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Summer Holiday Project - Airfix Victor K2


SimonL

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It’s been a very arid year for model

making, not really had a chance to get time at the bench since July. So I have a couple of kits unfinished, but I’ve been eyeing this kit for awhile and decided it might be what I need to get me going again. 
 

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First thoughts - that’s a lot of plastic, somewhat harder than the usual Airfix fare. 

 

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Busy decal sheet.

 

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I’ll be building this one:

 

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I was itching to get on with it - but then a delay. Nasty little heat wave here in Perth, WA - 4 days of 40 degrees. Managed to get to cutting plastic yesterday morning. Straight to work on the cockpit, and here is where I am at after 24 hours.

 

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Shame it’s going to be pretty much invisible, rather pleased with how that has come out.

 

 

 

 

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It’s a lovely kit but sadly, as you say, almost all of your hard work in the cockpit is going to be invisible, even if you leave the door open.  XL231 is my favourite Victor: I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of her and sit in the pilot’s seat as a spotty air cadet in 1977, and was more than slightly chuffed that she made it into preservation.  She was the first K. Mk. 2 conversion and the only K. Mk. 2 to fly with the “D” type National Markings.  I’m presently using the B. Mk. 2R kit to depict her as a camouflaged Wittering Wing Blue Steel carrier.

 

One area of the kit that has caused some minor concern is that the wing centre section doesn’t quite sit flush into its recesss in the upper fuselage, although this boxing seems slightly better than the Blue Steel version. A couple of minutes’ work with a half-round or oval-section file on the inside of the centre section leading and trailing edges should sort this out, but do it before installing the upper halves of the air intakes and their support structure: guess how I found this out😖.

 

If you feel the need for a little AMS tweaking you can drill out the landing lights just outboard of the aft corners of the main wheel bays and the floodlights in the fuselage sides just above the rear end of the HDU fairing.  You might also want to consider re-rigging the ailerons 4 degrees trailing edge up: this was introduced to reduce the bending moment on the wings by reducing the lift on the outer panels, thereby allowing for a higher fatigue index to be achieved.  Earlier in their lives the K. Mk. 2s had had this set at 2 degrees, but the need to keep the fleet in the air as long as possible saw the increase to 4 degrees some time in the mid eighties.  Apart from that Airfix have pretty much done it all for us

 

 

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25 minutes ago, stever219 said:

I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of her and sit in the pilot’s seat as a spotty air cadet in 1977, 

You lucky devil! The Victor still looks so modern today. Thanks for the advice and interesting background information I was aware of the issues with the wing section, but always good to be reminded! This is going to be an out of the box build, but I may take you up on the drilling out of the lights!

 

12 minutes ago, Mikey-1980 said:

Looking forward to watching your build here!

 

Hopefully the plastic wont melt in the heat?

thanks. Strange you should say that, but I had a little issue with that a few years ago, not sure if the images are visible as it was back when I was using Photobucket. Lesson learnt.

 

 

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40 minutes ago, SimonL said:

You lucky devil! The Victor still looks so modern today. Thanks for the advice and interesting background information I was aware of the issues with the wing section, but always good to be reminded! This is going to be an out of the box build, but I may take you up on the drilling out of the lights!

 

You’re welcome Simon.  I hope I wasn’t trying to teach you to suck eggs.  Agreed that the Victor still looks modern; sometimes I wonder how it would perform with modern engines and avionics.

 

i’ve just seen your Vampire thread, that was some recovery.  Do you do training courses?  I had a vaguely similar experience trying to use a fan heater to speed up the drying of some Milliput on an Airfix Harrier but with rather more fatal consequences for the model.

 

Like Mikel I’m looking forward to seeing your progress: mine’s stalled waiting for some decent weather to do some spraying outside.

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Looks good so far! I'm looking forward to starting my second airfix Victor soon. I'll be following this build, I'm thinking of getting a K.2 as a third one (can you tell I like Victors? Well.... V Bombers in general). When you build the wings, there is a serious error in the instructions that would have you chop up the wrong bit around the flaps! Make sure to read around a bit so you don't mess it up.

Nice to see an Airfix K.2 rather than the old Matchbox, which is fairly atrocious by comparison, to build an accurate model from it you may as well scratch build. The Airfix has very few errors and captures the Victor brilliantly.

Edited by Adam Poultney
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On 12/17/2019 at 6:34 PM, stever219 said:

I hope I wasn’t trying to teach you to suck eggs.

Not at all! Any advice is much appreciated.

 

On 12/17/2019 at 6:34 PM, stever219 said:

i’ve just seen your Vampire thread, that was some recovery.  Do you do training courses?

 

On 12/17/2019 at 7:11 PM, Mikey-1980 said:

Great recovery though on the Vamp...superb build!

Many thanks - no courses on offer 😁 I don’t intend to make that mistake again (just new ones).

 

3 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

When you build the wings, there is a serious error in the instructions that would have you chop up the wrong bit around the flaps!

Er, wasn’t aware of that. Will do some searching around. Any advice gratefully received.

 

Progress in the last day or so. Focussing mainly on the undercarriage and fuselage.

 

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After reading around, I decided to glue the instrument panel in before closing up the fuselage (contrary to the instructions). I gather it is a bit fiddly otherwise. All went together pretty easily.

 

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One last look at the cockpit before I start considering sealing up the fuselage.

 

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While I wait for the glue to dry I need to consider the paint choices for the outside.

 

I prefer Tamiya Acrylics, and while there are no direct matches (and I don’t want to get into making mixes) the following appear to be adequate.

 

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Excellent work on the cockpit Simon, a real shame it will mostly be hidden.

 

My own modelling has come to a halt, 45C here today in Adelaide as it has been for most of the week, hopefully some relief tomorrow.  
 

AW

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36 minutes ago, Andwil said:

45C here today in Adelaide

Ouch! We had that weather over the last weekend. I was in Adelaide a couple of weeks ago - it wasn’t that warm on Day 2 of the test match at the Adelaide Oval!

 

Here is the view I had just as Warner got his 300.

 

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To quote @Retired Bob from my thread earlier in the year (step numbers are for the blue steel version, but I'm fairly sure the error is repeated in the K.2 boxing), 

Quote

The wing centre upper section that fits onto the fuselage needs to be thinned along with the mating section of the fuselage until it fits without a step, you need to dry fit the parts to see the problem and the remedial work is obvious.  If you are building it with flaps down no problem, but if you want the flaps up DO NOT cut off the wing trailing fairing as the plans direct at steps 28 & 29, it's the wrong bit to cut off.  Victors were never parked with flaps down so I am putting mine up, the bit to actually cut off is the flap track that extends out at the rear of the lower wings, parts D5 & D6, again dry fit the parts and the problem with the flaps not fitting is obvious.  I have not found any other problems, so far.  

 

 

 

Edited by Adam Poultney
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Thanks Adam, very helpful!

 

Progress over the last few days.
 

Fuselage went together well, considering the size. Needed a fair bit of tape to hold it together while the glue did it’s work.

 

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A dry fit of the wing to the fuselage revealed the step mentioned above, made worse by some small sink marks. Also some more sink marks which I will deal with later when I glue the wing on.

 

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Bit of work with some sanding sticks and dry fitting, and this looks a bit better.

 

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Started on gluing the intakes to the top of the wing. 
 

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The box lid made a convenient tray for a spot of spraying of the intakes with a rattle can of Tamiya white primer. 
 

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Meanwhile as I intend to have everything “closed up”, I glued the air brake doors in place - very nice fit. 
 

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A dry fit of the lower fuselage insert, looks  hopeful. 
 

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Now as I am planning to have everything closed up, I assume I can just do a little surgery so that this fits flush with the insert.

 

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Looking good! Did you remember the nose weight? 

 

Just be aware the the intakes will want a small amount of filler, not much, but certainly some. I didn't do that on mine, it looks ok but I would do it next time (I will have another on Wednesday!).

 

Nice to know the insert in the bomb bay is good, not that it's much of a bomb bay on the K.2 anyway, the one on the Blue Steel insert is too short by almost the exact width of an old credit/debit card or library card or something like that. 

Edited by Adam Poultney
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6 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

Did you remember the nose weight?

Oh yes indeed 🙂 my usual fishing weights and blutak.

 

 

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and noted about the filler, I assumed I would need some.

Edited by SimonL
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Progress over the last few days has been focussed on the wings, and the structures within them. It looked complicated in the instructions but actually pretty straight forward in the end. Airfix have engineered the intakes extremely well, and other than some PVA to hide the seams went together really well. I was also a bit worried about the outer wing section, but that has lined up nicely as well with the help of the rigid box structure through the middle of the wing. Wheel wells were easy to sort out. I painted them with Tamiya Matt Aluminium and a dirty wash of raw umber acrylic in floor polish before glueing then in place. 
 

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Inspired by @Adam Poultney’s rapid progress I thought I should get back to this beast. 
 

The step I had been dreading - getting the wings on. I took it slowly, gluing it bit by bit. Then it was on with the lower wing sections and the exhausts. Here I am part way through, and running into the problem of where to put it! 

 

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Meanwhile I worked on the other bits and pieces. It would appear that this aircraft had the windows for the bomb aimer’s position plated over. Rather than just paint them, I cut some plastic card to size and glued it to each pane. Once sanded down I think it will look the part. I also used some card to fill a narrow gap that I seem to have at the front of the wing tanks.

 

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I managed to forget to take any more photos as I focussed on sorting the main airframe. Quite a handful to avoid knocking any bits off. 
 

Here is where I am at tonight, with the main undercarriage just dry fitted. Has to clear my desk to make space! Still some filler to rub down.

 

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You've made good progress, I like your approach to the bomb aimer's window. I might have to nick that when (not if) I build a K.2.

Glad I inspired you to get back to this build. 

 

One thing to note earlier in the thread that I missed is I think the sidewall colour in the forward part of the cockpit on K.2s is light grey, but I'm not certain so don't quote me on that haha.

 

Another thing I'd recommend doing is adding the pitot parts now before you paint anything they might get in the way by the result will probably be better. You can always replace the pitots themselves with metal ones if they get damaged.

 

I see you got the flaps on correctly without cutting off any fairings you shouldn't. Well done on this, it took me a while to figure out what to do on my first one. My second has them down so the instructions can be followed for that.

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1 hour ago, Adam Poultney said:

I see you got the flaps on correctly without cutting off any fairings you shouldn't. Well done on this, it took me a while to figure out what to do on my first on

Thanks for the advance warning! I would never have sussed it out otherwise.

 

1 hour ago, Adam Poultney said:

Another thing I'd recommend doing is adding the pitot parts now before you paint anything they might get in the way by the result will probably be better. You can always replace the pitots themselves with metal ones if they get damaged.

I suspect you are right. I was going to add as much as possible before painting. Let’s see if I can avoid breaking them 🙂

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5 minutes ago, SimonL said:

Thanks for the advance warning! I would never have sussed it out otherwise.

Np, happy to give advice where needed with this kit. It's strange that Airfix didn't fix it on the K.2 rebox since the issue is fairly well known.

 

6 minutes ago, SimonL said:

I suspect you are right. I was going to add as much as possible before painting. Let’s see if I can avoid breaking them 🙂

My first one's survived, if a little knocked and bent along the way. They are fine though. If I break my new one's pitots, it's an excuse to use metal ones (and to improve the IFR probe from the kit that will be a donor part to repair my first one, since metal pitots come with a metal part fit the tip of the IFR probe; repairing the first one was half the motivation for doing an early B.2)

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Last few days have been taken up painting. The masking took a surprisingly long time to do. I added a bit of white to the XF-20 for the light aircraft grey, the XF-57 I used as it came. It took a while, even with my largest brush, but I am pretty happy with the results. There are a few places which need some attention, but the main paint job is done! Didn’t break the pitots, but did knock off some of the blade aerials. Easy enough to fix. Also in the picture - my rendition of the Airfix Jet Provost T3 which I hope to have finished over the weekend.

 

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Thanks! I will be adding it to the model shortly, and then add a final coat while it’s in place. I’m using a new masking tape and wanted to leave it off in case there was a little disaster. From the view “underneath” it looks like it has worked just fine.

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Ah right, makes sense. I bought Eduard masks for mine, although the Halfords white didn't do too well over that. Just a few touch ups and only one tiny and fixable bit of leakage under the tape, probably due to my less than perfect application of the masks. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am at the gloss coat stage. Canopy attached, last bit of painting done and then a coat of floor polish added with a large flat brush, specially purchased for the occasion! 
 

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Always happy to get to this stage - the gloss coat protects what can sometimes be a the fragile surface of the acrylic paint. Decals next....

 

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