Adam Poultney Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 (edited) Now this really isn't something you see every day on RFI. A Vulcan B1a. The B1a is jointly my favourite variant of the Vulcan with the regular B1, but there has never been a kit made of the B1a. My only option to build one is to convert one from another Vulcan kit, as the only Vulcan B1 kit is incredibly rare and not cheap, and from the 1950s, it wouldn't make a very good starting point, so I have to use a B2 kit. The B2, as you will see further down, has an entirely different wing to the B1 and B1a, among many other differences, so it's quite an extensive conversion. Seriously can someone please make a modern Vulcan B1/B1a kit, I don't care what scale, if it's resin, plastic, vacuform, whatever. Just any vulcan Mk1 kit would be nice. Contrary to what most people seem to think, the B1 did not have a straight leading edge as standard, it was only the prototypes and first five production Vulcans that had this. The B1a was an upgrade to the electronic countermeasures, not the wings' leading edges, you can distinguish the two variants by the B2 style tailcone and ECM plate under the right wing, or by the paint scheme (B1as had different schemes to B1s, this is a bad example as XA895, being the prototype B1a, had a standard B1 scheme). Anyway, I chose to build my third B1a in 1/200 scale, the first two are 1/144, using the Cyberhobby kit as the starting point. At first I was planning to do XH481 in anti flash white, but part way through I changed my mind and built the prototype B1a, XA895, which happened to be the only B1a to be painted in silver and not have a refuelling probe (the kit one is pretty rubbish). I think this was also the first Vulcan in squadron service before its conversion to B1a standard. So yeah, this is my 18th Vulcan model. Comparing the B1a to the B2, you can see just how different they were. Both models are based on the same kit. And some WIP photos Highly modified landing gear. For the main gear, I used cut down main gear doors which were spare, each kit has a set of gear doors for wheels up and wheels down options so I have a lot of spares. These just happened to be almost the right shape for B1 main gear when cut down slightly, and and had the advantage of using mostly the same plastic. Similarly with the nose gear, I used spare gear doors and other bits from the kit including the air oil separator pipes that run below the engines on the B2 which were now spare (these also made the pitot tubes when cut to size). The B2 panel lines had to be removed on the wings. That was quite a tedious process. I printed a lot of the decals myself. There's a lot of spares here that might be useful one day but hey if anyone needs vulcan decals for 1/200 617 Sqn in the correct shades and sizes or 1/96 Vulcan prototype decals, I've got loads spare. Roundels and fin flashes came from the kit as I can't print white, annoyingly they're too small and the colours are off but it's close enough. Edited April 8, 2021 by Adam Poultney 29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 WIP thread here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Delta 210 Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 Great result, your time and effort really paid off! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 10 minutes ago, Alpha Delta 210 said: Great result, your time and effort really paid off! thanks definitely did pay off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binbrook87 Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 Wow. You're knowledge and love for the Vulcan is mind blowing. I discover something new every time you post up. Your latest addition even at 1/200 scale looks the business. I walked past those Cyber hobby kits many many times but may have to think again. I've still yet to build my Trumpeter kit but you've inspired me to get cracking sooner rather than later. Anti flash white for me 😁 Keep em coming....... 👍👍 Cheers Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 2 minutes ago, binbrook87 said: Wow. You're knowledge and love for the Vulcan is mind blowing. I discover something new every time you post up. Your latest addition even at 1/200 scale looks the business. I walked past those Cyber hobby kits many many times but may have to think again. I've still yet to build my Trumpeter kit but you've inspired me to get cracking sooner rather than later. Anti flash white for me 😁 Keep em coming....... 👍👍 Cheers Graham Definitely recommend the Cyberhobby kit, like with most Vulcan kits you've got to do some research to get it right, but it's really nice once built (hence why I have 9 of them). Same as the Cyberhobby kit, you've got to put in a fair bit of research to get a good Vulcan out of the Trumpeter kit. I've got my fourth in the stash, I'm thinking about modding the intakes to build an early Vulcan B2, although I'm going around in circles trying to decide on a scheme. One minute I want to do one in white, next I want to do a B2MRR, next I want to do an early 70s camo scheme.... If you have any questions regarding your trumpeter kit when you build it, tag me in your build thread if you do one or send me a message 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 Superb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted April 9, 2021 Author Share Posted April 9, 2021 22 hours ago, RMCS said: Superb thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted April 11, 2021 Share Posted April 11, 2021 Lovely work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amos brierley Posted April 11, 2021 Share Posted April 11, 2021 18 .... Woah that’s dedication. Lovely to see your neiche subject. As neiche subjects go a B2MRR with the camouflage colours sprayed with a soft edge demarcation and the photo I have seen is (I think) gloss. 😉 Just a thought. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdonnell Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 Brilliant work and results in every respect,Adam.🏆👏😉👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 Wow, what a difference in span! Never new there was a static Silver bullet Vulcan! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted May 5, 2021 Author Share Posted May 5, 2021 Doh! I just realised I forgot one detail... There's supposed to be a black strip along part of the spine of the aircraft where the fin begins which I forgot to paint... guess it's back to the modelling bench with this model at some point in the next few days for a minor addition. On 11/04/2021 at 20:28, amos brierley said: 18 .... Woah that’s dedication. Lovely to see your neiche subject. And 5 more in the stash and one as a slow moving project On 11/04/2021 at 20:28, amos brierley said: As neiche subjects go a B2MRR with the camouflage colours sprayed with a soft edge demarcation and the photo I have seen is (I think) gloss. 😉 Just a thought. B2MRR with glossy soft edged camo... now that would be unusual. I was wanting to do a B2MRR since it's missing from my collection, I'll have to look into that 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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