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Wheel well assembled and one side is left off for easier painting. There's a pipe that is a separate part, for anyone building this kit... do not install it like the instructions say, it is an absolute pain. Install it to the rear part of the wheel well (not the bomb bay part) before that is fitted. Much easier that way. Also widening the hole it's supposed to go into on the sidewall isn't a bad idea at all...

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The nose wheel well was primed in black and painted with Tamiya XF16 Flat Aluminium. 

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The wheel well was then assembled. I left part of the gear itself off so it can be moved up into the wheel well while the model is being painted. The omitted part will be added later. 

Just taking one of the pictures from my second Airfix Victor (this is my third) you can see that the landing gear actually would fit in the wheel well on this and it isn't too shallow. 

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All the subassemblies were added into the fuselage halves and added 35.6g of nose weight, the instructions only say 25 but I'd rather be safe with this.

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Fuselage sealed up. Not easy to get out right with such large parts so there were gaps that would need some attention. 

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Victor Ekranoplan! Just dryfitting things5c38b22871e40bdc7659dda642eff796.jpg

 

Bits around the tail added, I made a plastic card support for the small tailwheel part as it is very good at not fitting well as I have learned from my previous builds.

Airbrakes will be closed on this. I did open ones on XM718 and closed on XL512. I think closed looks better so that's what I'm going with, also I can't be bothered with trying not to break any of it while handling the model (far too likely to happen)

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Filler! Some more bits done after this photo

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More filler!

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Moving onto the intakes now, they were primed white, most of the intake parts were painted in a very slightly grey white (much easier to deal with than gloss white and looks good enough inside the intakes). The front part was painted with Vallejo Model Air hemp. There is a panel line moulded into the intakes where the external paint colour ends, I'm not sure if they're really there on the real thing, but the inside of the intakes were not smooth.

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Intakes mounted to the wing parts and lower halves were attached.

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I'm not 100% happy with the colour of the paint, I might mix the paint in the bottle to a lighter shade and repaint over the intake parts, a little difficult since they're now assembled but shouldn't be impossible. A little filler was required but not too much.

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Now for the incorrect instructions.... Steps 26 and 27 are wrong. The equivalent steps (28 and 29?) in the Blue Steel kit are also wrong. What I did is the correct thing if I remembered correctly from my first build. Sand down the fairing for the raised flaps, no cutting off of whole bits required. 

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12 minutes ago, GRIM REAPER said:

Wish I had known that before I cut mine off.....oh well. 

I do try to warn everyone who I see has the kit and have emailed Airfix customer support about it, which I did get a reply to. They said they'd pull a sample and check it with the development team but I didn't hear if they fixed the issue.

Hopefully the new Vulcan won't have such mistakes... Probably a good idea to double check any cutting the instructions say to do

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On 6/4/2020 at 4:46 AM, Adam Poultney said:

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

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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

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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.

 

Blimey, although it isn't that takes me back to my 232 OCU days at Gaydon.

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Some more bits were built up in the wing such as the wheel wells, and I added engine fans and intake vains. 

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These were painted with Citadel Leadbelcher and Nuln Oil wash over a black primer.

 

Getting on with building up the wings, of course a small cut is required here. Wouldn't be a proper build without a bare minimum of modification to the basic plastic even if it is as small (and already marked out for you) as this. 

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Now that distinctive crescent wing is taking shape, with an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation on. Finished two Star Trek series since all this Covid stuff started, so why not a third. 

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Well this is how the wing-fuselage joint looks without any glue, and this is with the top parts flat against each other. Definitely the worst fitting set of Airfix Victor wings of the three. 

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A bit of plastic glue, superglue and patience later, the wings are firmly fixed to the fuselage correctly, add plenty of accidental glue fingerprints that somehow all missed the unprotected clear parts and I'd call it a complete success.

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The attachment around the intakes just needs a bit of pressure to sit right while drying. A few known places for the fuselage to come apart did give a bit of trouble here, so while I had the superglue out I dealt with them firmly, just going to need a little tidying up later. Easier than repairing with the paint on later.......

This is where I got up to tonight, might find a little time tomorrow to work on this but probably not. Too much college work, a job and now beginning looking for unis..... 

 

 

 

Edited by Adam Poultney
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Right so I got a bit done:

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The wing undersides were attached, but needed quite a bit of filler in the gap between them and the fuselage

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As can be seen, I got the flaps on. What I said earlier was correct in that the fairing needed sanding down underneath not cutting off, but there's another part that you do need to remove (middle fairing, the part moulded to the bottom half of the wing).

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Of course I first put the date on the inside as I always do

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Once I had the wings sorted, I got to adding the wingtips. These just assemble and slide in quite nicely with no problems.

The B2 variant had a 120ft wingspan, the K2 had its wingspan reduced to 117ft to reduce stress on the wings at low level. The B1 variant was 110ft, so Mk1s converted into tankers did not have any modifications to the wings. The clear parts for the K2 wingtip are also quite different to the B2 ones.

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A few more bits added, like the Küchemann Carrots (anti shock bodies) on the wings. The tail is still just dryfitted for now as it will get in the way when handling the model.

I'm undecided as to whether I'll add the underwing fuel tanks before or after painting, masking may be a pain if I do it before, but I'll get a far better join to the wing.

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6 minutes ago, Gondor44 said:

 

Nice to see that someone else uses the chaotic method of storage on their bench 👍

 

Gondor

haha yes I do use that, I tidied it a few weeks ago but it just didn't feel right being clean and organised....

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So I did the instrument panel last night, an absolute nightmare to fit based on my previous builds of this kit

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It just wasn't having it, didn't want to go in at all... Then the nose seam split open and that took a while to fix. They got so much right on this kit, but the instrument panel is horrendous to get in. 

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Once I had that done I added the canopy which I had previously added the anti flash blinds to, which were retained on the K2 (and often closed on photos of XL231). Thanks to @general melchett for the help with these.

 

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Next up was the masking, but that soon went badly when one of the windows fell into the cockpit. Great.... Off came the canopy and the part was shaken out of the cockpit and reattached carefully with Tamiya extra thin and some weaker canopy glue. No glue mess thankfully and hopefully won't be falling back into the cockpit again.

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No two kits seem the same. So far, with the three I've built, I've been lucky, no major fit issues, have to see what the other four are like, I'm sure there's a Friday afternoon job lurking in there somewhere. The instrument panel is indeed a pain, I find it easier to fit after assembling the fuselage. Overall a decent kit, the main thing to watch out for, I've found, is the join of the upper wing centre-section to the fuselage, best to carefully Dremel away until everything lines up, other than that, not too bad.

Agree that HP Video footage of XM714 at Radlett is excellent, found it some while ago, very useful for an interim B2, the flying shots certainly emphasis the long, graceful wings of the Mk.2.

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On 19/06/2020 at 12:36, general melchett said:

No two kits seem the same. So far, with the three I've built, I've been lucky, no major fit issues, have to see what the other four are like, I'm sure there's a Friday afternoon job lurking in there somewhere. The instrument panel is indeed a pain, I find it easier to fit after assembling the fuselage. Overall a decent kit, the main thing to watch out for, I've found, is the join of the upper wing centre-section to the fuselage, best to carefully Dremel away until everything lines up, other than that, not too bad.

Agree that HP Video footage of XM714 at Radlett is excellent, found it some while ago, very useful for an interim B2, the flying shots certainly emphasis the long, graceful wings of the Mk.2.

Certainly seems that way... Slightly different experience with each kit, certainly my second one which I modded a bit was the easiest. Really enjoyed that build and got through it in only three weeks with almost a whole week of it just sitting there waiting for me to do the wheels. 

Love the Mk.2, my XM718 is in almost the same markings and configuration as XM714 in the video. 

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So, with the canopy now back on and all windows rescued.... then removed again and another window rescued then put back on again, the model was put on the shelf for a while as I was working on other projects. 

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This evening I decided to do a bit more work, so down the model came from its place on the shelf, I stuffed the intakes with a bit of blue tac and got out the primer

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As always when building a Victor I managed to prime both sides at once and get stuck holding it while it dried...... (wow I really do need a haircut!)

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This black really suits the Victor, I sat it alongside two of my other Victors because..... why not? 

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Aaaaand back on its shelf for a couple of hours

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I was planning to work on other things after this but I decided to get the Victor back off the shelf again and get some more paint on. Vallejo grey for some shading, working up from a black base as I much prefer that to a white base.

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Now really getting into painting this, I couldn't possibly stop there and the hemp paint was right on my desk....... Into the airbrush it went. It's Vallejo hemp with some citadel white-grey mixed in (I found those two brands to be easily compatible and not cause any issues when mixed) to make the colour closer to what I need. I decided after doing the intakes that the original colour was too dark, this new colour was painted over the original paintwork in the intakes (I think I mentioned that earlier in the thread)

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I'm really loving this colour. Still haven't decided if I'm doing XL231 or XM715. I'm leaning towards XL231 as I have the decals already, not buying more means I can justify buying a Special Hobby He162 (and maybe a bunch of resin to go with it!)

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This is the colour in better light, I'm pretty happy with this. Next up: grey undersides

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*insert zoooooooooooom noises here*

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I'm all out of space right now to display more V Bombers (I had to move a Valiant to put this one next to my other Victors), hopefully I'll be able to get a nice be display cabinet in the form of a wardrobe with glass doors and shelving, plus some lighting, soon....

For now I'm going to have to just put it downstairs and hope no one notices.... or perhaps I'll put a camouflaged vulcan down there and no one will see 😂

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7 hours ago, general melchett said:

Yes, know the feeling...

 

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That's pretty much what @general melchett's hair looked like at Telford when he was presented with his costume! Fortunately we were able to round it up and cram it under his cap.

 

Martian 👽

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On 6/21/2020 at 9:42 PM, Adam Poultney said:

 wow I really do need a haircut!

Think yourself lucky, I keep reminding myself of Roy Wood every time I look in the mirror

 

And no I am not shareing photographic proof either!

 

Gondor the hairy :emo:

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  • 1 month later...

Masking on the underside seas pretty tedious..... So I took a bit of a break from building this kit to work on other projects.
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So anyway, after a month or so I picked the kit up again the other day and finished off masking the underside.
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The underside was painted in Tamiya XF80

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Upon demasking this I realised I’d need to make some adjustments. I’m pretty happy with the painting overall though.

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Next I added a gloss coat and demasked the canopy. I demasked this early as I don’t really like the idea of knocking a window into the cockpit again and this makes the windows harder to miss and press in....

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I’m also pretty happy with how the anti flash curtains turned out
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I’m getting my new display cabinet this weekend, so I’ll be looking to get this done soon, and also my  1/72 Valiant. I’m also looking to get a Shackleton soon as well as they’re nice and I need more large models to fill the display cabinet as it’s going to be pretty big.

Edited by Adam Poultney
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  • 10 months later...

Hi Adam,

 

just found this thread as I'm thinking about a Victor K2 for your Big and British GB, and looking for inspiration. You were going great guns there, and she was looking quite excellent. Did you ever finish the build?

 

Cheers,

Mark

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10 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Hi Adam,

 

just found this thread as I'm thinking about a Victor K2 for your Big and British GB, and looking for inspiration. You were going great guns there, and she was looking quite excellent. Did you ever finish the build?

 

Cheers,

Mark

Hi, yes I did finish it. It's posted on RFI, I think I just forgot to update this thread as the build drew to a close.

 

 

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8 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

Hi, yes I did finish it. It's posted on RFI, I think I just forgot to update this thread as the build drew to a close.

 

 

Hi Adam,

 

Many thanks for the update! Looking fantastic!

 

Kind regards,

Mark

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