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My Second Airfix Victor B.2


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Happy Christmas to everyone here in Britmodeller! I imagine many of us have some shiny (or not so shiny) new kits to build, so here's mine. An airfix Victor (which I knew I would be getting because I had to order it), and a pleasant surprise of the new Airfix Buccaneer, which to say I'm pleased with is an understatement; I love Buccaneers! My dad picked that out for me, not knowing it was a band new tooling (thank goodness for that, the old kit looks like a real challenge), perhaps because of my obsessive pouring over every last rivet of the Hendon Buccaneer, particularly it's wing folding mechanism. Although I might not have such an in depth knowledge of them as I do the Vulcan or Victor, it's one of the best looking naval aircraft ever built. 

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But in this thread I will be building my Victor. 

Using the knowledge from my previous build, and the experience I have gained since, I want to produce a very good model of my second favourite aircraft (after the Vulcan of course).

I am as of yet undecided as to which scheme, or indeed which subvariant, I want to build. I'm a fan of early V Bombers, so the clean configuration with no Küchemann Carrots, IFR probe or underwing tanks really appeals to me, but I'll have to get resin parts for that. I might do a pure bomber, likely in camouflage as my other airfix Victor, XL512, is in anti-flash. Perhaps I'll do the other Victor included, XL189, as a blue steel aircraft, but to be honest I'm not a fan of only one wing having a roundel, I can get past that though. 

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Here's the kit:

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So that's all the sprues included, eleven in total, ten in dark grey plastic and one clear. 

 

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Having fulfilled my Christmas obligations of bored games and family, I finally got some time for some much needed modelling. I've put together most of the cockpit that will be painted black, or a very dark grey more likely. I see a lot of these having the floor painted light grey, but I now disagree with this having looked through images it seems to be a darker grey.

Look through this link, there are a number of photos of Victor cockpits, both from MK1 and MK2 Victors. I believe blue steel aircraft had black or dark grey painted interiors mostly, rather than the lighter colours the K.2s certainly had.

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/handley-page-victor.html

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Sink marks ughhhh.... As nice as this kit is, you will need to pay attention to sink marks that like to show up everywhere. I'm not bothered by any mould lines on the interior, it'll hardly be seen anyway, although I might leave the door open on this Victor. I still need to add the rest of the pilots' seats, but I'll do that after painting. 

Side note: I upgraded my phone from a Moto G5 to a Moto G8 Plus today and wow the difference in image quality is insane! 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/adamjackpoultney/airfix-victor-172/

Here's the Pinterest board all the images from my previous build are on for comparison if anyone is interested. 

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Four two part rear seats are included, these are to be painted in a green colour which nicely stands out in the rather dark cockpit.  Interestingly, in the Victor B.1 the seats were fixed in place, whereas the B.2's are able to swivel around. 

 

No painting for tonight, and I'll be making my first entry into the Christmas Blitzenbuild tomorrow, probably my Hobbyboss Do 335, but I might build my Tamiya V1 (both to me from 'santa' aka me for the GB 😛). I'll hopefully have some progress made on this by the new year, but I'm pretty busy with family, working and hopefully meeting up with friends.

 

In the meantime, here's a picture of XH672 at Cosford behind a Lightning I took in 2018

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Edited by Adam Poultney
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You'll obviously have seen some of the other threads covering this kit so you should have a fair bit if reference material.

 

All of the B. 2s were delivered from Handley Page in anti flash white, but all were intended to carry Blue Danube or Yellow Sun rather than HE weapons.  None of the jets configured for these weapons wore camouflage at the time.  Once their Blue Steel commitmenr ended they were all flown back to Radlett for the K. Mk. 2 programme, although 543 Squadron's jets remained in active service a little longer.

All of the B. Mk. 2s except XM714 -'718 were built with leading edge flaps which were replaced by the fixed cambered leading edge features in the kit when they had the BS or SR conversions.  These gave the outer wing panels more chord than the fixed leading edges.

Another feature of the Mk. 2s as built was the smaller fin root intake (available in resin from Air-Graphics Models) and less bulky nose protrusion.  The installation as depicted in the kit is another result of the BS and SR conversions.

I hope I've not been trying to teach you to suck eggs and that you're going to enjoy building this kit.

 

Mary Christmas (what's left of it).

Edited by stever219
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6 minutes ago, stever219 said:

You'll obviously have seen some of the other threads covering this kit so you should have a fair bit if reference material.

Yeah I have plenty of general knowledge of the Victor, but nothing like my knowledge of the Vulcan. Any tidbits of information are appreciated such as what you have given. 

8 minutes ago, stever219 said:

All of the B. 2s were delivered from Handley Page in anti flash white, but all were intended to carry Blue Danube or Yellow Sun rather than HE weapons.  None of the jets configured for these weapons were camouflage.  Once their Blue Steel commitmenr ended they were all flown back to Radlett for the K. Mk. 2 programme, although 543 Squadron's jets remained in active service a little longer.

All of the B. Mk. 2s except XM714 -'718 were built with leading edge flaps which were replaced by the fixed cambered leading edge features in the kit when they had the BS or SR conversions.  These gave the outer wing panels less chord than the fixed leading edges.

So the Airfix kit won't represent a Victor with leading flaps (slats right?) without significant modification? In that case I'd be limited to XM714-'718... That's fine as I planned XM715 (my local Victor) or XM717 for that option anyway

What I would like to know now is if pure bomber Victors had Küchemann Carrots at all... Or did these come in only when Blue Steel was introduced?

I'd be tempted to build '714 given my obsession with finding a single picture of it! But I don't really like modelling aircraft that went down with fatalities outside of war. 

17 minutes ago, stever219 said:

Another feature of the Mk. 2s as built was the smaller fin root intake (available in resin from Air-Graphics Models) and less bulky nose protrusion.  The installation as depicted in the kit is another result of the BS and SR conversions.

I hope I've not been trying to teach you to suck eggs and that you're going to enjoy building this kit.

 

Mary Christmas (what's left of it).

I'm aware of this difference, I just can't find where to actually buy the Air Graphics set.

If this build is anything like my previous Victor B.2, it'll be a blast!

 

And merry Christmas to you too, for the remaining hour and 22 minutes. Full "Bah humbug!" mode again after that I think because I'll probably have lost a tiny little piece of model kit somewhere....

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On 12/25/2019 at 10:39 PM, Adam Poultney said:

Yeah I have plenty of general knowledge of the Victor, but nothing like my knowledge of the Vulcan. Any tidbits of information are appreciated such as what you have given. 

So the Airfix kit won't represent a Victor with leading flaps (slats right?) without significant modification? In that case I'd be limited to XM714-'718... That's fine as I planned XM715 (my local Victor) or XM717 for that option anyway

What I would like to know now is if pure bomber Victors had Küchemann Carrots at all... Or did these come in only when Blue Steel was introduced?

I'd be tempted to build '714 given my obsession with finding a single picture of it! But I don't really like modelling aircraft that went down with fatalities outside of war. 

I'm aware of this difference, I just can't find where to actually buy the Air Graphics set.

If this build is anything like my previous Victor B.2, it'll be a blast!

 

And merry Christmas to you too, for the remaining hour and 22 minutes. Full "Bah humbug!" mode again after that I think because I'll probably have lost a tiny little piece of model kit somewhere....

Hi Adam,

 

The Victor leading edge flaps are exactly that rather than slats.  IIRC they pivoted about their lower trailing edges, close to or on the front face of the front spar.  There were two each side with the inboards drooping further than the outboards (there’s a lovely colour image of XL164 landing at Farnborough which shows this quite well).

 

I’m still looking for drawings of the early standard wing so that I can try to work out a modification for the kit but so far without much success.

 

I think that the carrots came in at about the time of the Blue Steel conversions and may well have been incorporated in the last five Victors as built; certainly they hadn’t been by XL231 as there’s an image of her outside at Radlett in anti-flash white without them or the other obvious Blue Steel modifications.

 

If you want to get the Air-Graphics part they do have a website (remember to put the hyphen in when you search).  It’s about £6.50 for what’s not a huge lump of resin but it’s easier than my usual brand of d-I-y (destroy it yourself) bodgery.

 

I know what you mean about not building models of aircraft involved in fatal non-combat write-offs but I’m presently trying to replicate Shackleton WR965 (with thanks to Slufdriver for the decals) which was the only AEW. Mk. 2 lost in service with all aboard on 30th April 1990.  I think in part it’s because many people won’t model her.i

 

Roll on “Bah, humbug!” mode any moment now.😉

 

Edited by stever219
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Ha! Found what I need

https://air-graphics.co.uk/shop?keywords=victor&olsPage=products%2Fac-032-hp-victor-b2-early-mod-fin-conversion

I'll order one of these and find decals for XM714-18.

 

I think the Air Graphics sheet would work but I don't know anything of the quality of the decals they produce, but it looks like everything I would need is there.

https://air-graphics.co.uk/shop?keywords=victor&olsPage=products%2Fhp-victor-b1-b1a-and-b2

 

I think however that I would be better off going with the Xtradecal sheet as that also includes other schemes that I am likely to build in the future. I can't see myself building a third antiflash white Victor until I have a hemp tanker and camouflaged tanker/SR.2/Blue Steel aircraft, and possibly a 1/72 Victor B.1- an unholy hybrid of Flightpath resin, Matchbox and Airfix most likely- because I really am mad, that would likely be XA918 in silver... Please someone just bring out a Victor B.1 1/72 kit......

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72271?result-token=kBme0

 

At this point I will again ask if anyone has, or has ever seen, or has ever heard about and existing pictures of XM714. I am yet to track one down and believe that none exist.

I came across this site which is a treasure trove of Victor pictures

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/model/Handley Page Victor B2

 

XM715's site is also quite useful, providing this image:

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http://www.543sqn.org.uk/latestnews.html

 

'715 is my local Victor, although I have only seen her once, and that's from the air (first and only time I have been at the controls of an aircraft so far! Sadly not a Victor though lol), Brunty is only a 25-35 minute drive away... Really must go to a fast taxi one day. Only thing I would say about doing '715 though is that she is my first choice for a K.2 (which will probably be my next large model purchase, ordered with a new coffee table to put my ever expanding V Bomber collection on), and I don't like to do the same aircraft twice. 

 

The next thing I need to figure out is the intakes. The intake veins on early Victor B.2s were different so some modification will be required.

As I was writing this I came across an amazing thread on this forum which I think has the answers I am looking for

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EDIT: turns out I missed another difference, the oil coolers aren't present on earlier aircraft.

 

Edited by Adam Poultney
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Tonight I've built the nose wheel well. A few sink marks, but all shouldn't be at all visible once the model is built.

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I would advise not following the instructions here and assembling this in a slightly different order. 

In step 10, attach the pipe (J26) to piece J8 before glueing it on. The rest of it is fine. You'll see why I didn't put piece H43 (part of the landing gear itself) in yet in a second, but I recommend you definitely do that when the instructions say!

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I wanted to see if the wheel well was sized right compared to the wheels. And I can now confidently say that the wheels fit in quite nicely. 

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Moving on to the other end of the aircraft, the taillplane comes next.

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You're going to need a tad of filler, especially if you're displaying the control surfaces deflected, which I will be.  And don't be like me and forget there is a 1mm hole to drill. I'll have to compare to my other Victor (because I still haven't had a rainy enough days for all the little antennae and other things at the holes are easily visible) and drill from the outside

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A bit more filler, only needed cut deflected control surfaces.

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Might have broken one of the little pins....

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On 25/12/2019 at 23:57, stever219 said:

 

I’m still looking for drawings of the early standard wing so that I can try to work out a modification for the kit but so far without much success.

 

 

I know what you mean about not building models of aircraft involved in fatal non-combat write-offs but I’m presently trying to replicate Shackleton WR965 (with thanks to Slufdriver for the decals) which was the only AEW. Mk. 2 lost in service with all aboard on 30th April 1988.  I think in part it’s because many people won’t model her.i

 

I think the thread I linked to yesterday has those drawings

 

Any WIP thread for your Shackleton?

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I've ordered the Air Graphics conversion set, so I've begun to make modifications for the earlier examples.

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These intake vanes need removing, the outboard ones from each engine tunnel. 

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Sanded down

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And filled. Just need to sand that down next.

 

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The canopy requires a bit of modification. The slot for the IFR probe needs to go as does the little notch at the front of the fogged over part before the centre panel. You can see where that was sanded off.

 

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The earlier examples didn't have oil coolers and Airfix have conveniently moulded those separately. In hindsight I should have used milliput for this....

 

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I also began to build up the internals of the wing.

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4 minutes ago, Back in the Saddle said:

Great looking kit - I got one for Christmas too! Need to finish off the Revell one first though...! 😁

Very nice! I think between us all on the forum we might just about have the whole V Force lol

 

Which version of the kit did you get? Can't wait to see that build.

And just wait until you have the Airfix one sitting next to the Revell, that will be interesting. You might not want to display them together though, the shapes are quite different to say the least

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Hi Adam. It’s exactly the same kit as yours - the B.2 version. I will probably go for the camouflaged version, but as it won’t get started for a while I reserve the right to change my mind...!

 

At the moment, it’s proving very useful for reference whilst building the Revell model - the Airfix kit has much more detail!

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On 12/29/2019 at 12:50 PM, Adam Poultney said:

I think the thread I linked to yesterday has those drawings

 

Any WIP thread for your Shackleton?

Thanks Adam: I’ve had a look and the A L Bentley drawings give me just about what I need to backdate the outer wing panels.

 

There’s no WIP on the Shackleton; to be honest I’ve not done much but basic sub-assembly work so far.  Another “complication” is that I know two things about getting images from my phone or IPad into a hosting site onto a post on this august forum, nothing and damn all.  I’ve got Flickr but I cannot work out how to get my images in there.  I know that there are “how to’s” on the forum but for all the help they are they might as well have been written in Inland Revenue 80ll0ckese.

 

Back to the Shack: details to be added include seat harnesses in all stations, revised sun blinds in the cockpit and front gunner’s position, delete mounting arms for nose guns (redundant), oxygen bottles in nose gunner’s position, Lindholme Gear containers in bomb bay (robbed from a Nimrod kit), Barracuda Studios wheels, drill out exhaust pipes and major vents and possibly open interior doors and detail galley area and observers’ positions.  The intent is to have the model done in time for the anniversary of the aircraft’s loss on 30th April, ironically Mrs Stever’s birthday🙄, so some of this may fall off the programme.  It’s not a presentation piece for a museum or the Squadron, just to mark the passing of ten men going about their business looking out for us against a threat that never materialised.

Edited by stever219
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2 minutes ago, stever219 said:

Thanks Adam: I’ve had a look and the A L Bentley drawings give me just about what I need to backdate the outer wing panels.

 

There’s no WIP on the Shackleton; to be honest I’ve not done much but basic sub-assembly work so far.  Another “complication” is that I know two things about getting images from my phone or IPad into a hosting site onto a post on this august forum, nothing and damn all.  I’ve got Flickr but I cannot work out how to get my images in there.  I know that there are “how to’s” on the forum but for all the help they are they might as well have been written in Inland Revenue 80ll0ckese.

 

Back to the Shack: details to be added include seat harnesses in all stations, revised sun blinds in the cockpit and front gunner’s position, delete mounting arms for nose guns (redundant), oxygen bottles in nose gunner’s position, Lindholme Gear containers in bomb bay (robbed from a Nimrod kit), Barracuda Studios wheels, drill out exhaust pipes and major vents and possibly open interior doors and detail galley area and observers’ positions.  The intent is to have the model done in time for the anniversary of the aircraft’s loss on 30th April, ironically Mrs Stever’s birthday🙄, so some of this May fall off the programme.  It’s not a presentation piece for a museum or the Squadron, just to mark the passing of ten men going about their business looking out for us against a threat that never materialised.

Use Pinterest, is what I use, and I've only ever had one or two issues with it. Install the app, it's all quite intuitive. Just open up the website in your browser once you've uploaded them through the app, open the image then to on it again, copy the URL and paste it in. Nice and easy. 

Good luck getting your Shackleton done though, I might read into what happened to that one...

1 hour ago, Back in the Saddle said:

Hi Adam. It’s exactly the same kit as yours - the B.2 version. I will probably go for the camouflaged version, but as it won’t get started for a while I reserve the right to change my mind...!

 

At the moment, it’s proving very useful for reference whilst building the Revell model - the Airfix kit has much more detail!

I need a camouflage one in 1/72.... Do I feel the need for a fourth one coming on? Yes.

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Canopy finished and will be put aside until it's needed again.

 

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More intake mods to do

 

And now the big scary mod for the kit......

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Removing the intake from the fin, ready for the resin parts I ordered. The initial cut is made 25mm from the top of the front panel.

 

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Both sides done and cleaned up.

 

Moving onto something less stressful to do

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Painting seats! 

Edited by Adam Poultney
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Postman delivered some nice goodies today!

 

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Now to see what I can get done before I have to go to work at 5...

 

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Airbrake painted and in, fuselage dry fitting nicely around it

 

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And now to rear fit the parts, not bad. The tail will go together properly if I apply pressure to each side. 

 

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Control panel done, I'll probably glue this in place before the fuselage is sealed up this time....

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First post of the year on the Victor, and a bit of a late happy arrival at an arbitrary point in our orbit around the nearest star.

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Fuselage halves are glued together, the instrument panel fell out so I had to put it in afterwards. It's a lot easier if you hold the rest of the model upside down. 

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The resin is glued in and filler is obviously going to be required.

Sanding followed and the need for a dust mask is obvious so I will pick one up asap. For now breathing through a t shirt while sanding will have to do.

Don't do that, not a great idea, get a mask. 

 

 

 

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On 12/30/2019 at 5:37 PM, Adam Poultney said:

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Does anyone know that the small intake under the right wing root (left in the image) is and if it would be there on an early B.Mk.2?

Thanks for the pointer towards the drawings for the early wing configuration during the hostilities festivities; they’ve given me just about everything I need, apart from confidence, to take razor saw to plastic.

 

That is the APU intake, it’s exhaust is further back under the wing.  Airfix have moulded that as a shallow depression inside a raised rim: I’ve opened this up on my models to give more depth which I’ve added with a short length of capped-off tube.

 

I’m going to have a quick web trawl for signs of the installation on early Mk. 2s but it’s not often that photos were taken showing that area of the aeroplane.  My guess is that it was an “as built” item so that jets on QRA from dispersal airfields weren’t reliant on GPUs should the balloon have gone up.

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1 hour ago, stever219 said:

Thanks for the pointer towards the drawings for the early wing configuration during the hostilities festivities; they’ve given me just about everything I need, apart from confidence, to take razor saw to plastic.

Well with regards to confidence I'd say just go for it. 

My first model which I cut up was my recent Vulcan B.1a (now my favourite model I've ever done) and I delayed for months until I just decided screw it in cutting it up. Having 0 experience with that and learning as I went there, I think it went well enough

Just remember, measure twice, measure again and once more just to be sure. Then cut once, better to undercut and correct it later than overcut and be a little stuck with repairs.

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33390f37377814f798934b9fae123feb.jpg

The canopy is now glued in place, along with some surrounding parts. Then I had to go get some new trousers for work when really all I wanted to do was work on this model....

 

That distraction aside, here's some other pictures of the progress 

37e57d008aa46d1c2370aa9cd60017ed.jpgThe nicely blended in tail piece and some other intakes (drilling a hole for one of them didn't go too well so filler was needed to repair but that was before I sealed up the fuselage halves).

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More filler used on the model in various places

The tail isn't glued, just in place to stop the airbrake assembly from being even more broken if the fuselage tips over... Yeah I broke it....

 

Twice.....

 

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Following on from that, more work on the wing assembly. The best bit of any V Bomber kit, the intakes!.... Which of course I went and modified.

 

f2106c56adc4cf5c96994542ea4afdd3.jpg

Just needed to remove a couple of injector pin marks

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