More Vulcans, someone confiscate my bank card!

[Adam Poultney]

So I went to the Midlands Air Museum today, a great day out with my dad and I hugely recommend it. The museum shop is actually pretty good, I found two 1/200 Vulcan kits, not buying both of them would be completely unreasonable! 

Must say I am tempted to cut up one to make a B.1 using the kit's spare tailcone as a donor, but I will probably just build these as B.2s with no modifications aside from correcting the obvious errors. Box schemes look ok, the blue steel version has a camouflaged aircraft and a white one, the Falklands kit has three camouflaged schemes, one is 558. 

It appears the kit includes only 301s, and I want to model an aircraft with 301s if that's what the kit has so that rules out 558 and the white blue steel aircraft, XL321. XM607 and XM597 are the remaining options in the Falklands box and XM595 in the blue steel box is suitable. 

Anyway, I'll be starting these soon, but for now I'll leave some photos of the museum here

 

Victor B.1a XH592 cockpit, very nicely preserved. 

 

Tin (almost) triangle, XL360

The cockpit looks in good condition, I had a good chat with the museum guy who was in there about preserving the V Force. 

I really like this shot

A Folland Gnat, the aircraft lost its wings

This early helicopter undergoing restoration, looking rather good.

Lightning XR771, I love this camouflage scheme!

A rather nice looking Beaver

A meteor! They have two there plus a cockpit. 

 

If anyone wants any more photos of the aircraft at the museum, I have plenty more, many of the Vulcan and a lot of their sea harrier

 

[alt-92]

Nothing wrong with expanding the stash/queue if and when you can afford it.

Nice collection there btw, is that a T-17 Canberra nose I see?

[Adam Poultney]

There is a Canberra nose, I don't have photos of that on my phone I need to transfer them from my camera

[Richard E]

2 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

So I went to the Midlands Air Museum today, a great day out with my dad and I hugely recommend it. The museum shop is actually pretty good, I found two 1/200 Vulcan kits, not buying both of them would be completely unreasonable! 

 

 

You've done the right thing - they've probably bonded as a pair by now so would just  be unhappy if you separated them

Edited February 8, 2020 by Richard E

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

3 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

So I went to the Midlands Air Museum today, a great day out with my dad

 

A Folland Gnat, the aircraft lost its wings

If anyone wants any more photos of the aircraft at the museum, I have plenty more, many of the Vulcan and a lot of their sea harrier

 

I think @reini just built this gnat in the Nordic group build. It does look better with wings. Thanks for posting the photo’s/link Adam. 
 

Dennis

[reini]

@Corsairfoxfouruncle Indeed - looks better with wings. Here is a Gnat at Ilmavoimamuseo in Tikkakoski, Finland, last summer:

 

 

Same markings strangely enough, but I would reckon this is the actual 'Kreivi von Rosen'

 

@Adam Poultney Thanks for the photos - and have fun with the kits

 

[Adam Poultney]

Just dry fitting one, the canopy looks a bit flat and the intakes a bit thin, the fit is pretty loose but it's a vulcan alright. 

[Adam Poultney]

Thinking of gear up for one of these but I decided to assemble one set of gear to see what it looks like with that

They're so small, very difficult to photograph. I'll dry fit the fuselage and wing parts to the gear when the glue is dry

[Adam Poultney]

Gear test fitted to the airframe which is all dryfitted. The model appears to be sitting right when the nose wheel is blue tacked down.

No intake inserts are in but it seems that some additional weight will be needed in the nose if I am to build this gear down even with them added. 

One odd point of this kit is the intakes, they appear to me to be far too thin, much like the early version seen on the first 10 B.2s and all B.1s but not quite. It may just be the scale of the kit of course making them seem off.

Here's a couple of pictures of early B.2s with the thin intakes, although later in their service life

And the regular intakes below

 

The early intakes are something I really wish Airfix will pull out of nowhere with a future rebox of their upcoming vulcan kit, I know the current parts don't allow for this but it's not unheard of for Airfix to have you cut along a panel line (or not one) to mod certain parts of some kits (Valiant for example) and a relatively experienced modeller should have no trouble with. That'd be a huge thing to add to the kit for someone like me who would use that for who knows how many B.1 conversions.... Probably best they don't do that then because my bank account would suffer.... A lot. 

Which also reminds me, the ironic thing about the name of this thread... I payed for the little Vulcans with cash

Edited February 11, 2020 by Adam Poultney

[Adam Poultney]

Bit of paint now, the intakes are nicely moulded so that it's easy to do the camouflage in the front of the intake. This is just a rough coat so it will be improved later. I did a bit of mixing with the paints as the colours weren't quite right. The green still isn't right and I have another one which I might switch to, but I'm happy with the grey. 

This is the intake of XL360 at Coventry, showing that very smooth totally seamless intake..... Interesting that there's a seam down the side....

Here's the real XM607, which is the Vulcan I decided this one would be, of course in the black buck scheme the aircraft is preserved in. 

I'd like to do XH558 with the next lot of these kits I get as 558 for me is iconic with 607, the only two Vulcans I have seen in one place at the same time. When I do this I'd like to modify the engine exhausts to Olympus 201s but I'm not sure the effort is worth it in this scale. 

 

Next thing, the landing gear which is very nice for the scale. Simple paintjob will do, just a tad more cleanup to do. Still not 100% certain if I want to have the gear up or down but worth just doing them anyway for now

The real thing, and the very smooth surface of the underside of a Vulcan. Only one or two visible rivets. 

Part of the nose gear, really just looks like a huge chunk of metal rather than a piece of the best looking aircraft in history.

The door was in the way of a nice shot of the nose gear from in front.... Oh well, I got to go inside the aircraft. 

 

I think I'm not going to start the other kit until this one has gotten significantly underway. 

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Adam Poultney

[Adam Poultney]

The intake inserts are in and I added some nose weight with lead solder and blue tack to hold it in place

And suddenly there was.... A vulcan! All ready to prime and paint and start on the next one. 

 

Also, for reference for future builds, does anyone know of a good acrylic airbrush paint match for that browny green colour that the paint on V Bombers likes to fade to? I'd wow like to do one in a scheme with that colour in 1/144

 

Speaking of 1/144 Vulcans, look what just came into stock on Hannants!

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TU03931?result-token=nwrRX

Trumpeter's Vulcan B2! I'm going to build one asap! Honestly, it looks to have a significant number of advantages over the GWH kit from what I've seen. Its intakes look better and the wing doesn't seem to droop badly like the GWH, although the TFR blister looks wrong and I don't think it has the option for Olympus 201 engines which I much prefer to 301s (the gwh only having the 201s). 

I'm tempted to graft on the K2 parts from the GWH kit to one... 

[Marklo]

Funny looking at the photo I’d say Tamiya flat brown or even hull red (which isn’t red)

[Adam Poultney]

18 minutes ago, Marklo said:

Funny looking at the photo I’d say Tamiya flat brown or even hull red (which isn’t red)

I think the flat brown would do it, the red though doesn't look right

[Marklo]

The hull red is actually surprisingly brown. To the point that I wouldn’t actually use it for a battleship. And tend to use it more for things like teak or mahogany ( stick and string interiors)

 

That  said there is a third Tamiya brown, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

 

[/URL]

This is the flat brown on my albatros dII

Edited February 12, 2020 by Marklo

[Adam Poultney]

4 hours ago, Marklo said:

 

Looks good, seeing it applied to a kit it's looking like a better match than when I looked it up. 

 

Anyway, back to XM607, the primer and first colour were done. The grey is still darker than I would like looking at it like this but whatever, the real thing is sat outside so I bet it's bleached significantly since it was retired after black buck. 

Now to mask the camo which is just tedious and no doubt I will end up doing again for touch ups when I see how wrong I probably an going to do it. 

 

[Adam Poultney]

Masking Vulcans is tedious... Might have to give up on the idea of doing two camouflaged aircraft unless I brush on the other one's camouflage

Green on

And we have a vulcan! Definitely need to do some touch ups on that camo but not bad for 1/200 I say

DSG underside is next up, some touch ups done first then I masked off what I needed to

And that's the underside painted. Vallejo DSG with a bit of medium sea grey mixed in and a coat of very watered down medium sea grey over the top

[Marklo]

Looking very sharp, that’s a lot of squiggly lines to mask, but it certainly looks the part.

[Mikey-1980]

Really loving your build so far, and the scale is just right!

 

I'm pretty sure my local indie toy store has one of these kits in stock. Very tempted to pick one up and do the Vulcan from Thunderball.

[Adam Poultney]

A bit more clean up work on the model

And the jetpipes done

[Adam Poultney]

15 minutes ago, Mikey-1980 said:

Really loving your build so far, and the scale is just right!

 

I'm pretty sure my local indie toy store has one of these kits in stock. Very tempted to pick one up and do the Vulcan from Thunderball.

Could be interesting, that's XH506, a vulcan B1a. Extensive mods required.

Luckily a similar conversion has already been done on this forum which you can use as a guide

 

[Adam Poultney]

Size comparison! 

Can't wait to get the new Airfix Vulcan to replace my halfway repainted XM575, I need some new decals for it.... Full strip down and repaint I think. 

I also realised both of these models have the Skybolt mounting blisters left on that should have been removed....

And the second one is officially started... With the blue steel missile from the first kit

Unfortunately you can't get close to the blue steel missile at the Midlands Air Museum, you can't get under the wings of their Vulcan either (I love that you'd can at the NELSAM with XL319, very good for getting pictures of little details under the wings). I took a picture of the mounting points on the fins

 

[SleeperService]

8 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

Unfortunately you can't get close to the blue steel missile at the Midlands Air Museum, you can't get under the wings of their Vulcan either

If you pick a quiet time of the week and phone ahead they will most likely let you do both. Not long back a friend and I had a very enjoyable visit and all the access to the Meteor F4 you could wish for. The cafe has excellent cake as well.

 

You've done an excellent job on the Vulcan both with the model and detail shots.

 

I can help with your bank card issue. Send me a PM with the card details and I'll make sure you won't have any money to waste on anything at all

[Mikey-1980]

Fantastic!

 

Thank you for the thread link too.

[Adam Poultney]

Decided to do a bit of work on this last night, gloss coat was applied to both sides of the model. 

Decals next up

They seem to go on quite nicely with this kit

Also painted in the wheel well colour, a lighter grey. A dark wash was added.

Landing gear and doors on

Wash also added to the top surfaces

Vulcan B2 and my sightly bigger Vulcan B1a

[Adam Poultney]

I have decided that I will probably go through with a pure delta vulcan B1 conversion sooner or later, preferably sooner. I've been looking at what I'll need to achieve this.

The plan so far is to buy another of the Falklands box of the kit, which will include all the plastic I need: the conventional bomb bay, extra tail to extend the rudder and the blue steel missile to use as a basis for the original tailcone as per Robvulcan's method, his conversion is linked earlier in the thread. 

Decals will come from a variety of sources, very few from the kit itself. 

The 1/72 30 inch roundels in this decal sheet ( https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72041?result-token=vEFQz ) are a close enough match for the wing roundels (84", they come out at 84 1/3 inches in 1/200 scale), the 1/72 18 inch roundels are close enough to the fuselage roundels (54", converting the sizes they come out at 50", a difference of little over half a millimeter). The 12" fin flashes should convert ok I think. 

I will use a set of 1/72 18" serials I have for the underwing registrations (XA889-993 for pure delta production aircraft). The difference in size is very small here to what they should be. XA889 will likely be the one I do as it did not have the Avro logo applied to the tail from what I can tell, although I would choose XA890 if I could find an easy source for that decal. '889 later has this logo applied after the refit to kinked wing, but I need better images to be sure.

The tail serials, 18" in scale will be from 1/72 4" serials, slightly undersize but the next match I've found in the right font, coming from this decal  sheet: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72157

The hardest part will be the tail I will have to make from scratch, and modify the rudder using a spare donor part.

As for the intakes, although the kit ones look similar to the B1 ones they're not quite there, so I'll slightly thin them just enough to be noticeable next to my XM607 and probably XM595 when the second one is done. 

From there it's a fairly simple task to cut down the wings (well, compared to if I was doing the phase 2 B1 wing) to a pure delta shape, fill the panel lines, scribe new control surfaces, modify the jetpipes (1/200 scale so an approximation will do) 

 

I'm not too bothered that I'll spend the price of the kit again on decals for a little vulcan as I'm well.... V bomber crazy... I'll likely find a use for the left overs somewhere