Airfix Victor K2

[Adam Poultney]

Well.... I keep on saying I'm genuinely insane and today that seems very true. Since lockdown began I have gained five Vulcan kits, moulded two tiny ones of my own, re painted an airfix vulcan, converted one of those five new vulcans to a B1a with a scratch built bomb bay and now my third Airfix Victor mysteriously appeared..... 

And that's just the V Bombers (or in this case, V Tanker?)

I love this box art! I hope at some point we get a third version of the kit with more schemes and a new boxart because both so far are some of my favourites from modern Airfix.

Perhaps some new fuselage parts, intake parts and some payload for the bomb bay and we could have the early B.Mk.2 freefall bomber (and perhaps even the prototype B.Mk.2 XH668 which had the B1 tail, but crashed after only around 100 hours flight time) 

XL512 (left, B.Mk.2R) and XM718 (right, B.Mk.2)

decals look nice but the wing roundels for the camouflage K2 and SR2 appear to be too small like in the B.Mk.2R box

Lots of plastic in the box, this should keep me occupied for a while. 

Looking through the instructions, the same error is present here as in the other kit, the raised flaps instructions at the top of the page are wrong. Do not cut the part off, instead sand down the fairing on the underside.

[Adam Poultney]

Right well just as I was about to get this underway I snapped the IFR probe on my WIP Vulcan B1a conversion and just completely lost my mind at the state of my desk, everything pretty much everything was removed and put in an adjacent room while I cleaned the desk. Still not finished but cleaning that takes forever...

Part way through the clean up. I think so far I've filled 4 or 5 bin bags with rubbish from the room.... 

Still probably got another one to go yet.

My 1/72 V Bombers were evacuated downstairs to avoid the aggressive cleaning, but not before getting nicely dusted themselves. Camouflage Vulcan I just finished can't be seen here because well.... isn't that the point of camouflage?

 

Anyway, Victors! 

This is the pair of K2/SR2 sprues that you get on top of the basic parts in the kit. No blue steel missile in this version of course. 

If you want sprue shots of the rest of the kit, including the blue steel, they'll be in one of these two threads (my previous builds of this kit):

 

Annoying sink marks to start of the build, this is one thing that all of my kits have had, and I know where to expect them now.... same each time

No paint yet, all that stuff is still not back on my desk, so I moved onto building various subassemblies that don't need painting yet. Küchemann Carrots and underwing fuel tanks (oddly I've built three Victors before and none have had the underwing fuel tanks)

 

More sink marks to deal with.... The top part is also slightly short, align it so the gap is at the front and filler will sort the gap out

Not quite perfect fit but plenty good enough, a little filler and they're together. 

 

The similar but quite different wingtips of the B2 (and SR2) and the K2.

The wingspan of the K2 was 117ft whereas the wingspan of the B2 was 120ft (the B1 and its tanker subvariants had a 110ft wingspan).  This was to reduce stress on the wing at low level and improve the fatigue life of the aircraft.

The original proposal by Handley Page for the Victor K2 would have involved wingtip fuel tanks amongst other strange modifications. Then Handley Page collapsed in 1970 and the job went to Hawker Siddeley, who by then had acquired Avro, it was in fact at Woodford, the birthplace of the Avro Vulcan, rival of the Victor (and best looking V Bomber), that the work was carried out. 

Edited May 31, 2020 by Adam Poultney

[StephenCJ]

Good stuff Adam.  I would like to build my 3 V Bombers.  I have nowhere to put the as our house is more dusty than a desert sand storm.

[Martian]

On 29/05/2020 at 16:17, Adam Poultney said:

now my third Airfix Victor mysteriously appeared..... 

Its that @Shelliecool woman, she caused one to suddenly appear at Martian Towers as well. Perhaps now it has happened to someone else, Mrs Martian will finally accept that I really was hexed!

 

Optimistic of Mars 👽

[Adam Poultney]

8 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

Good stuff Adam.  I would like to build my 3 V Bombers.  I have nowhere to put the as our house is more dusty than a desert sand storm.

well if you don't want them you know where to send them 😉😂

8 hours ago, Martian said:

Its that @Shelliecool woman, she caused one to suddenly appear at Martian Towers as well. Perhaps now it has happened to someone else, Mrs Martian will finally accept that I really was hexed!

 

Optimistic of Mars 👽

Ahhhh! That explains it 😂 I must be pretty strongly hexed with the appearance of Airfix V Bombers.... This is my Sixth (seventh including the cockpit section of a Vulcan I have). 

 

Right well I got another paintless subassembly built, the central refueling equipment. I'll probably test fit this to my XM718, a Victor B.Mk.2 with just a normal bomb bay, which I built to have the bomb bay open but can be fitted with the closed bomb bay doors easily, so this should fit to that model. 

[Adam Poultney]

It's a perfect fit to my B.Mk.2, glad to see it's not like the Blue Steel bomb bay which is a few mm too short.

[Martian]

39 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

Ahhhh! That explains it 😂 I must be pretty strongly hexed with the appearance of Airfix V Bombers.... This is my Sixth (seventh including the cockpit section of a Vulcan I have). 

Perhaps @Mike will let us use the procedure used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If we weigh @Shelliecool and she weights the same as a duck, then we will know she is a witch and Mrs Martian will have to believe me. I have just checked with Mrs Martian and she says she is happy to accept that as evidence. (Yes I really did check!)

 

Martian 👽

[Adam Poultney]

16 minutes ago, Martian said:

Perhaps @Mike will let us use the procedure used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If we weigh @Shelliecool and she weights the same as a duck, then we will know she is a witch and Mrs Martian will have to believe me. I have just checked with Mrs Martian and she says she is happy to accept that as evidence. (Yes I really did check!)

 

Martian 👽

haha yes I support this idea, if it's ok with @Mike that is. At least then we'll get to the bottom of the mystery of these V Bombers just appearing out of nowhere....

Do you think the postman is in on it as well?

 

And there's the tail parts put together, this is about 1.5 times the wingspan of a Gnat T1 add can be seen from this photo I took a while ago for another thread

[Shelliecool]

On 31/05/2020 at 17:04, Martian said:

Perhaps @Mike will let us use the procedure used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If we weigh @Shelliecool and she weights the same as a duck, then we will know she is a witch and Mrs Martian will have to believe me. I have just checked with Mrs Martian and she says she is happy to accept that as evidence. (Yes I really did check!)

 

Martian 👽

Woooo you lot wanna calm down or i will be forced to put a spell on you🤣

[StephenCJ]

50 minutes ago, Shelliecool said:

Woooo you lot wanna calm down or i will be forced to put a spell on you🤣

Turn Martian into a toad and he will not buy anymore kits Mrs. Martian will be happy

[Martian]

9 hours ago, Shelliecool said:

Woooo you lot wanna calm down or i will be forced to put a spell on you🤣

Confession! We have found a witch Mike, may we burn her?

8 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

Turn Martian into a toad and he will not buy anymore kits Mrs. Martian will be happy

You are not making and friends here Stephen!

 

Martian 👽

[StephenCJ]

My wife would like me to be turned into a toad so I can't buy anymore kits.  I am very lucky she is NOT a witch.  She is a lovely person, love her to bits.

[Martian]

Thanks Michelle, Mrs Martian now accepts that I was hexed and I start the day off the hook. Doubtless I will be in trouble for something else before the day is out!

 

Martian 👽

[Adam Poultney]

6 hours ago, Martian said:

Thanks Michelle, Mrs Martian now accepts that I was hexed and I start the day off the hook. Doubtless I will be in trouble for something else before the day is out!

 

Martian 👽

hmmm how's about having another Victor show up on your doorstep? I want a reason to hunt some witches! 

[WV908]

Hi Adam,

  Not sure if you have seen but you have a message from me.

 

Thanks,

  WV908 

[Martian]

On 02/06/2020 at 14:17, Adam Poultney said:

hmmm how's about having another Victor show up on your doorstep? I want a reason to hunt some witches! 

If you had been married as long as I have, you would know when not to push your luck and I for one do not want to have certain of the more tender bits of the Martian anatomy on the bread board with Mrs Martian with a junior hacksaw in hand! 

 

Cautious/Chicken of Mars 👽

[Adam Poultney]

Back to the Victor this evening, I've been working on my Vulcan B1a recently.

First paint on the model today, cockpit work. All primed black and painted by brush. Plenty of drybrushing, Citadel Nuln Oil (aka liquid skill), plenty of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (RIP Dax ) and plenty of fun

 

Also found some AMAZING Victor footage today on YouTube, it includes quite possibly the best images of XM714 in existence, an aircraft which I spent months trying to find a photo of- I eventually found one I'm fairly confident is XM714 but today I have found something even better. I recommend you watch this compilation of early Victors, there are many interesting bits of footage in there.

 

Edited June 4, 2020 by Adam Poultney

[Adam Poultney]

The main cockpit subassembly is complete. Next I'll be working on the wheel wells.

I've also decided to build this all closed up, so door closed, airbrakes in and flaps raised as if it was parked. I originally planned to build a K2 all opened up, but I built XM718, my early Victor B.Mk.2, like that and I think a K2 looks busy enough already with all the pods and aerials they have. 

XM718 with all the options opened up.

 

 

How many 1:72 Victors is it considered reasonable to have?

Edited June 6, 2020 by Adam Poultney

[Adam Poultney]

And of course while adding the windows to the fuselage I managed to get a glue stain on one.... Oh well, I luckily have a spare as they fell off of my first Airfix Victor and I somehow managed to recover then from inside the fuselage for future usage as spares... The first of my Victors had new windows made, which I need to replace as they have gone a bit cloudy now.

[Martian]

1 hour ago, Adam Poultney said:

How many 1:72 Victors is it considered reasonable to have?

As many as you can get away with. If you are single, that equates to as many as you can fit into your abode (leaving room for the odd TSR2 of course).

 

Helpful of Mars 👽

[Adam Poultney]

1 minute ago, Martian said:

As many as you can get away with. If you are single, that equates to as many as you can fit into your abode (leaving room for the odd TSR2 of course).

 

Helpful of Mars 👽

I'm a single 17 year old college student trying to build as many as possible before uni.... 

I think 89 is a reasonable amount as that's how many real ones were built

[Adam Poultney]

add to that a minimum wage job and no financial responsibilities yet...........

[JohnT]

1 hour ago, Adam Poultney said:

 

How many 1:72 Victors is it considered reasonable to have?

One..........

That is one representing every airframe built in its different configurations and paint schemes of course

 

And also one in each scale

 

And maybe a few extra “just in case”

 

One for luck and one for .....

[Martian]

2 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

add to that a minimum wage job and no financial responsibilities yet...........

You have so much to learn of the world Grasshopper. You have a growing stash, if that's not a financial responsibility then I don't know what is!

 

Martian the Wise 👽

[Adam Poultney]

3 hours ago, JohnT said:

One..........

That is one representing every airframe built in its different configurations and paint schemes of course

 

And also one in each scale

 

And maybe a few extra “just in case”

 

One for luck and one for .....

Yes agreed although I could settle for just one representation of each airframe rather than each one in each configuration. 

And I need that phase 3 Victor proposal.....

 

 

1 hour ago, Martian said:

You have so much to learn of the world Grasshopper. You have a growing stash, if that's not a financial responsibility then I don't know what is!

 

Martian the Wise 👽

aye now that is true 😂