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Airfix 1:72 Avro Vulcan


Back in the Saddle

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Hi Matt,

 

I've been following this build with interest. The masking pitfalls and struggles we all know.  When you said your favourite part was removing the masks I thought for me it's a very nervous stage.  I think it is a case where you will need to use a hard mask like a Tamiya yellow masking tape. I think you will find you will be much happier with the result. You have those nice scale copies of the camouflage pattern to lay over the tape. Draw the pattern onto the tape or tape the copies down  down and follow with your sharp blade. You do not need a full sheet. Even that, I think, 20 mm wide stuff you have using for fill, should suffice. Lay it out and cut the edge. Keep adjusting the tape direction as required. Transfer to the model. Fill in the gaps with something else or more yellow tape. I would still try to take some of the tack off because I do not like big masking areas stuck to the model - just to give a little peace of mind when it comes time for stripping it offt. Get those edges down nicely. On those curved surfaces and if too tight, I would use a thin flexible insulation tape and probably slice a thinner strip to follow it. In fact the thin strips of this stuff could do a lot of the masking without cutting the pattern. 
 

On both these products, frankly, I keep going back to the Tamiya product because it seems to behave better. Many years ago in Australia there was a Castrol TV ad with the tag line "Oils ain't oils, Sol" In this case I think "Masking tapes ain't masking tapes". You probably has seen it already but Paul Budzik does do a nice YouTube video on modelling tapes on his Scale Modelling Workshop site. Worth a look.

 

I really hope you achieve those nice smooth lines and tight demarcation typical of the Vulcan. Keep persevering. Worth it as you mentioned your plan is to do the new Airfix Vulcan.

 

I must look up how they did it on the real aircraft. What a job!  

Edited by Ray_W
Further clarification
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Thanks Ray, some good advice there👍
 

On the plus side, I’ve looked at the underneath again this morning in the cold light of day and I’m actually happy with it. It’s not perfect, but as it’s the first time I’ve done a dirty wash like this I think it’s turned out OK. I wanted to emulate a dirty Vulcan (I’m not sure how dirty they got, but I’ve seen some filthy Victors!); this has everything I wanted - dirty cowlings, streaks from the control surface hinges and PCU’s, general staining and a slight highlighting of the raised panel lines. It’s a bit heavy in places, but acceptable.

 

Time to tidy up the upper surfaces, then it’s the gloss coat, decals, sealing coat and attaching the final few fragile bits!

 

 

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1 hour ago, Jinxman said:

I think once a few decals are on your eye won't notice it as much, and as you say it's all learnings for the new plastic that will be with us soon.

You’re probably right, it certainly looked far less offensive to my eyes this morning!

 

I’ve corrected the grey areas on the upper surface, so just need to mask where needed and touch up the green. First though, I’m watching the tutorial Ray mentioned - I think that will be very useful at this stage of the process!

 

This model (and the Victor) are both proving to be great platforms for practicing new techniques. They may look a bit more scrappy than I would have liked, but the lessons learnt are proving invaluable👍

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey.

I just caught up on this after stalking you looking for that Gnat. It was a gnat wasn’t it? 🤣 Any way you’re fighting the good fight here. As @Ray_W said Tamiya masking tape is your friend. Some use masking fluid and I agree it has its place but big areas like this I don’t like it’s results. I had to double take the masking shots after you did the paper cut outs and then went back to fluid but I see you masked twice. With this one the grey as a whole then a single mask for the darker green would have been ok I think. As you said though it’s a learning curve and the fun is in the trying of new things. 🙌 blu tac sausages are another really good way of masking camo but you do get a more feathered edge.  One more piece of advice, I know not everyone likes a pre-shade but I do. I actually love it. 🤩 but take time as this stage and move your airbrush a little closer to the kit to get the lines. It doesn’t matter if they are slightly off mark but I’ve found that smaller tighter lines give a better result and if you want to have larger shaded areas you can sweep away at a distance over the top. 😀

oh one more. Do you gloss/top coat before decals /weathering? If you don’t you should. Trust me I learned the hard way. 🥳🤣

wonderful work though and she’s looking great. And that spray booth you made is giving me ideas. 🙌🙌🙌🤩

take care.

 

Johnny.

 

 

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2 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

It was a gnat wasn’t it? 

Yep, it was, but you could be forgiven for forgetting that - it’s been on the back burner for a while... These GB’s are fun, but there’s a lot of time pressure trying to complete each kit in the three month window - especially when a lot of the work is weather dependant...

 

3 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Do you gloss/top coat before decals /weathering? If you don’t you should. Trust me I learned the hard way. 🥳🤣

Just getting to that stage! I’ve glossed the underside and once the top is finished that will get a coat too. Hopefully the 30+ year old decals will adhere OK!

 

3 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

wonderful work though and she’s looking great.

Thank you! I’m pleased to be making my mistakes on this kit, not the new tool! 😉

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I'm still hoping to get this finished by the end of the GB - it's amazing what you can achieve when there is a deadline looming!

 

Over the past couple of days I masked the Vulcan for the third time. It's a very over-rated activity! I attempted to cut masking tape to match the required lines, but struggled a bit with this technique - I will try again on the Victor, which is fast approaching the camoflaging stage... For this attempt, I again resorted to Vallejo liquid mask. However, I used it generously, which made a huge difference. Once the mask was removed, the top side of the Vulcan looked far better than on the first attempt:

 

final-top.jpg

 

I'm happy with this. I will let the paint cure overnight, then gently rub it down with 3200 micromesh to ensure a smooth finish. Hopefully in the morning I will get a gloss coat applied, ready for decals. 

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Hey Matt,

Well done … talk about perseverance. Hope the weather is friendly to you. This one deserves to be in the gallery.

Ray

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Busy day today!

I sprayed the gloss coat last night, so spent a couple of hours this morning applying the decals. A quick satin coat followed and this is the current state of play:

 

vulc-decs.jpg

 

Tonight I need to spray the black on the tail fin and the brown patches that are along the spine, fin and wingtips. The refuelling nozzle also needs a dab of silver on the tip! After that, I have to glue on the undercarriage components and entry door - then a quick photo session and upload the images to the gallery before midnight - I feel like Cinderella going to the ball...!

Oh, removing the masking from the windscreen would also help!

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It’s finished! 😀

 

I’ve currently left it on its back whilst the glue on the undercarriage sets - I will set it the right way round and take some photos for the gallery before I go to bed.

 

Bit of a mishap with the decals on the fin. 🙁 Despite spraying it with satin varnish, I managed to dislodge two... the downside of building in a hurry to meet a deadline. Maybe the varnish was too thin?

 

Unfortunately they are both beyond salvaging, so it will just have to go without them for now.

 

All in all an enjoyable build and a great learning platform. I’ve made so many mistakes with this, but the end result is acceptable and the next model (the Victor) should be a huge improvement on this one.

 

Then I can tackle the new tools on these classic V bombers with confidence!👍

 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed it as much as me!

Edited by Back in the Saddle
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Oh, alright then...😁

 

vulc-1.jpg
 

vulc-2.jpg


vulc-3.jpg


vulc-4.jpg

 

A few annoyances along the way (!) and much room for improvement, but still better than any previous kits I’ve built.

 

Particularly happy with the windscreen masking and camouflage in the intakes.👍

 

Not happy with the clarity of the screens, the general quality of the paint/varnish finish and the accidental damage of the fin decals - that was careless and due to me rushing to get it finished today...

 

Lots of lessons learnt for the next kit👍🙂

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