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Refurbished Aeroclub Varsity


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Vickers Varsity T.1

5 FTS, RAF Oakington, 1967

 

 

Varsity 4

 

Way back in time I was on an ATC summer camp at RAF Oakington near Cambridge. The only thing I clearly remember about it was standing behind the pilots’ seats, one hand on each (the seats, not the pilots) actually flying in a Varsity doing circuits. I’ve always wanted to model one since then. I built a Welsh Models 1/144 vac form years ago but finally I managed to get my hands on an Aeroclub 1/72 version. I didn’t buy it as a kit, but as an already built up version from Paul Janicki who you may know from this forum. Paul’s build featured in Scale Models magazine many years ago. This is what it looked like before refurbishment :

 

Varsity old

 

All it needed really was some extensive dayglo adding but I decided that I really needed that 5FTS version so I took off all the decals and paint. The outer wings had developed a bit of droop so I cut them off outboard of the engines, took them apart, and re-assembled them. The Light Aircraft Grey and white respray was easy enough but the dayglo was a different issue. In the end I masked and sprayed the dayglo areas with white, then matt orange, then a couple of top coats of Vallejo Model Air Flourescent Red. I had considered using decals for each piece of strip dayglo but that was just too daunting so in the end I used white and Light Aircraft Grey decal strips (from Fantasy Printshop) over the dayglo. This was also daunting and took far longer than I wanted to but got there in the end. I must admit that I tired of counting the number of strips needed and just got on with it so it looked something like the original. I will admit that the exhaust staining is a bit on the heavy side but they were very dirty engines! I would also thank Aeroclub for providing sturdy white metal undercarriage legs as the beast weighs a ton. The upperwing roundels are the right size according to my references so I think the wing is just a little short in chord. I ran out of steam when it came to replicating the emergency escape markings around the cabin windows so if anyone happens to have an unused decal sheet from the original Aeroclub kit it would be very gratefully received and put to good use! Anyway thankyou Paul for doing all the hard work in the first place.

 

Varsity 1

 

Varsity 2

 

Varsity 3

 

Varsity 6

 

Varsity 5

 

Varsity 8

 

Varsity 7

 

Varsity 9

 

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Gorgeous builds, love the Varsity did 8 trips at Cranwell as an Air Cadet. Come on Airfix a new 1/72 tool  would sell,  very good examples at Newark air Museum, Brooklands and Newquay to Lidar.

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You have done a brilliant job on the Aeroclub kit, it builds into a great model, Aeroclub made a mistake though as there was only one exhaust on the engine on the outer side, really was a mucky engine indeed.

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Superb Varsity!

 

The Swedish Air Force had a single Varsity in the main role as a top secret signal intelligence platform for 20 years. It is now in the Swedish Air Force Museum in Linköping.

 

Your renovation project produced a jewel of a model.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

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Nostalgia on wings.

Flew in them at 6FTS Finningley.

Scary moment when flying at 10,000 feet and opening up the 'hole in the floor' to go down to the map-reading position. 

Leaning forward, slightly out of balance over the gap opening in the floor to stare down through the perspex to the ground below....

Oh! to be 20 years old again !

 

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This is an absolutely splendid job at refurbishment!  Your rendition of the "Fab-Glo" panels looks spot-on, and getting there sounds extremely time-consuming.  Frankly, you had no alternative, because decal simply will not work on these complex curves.  I agree with you on the wing chord--a tad bit narrow.  I've got 84" roundels on the upper wings of my in-progress Valetta (same basic wing) and they look a tad big.  Great model, and most inspirational!!!! Alex

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23 hours ago, CT Modeller said:

if anyone happens to have an unused decal sheet from the original Aeroclub kit it would be very gratefully received and put to good use!

Chris - check PMs. I can help there.

 

Nice refurb, and I'm envious of you having flown in such a charismatic old aeroplane! I've explored the interior of a museum Varsity, which is as close as I'll obviously ever get.

 

Jon

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Very nice indeed,..... great job. I have the very same thing sat in the corner looking sadly at me as if to say,.... please refurb me,..... it is on the cards and your refurb has urged me to get a grip and start it!

Cheers

          Tony

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