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Vickers Nimrod MR.1 - and now the masking etc


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Hello.

 

This will be my first group build contribution in a while. I have an idea of what I’m doing, but need to get my mitts on the hapless kit before I go public.

 

It’s an aeroplane........naturally

 

It’s a WHIF..........again

 

I’m working up my backstory so as to have some tenuous grip on reality.

 

Stay tuned :please:

 

Trevor

 

EDIT - it’s a Nimrod! Well kinda :P

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Ok then. I’ve ordered the Airfix Vickers Vanguard from that forest in Brazil and I’ll get it mid-week.

 

My rationale is that the Hawker Siddeley submission (which was a last minute entry) somehow didn’t get selected. I’m working on the backstory. However I will have an open bomb bay and am debating whether it gets shortened by about six feet like the Electra/Orion. What do you think?

 

Trevor

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I’ll wait and see until I get the kit and then mark out the 6’ to see what it looks like. If it works visually, then I might so with it. In any event looking at the P-3, I note that the weapons bay is just behind the cockpit. I wonder if this has anything to do with c.g. considerations?

 

Good grief, I’m actually thinking logically :drunk:

 

Trevor

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The Orion/Electra is your obvious precedent, but you can also look at the Ilyushin Il-38 "May" derived from the Il-18 transport/airliner.  IIRC the May actually shifted the wing location forward to maintain centers of mass and lift in proper order relative to the added bomb bay.  A Gannet/Skyraider-like chin radome as used on the May could also make for an interesting feature.

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Looking at the respective lengths of the Nimrod and Vanguard, they appear more or less to be the same length, so it appears that the RAF wanted a Comet 4 size airframe and not the original 1. Still I’ll see. As for moving the relative position of the wing / that smacks of too much work!

 

Anyway, I’ve been told my delivery will be with me by Friday.

 

Plenty of time to strategise!

 

Trevor

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Hi Trevor,

 

I have drawings of the proposed MR versions of the Trident and VC10, and thought I had one of the Vanguard but apparently not. I know a conversion of a Britannia/CL44 was also suggested together with several other machines including at least one with swing wings. The \Air Ministry rejected the Atlantique as too small and I believe they thought the VC10 was too big.

 

Looking forward to seeing this one built.

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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I AM NOT HAPPY 

 

The Brazilian rain forest failed to deliver the goods by 8pm 🤬

 

When ordered last weekend, it said Wednesday. On Monday it was revised to today by 8pm.

 

Its not even reached the dispatcher yet.

 

Could take up to next Wednesday.

 

Trevor

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2 hours ago, Max Headroom said:

I AM NOT HAPPY 

 

The Brazilian rain forest failed to deliver the goods by 8pm 🤬

 

When ordered last weekend, it said Wednesday. On Monday it was revised to today by 8pm.

 

Its not even reached the dispatcher yet.

 

Could take up to next Wednesday.

 

Trevor

Crikey, that’s poor service! 

 

Last year I had a “guaranteed 2 day delivery “ from the Australian branch of the rain forest retailer that took 10 days - but at least the rain forest dispatched it on time, once it got into the (n)ever-reliable hands of Australia Post its 55km journey took a 6800km detour via Perth. The online tracking was fascinating reading!

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37 minutes ago, zebra said:

but at least the rain forest dispatched it on time, once it got into the (n)ever-reliable hands of Australia Post its 55km journey took a 6800km detour via Perth. The online tracking was fascinating reading!

At least it got an around the continent trip, must have been quite interesting to see though. Last November a local member sent me a box of paint via the U.S. postal service. Now he lives about 45-50 miles away from me. However it seems the package decided it wanted to go to Pennsylvania before coming to me. So it isn't only Australia, seems the post office is messed up in every country. 

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Hi Trevor,

 

Might be wrong but those co-ords of yours seem to put you near Broughton where I used to live before I emigrated to South Wales.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

At least it got an around the continent trip, must have been quite interesting to see though. Last November a local member sent me a box of paint via the U.S. postal service. Now he lives about 45-50 miles away from me. However it seems the package decided it wanted to go to Pennsylvania before coming to me. So it isn't only Australia, seems the post office is messed up in every country. 

USPS seems to me to be quick sometimes, bafflingly slow at others. I’ve bought things from the US that seem to take over a week just to leave the country. But I once had a delivery that I wasn’t expecting from somewhere near Seattle. Turned out the Hannants order (which I hadn’t expected to arrive yet) had got sruck to the back of another modeller’s shipment, and he sent it on to me (and Hannants refunded his postage). And despite all that it got to me a lot quicker than I expected.

 

I think I’ve derailed @Max Headroom‘s thread enough! Trevor, I hope your kit arrives soon, I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with it. Can’t help wondering whether the Vickers Nimrod might have been an export success - I’m imagining it in RAAF colours!

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Thanks for the sympathy guys 👍🏻
 

I notified the sellers via the Amazon portal and I had a reply from them this morning. They advertise a 3-5 day service and say they delivered the kit to whoever distributes them on time. So it’s the delivery service 🤬

 

@PeterB - you’re not wrong. A little bit further up the Dee Estuary! The co ordinates are for Neston Cross.

 

I’ll post some musings about the logic of the actual model later......

 

Trevor

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There’s a note on my doormat saying the Post Office attempted delivery this morning.

 

I was out shopping......

 

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I now have to wait until Monday to collect from the depot.

 

Truly the plastic modelling gods hate me

 

Trevor the irritated 

 

 

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After the wait here are the traditional ‘before’ shots

 

48861475567_2c5a7a1cfd_b.jpg

 

48861281941_5f45ee6114_b.jpg

 

48861481282_1e93e97f56_b.jpg


Although it’s not important as far as I’m concerned, the way this kit was advertised showed it to be the latest release with BEA red square and EAS livery.

 

As you can see, it’s not state of the art, but the parts are all there (even if some fell off the sprue), flash is minimal and there appears to be little mould wear. The transparencies are rather thick and not clear, but I won’t need most of them and I have an idea about the windscreen (which I’ll be using btw). There are two bulkheads for strengthening the fuselage. These will come in handy later, as I think I’ll be chopping the fuselage to make it shorter and mocking up an open bomb bay. Taking the Comet 4 as my baseline, the ‘real’ Vanguard is 11 feet longer. My aim is to have my model roughly the same length again once the MAD stinger and radar nose are added.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Trevor

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Okay, a quick update from me. I’ve taped an 11’ plug in the front fuselage. The measurement is from the inside edges of the tape.

 

48861984192_2539f4c489_b.jpg Look

 

Doesn’t look too bad. The S&M Viscount is above it gives scale. Never appreciated there was such a difference in size between the two.


I’ll have to check whether there’s enough space for a bomb bay. The Nimrod could carry nine MK.46 torpedoes of 8’6” in length, so that will give me an idea of the size I need.

 

Here is a snap of the inside of the fuselage showing where the bulkhead is placed. It would make sense to use this as one of the bomb bay bulkheads and as the dimensions of the fuselage is constant, it should be easy to duplicate for the other bulkhead too.

 

48861264718_88a5a11210_b.jpg

More tomorrow?

 

Trevor

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So where was I before the hiatus? I should explain that my modelling is mostly at weekends and as I was away for the last one, I’ve had time to think about a little light destruction to morph this into a WHIF.

 

So I go to our table and start some measuring. Just wafting a Murphy’s Rule over the proceedings (remembering to halve the 1/72 gradations for 1/144) before  getting out the saw and I come across my first problem.

 

48922863088_ae7f1982bd_b.jpg

 

This is Ally.....Ally the Cat (get it? Oh suit yourself). She likes paint brushes, playing with gravity and face rubs. She also likes sprues.

 

So, if I’m chopping the front fuselage I need to know how this would all fit in the real world (real.....I’m actually thinking this through).

 

Using the blanking plate as a template and which incidentally I’ll duplicate for the other end of the bomb bay;

 

48922863503_3847e83dd2_b.jpg

 

F = the cabin floor/bomb bay roof as this is the chine along the outside. The 1/8” circles are as near as make no difference the with width of a MK.46 torpedo (12 3/4”). D = the hinge line for the bomb bay door and which is conveniently scribed with a fine raised line on the outside. 
 

I should explain that I’m using feet (‘) and inches (“) because that’s how the Murphy’s Rule is calibrated and with my mathematical rubbishness, converting real measurements to mm would be painful. The other side is 1/48.

 

48923702322_48832ba8e5_b.jpg

 

The sprues in the photo below are runners cut from an Italeri Spitfire Vb and are a scale 8’6” length. Based on my taping up of the fuselage from the last post, they would fit (just), so I will probably make the cut just a little further forward.
 

48922864378_a402328635_b.jpg

 

Doing that would give me a bomb bay with 10 torpedoes.

 

As the fuselage is a constant width, I could fit another five behind the wing too.

 

48923678927_34b3c93521_b.jpg

 

That’s a decent enough bomb load. However, I’ve decided to keep the rear firmly shut and will scribe the bomb doors. In ‘real life’ I suppose auxiliary fuel cells could be added in order to increase range.

 

Next post will show the results of my butchery..........

 

Trevor

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......oh heavens, I uttered. Mrs H looked up from her jigsaw and was full of compassion and sympathy for my predicament. 
 

After I had finished hyperventilating and generally calmed down, I chopped a bit off the chopped-off bit and returned it back to the unchopped bigger bit.

 

48923353878_921b1a9f72_b.jpg

 

Please tell me if I’m getting too technical here.

 

Here is a ‘during’ comparison.

 

48923560566_b42fc3b0bb_b.jpg

 

The next stage in destructioneering was the bomb bay. I reasoned that the rear would be just in front of the wing box section amidships. Not trusting the masking tape for a straight line again, I used Dymo Tape. There is a fine raised line running vertically in the right place, so that was used as the reference point. There was another line running horizontally which I also decided I could use as the hinge line.

 

48923889441_7f7fd6a8e3_b.jpg


The kit supplied bulkhead fits in its new position and I took the opportunity to place some of the scrap fuselage to add as a butt join for it.

 

48924090462_8253521b9b_b.jpg

 

The bulkhead is only fitted temporarily for alignment as I need it as a template  for another and to detail.


Here is the result. This time I scored the relevant parts off. I will either use the cut-off bits as the bomb doors, or will use them as templates for new ones.

 

48923702751_7281d96ca7_b.jpg

 

Finally for now, is evidence of the slathering of filler being used.

 

48924091357_d8e5ed8bd6_b.jpg


Thanks for looking!

 

Trevor

 

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And a couple of shots to sign- off with today

 

48926058607_f235e1c313_b.jpg

 

48925327608_c9a9e61fd1_b.jpg

 

Although they may look smooth, the portholes don’t pass the fingertip test, so a smear of Perfect Plastic Putty tomorrow to hopefully get matters sorted.

 

Trevor

 

 

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A quick update from me

 

48931671726_0373911484_b.jpg

 

and what’s that you may ask? This is the result of far too much tube cement being used to stick the reinforcing part on the inside. After 24 hours the plastic was very soft. So it’s a fair statement to say that it never would dry out, leaving gouging it out as the only viable option.

 

Ho hum.

 

Now then, a question if I may. It’s my intention to finish this in the classic white over Light Aircraft Grey and for this I need Humbrol’s 166. It’s available as an enamel and comes in one of those acrylic potlets on their Harrier starter pack, but isn’t available as a stand-alone pot of acrylic, or rattle can as far as I can see. Why? There are, or will be, numerous models in the Airfix catalogue which need this colour.

 

Ah well - just bought my first enamel paint in several years.

 

Trevor

 

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I’m back!

 

Next was replicating the bulkhead with plastic card and the fabrication of the bomb bay roof/cockpit floor. I also added a length of scrap as a lip.

 

48962068438_368d0e9c0b_b.jpg

 

This is the bit I’ve been looking forward to, namely the bomb bay. Looking at that for the Nimrod it looked a bit ‘vanilla’ so I wanted something a bit more busy. I decided that I would need a keel and by chance I had bought some ‘I’ shaped plastic strut, so that went down the length. Some 5 thou rod to create some interest for the bomb bay roof and I ended up with this....

 

48962606936_a1f0966627_b.jpg

 

and with my MK.46 torpedo length sprues, it looks like this...

 

48962995561_4657ef57d9_b.jpg

 

Not bad, even if I say so myself! I may add a third to hang from the keel and then maybe some removable fuel tanks in the front to give a full load?

 

Once added to the fuselage half, it looks a bit like this.

 

48962244948_a4357f3a1f_b.jpg

 

Plastic rod, some sprue and a cut of from the kit runner completes the picture. There’s a shim of 5 thou on the edge of the bulkhead wall to close up a gap.

 

Now then, time to fix the whoops caused by the melted plastic. The obvious answer was to use part of the removed fuselage plug. 


Trying to make the hole rectangular, I ended up like this. Not a perfect fit, but plastic scraps have been wedged in to minimise the amount of filler required.

 

48962791132_899bf216d0_b.jpg

 

I’ll let that set overnight and then use one of the fillers at my disposal to complete the repair.

 

That’s all for now. Thanks for stopping by.

 

Trevor

 

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Curious - 166 was available as an Acrylic Satin colour in my Airfix 2016 catalogue so presumably they have dropped it for some reason.

 

Pete

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