First Groupbuild - Revell 1/72 Victor

[Jake Wilson]

My first group build

 

1/72 Revell HP. Victor K2

 

 

It would appear I'd been subconsciously preparing for a gulf-war group build, having compiled a few kits from the era over the winter! It's a conflict I ashamedly am quite ignorant about. however from an interest point of the blend of aircraft deployed (especially from an Op Granby perspective) it's a period I am keen to learn more about. Hence the accumulation of the selection of kits below!

 

 

 

I've opted for the Victor as my contribution to the group build. This was a kit my father and I started an attempt on years ago and got it to 85% completion. I then moved house a number of times and misplaced the spares. A decade passed and in a clear-out, the Victor, almost looking like it was on the assembly line, went in the bin. Typically I found the parts 2 weeks later. 😞

 

My Grandfather, who I sadly was never able to meet as he died before I was born, was an AEO on Victors and Vulcans, so attempting a V Bomber build has additional sentimentality for me. I've read many nightmares about this kit being far from perfect, but as this is only my 4th model to have built, my skills are far from perfect, so the kit will be in good company!

 

All the best,

 

Jake

[Chrisj2003]

@Jake Wilson hope you really enjoy the group builds; this is only my third and I’m finding them great. I find them really helpful whenever I’ve a question about technique, the kit or the real subject. And I get ideas from watching other related kits get built and the delight in some really wonderful builds by others. 
 

Chris

[PhantomBigStu]

A victor, had planned on entering one myself and may still yet  welcome to the madness that is group builds

Edited January 18, 2021 by PhantomBigStu

[PeterB]

Hi Jake,

 

Welcome to the madhouse😁. Although I have been modelling for over 60 years, I did not start my first GB until June 2019 and have thoroughly enjoyed quite a few more since.

 

I built the original Matchbox version when it first came out and it looks OK to me, though I guess the more recent Airfix version will be better in terms of detail. Of course that is a bomber and so would not be eligible for this GB, unlike the Matchbox/Revell tanker - I am a bit surprised that Airfix have not (as far as I know) released a tanker one yet - they did a conversion pack for the Valiant after all. Being a Matchbox moulding the detailing is a bit heavy, but the only problem I can remember having was with the undercarriage - for whatever reason the wheel bogies are moulded seperate to the legs and have to be glued on with a butt fit so they kept falling off until I used CA glue. With hindsight perhaps I should have drilled and pinned them.  There is a replacement white metal undercarriage set available but it probably costs more than the ruddy kit did.

 

A few points to remember about Group Builds -

1. There is a vast amount of experience out there in the forum so feel free to ask for information/help - it is a bit like being in a virtual modelling club! 

2. We all were beginners at some point, even if it was many years ago in some cases so there is no such thing as a stupid question!

3. The important thing is that it is meant to be fun, so build to your own level and at your own speed and don't be worried about how it may compare with other modeller's builds. If anybody sends you a list of modifications they believe need to be made to the kit, they are only trying to be helpful and at the end of the day it is your kit and therefore your choice! Like I said I have been doing this a long time and still consider myself a pretty average modeller - some of the others do things that leave me in awe but I know I am not that good and don't let it stop me enjoying myself!

 

Good luck with the build(s).

 

Pete

Edited January 18, 2021 by PeterB

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome to the group build giggling academy  ! Always liked the Victor and happy to see one in the build. 

[Jabba]

Good luck with your build and Airfix have released the tanker version of the Victor.

[Scargsy]

Good luck - I imagine even in 1/72 it's going to be a beast!

I have that Tornado kit too - hopefully I'll get around to building that in the group build though I want to do a few AFVs first to break the plane monotony!

 

 

[stevej60]

Good luck Jake look forward to progress,I have this kit in the stash and really should build it one day,the only bit of the kit

I dislike are the intakes on the wings Matchbox never got them lined up properly I'm not sure if any after market ones were

produced but I've seen a few built with scratch built ones from plasticard,here's what can be made of the kit.

http://hsfeatures.com/features04/victorjf_1.htm

[Jake Wilson]

Thank you all for the warm welcome and tips so far, this has to be the most friendly and encouraging forum I've been on (and I run one myself (not for modelling)

 

In prep I've ordered some more masking tape of varying thicknesses, and some humbrol model filler, which I hope is better than the Vallejo stuff I've been using. I'm using 

 

Once the B-58 Hustler I am building takes more of complete shape and first coat of paint's on, I plan to make a start on the Vic. I've gone for 237 desert tan and 64 light grey for the underside, although looking at some pictures, it appears more white than grey!

 

 

[PhantomBigStu]

16 hours ago, Jake Wilson said:

Thank you all for the warm welcome and tips so far, this has to be the most friendly and encouraging forum I've been on (and I run one myself (not for modelling)

 

In prep I've ordered some more masking tape of varying thicknesses, and some humbrol model filler, which I hope is better than the Vallejo stuff I've been using. I'm using 

 

Once the B-58 Hustler I am building takes more of complete shape and first coat of paint's on, I plan to make a start on the Vic. I've gone for 237 desert tan and 64 light grey for the underside, although looking at some pictures, it appears more white than grey!

 

 

It’s your model and all but yes 64 is too dark a grey, if you want to use Humbrol 166 is the correct one (168 for the upper hemp, 237 is very much wrong, only the tristar tankers wore desert pink) 

Edited January 20, 2021 by PhantomBigStu

[PeterB]

Hi Jake,

 

Must have missed the Airfix tanker version! I have used Humbrol filler for years, and it is not bad. Mine is very old stock so I have no idea if they have changed it, but the only problem I have had is that one tube went a bit runny and you have to squeeze out the liquid before you got workable filler. The trick is to just put a small amount on at a time - I use a small spatula to force it into the gaps and scrape off the excess but some modellers seem to use masking tape to stop it getting everywhere - if you use too much it takes a bit of sanding and you lose surface detail. Perfect Plastic Putty (PPP) is good for small gaps as you can wipe it of with a damp finger instead of sanding, but it does shrink quite a bit as it dries so sometimes you need a couple of applications in my experience. I think Stu is right about the paint - they were Hemp on top.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[Jabba]

Victors never got painted in Gulf Pink on the upper fuselage, they were Hemp (or camouflage brown or something like as it is today). 

[Jake Wilson]

Thanks all, I couldn't find hemp in aerosol format so picked up 237 from this thread:

 

I did also pick up Halfords Khaki a few weeks back, as that's mentioned. Despite having two Rover 75's I didn't think to pick up the champagne beige that was mentioned!.

 

I have a badly built lightning F6 that's become my practice paint mule. I may try a sample of the khaki and 237 on a wing and see what they dry like.

 

[Jabba]

I used Halfords Khaki and Racking Grey on my Victor and a Canberra PR9.

[Jake Wilson]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Work's been a challenge of late and I really want to get the B-58 Hustler I'm building nearer to finish before starting and the more I try to improve it, the worse I make it, it feels at the minute!

Anyway, onto some paint sampling. My Revell Lighting F.6 continues as a handy paint dummy. I painted one side in Humbrol 237, the other in Halfords Khaki.

 

 

The difference is, to me, marginal but evident with 237 being a shade lighter.

 

I've also tried the 64 light grey underneath.

 

 

My usual sources of humbrol aerosol, the model centre, don't have any 166 in, so may try racking grey when next at Halfrauds.

[Jake Wilson]

So as my Hustler is assembled and in the paint stage, I've now room to start the Victor build. (My desk is used for the day job, so until I get a work bench in the garage, I am restricted to how much I can 'tidy away' at the end of each modelling session.

 

First job was to check over the kit. It was a cheap ebay auction, which mentioned the instructions were missing, so wanted to make sure that nothing else was.

 

 

Despite the reviews I've read of this kit and the issues of raised panel lines, in comparison to some of the other kits I've built, the parts are well formed with only minimal flashing. Thanks to some kind souls on facebook, I was able to find the Revell 'archive' for instructions to print off, as it's nice to tick-off parts as I go through.

 

The Revell kit gives the build option of the entrance door open, with access steps. Given the family connection to these aircraft (albeit much earlier versions) I'm going to use this kit as a first run at improving cabin detail. My grandfather was an AEO on these aircraft so it will be nice if I can try and introduce some detail to the back-seat positions.

 

Searching on the interweb, it appears like this may be the kit needed:

 

https://www.whiteensignmodels.com/uploads/file/PE7256A.pdf

 

Their website lists the parts as suitable for the Airfix Version, not Revell, so will be dropping them a message to confirm and hopefully order if they ship to the UK. It'll be my first attempt at photo-etch parts, so any tips or guides would be most welcome!

 

Back to the kit, the decals come for XH672, which is at Cosford. I need to read-up to see if her contribution to service fits with the timeline for the GB. If not, I believe there are other decal sets available.

 

Whilst waiting for the metlcote on the hustler to dry (seems very grey to me!) I took the pilots, seats and cockpit section from the kit off their frames and gave a dusting of Halfords primer.

 

 

Looking at videos on youtube, the rear of the cockpit appears to be predominantly black, with the pilot and co-pilot areas light grey, which if correct I'll follow-up with once the primer is dry. it appears as if the cockpit section will allow enough space for the 40g's of ballast indicated in the instructions, which I'm going to try to tackle with liquid gravity that I purchased.

 

In the meantime I have been practicing masking and painting with aerosols on the now 'what if'  Op Granby lightning 'mule'  so as to make any mistakes on that before it comes to painting the Victor.

 

[PeterB]

Hi Jake,

 

The White Ensign PE was always nice, but I thought we would lose it when they folded. However I see that the owner of Tom's Modelworks in the US now owns it. When I looked it says Revell/Matchbox so you should be OK and I think he does ship over here, hopefully without the problems with stuff from Europe caused by Brexit. Not a great fan of PE myself as my hands and eyes are not brilliant these days and I find bending it can be a real pain and I usually manage to CA glue it to myself!  However, when it works it does look good, but it can be expensive and the interior stuff is sometimes not very visible. Having said that, when I picked up a fairly cheap Airfix TSR-2 a few years back on e-Bay I splashed out on some Eduard etch for the cockpit and wheel bays. I really must get round to building the ruddy thing sometime.

 

I believe the trick is to take your time and not rush it, A tip for cutting the stuff off the sheet that I came across was to put it on a ceramic tile (I have a few spare from tiling my bathroom) and use a sharp and fairly rigid craft knife blade, but be careful as it bends and distorts pretty easily. Actually I have just noticed that the instructions for the etch say exactly the same. The throttle quadrant looks like it will be fun but at least it should be more 3 dimensional than etch sometimes looks, and a lot of the other parts are reasonably big - I don't usually bother with the really tiny stuff as I can't actually see it.

 

Good luck with the etch if you buy it, and enjoy your build - I will watch with interest as I have just remembered I have a similar White Ensign sheet for my Revell Halifax so I might pick up some tips! 

 

Pete

Edited February 6, 2021 by PeterB

[Jake Wilson]

Thanks Peter, really grateful for the tips! 🙂

 

I've been talking to the folks via e-mail at White Ensign and have ordered their cockpit enhancements. If I don't make too much of a mess of it, I plan to keep the canopy loose so as to be able to remove it and see inside.  I think the kits come from the US, so imagine it won't be here any time soon.  I've managed to find, from many years ago, a magnifying stand which I imagine is going to come in useful!

 

I've also decided to build the model to represent XL231 aka Lusty Lindy which was the first Victor I saw running at Elvington, the local airshows that I attended as child with my father. The extra decal set I've ordered also covers Teasin' Tina (XM715) at Bruntingthorpe, given the sad events that have happened there over the last year and how I don't envisage we'll see her taxi again.

 

 

[Pappy]

G'day Jake,

 

Firstly great choice!

 

I would suggest not purchasing the PE set, not because it is a bad product (it is a great set) but if you are starting out I would keep things simple and secondly, the majority of the PE will not be very visible once installed, even with the crew door open. Even less will be seen if you install the crew. You also have the potential for making an expensive stuff up which will mar your building experience. If however you decide you still want to proceed with the PE option, there are a few more tips:

 

• When removing the parts, use a curved blade instead of the typical triangular blade. The curved blade will only make one point of contact and being curved should let you get into some of the tighter spots to separate some of the parts where the location is more 'congested'
• PE will not attach with normal plastic glue so you need to use either Cyanoacrylate (CA - Superglue) , 5 min epoxy or PVA (wood glue). Each has their use. CA is great for speed but can be unforgiving as there is very little work time to adjust position, pretty much once you position the part, that is where it will stay. Epoxy has great strength but takes some time to set up. As long the parts can be supported/held together this is not an issue. PVA can be quite strong when cured but has almost no strength initially. It is great for attaching small parts to canopies (like rear view mirrors) as it dries clear and will not fog clear parts (CA tends to fog clear parts) and for attaching the instrument panel overlays. Clean up is as simple as a moist cotton bud (ear cleaner type) or wet finger
• You will need some additional tools for folding and bending. There are specialised tools for this. I have one but hardly use it. I find that 90% of my needs are satisfied with three pliers that I found in the beading section of craft shops. I have a round nose,  bull nose and tapered nose pliers. The jaws are smooth so they will not mark or damage the PE parts

The Matchbox kit is old but does go together reasonably well. The biggest problem area are the engine intakes. The inlet guide vanes are moulded into the upper and lower wing halves so there is a really nasty seam running through this area. Some people just install some scratch built intake blanks to make the problem go away. The raised detail has fallen out of favour and these kits were designed for junior modellers to spend their pocket money on, so a less discerning market. The kit still has a good shape but obviously suffers in comparison to the much newer Airfix offerings that have the benefit of modern tooling and production but the Matchbox kit will still look very impressive when complete.

[Jake Wilson]

Thanks Pappy, the etch kit has yet to arrive, but will assess when it does. 🙂

[Jake Wilson]

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've finally finished my B-58 Hustler, which took longer than I anticipated and didn't come out as well as planned either, but lessons learned it's time to get my teeth into the victor.

 

The photo etch set has arrived, and looks incredible, but terrifying at the same time!

 

 

I've realised that all my pliers have teeth, so if I go ahead, will need to add them to the shopping list. Sorry if GBs aren't the right place to ask questions about PE parts, but couldn't see the right section.

 

- A number of elements have the metal 'front' with a film to sit behind with the dials. With the victor, most instrument panels appear grey, so should I paint these before removing from the frames? I wouldn't think to paint in situ as it'll cover the dials behind the film.

 

 

I also need to source some plasticard according to the instructions for the upper panel. Are there any recommended alternatives or do I need to order the proper stuff?

 

As work on the cabin has stalled, I continued prepping other components, including the wings, priming and painting the intakes in the first instance. Once dried, I'll mask up and paint the wheel wells.

 

 

I've also started to build the other main sections in anticipation of sorting the cockpit section

 

Sections by Jake Wilson, on Flickr

 

Next job is to research the correct uniform colouring for the aircrew, and a glass of red to steady the hand!

 

[Pappy]

 G'day Jake,

 

You took the plunge after all!

 

Yup, paint the instrument panels first, then add the clear acetate film under the painted panels. In 1/72, I would just paint the back of the films with white paint, Use matt, it is easier to deal with and will still appear glossy due to the nature of the film. I would cut out the film and attach it to the painted panels using PVA. Brush a thin coat over the film and add the instrument face on top. PVA dries clear so don't worry if it looks white or milky at first. I have never had an issue ith film reacting to it but perhaps use a test dot on a section of film that does not matter. This will also provide you with an idea of working time, handling qualities (viscosity, stickyness etc) before you commit.

 

You can paint the parts on the fret but I found that you just end up having to re-touch damaged paint from handling during removal. Also there will be small nubs of PE that will need to be cleaned up after removal from the fret. I usually make a masking tape loop and use this to attach parts to wooden clothes pegs for spraying. Also, if parts need to be bent or folded, the paint will come off anyway. The PE works best when attached directly to bare plastic so you may need to remove some paint from that nicely primed cockpit! Also, adhesion can be improved by lightly sanding the surface.

 

You can buy sheets of styrene, which is expenaive for what it is, but in reality you are surrounded by the stuff if you look at things witha modeller's eye. You could for example source the plastic from something like a margarine lid or a yoghurt container? It will glue perfectly well with normal styrene glue  and if you want thicker plastic, old credit cards will work too. If you need long thin strips of uniform size/thickness however, then I would buy the proper stuff.

 

It looks like you have painted the air intakes inthe camo colour. I am not sure if you intend to leave these open or blank them off. Not an issue if you intend to blank them but if not, the inateke colour was white, but the exterior colour did extend into the intake around the intake lip and onto the front of the vertical dividers, look at some reference pics to see what I mean but it is quite a complicated area and probably the worst part of the Matchbox kit to clean up

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Pappy

[Jake Wilson]

Thanks Pappy for the guidance once again! 🙂

 

I'd ordered the kit just after my last post - curiosity and excitement (and a couple beers! 😁) got the better of me I guess, that combined with over-estimation of my abilities I dare say! 

 

Thank you for the guidance on how to handle them. I don't have any friends who model, nor know anyone local who model, so this is my sole platform for asking for advice. 🙂 As the kit-supplied cockpit section also has raised 'hubs' for the back seaters, I think i'll need to find a way of removing these for the PE kit floor. Re the styrene, as it happens I have just had a replacement credit card sent through, so I'll give that a try. I think I'm quite a way off using sheets of it just yet. 

 

I think I've misinterpreted earlier pictures that I'd found and penned the whole intake in khaki, but upon reading your message, I looked at pictures of Lusty Lindy and Lone behold, they're white. I'll need to experiment with maskol/tape to then paint the rear sections in white at the same time I'll also paint the wheel wells. If I was more skilled, I'd try to make some of the red intake covers, which would also address the intake challenges you mention!

 

 

 

 

[Pappy]

G'day again Jake,

 

I think you have a few options. 

 

Ref the raised sections of floor. If you have a set of side cutters, you could use that to knip them off and tidy up the florr openings with some files and sandpaper. Nothing too flash, you just need to make the area around the seat bases flush with the surrounding floor as the PE overlay will go over the top. If you have a razor saw you could saw off the raised platforms and once again, neaten everything up with files and sand paper Of course you could also drill out the centres and then just hack away with a knife  until all the raised features are gone. There are probably other methods but these arewhat came to mind initially

 

Finally, you could just leave the floor overlay out altogether because as I stated earlier, not all the detail will be visible. If you havn't already, you could try taping the fuselage together with the cockpot assembly inside and see how much is visible through the access door and canopy to give you an idea of where to focus your efforts

 

The undercarriage bays were an aluminium colour, as was the undercarriage itself.  I don't know if this was an unpainted natural aluminium ora paonted shade but not khaki or any other underside colour.

 

cheers,

 

Pappy