Kader (Lincoln Int.) 1/144ish Vickers Valiant Prototype

[JamesP]

You would have thought I'd learned my lesson: 

 

 

... but here we are again! A few months after I bought the Victor a friend "kindly" offered me this kit in need of a refurb, I think he might have picked it up somewhere and made a start but gave up. The kit as I got it had one wing attach IIRC, removed the other at the time and stashed it in the loft. As you can see it has a few issues 😜 The only things missing I believe are the pitot tubes and exhaust cans, which I would replace anyway.

 

 

Firstly it did a couple of rounds in bag with some oven cleaner so I could see what was what. There was a lot of black paint under the green and silver and, in the recessed (yes) panel lines, white too. So I think this particular has seen many guises; first in anti-flash white B1, then maybe a pseudo B2 "black bomber" and finally on it's way to a camouflaged ground hugger. The port side wing root was missing a big chunk of plastic and the attempt to repair it with card and filler was still attached to the wing after I separate them. The nose had also suffered a knock and I guess the model hit the ground hard at some point. I removed all the filler and some of the plastic infill with a micro chisel. I wanted to get down to bare plastic and affect my own repairs. The filler had also been softened by the oven cleaner and leaving it was not an option. The chisel made swift work of things to get me to this:

 

 

At this point I broke out the references and decided what I was going to do with it. My initial though was to model the first prototype with the narrow intakes and lots of guide vanes, but this would have required removing all the intake trunking bulges from the wing undersides. Instead I'm going to go for the second prototype WP215 which had the larger "spectacle" intakes.

 

Oh, yeah and I want to do it in the initial polished aluminium finish! 😮

 

https://www.airteamimages.com/vickers-valiant_WB215_united-kingdom---royal-air-force_115157.html

Edited November 27, 2020 by JamesP

[JamesP]

A bit of fettling of the ins and outs. The intakes have rather flat faces and don't line up with the inner engine trunking.

 

 

Some work with files and I've moved them closer to the wing root and improved their shape. The intake is symmetrical when viewed from head on. Unfortunately the silver plastic creates plenty of optical illusions that make it hard to show clearly what has been done. 

 

 

I've, chiselled off the wide humps that were the wings fences as well as enlarging the exhaust fairings. The exhaust cans will cover these, but will improve the view from the rear.

 

 

[BritJet]

Should look good next to your Victor prototype, I did this in 1/72 from the Airfix kit but I didn't chicken out and do WB215  I don't blame you though as it would be a lot of extra work to do WB210 and at least you won't need to do the very shiny finish as 215 was painted silver.

 

Steve

[JamesP]

Actually I am going to attempt the NMF that WB215 wore early in its career 😉

[HOUSTON]

James,

 

NICE start. Looks good to ME from way over here.

Look forward to how you tackle NMF. I think you can do it.(Yorkshire  folk are tenacious   

 

 

 

 

[JamesP]

The fuselage had a very good join above and below, but a number of cracks around the wing roots and nose.  So I of course decided to break it part! This was a bit risky as the plastic is quite brittle, but I wanted to patch the cracks and back the bits missing from the inside. Also all the panel lines on the underside where just out of alignment. Well dear reader I got it apart but not without more cracking around the tail. I did the patching I wanted and backed the missing wing root areas with card. Then realigned the parts and added amble gloop to the nose, seams and cracks and left it to cure for a couple of days. 

 

While it cured, I created templates for the recessed windows, and missing wing root surfaces using masking tape. These were transfer to card of appropriate thickness, cut and trimmed to fit as well possible and then glued in place, again using plastic gloop to fill the joins. The vertical tail remove from the tail plane was carefully attached to the fuselage a flat scrap of metal was clamped to one side to ensure it was straight. Every things was then carefully sanded back and anything obvious refilled and sanded.

 

 

I filled some of the panel lines on the nose as I felt these would stand out too much under the NMF.

 

 

I'm not going to get the wing root patches to final until after the wings are attached otherwise I'll just end up building the surface back up again.

 

 

I was not going to add details until the surfaces were finished, but I jumped gun and added replaced the inlet at the base of the tail with some brass tube. The cracks caused by me are evident in this pic.

 

 

 

All the parts were than sanded with ~800 and ~1200 grit prior to a first coat of primer, Alclad Grey microfiller, which of course showed up numerous small issues and helped me further refine the intake shapes without the weird effects of the silver plastic.

Edited December 6, 2020 by JamesP

[Mike]

Test post @JamesP I've just added this to see if it turns up in the listing, and it's there.  Check you've not got any filters in there that are causing it to not show up Failing that, reboot just in case

[JamesP]

4 hours ago, Mike said:

Test post @JamesP I've just added this to see if it turns up in the listing, and it's there.  Check you've not got any filters in there that are causing it to not show up Failing that, reboot just in case

 

Obviously needed your magic touch 👍

[Mike]

4 minutes ago, JamesP said:

 

Obviously needed your magic touch 👍

you'd be surprised how often that's the case.

[JamesP]

The wings need new fences. I find cutting card to match the shape of wing too tedious and prone to getting damaged, so a method I've used before is to use brass sheet and cut a slot into the wing.

 

I used some 1/72 plans to marks the location and extents of the fences to the model and then careful cut the slots with my trusty Zona saw, checking both above and below the wing so I don't go too far. The brass sheet was some offcuts from PE production that I bought at SMW; for small fences I've used actual PE frames left over from detail sets. I've got some tin snips that make quick work of cutting the sheet to rough size. I could then draw the approximate shape and trim off excess material, before supergluing in place. 

 

 

It was just a matter of shaping, first using an large file to remove the bulk, then a needle file and finally remove burrs and soften the edges with some 500 grit paper.

 

[Pete in Lincs]

It's coming along nicely. You're obviously using the correctly weighted stick to beat it into shape.

[JamesP]

After completion of the TSR2 some of my attention can be focused back on this build. I'd got the tailplane installed, previously it wasn't quite horizontal. A wedged shaped gap above tailplane in the fin was filled with card and gloop and then carefully worked to shape. This week I added the wings, once again employing the ubiquitous gloop as glue as well as filler. The port side where plastic had been lost needed a little building up, this was done over a couple of days to let each application cure. What you see now is after the first rub down and coat of primer to see where I'm at, there were a few spots that needed more filer but overall it looks good - the hard work comes now as I've got to get the surface spot on to take the metal finish.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by JamesP

[JamesP]

A kind soul ( @Jinxman ) sorted me out with a stand and so between repetitions of primer, sand and fill I got that painted up and ready for its decal. The Valiant is just about there in terms of surface finish, I've reduced the deep panel lines on the nose (and a few elsewhere) using some thinned Mr Surfacer 500. The aux intakes in the wing roots have been drilled as well as holes for the pitot tubes so I don't run the risk of scratching the NMF. Last thing to do before I polish the primer back is add the intake guide vanes.

 

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by JamesP

[JamesP]

My nearest thing to a NY resolution (as I started it last year) is to get the final small details ready for when the model is near the finish so I don't break my momentum. I've therefore be working on the decals. The only tricky one is the cockpit glazing. First I put some tape across the area on the model and traced a rough outline of where the windows should go. I then scanned this and loaded into my drawing application (Inkscape), where I refined the outline. This was printed, cut out and attached to the model just using water. I made notes on any adjustments and then proceeded to use it as I guide to create the windows. These were test fitted to the model.  After a couple of iterations I get to something I'm happy with. Here is the model with the penultimate version.

 

 

[Adam Poultney]

I'll be repainting a 1/144 valiant diecast at some point. My plan is to just buy a masking set for the mikromir kit, paint the canopy gloss black, mask it off, paint the rest and hope for the best.

The intake vanes do not sound fun at all for WB215... Definitely a reason for me to avoid modelling that specific one, although I think WB210 would be even harder if I wanted to do a prototype.

[neilfergylee]

I am just gobsmacked.

[JamesP]

So the last bit of work before getting on with the painting is to add the intake guide vanes. The first prototype looked like a bean slicer whereas the production aircraft has just a one in the centre. The second prototype is literally half way between the two, with the large centre vanes and then 7 thinner vanes in the outboard half.

Top prepare I cut some strips from 20 thou and 10 thou card, the front edges where rounded off to remove the sharp cut finish, this was to help the paint to adhere as much as the improve the look. I marked the back edge with a black pen for clarity.

 

 

Then the fun began. The main issue I has was that the inner surface of the exhaust tapered to the lips, this meant that to get the cut strips to attach they had to be slightly taller than the opening, therefore they had to be inserted in at an angle before straightening them up. It quickly became apparent that I physically couldn't get 7 of the blighters in and so I compromised at 3 😁 I think it's enough (at this scale) to nod towards the real thing.

 

 

Before I started on this I found that there was an attachment pillar just inside the port exhaust. I chiselled it out, unfortunately I managed to chip of a piece the the exhaust lip  which I had to repair.

[JamesP]

So I polished the primer back with 3600 micromesh and started on the gloss back base for the Polished Aluminium finish. I had Alclad Gloss Black Base for the purpose after reading that the old formula never dried - well I'd mixed experiences my first test on bare plastic was rock solid, later uses never cured -  I got hold of the more recent "reformulated" bottle. Even so it doesn't seem popular as there are lot of reports about remaining tacky. The following things then went wrong:

 

• I used my standard airbrush which is too small for tackling a whole airframe
• too much over spray causing a rough surface due to the small airbrush
• lots of scratches not previously visible showed up
• the Alclad Black base remains sticky to the touch days afterwards

I wet sanded back due to the scratches and even the slurry was tacky and stained my fingers. 

 

 

I did some tests on my paint mule and the black seemed much better behaved. It's an enamel formulation and I wondered if there was an issue putting this over the lacquer grey primer which stopped it from fully hardening. The paint mule is primed with Halfords that is years old and so I added from Alclad grey on top to one half (D - badly applied as forgot to thin it!) and the next day sprayed: 

• A - Alclad Gloss Black, 
• B - Hu Gloss Black enamel (own thinners)
• C - Hu Gloss Black enamel (Mr Rapid thinners)

After a day the both the Hu enamel mixes had cured to a lovely gloss finish. The Alclad gloss back had two days and was still "tacky" not as bad as on the model though, and didn't appear to mar the surface. I tested by pressing my thumbs onto the surface for 30s. I know gloss finishes have a higher "grip" which can lead them to feeling sticky but the Alclad was definitely worse than the Humbrol. There was no noticeable difference between the primers so unfortunately an inconclusive test.

 

A day later I gave it all a coat of Alclad Polished Aluminium to see how the Humbrol would react. One light coat then a second heavier pass - it was absolutely fine. I have seen it craze in the past but that might have been down to spraying the Alclad to wet/heavily over the enamel allowing the lacquerer to eat it. In fact the Humbrol produced a far shinier finish than the Alclad black - OK I'd stuck my thumbs all over it by then. 

 

 

Note the pointy end (C) had only one coat of of Alclad as the airbrush ran out. This does show a common mistake when spraying metallics over a black base; from square on, to the naked eye, it looks very shiny but the camera and low angle show that the surface is not fully covered. Alclad and similar really do need at least two coats to get the density of pigment required or else you get that blotchy finish that has ruined to many otherwise great builds. I'll probably do three coats, methodically laid on.

 

The most annoying thing is the time this has all taken and has sapped some of the fun out what had been an enjoyable challenge till now. Seeing the Polished aluminium on the paint mule I think is enough to get me to the finish line though.

 

tl:dr
Alclad Gloss Black Base is rubbish! ( and I have a similar problem with their non-aqua clear coats)

[JamesP]

Black Bomber!

 

It's taken a long time to get here as I decided to sand off all the Alclad Black and re-polish the whole thing. Then it's taken a couple of weeks to get around to applying the enamel Hu Gloss Black as I've painted top and bottom in two separate sessions, and then again with a second thinner coat. It's not perfect but much better than before and can be handled! The paint sprayed very nicely and my Sparmax GP-50 was perfect for this kind of job; I've finally got to grips with it and will be using it a lot more in the future.

 

 

I do intend on building a true "B2 Black Bomber" from a Welsh Models resin & vac B1.

[Adam Poultney]

Looking really good, you're going to have to make the second Vulcan prototype, VX777, to complete the set

[JamesP]

18 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

Looking really good, you're going to have to make the second Vulcan prototype, VX777, to complete the set

 

😆

 

Unfortunately Lincoln Int never did the Vulcan. I think because it would not fit in their "one size fits all" boxes which were long and thin. 

[Adam Poultney]

2 hours ago, JamesP said:

 

😆

 

Unfortunately Lincoln Int never did the Vulcan. I think because it would not fit in their "one size fits all" boxes which were long and thin. 

yeah, I wish they did since there's not a 1/144(ish) Vulcan B1 available at all... but you can always cut up a more recent kit

[JamesP]

So I finally felt that I'd left the black enamel to erm, cure for long enough and mustered up the energy to put the first of several coats of Alcad Polished Aluminium on. Now I knew my finish was not going to be anything spectacular but how the wing roots got past priming and glossing I don't know. Lumpy and bumpy, the photos don't show the half of it. Some of it may have been due to shrinkage with the gloop filler, some definitely wasn't. So time PSR again!

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Starting to look good. I'm just reading the book 'Valiant Boys' Tales of derring do, Atomic bombs, Suez Non stop to Oz and cracked wing spars. Brilliant.

[Adam Poultney]

very shiny! Love it