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Sleek, beautiful and with a high wing: Trumpeter's 1/72 Vigilante


Giorgio N

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After much time spent looking at the kits in my stash, I've finally chosen my build for this GB.. and it's quite different from something like the PZL P.11 or the Hs.126 I initially had in mind. No more a smallish late '30s single engined aircraft but a large M2 jet powered aircraft

Now I said beautiful in the title, and IMHO the Vigilante has been one of the best looking combat aircraft ever, a perfect combination of elegance and aggresssion, of curves and straight lines.

Yet this aircraft is often forgotten, most likely because its main role ended up being recce after the failure of the original nuclear strike variants. The Viggie did pretty well in the recce role, particularly over Vietnam but in the end it's the fighters and attack types that got the fame while the others are quickly forgotten.

The Vigilante has not been totally forgotten in model form, with a few appearing over the years. My choice is the Trumpeter kit, that suffers from some inaccuracies (that I will not bother to deal with) but at least is a recent kit. Recent but not really modern as this is one of Trumpeter's first offerings and suffers from the infamous craters that the Chinese company used to represent rivets in those years.

 

Now those who have followed a few of my builds are probably aware that several of my kits come without box, usually the result of buying from model shows or flea markets... this time however the presentation of the kit is even worse !

 

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What ? A plastic bag with a couple of fuselage halves and a food containter ? Yes, this is how I got this kit... it was a lucky Ebay purchase from a Spanish dealer. I say lucky because price was very good, even if the packaging is, let's say, unusual....

 

Opening the "box" we can see all the other parts....

 

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Most parts are detached from the sprues, some are attached to small sections... this adds a new challenge: trying to identify which part is which.

At least the decals are in one sheet.. or better, two: for some reason the package included two full decal sheets

 

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I have not yet checked the accuracy of the decals, in any case I have an old Superscale sheet with a more interesting example. Not shown in the pictures are the clear films for the instrument panels... more on this when will be time to assemble them.

 

Last picture, this is what I mean with trying to find which part is which... some are attached to a little piece of sprue with a number, others don't so I had to wirte a number to a few to avoid mistaking them..

 

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I'll be following this one.  Hopefully it'll give me some inspiration to make some more headway on my 48th version.  I had the brilliant notion to fill the rivet craters.  While I think the end result will be worth it, it was definitely a mojo killer for me.....more so than dealing with some of the fit issues the larger one has.

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Thanks everyone ! I started gluing bits and will post some pictures tomorrow. The previous owner did separate most parts from the sprues, however he did not clean the sprue attachment points and some are pretty invasive. Cleaning the various parts will take some time. One thing I want to do is to start putting together subassemblies. to tecuce the number of loose parts in the box.

To answer some questions and comments:

 

1 hour ago, Anatol Pigwa said:

Good choice. Will you build the recce version, or will you load it with the supplied nukes as a doomsday machine?

 

Pure recce ! I'll not even add tanks (I have a few suitable in the spare parts box) just a clean aircraft. The nukes (that have been assembled by the previous owner of the kit) will come useful for some other build, the Mk.43 for example would look good under a CF-104

 

5 hours ago, helios16v said:

I'll be following this one.  Hopefully it'll give me some inspiration to make some more headway on my 48th version.  I had the brilliant notion to fill the rivet craters.  While I think the end result will be worth it, it was definitely a mojo killer for me.....more so than dealing with some of the fit issues the larger one has.

 

The rivets are something that I'm still not sure about... I may try to fill them or just leave them as they are. Sure the model would look better with these rivets filled but I'm afraid I may end up with incosistent surface details

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This is a superb choice, Giorgio. 😊 I, too, love the A-5. In real life it was, of course, two Starfighters flying in very close formation, much like the early F-4s :). She must have sounded great in the air. I only ever saw them on the ground or on flat tops. good luck with her!

 

Martin

 

PS: a camo one would look nice ;)
 

 

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19 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

The rivets are something that I'm still not sure about... I may try to fill them or just leave them as they are. Sure the model would look better with these rivets filled but I'm afraid I may end up with incosistent surface details

 

If you do choose to go the filling the rivets route, I'd maybe consider doing the rivet filling prior to assembly.  I waited until after I had the fuselage & wings assembled before I did it, and it was a bit of a hassle trying to not knock off the tail or landing gear while handling.  I think it would've been easier had I done it beforehand.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Time to add some pictures !

The build has progressed very slowly, mainly for one reason: I got convinced to spend some weekends away from home. This left me with less time than desireable to work on the model but I can't complain, a weekend off is always a good thing...

 

Generally work start with the cockpit but in this case I decided to tackle one issue first: the Trumpeter Vigilante kits are well known to feature "flimsy" fuselages. The shape of this aircraft clearly leads to parts that need some internal support but the manufacturer did very little in this respect, so I decided to add plastic tabs to help keeping the fuselage halves properly aligned:

 

ff37688d-7cca-4ae3-8d08-8bae829196eb.JPG

 

A test-fit with the various tabs in place showed that these do the job pretty well and I'm now confident that I should get a decent fit. Mind, the parts in general seem to be engineers well enough to fit properly but the fuselage really benefits from some help.

While I was painting the interior of the fuselage and adding the tabs, I also decided to add the main wheel wells. These were previously painted in white, although they will need more white to be sprayed further into the build.

 

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The wheel wells are nice enough, sure they could benefit from some extra detail but I've decided to build this model as OOB as possible so I'll keep them as they are.

With the airbrush out it was time to paint the cockpit, or at least its main components. Lifecolor's FS 36213, lightened a bit, went on pretty nicely, then I started adding some more colour to the seats and consolles.

 

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Last for today, the instrument panels... these are offered in a very unusual way: a clear printed film with the instrument dials and a couple of panels printed in clear plastic with holes where the instruments are. Think of them like a more 3-dimensional version of Eduard's or similar PE panels.

Now I struggle a bit with the idea... the clear plastic panels are pretty thick with the result that the dial are buried very deep in the panels. This make them very hard to see. The idea could have worked better had the panels been thinner... like it works well with PE sets. And then, why mould the panels in Of coursplastic ? A grey part would have worked the same considering that these parts have to be painted anyway... The addition of the clear film also means that different glues will be required...  anyway, here's where I am at the moment, The panels have yet to be completed (and the rear one also needs some touching up where I made a mess with the black paint on a couple instruments

 

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Last but not least.. I don't know why all these latest pictures seem to be out of focus ! I'm using the same camera with the same settings and yet something is not right... I'll have to sort this before posting the next round of pictures

 

 

 

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11 minutes ago, Giorgio N said:

the clear plastic panels are pretty thick with the result that the dial are buried very deep in the panels. This make them very hard to see.

 

Nice start Giorgio! Yeah, these kit manufatcturers have strange ideas sometimes. Maybe the holes are easier to cast in clear plastic?? You could thin the panels down with a file, couldn't you?

 

Cheers, Michael

 

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5 minutes ago, Toryu said:

 

Nice start Giorgio! Yeah, these kit manufatcturers have strange ideas sometimes. Maybe the holes are easier to cast in clear plastic?? You could thin the panels down with a file, couldn't you?

 

Cheers, Michael

 

 

 

Thanks Michael !

I did consider thinning the panels but unfortunately this alone would bring a problem: the thckness of the part representing the panel is needed to bring the panel face in the right place. Heavily thinning the two clear parts would mean having to rebuild the thickness behind them with plasticard. Doable and maybe worth the hassle, but not something I wanted to do this time

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That is very nice work, Giorgio, and exactly as I would expect from you. I like your tabs. They look typical of an engineer, being like something my Dad would do. He is an engineer, although now in his 90s, and was reputed to build to “battleship standard” ;). I’m looking forward to seeing more of this beauty as you continue your work on her :). 👍

 

Keep up the great work, 

 

Martin

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On 8/28/2021 at 10:56 AM, RidgeRunner said:

That is very nice work, Giorgio, and exactly as I would expect from you. I like your tabs. They look typical of an engineer, being like something my Dad would do. He is an engineer, although now in his 90s, and was reputed to build to “battleship standard” ;). I’m looking forward to seeing more of this beauty as you continue your work on her :). 👍

 

Keep up the great work, 

 

Martin

 

Thanks Martin !

Well, as an engineer I had to throw in some engineering solution, right ? 😂

 

And speaking of engineering, here's a tale of how to spend a Saturday afternoon trying to do something....

While this kit is sure decently modern in most aspects, for some reason Trumpeter did absolutely nothing about the intake ducts. For nothin I mean nothing, there's no duct and not even a bulkhead with a representation of the compressors or even just a blank bulkhead. The model is completely empty inside the fuselage. This may work as really it's very dark inside there and it may be that nothing is visibile... but the wheel wells rightly protrude in the fuselage, so they may end up being visible... so I decided to do something about it: a couple of plasticard bits per side sorted the matter, as can be seen in the picture below but I added a new trick....

 

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I considered a number of options for the rear bulkhead, one of them was to add a proper compressor face. I have a few resin casts I made for the Phantom and they would work. But the duct on the kit was slightly narrower... I considered a simple coat of black paint, afterall not much would be visible... in the end however I went for this:

 

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The compressor face is simply a picture taken from the web, modified a bit and printed on paper. I then cut the picture from the paper and glued it onto the black painted bulkhead. Some more black paint to blend the picture in, a coat of matt varnish to protect everything and here's my compressor face. I would not use this on a model of an aircraft where the compressor is very visible (like a Tomcat or Buccaner) but should work here. Did it work ? Well, I'd say it did...

 

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The compressor pops up if looking into the intake and looks much more 3-dimensional that it is. Things unfortunately will be different with the part with the intake ramps in place...

 

37cf2b8c-4575-4e92-b0a5-3b40adfee761.JPG

 

Now really it's very hard to see the compressor and I may have just left the bulkhead in black. Oh well, at least I experimented with a new technique....

 

 

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With the intakes sorted, it was time to complete the cockpit. I added some belts to the seats, belts I made from metal foil. These are not really 100% accurate but at least they make the seats more "interesting" compared to the plain seats offered by Trumpeter.  With all parts assembled it's clear how the instrument panels are little visible, with the exception of the large ones for the navigator. In any case the cockpit looks pretty good. Still missing are the handles over the seats, I prefer to add these as one of the very last touches to avoid any chance of breaking and losing them. Also missing is the sight, that will be added just before gluing the windscreen in place.

 

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So it was that with the cockpit completed and the intake ducts sorted, it was time to glue the fuselage halves together

 

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Unfortunately it is necessary to glue the nose gear leg before closing the fuselage, something I don't like in general. Moreover, all my test fit exercises were without this in place, once glued it spread the wheel well walls to the side and this affected the fit. Very annoying.... I still managed to get a decent fit but I was expecting better. As I always do, I focused on having a good fit on the top, even if this sometime meant a less good fit on the bottom. On the Vigilante this is not much of a problem as the whole length of fuselage behind the nose wheel well will be occupied by the fairing with the recce equipment, that will hide the seam. In any case the tabs I added at the start of the build helped the fit a lot and the top surfaces in particular are well aligned.

 

While waiting for the glue to do its work on the fuselage I then glued the two wing halves together. These do not include the flaps, that can be added with different angles. I don't know yet what I'll do, the tabs are for a small deflection angle but I'll check pictures of the aircraft on the ground to see which configuration is more realistic.

One thing that should be done before closing the wing is to drill holes for the underwing pylons or the photo-flash unit.... if the modeller wants to add there. My model will be built clean with nothing under the wing, so I did not drill any hole

 

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So it came Sunday afternoon, and after having watched all 3 classes of the world motorbike championship, I could not resist gluing the wing onto the fuselage and now I have this:

 

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Well, it's big ! And it will get bigger as the model still lacks the nosecone, rear fuselage fairing and the folding sections of the wing... I had a Hasegawa kit in the past, that is currently disassembled awaiting restoration, so I should know how big a 1/72 Vigilante is... yet I'm surprised every time I work on this model....

 

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I'm just catching up Giorgio.  Your cockpit work is very impressive, but possibly not as impressive as your compressor face solution - I love it :winkgrin:.

 

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Thanks Cliff, glad you like it ! The compressor work is interesting as opens some new possibilities. To be fair I should have printed something showing the end of the duct, compressors faces do not appear in the middle of a black area... unfortunately I had nothing of the kind for the Vigilante but I want to try this technique on a Phantom, for which I do have a picture including the end of the intake... would be interesting to see if I can blend the picture in with the end of the plastic duct..

 

Now no progress beyond what I've already posted but it's worth mentioning that I'm considering a new addition at the other end of the engines...

The exhausts as reproduced by Trumpeter are not too bad and are actually quite "busy" with detail. The problem is that they really are too shallow, with the turbine very close to the exhaust petals. Yes, I know, this was supposed to be an OOB build, but I like my engines rear ends to look good, so I'm planning a modification...

Those who have seen my builds are probably already familiar with my technique to improve exhausts, particularly on J79 engines: inserting a tube made from corrugated sheet between the turbine and the exhaust. I use corrugated sheet because this is a decent representation of the J79 afterburner section walls, as can be seen in pictures of the real thing. In a couple of previous builds here on BM I used corrugated cardboard but I now want to try a different material I've had for some time, a corrugated plastic sheet as used for architectural models:

 

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I have 3 such sheets in different "scale", meaning to me different sizes of corrugations. This is the middle sized one and IMHO fits well with a 1/72 J79 engine. As you can see I have already cut a section, from which I've made two "tubes". Now this material is thicker and harder to bend than the corrugated cardboard, but I felt that I needed something more robust here for the kind of assembly I have in mind. To help the plastic bend into a tube I passed with a scriber into the recesses with the result of more flexible parts,

Here below are the exhaust as originally offered by Trumpeter together with a view of what my system will look like: the tube will fit into the turbine part and support the inner exhaust section that Trumpeter would want me to glue into the turbine plate. The outer section of the exhaust will have to be glued on a collar I'll have to place on the outer surfaces of the tube.

 

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Have to say that I'm not sure about the lenghth of my tubes, maybe I should have made them a bit longer... in any case this will be a huge improvement on the original parts.

I did consider replacing the outer exhaust section as the detail inside is a but soft, however at least there's some detail. I think I'll live with it, a good black wash on the finished thing should be enough to make the detail more visible.

Have to say that I may also drop all the tubes and just use these...

 

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A set I found at a model show a few years ago, from a company I knew nothing about. These parts sure nicer than the kit ones, not on par with more recent resin products but a great improvement on the plastic. I may however keep these and use them on a Phantom... I will have to build a Phantom at some point....

 

Edited by Giorgio N
Picture was missing
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On 31/08/2021 at 15:08, Giorgio N said:

In a couple of previous builds here on BM I used corrugated cardboard but I now want to try a different material I've had for some time, a corrugated plastic sheet as used for architectural model

 

I've not paid attention to your using these corrugated sheets before. It's always interesting to see new and unusual material that improves a model. Nice idea!

 

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On 9/1/2021 at 3:50 PM, Toryu said:

 

I've not paid attention to your using these corrugated sheets before. It's always interesting to see new and unusual material that improves a model. Nice idea!

 

 

Really this is something that I started doing when I realised how too many kits of jets offer very short afterburner sections, often having the last stage of the turbine very close to the exhaust. I can imagine that this is due to the will of offering some detail while not bothering with too many parts but in reality afterburner ducts are quite long. Moreover, generally the internal surface of such ducts is not a smooth cylinder. Not many 1/72 kits give good reproductions of this detail, among them I can think of the Hasegawa F-104 and Tomcat, the Eduard MiG-21, the AMK Kfir and a few others. It is a small detail that however IMHO can improve realism.

My technique is pretty simple: I use a sheet of corrugated paper to make a tube to represent the afterburner section while the turbine last stage and the exhaust proper can come from the kit of be resin copies of better kits. The first model I built with this modification was this Kfir:

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234973062-fuerza-aerea-ecuatoriana-kfir-c2-finally-completed/

 

This time I used some corrugated plastic instead of corrugated cardboard (both products that can be found in arts store and model shops), I feel that cardboard is maybe easier to use although does not provide much strength.

 

On the Vigilante exhausts I actually made some changes from the original "design" I had shown above. Most important, I got rid of the inner exhaust section offered by Trumpeter as this did not reproduce the real thing too well. Instead I decided to thin the walls of the corrugated plastic tube so that these now enter the outer exhaust section for a couple mm, more realistic. Of course this solution does not replace a properly detailed resin part, but it's a simple addition at a very small cost.

Here's what the completed thing looks like:

 

f364d29b-6a79-4a56-a13e-62682c9adb87.jpg

 

At the rear we have the original Trumpeter turbine part, cut to remove part of the area where the original inner exhaust fitted. In the middle we have the corrugated tube, with a couple of thin plasticard bands used to glue the tube closed. At the front the original Trumpeter outer exhuast section. Also visible are a few small square section rods: the role of these was to keep the exhaust section at the proper distance from the rear end of the tube, cutting all rods together at the same length guaranteed both exhausts are the same.

 

Of course now that I have a modified exhaust I have a small problem: there is no attachment point inside the aircraft fuselage ! To sort this I've cut a couple of plasticard walls and glued them to L shaped rods. The plan is to align everything and glue the parts in place before closing the fuselage, as in the picture below:

 

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The rearmost fuselage section is only taped in place to check the alignment, when everything is properly aligned I'll paint this section inner areas and then glue it on the fuselafe end. The lower plate will then follow.

 

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Finally sorted the exhausts ! t was not easy, as I had to glue them in place aligning everything by eye... The plan was to align the first with great care, constantly checking pictures of the real thing. The second would have then been aligned following the first.

This was not always easy for one reason I have not mentioned before.... RA-5C production started in 1962 and in a few years all aircraft had been delivered to the US Navy. In 1969 however the Navy ordered a further batch and the production lines reopened to produce additional 36 aircraft. These all carried serial numbers in the 1566xx series and had a number of differences compared to the original RA-5C design. In particular the visible ones were the presence of extended wing leading edges blended with the intakes and the use of a different variant of the J79 engine, with a longer exhaust. The trumpeter kit represents one of these aircraft.

The use of different engine variants meant that I had to search for pictures of aircraft in the same serial range while many of the good pictures around are of earlier aircraft. In the end I hope to have aligned the exhausts in place properly.

 

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Notice how I decided to add silicone sealant to fix the exhausts in place after having glued them and the supports with plastic cement. I really don't want anything to move ! Of course I also painted the rear end of the fuselage in grey before gluing the exhausts in place. I will have to mask them anyway while spraying the white and other colours in the same area.

With the exhausts in place, I can now close the fuselage with the addition of the lower rear panel !

 

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And no, I don't know why the pictures end up rotated by 90°... must be something wrong in the settings.

The masking on the front fuselage was needed to mask the cockpit while spraying the areas under the intakes in grey. Speaking of intakes (that are now glued in place), these didn't fit very well and I had to use plenty of filler and sandpaper. Also notice the extension on the wing leading edges, that as I explained before identify this as one of the aircraft manufactured in 1969-70

 

 

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