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Kiwi zapped Vulcan ***FINISHED***


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Yes you read that right, a kiwi Vulcan. But wasn’t the RAF the only Air Force with Vulcans? Yes. But one time that XH562 was sent to NZ, she came back with Kiwi roundels. And that looked very good. So, that’s what I’m building. Something to represent the practical jokes in the form of zapping visiting aircraft with kiwi roundels.
The kit I’ll be using will be the GWH Avro Vulcan B2 in 1:144 scale. It goes together quite well, has a few shape issues that can be overlooked, but ends up as a really nice model in the end. This is my fourth one, two were chopped up to convert to the earlier Vulcan B1a, and one I did as a white B2. All of them have had some level of modifications, the B1as had practically half the model rebuilt, and he white B2 has modified Trumpeter Vulcan jetpipes representing Olympus 301s. This will be no exception to my habit of Vulcan modifications (I don’t think I’ve ever built a Vulcan fully straight out the box), the jetpipes are right, most of it is, but I’ll need to remove the RWR fairing (squared top) from the tail fin and probably change up half the blisters and aerials. 
Aftermarket decals come from leftover ones from my Fündecal sheet, and a sheet from Printscale which I was given in exchange for the use of one of my models on their website and social media pages
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Edited by Adam Poultney
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39 minutes ago, Andwil said:

This one is a bit of a stretch isn’t it?

 

AW

Technically yes but It did wear the Kiwi Roundels. 
 

https://amp.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/f9abx9/the_royal_new_zealand_air_force_managed_to_zap_a/

 

https://amp.reddit.com/r/WarplanePorn/comments/joj8oh/avro_vulcan_b2_zapped_by_the_royal_new_zealand/

 

I discussed it awhile ago in the chat thread, I doubt the Kiwi Roundels were removed before it got back to the U.K.. So in the interest of fun and a bit of odd history I think its ok. 

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4 hours ago, Andwil said:

This one is a bit of a stretch isn’t it?

 

AW

Definitely is, but I think a build like this shows something that other builds can't really show so well, the relationship between different air forces and the jokes that were played on each other.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

The build is delayed, I have other projects which I really need to get done and with the uncertainly over exams right now I only have time to work on the one project. I will probably get around to starting this in the first or second week of February.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’m happy to finally be cutting the first plastic on this kit

The place I start with this kit is to build the tail, it’s an easy subassembly to put together right at the start, with one modification if the Vulcan I’m modelling didn’t have the RWR fairing on the tail, which this one doesn’t.

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picture of what that would look like before, from my previous build of this kit as I didn’t get a good one of this before I cut it off.
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Next thing to do is start doing all the small modifications to various blisters on the aircraft. The two emitter head X band jammer moulded on this kit was removed. XH562 didn’t have one.

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I added nose weight, not much is needed. I forgot on my previous Vulcan (I ended up removing the canopy and slipping some in through the cockpit), that’s not a mistake I want to repeat.

 

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I couldn’t possibly have the wrong ecm configuration, so I made a rough approximation of the aerial that was fitted to XM562’s ECM plate. I’m not overly concerned with having the shape perfect, this kit has too many shape issues to worry about minor details like that, but I at least want the configuration to be right.

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On the underside of the aircraft, these bits need to go for a 201 engines Vulcan.

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Then the parts under the engines were added, there are gaps with these parts that must be dealt with. 
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Once these bits were done, I sealed up the upper and lower halves.

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And I think that will be all for tonight, I’m participating in a friendly chess tournament in 10 minutes. I’ve hardly played in the last year and a half, so this should be interesting. 

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Yesterday, I got quite a bit done.The intakes needed some filler, various other parts, especially around the tail, also needed some. The joins were cleaned up by sanding away seams, then using some very fine grit sandpaper to finish. My previous GWH Vulcan, XM601, has had some issues with the wings splitting apart along the leading edge, hopefully this one is glued more firmly. 
Now on its landing gear as well, just blue tacked in place, I definitely got the nose weight right. Plan B if I hadn’t was put some in the bomb bay. Speaking of the bomb bay, I’m undecided if I’ll cut out the slot for the stand or not. I don’t plan to display this in flight as the gear will be down, but having that option would be nice. On the other hand however, the nose weight might make it just sit at a nose down position on the stand.

Unfortunately in this kit, the gear is too short, hopefully it won’t look bad next to my Trumpeter Vulcans. 
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The other Vulcan I mentioned with the wing splitting issues, XM601611ef8c7b10c7da413c51a1cd4f47ba9.jpg

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So I just got this primed, pictures to follow later, I don't want to handle it while it's drying. One of my main aims for this build is to get the line between the camo and underside right this time. I keep on getting it wrong. Here are some pictures from my collection that I will be using for reference:

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And some of the models I got it wrong on:

B1a XA906

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XM649

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Almost right on XL386

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Too high and too low, the roundels being seriously undersized didn't help

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This is coming together rather nicely. I always like the first gloss finsh camouflaged scheme best, overall white was OK and the wrap around scheme looked very warlike but I remember them best with the light grey undersides.

 

I missed the Vulcan at Ohakea - we were still living in Dunedin when she visited, but I do remember occasional family picnics near the end of the runways at Scampton and Waddington in the late sixties. We got to see experience four Vulcans take off one after the other one summer Sunday; my ears are still ringing.

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50 minutes ago, Aidrian said:

This is coming together rather nicely. I always like the first gloss finsh camouflaged scheme best, overall white was OK and the wrap around scheme looked very warlike but I remember them best with the light grey undersides.

 

I missed the Vulcan at Ohakea - we were still living in Dunedin when she visited, but I do remember occasional family picnics near the end of the runways at Scampton and Waddington in the late sixties. We got to see experience four Vulcans take off one after the other one summer Sunday; my ears are still ringing.

Early camo is really nice, I’ve done a few in that scheme (see above) and just did a Victor like that as well. My favourite though is silver on the B1s.

I’ve only ever seen 558 fly. I’m very jealous of anyone who’s seen four up at once! 
 

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I manage to get the camouflage fully painted today, I’m quite happy with the results. 
I originally planned to airbrush the wheel wells, hence all the masking underneath, but I realised I was low on the colour I planned to use. I will leave them white and use a wash instead. 

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Slightly less happy about the refuelling probe from this Vulcan which I was comparing to disappearing. I’ve searched my desk and the surrounding area quite thoroughly, no sign of it. I’ll get a spare from another Vulcan in the stash and deal with the missing part at a later date (probably just build one in a scheme that doesn’t need the IFR probe)
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15 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

I manage to get the camouflage fully painted today, I’m quite happy with the results. 
I originally planned to airbrush the wheel wells, hence all the masking underneath, but I realised I was low on the colour I planned to use. I will leave them white and use a wash instead. 

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Slightly less happy about the refuelling probe from this Vulcan which I was comparing to disappearing. I’ve searched my desk and the surrounding area quite thoroughly, no sign of it. I’ll get a spare from another Vulcan in the stash and deal with the missing part at a later date (probably just build one in a scheme that doesn’t need the IFR probe)
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Looking excellent Adam. Great pictures showing the details too, bearing in mind this is 1/144. BTW, maybe the missing probe is sticking to the discarded masking tape - it has happened to me many a time! All the best. Mike

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59 minutes ago, Ventora3300 said:

Looking excellent Adam. Great pictures showing the details too, bearing in mind this is 1/144. BTW, maybe the missing probe is sticking to the discarded masking tape - it has happened to me many a time! All the best. Mike

Most of the waste tape came off well after the probe went missing... unlikely to be there.

 

 

 

 

Well I discovered that I’m somewhat low on XH5– serials.  I have the trumpeter ones for XH558, but they’re not great and I’d have to mix them with other decals sets to make XH562, which probably won’t match too well. 
So I just printed my own. And because these blank decal sheets are A4 and I might as well fill the whole thing up, I made 1/200 serials a lot easier and printed serials for every single Vulcan in that scale. I also printed every single B2 serial in 1/144 in black. These should take a day or two to dry and then need a varnish applying before I can use them.

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Back to the build itself, I applied the main decals last night, painted the dielectric panels, glued on the gear and added the gear doors. 

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Decals have gone into the panel lines nicely with a bit of persuasion from some micro sol and the xacto knife. But of dirt has somehow gotten on the model. I’ll deal with that later. 
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While I’m waiting for my serials to dry, I was looking more into the unique scheme. It seems the zapping was done in two parts. First the roundels and crew hatch, then the gear doors. I’ll probably do this as it was before the gear doors were zapped with all sorts of markings, which I do have decals for.

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7 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Found this while looking for info on something else, thought you might find it interesting Adam. 
 

http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/gallery/Valiant-WP209/Vickers_Valiant_WP209_Photo_via_Mike_Mirkovic

mm yeah WP209 definitely on my list to build

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