligible were not what I would like to do with the kit; even if I did pick up a set of the lovely 26 Decals for the scheme.  Despite having those I now have a set of S&M BOAC decals on their way, the early scheme with the white 'Speedbird' on the tail.  Not only is the mould from 1964, but the VC10 entered service in 1964 as well which makes it even more fitting for the GB.

 

I taped the major assemblies together for the 'start-up' photo.

 

 

The dry fit showed that the fuselage sides didn't quite mate up evenly along their whole length, so I added small tabs along each side of the joins to even up the meeting faces.  I also fitted the fuselage doors and reinforced them with tabs superglued in place.  That was done to give extra strength so that when I sanded them down to get a smooth fuselage they stayed in place and didn't fall in to the fuselage.  They also helped level the doors with the fuselage surface as much as possible, which I hope will make the smoothing job easier.  The decals have printed windows for the fuselage and for the cockpit glazing, so I have set in strips under the fuselage windows and will fill them from the outer surface after the fuselage is glued together.

 

 

The instructions mention 9g of nose weight to be added if the model is to sit on it's undercarriage, so I added a small pile of lead shot behind the bulkhead, secured with 5 minute epoxy.

 

 

There we are then, I have started.  Bearing in mind my dismal performance in some GBs I will try really hard to do better with this one.

[Jinxman]

Agree she's a beauty - looking forward to seeing this come together.

[PeterB]

I agree that the later BA markings, though impressive, are not as good as the BOAC ones to my mind. I actually did mine in the old blue scheme and used Blick lettering to make it BOAC Cunard I think, although perhaps that was my 707 - my memory is not what it used to be. Incidentally, I thought that the Speedbird was in Gold like the BOAC lettering?

 

Pete

Edited August 4, 2019 by PeterB

[Rabbit Leader]

An excellent choice for both this GB and 1964, Natter. Funnily enough I’ve been working in the Airline industry for over thirty years and have never built an airliner model! Might have to amend that somehow. The VC-10 is such a beautiful aircraft and it’ be great to see this being built here.

 

 Cheers and warm welcome.. Dave 

[Natter]

6 hours ago, PeterB said:

Incidentally, I thought that the Speedbird was in Gold like the BOAC lettering?

 

Pete

Like you Pete, I thought the Speedbird was in gold.  In the later schemes she was, but in the earlier scheme when the aircraft entered service in 1964 the Speedbird on the tail was white as in the photo linked here.

[PeterB]

Yes, I remember now - I did the later scheme with BOAC in gold on the cheat line, which was wider and sloped down at the nose. As I said on another forum, when BA retired the '10 we had a low flypast over the local GE engine works 5 miles from my house. I was out in my garden when it heard the roar of jet engines with the power being poured on and turned round to see it climbing out as it passed a few hundred feet above me. May have been quiet in the cabin, but 4 Conways throttled up made quite an impression on the ground below!

Edited August 5, 2019 by PeterB

[Hockeyboy76]

A great choice, and a great aircraft. Oh the confusion when boarding and sitting in your seat only to realise you were facing the back of the aircraft. 

[Natter]

On 8/5/2019 at 4:32 PM, Hockeyboy76 said:

Oh the confusion when boarding and sitting in your seat only to realise you were facing the back of the aircraft. 

Almost being slid out of your seat with the acceleration of the take-off roll, and hanging by your lap belt in the climb out.

 

Well, what progress?  Well nothing interesting, just fill, sand, repeat.  There are all sorts of sink marks on the fuselage, wings, tailplane, engines.  The filler of choice for me is cyano and talc mixed to a paste and worked in to the dip, then gently sanded back.  Before sanding the 'blob' looks like this:

 

 

It'll sand back smooth and be hidden for all time.

 

I tried a different technique for the first time on this model.  Cyano and bicarbonate of soda.  Apparently it is easy and gives a good hard surface to sand back, and is great for larger gaps.  Well, I thought, the lower mid fuselage isn't flat and needs building up in the centre; I'll try the cyano/bicarb method.  Oh.  I added a bit too much, but hey; it'll sand back.  Won't it?  The rat tail file barely touched it.  400 grade only scratched at it.  Believe it or not I had to get the b@st@rd file out of the garage to make progress!  Yes, seriously.  I'll use the technique again, but it gives a rock hard filler so needs careful application.  After a good hour of careful filing I was ready for some Mr Surfacer 500 and a bit more filling, sanding and repeating.  It's about there now:

 

 

The stabiliser is split horizontally and is supposed to clamp over the two pegs at the top of the fin to articulate.  Moving control surfaces were such a major feature of models of the 60s and 70s, but it makes it a little difficult for gap filling or sanding seams.  To get around this I cut a small portion of the holes, allowing the stabililser to clip on and off the locating pegs on the top of the fin:

 

 

Finally for this entry, the S&M decals have arrived.  To paraphrase Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket - These are my decals.  There are many like them, but these ones are mine.

 

[Rabbit Leader]

CA is my choice of filler as well, however I've never used an additive to mix it with. I might try this should I ever find the requirement which probably wont be too long judging by the bad kits I tend to build. Nice progress and I bet you just cannot wait to apply those decals. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Natter]

A wee bit of an update.  Fill, sand, repeat seems to be a recurring theme with this build.  Because it is an airliner it should be nice and shiny with no untoward lumps or seams, so I am trying my best to do it justice.

 

The windows were filled with Perfect Plastic Putty, but this shrinks a little as it dries out; so I filled the dimples that were left after the first sanding with cyano and talc mix and re-sanded.  A couple of rounds were needed, but it isn't too bad.  Not perfect, but not too bad:

 

 

The windscreen transparency wasn't too bad a fit considering it is an old mould, but there was a nasty gap at the bottom front.  This was filled with PPP and then cyano on top and sanded back.  Since the photo was taken the windscreen had a polish up with 1500 grade to get the worst of the scratches out ready for paint.  The windscreen will be covered with a decal on the finished model:

 

 

While cleaning up the engines I sanded off the representation of the inboard reverse thruster on both sides:

 

 

When the engines were fitted there was a mismatch between the fuselage side of the engine pylon fairing and the engine side:

 

 

To deal with this mismatch I cut a couple of small triangular fillets and glued those in to place.  Careful filing and sanding blended these in to give a continuous run from the fuselage to the engines:

 

 

Plenty of sanding and cleaning up took place as I primed the model to get to the stage I am at now.  The model is primed with Halfords white Plastic Primer and has been rubbed over with a dry kitchen paper towel to smooth it down some.  It will need another going over with a piece of fabric to get it ready for the Halfords Appliance White and, probably, Tamiya Sky Grey:

 

 

More soon.

[Rabbit Leader]

Thats some very neat modelling going on there Natter. I tend to agree that airliners look best all glossed up and smooth skinned but trust me, after a few years of hard service and being bashed by those pesky baggage and catering vehicles, you’d be surprised how beaten up some of these airframes do get! This VC-10 is really looking good, can’t wait for the next instalment. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Hockeyboy76]

Great work so far, she’s looking good. 

[Natter]

Here we are again.  A little has been done over the last week and this weekend.  Not much, just a wee bit.  The wheels were sprayed with a mix of vallejo model colour; two-thirds German Grey to one third Black.  For some reason this took about two days to dry, normally it is dry enough to handle or repaint in about half an hour.  The undercarriage was sprayed in tracrylix Light Aircraft Grey.  I have a few new bit to try and the AK Air Series Paneliner was next up.  A small dab on the bottom of the main and nose undercarriage was used to just pop out the details, such as they are.  To do the wheel hubs I thought about using a punch and die to make masks, but in the end I was less patient.  I used a circle drawing template, placed it over the wheels in turn and sprayed the other new try-out through the template to colour the hubs - Vallejo metal color acrylic; in this case Aluminium.

 

 

The fuselage had its spray of Halfords Appliance White and had a couple of days to dry.  After masking the Tamiya Sky Grey was sprayed using Mr Color Levelling Thinner.

 

 

The engines had the metallics sprayed on after some fiddly masking.  The 'hot ends' are a mix of the Vallejo metal color acrylic Aluminium, Dark Aluminium and Burnt Iron.  Revell 11 silver was used on the forward faces of the engines and the inside of the inlets.  The inlet rings were masked and a Moltow liquid chrome pen used to apply the shiny ring of the inlet. 

 

The decals have started to go on, and they are quite hard work; though much of that is probably down to me.  A sharp scalpel blade was used to cut as close as possible to the decal edge ans they are printed on continuous film.  Getting everything lined up is, err, challenging.  The cheatline over the engine needed cutting thinner and I have not done that at all well.  I will have to try and fill it in with a fine paintbrush.  The front of the cheatline and the nose shape are all one decal which is quite difficult to line up, and it doesn't meet in front of the windscreen.  Was that the decal or was that me?  I don't know, but I shall tidy that up before the final gloss coat.  The aircraft registration on these early schemes is on the central stripe of the tail and three options are made available with the decals.  I have selected G-ARVF (Victor Foxtrot).  Victor Foxtrot made the first transatlantic crossing by a VC10, coming straight back the next day.

 

Right now I'm up to here:

 

 

[Rabbit Leader]

Decalling can be hard work at times, although can be very rewarding as the results of this VC10 clearly shows. Those wheels have also come up well, hard to imagine this is is all 1/144 scale. 

 

Cheers and nice progress.. Dave 

[Jinxman]

That looks very neat - a wonderful looking aeroplane as well.

[Natter]

Just in case people think I have missed them, in early service, in the white Speedbird livery, the BOAC VC10s didn't have the inner wing fences.  I used the parts from my Roden model in the stash to give an outline size and shape, and finessed the plasticard copies to fit the wings of the Airfix model.  A quick last minute internet search to confirm the locating position actually showed that they were not there in early or mid 1964, the time I am modelling 'VF.  By the time she was in the Golden Speedbird livery the fences were in place, but I don't have a time for the modification, I only know they weren't there to start with.  There are probably lots of other faults, but not that one!

[Hockeyboy76]

Really really nice. 

[Natter]

Good evening All, just a small update.  I have done a few bits to the model just recently.  This is where I am up to now:

 

 

The decals didn't quite meet on the front of the nose so I ordered some Midnight Blue Mr Color.  It duly arrived and appeared a little too 'grey' so I mixed up some Tamiya black and medium blue to get a closer match.  It's a little too black, but it isn't too bad a match:

 

 

The radome needs a bit of black once this is properly dry, but that may be tomorrow or a little later.  I put the undercarriage together this evening as well.  The idea of getting eight mainwheels and two nosewheels all on the ground at the same time daunted me, so I have cheated.  I have opened up the holes for the wheel axles a little and just glued the rear mainwheels to the axles allowing for some movement up and down and rocking side to side.  The front mainwheels have thinner axles to allow all of them them more movement to (hopefully) touch the ground.  The nosewheels have just a little up and down movement but should be able to rock side to side to find a level.  There's a bit of 'should' and 'hope' in there that will play out when I put the  undercarriage on after a gloss coat.

 

 

The side braces for the main undercarriage are 20swg wire.  The plastic ones in the kit are very flimsy and are more oval than round, so they have been discarded.  Radome, gloss coat, undercarriage on should be all that's left now.

[Jinxman]

She looks very smart indeed - elegant for sure.

[Rabbit Leader]

Beautiful photos if what’s turning out to be a beautiful GB model. Great progress Natter. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[stringbag]

Lovely looking VC-10 Dave, and probably the best livery they ever wore during their service life.

I'm sure that at the time, the early examples would have had thrust reversers on all four engines.  There may well be someone out there that can confirm my suspicions or prove otherwise although I've had a look on the web, and found some pictures showing four.  I've some spare decal reversers I can send you should you need them.

Sorry I've only just seen this thread otherwise I'd have mentioned it earlier. 

All the best.

Chris.

[Natter]

23 hours ago, stringbag said:

Lovely looking VC-10 Dave, and probably the best livery they ever wore during their service life.

I'm sure that at the time, the early examples would have had thrust reversers on all four engines.  There may well be someone out there that can confirm my suspicions or prove otherwise although I've had a look on the web, and found some pictures showing four.  I've some spare decal reversers I can send you should you need them.

Sorry I've only just seen this thread otherwise I'd have mentioned it earlier. 

All the best.

Chris.

Hi Chris,

 

I looked all over the place for 'references', particularly about the inner wing fences and the thrust reversers.  In the end this promo video of the VC-10's swayed my choice.  The VC10s shown are in a mix of liveries so not all the film is from 1964, though there are several shots of the original livery aircraft with only the outer thrust reversers; including 'VF.  It has made me realise that I have forgotten the underside thrust reversers though, something I need to rectify.

 

 

[PeterB]

21 hours ago, stringbag said:

Lovely looking VC-10 Dave, and probably the best livery they ever wore during their service life.

 

Personally I like the slightly later version with the plain blue tail with the big gold "Speedbird" and the cheat line that widened towards the front and swept down under the cockpit - much better than the rather gaudy almost toy-like BA red to my mind. All a matter of personal taste of course.

 

Looking good!

 

Pete

[Natter]

Geed evening All, well she's done.  Unfortunately the artificial light is harsh and very directional, so the photos are a little unflattering.  The last of the decals have been applied and the radome has had a shot of black.  The airframe has had a couple of coats of Klear to seal the decals and give it a bit of a shine.  The undercarriage is on and all the wheels touch the ground as was hoped.  The ailerons, flaps and elevators have been outlined with AK's 'Paneliner for Grey and Blue Camouflage' which is an enamel wash.  I have bought a set of these as I have struggled with the like of Flory's washes; which everyone else seems to get on with very well so it's more than likely just me.  I have added small scratch aerials as the model had them moulded with the fuselage halves, at about a foot thick in scale they went straight away.  I have added the two main pitot heads as well, but only the two most prominent ones under the windscreen.

 

More photos will follow in the Gallery when I get the chance to take some in natural light.  For now this will have to suffice, sorry...

 

 

[Norman]

Lovely !!!!!