1/72 Handley Page Victor K.2 (Airfix A12009)

[RaceAddict]

It feels like I never get as much done each evening as I hoped to. 😒

 

That said, I spent a bit of yesterday evening sanding down the putty, and I think I'm getting better at it (though I may need to shoot some light primer to really see if the job is well done, or not). The gap at the rear of the fuselage was large enough that I felt a second layer was needed so I dabbed a bit more on before going to sleep. I'm anxious to move on to next steps, but I really don't want to rush this seam filling, especially the area just fore and aft of the cockpit as this area will be 100% at the forefront when the model is finally put on display in my cabinet.

[RaceAddict]

Test fitting the wing (again), and all seems to be ready for the next step of permanently attaching it. 

 

 

Fingers crossed for tomorrow morning, hopefully I'll get it together before work. 🤞🏻

['V']

Having flaps down and air-brakes open will show interesting detail BUT

I've been looking through Roger R Brooks Vol I and Vol II books on the Victor and not a single picture on the 

ground has flaps down, or air-brakes open. Well one on Lyneham Dump had the air brakes open, but probably

part of the scrapping process.

 

Remember your model so final choice is yours.

 

'V'

[RaceAddict]

Well the Victor has officially outgrown my cutting mat:

 

The overall assembly of the airframe is done though.  of course there are loads of smaller pieces still to go (flaps, bomb bay doors, MLG, etc) but it feels good to have gotten to this point on what is by far the largest kit I've ever worked on. 

 

(As a side query: does anyone know why Airfix made the various wingtip options clear? It seems odd...) 

 

Also this evening I tried out the AK Real Colors "Rubber Black" (RC022):

 

This grey'ish color is going to take some getting used to. In my head tires are black even though I know by site that they aren't. 

[Steve Coombs]

9 hours ago, RaceAddict said:

(As a side query: does anyone know why Airfix made the various wingtip options clear? It seems odd...) 

Having clear wingtips is a boon to the occasionally ham-fisted like me. It's a sight easier to attach and fair in pieces like that rather than pray tiny wingtip lights don't ping into the wild blue yonder and fall prey to the carpet monster when trying to manoeuvre them into place with tweezers. Then trust they will stay in place long enough to 'lock' into place with superglue or similar so they don't detach when trying to merge them into the wingtip. Of course, the assumption is that the plane will be painted, when the lights can easily be masked and the wingtips are then made 'solid'.

[Tornado 01]

Looking forward to seeing this one getting to the finish line.

 

Meanwhile a trip up the road is on the cards soon...

 

I now live near Radlett 

 

 

[RaceAddict]

57 minutes ago, Tornado 01 said:

I now live near Radlett 

 

You're lucky to be close to that kind of history. The closest V bomber to me is a gate guard at CFB Goose Bay, NL... just 1788 kms away from me.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

@RaceAddict  There is one in Nebraska at the Strategic Air Command Museum, that might be closer to you. 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[RaceAddict]

13 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

@RaceAddict  There is one in Nebraska at the Strategic Air Command Museum, that might be closer to you. 

 

A mere 2128 kms away. 😂

 

Given that Montreal is the aviation manufacturing capital of Canada, it's weird that we don't have a real museum here, nor even an airshow for however many years it's been... 😒

[Adam Poultney]

22 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

@RaceAddict  There is one in Nebraska at the Strategic Air Command Museum, that might be closer to you. 

This one is currently undergoing restoration. There's a Facebook group, Vulcans, Victors and Valiants, that someone is posting pictures on regularly. They just washed the bomb bay.

Interesting bit of trivia about XM573, it's the last Vulcan produced with Olympus 200 series engines, and therefore the last one that could howl.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Adam Poultney

[RaceAddict]

Today's progress:

 

Cleaned up all the various wing accoutrements, painted the wheels, etc. Next, it starts going together. I'm debating with myself the best options for masking/painting/assembly. Gear or, off, whatever. Probably leaving the gear off for now... less chance of snapping anything apart while handling it for painting. Once the detail parts start going on I'll want to make sure I've got enough time in hand to put into finishing it. I feel like having this massive model partially completed on my work bench for too long is just inviting disaster. 😬

[RaceAddict]

You know how certain steps of a build can sometimes be stress inducing? Canopies are one of those, for me at least. The last larger airframe model I built (Italeri's C-27J) was a misery when it came to 'fitting' (and I use that term loosely 😒) the clear plastic over the cockpit. 

 

This Victor, however... huge sigh of relief. 

 

I trimmed it from the sprue, very lightly cleaned up the edges, and voila, it sits in place near perfectly. I also can't get over how thin it feels. Probably the thinnest clear piece I can recall working with. Really nice! 

 

Next up: a dip in the Future, let it dry until tomorrow evening, and fit it. 

[RaceAddict]

A couple of busy weekends in a row stalled the work on the Victor, but I did manage to get a few minutes of bench time in. 

 

I completed the masking of the cockpit glass and fitted the other parts associated with the front end of the aircraft. 

 

 

The last major task to be done before I start laying down the primer is to mask off the depths of the intakes. I didn't realize how deep the exterior color goes into those intakes... getting the white taped off seems like it'll be a bit of a challenge. 

 

Still debating how I'll paint this aircraft... conventional pre-shading of the panel lines, or black based? I'm leaning towards black basing as I feel it enables me to achieve a better blotchy, faded effect which all the ODS reference pics I've found seem to show. 

[amos brierley]

My stalled week has lasted a little longer.  😡   On the other hand your masking looks nice and sharp.  

[David H]

I don't know if it will help with your masking conundrum, but i typically cut narrow strips of Tamiya Tape, using a steel straight edge and a cutting mat. I can vary the width of the tape to get more flexibillity for going around curves that way. Also, i overlap the strips where necessary and lay them up sorta like roof shingles to cover larger areas.

 

-d-

[RaceAddict]

3 hours ago, amos brierley said:

My stalled week has lasted a little longer.  😡   On the other hand your masking looks nice and sharp.  

 

The masking viewed in the photos already posted isn't actually masking, it's the intakes painted before assembly (otherwise I'd have difficulty getting the white that far down into them). 

 

The issue comes in where the Hemp color has to go into the intake, partly covering what's already been painted white, and then some of the vertical elements will stay white, while the largest one closest to the fuselage actually gets painted Hemp. If you look at the references on dstorm.eu you'll see what I mean... take this image for example. That's going to take some agile tweezer manipulation to get the Tamiya tape laid down that far in.

 

I didn't realize sooner where that line would be, otherwise I'd have masked the insides before assembling it to this point. 

 

I'm actually thinking I'll spray the Hemp, then mask over it from the outside, and respray the white inside again to cover up the overspray.

[RaceAddict]

The Victor is at that stage where short bench sessions just don't cut it any longer. My habitual modeling time is usually short'ish stints of 15-20 mins between other things around the home. Sometimes it's just a case of snipping a few pieces off the sprues and cleaning up edges, or gluing smaller sub-assemblies together. Now though, I'm at the point where I need a good chunk of time to sit down, pre-clean the plastic surface of the jet, and start with a coat of black primer. Given the size of this bird... it's not going to be a 15 minute session. 😁

[RaceAddict]

Having finished the blitz build I'm back on the K.2 again... 

 

Prior to starting the paint I was a bit concerned about 2 issues: 1) the colors from AK (the hemp beige and the light aircraft grey) looked somewhat worryingly close to each other in the jars. I wasn't sure they'd look right once they were on the model, so I grabbed an unused piece and primed, painted, masked and painted again just to see. I did a black base, mottled it with a grey primer, and then sprayed the two colors. 

 

Thankfully the result once they dried is better than I first thought. I think this will look really good. 

 

[RaceAddict]

This is a whole lot of black primer:

 

Later this evening I'm going to start the marbling on the underside with the Light Aircraft Grey. This isn't going to be the work of just a few minutes. 

 

My biggest challenge from now until the end will be to not snap off the wingtip pitot tubes. 😬 We've already had some unpleasantly close calls. 

[RaceAddict]

Here's a demonstration of my very high tech airframe bracing system... 

 

Two ICE water bottles! 

 

Though I do need to hang the empennage precariously off the edge of the table because the vertical stab is still too high.

 

Also, if I develop some sort of RSI we'll know where it came from. 

[RaceAddict]

Twice on previous builds I've been at the stage of laying down the actual coats of paint and have overdone the colors and ended up hiding all the marbling work I did. 

 

I've been taking my time with the Victor, partly because it's big enough that I can't get to it all at once, but mostly because I want to make sure I don't overdo the topcoat. 

 

I think I'm very near to the point where I should stop. 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Something about that shape that makes the Victor so appealing to me. Looks almost Swallow like in planform. 

[alhenderson]

She looks lovely!  Apologies if I've missed it somewhere in the thread, but how did you do that marbling effect?

 

Cheers,

Al.

[David H]

On 11/6/2021 at 8:40 PM, RaceAddict said:

 

 

 

(As a side query: does anyone know why Airfix made the various wingtip options clear? It seems odd...) 

 

 

 

I have two ideas as to why: First, obviously it makes integration of a wingtip navigation light easier, as some have said. Secondly, i think the B. Mk. 2 actually had its wingtips and ailerons shortened as part of the tanker conversion process. There was also some re-rigging of the ailerons to reduce flexing loads on the outer wings. I remember this because i have the old SCALE MODELS issue with the article on converting the Matchbox kit. I have the B. Mk 2 in my stash and my guess would be it might have slightly different clear wingtips and ailerons.

 

I don't claim to be an expert on the Victor, but those aspects stuck in my head.

[RaceAddict]

7 hours ago, alhenderson said:

She looks lovely!  Apologies if I've missed it somewhere in the thread, but how did you do that marbling effect?

 

Cheers,

Al.

 

Just free-handed it. I don't have one of those overpriced (IMHO) template things. I started with the black primer, then turned the air pressure way down, mixed up some Light Aircraft Grey, thinner than normal... approx. 2-1 thinner/paint ratio (think skim milk) - and started laying it down. I did a few passes really close to the surface for fine lines, and then a last pass further away for a more cloudy effect. Once that was done I started "filling in" each panel with more conventionally mixed layers of paint.