White Vulcan B1 conversion

[Adam Poultney]

What a shock, I've built another Vulcan! This time it's a proper B1, pretty much standard with an Orange Putter tailcone, Phase 2 wing and the original version of the anti flash white scheme which includes full shade markings.

 

The base kit is the 1/200 scale Cyberhobby Vulcan B2 as a modern B1 kit simply isn't available; the most recent one is from the late 1950s, older than some real Vulcans! It's about time we get a new kit of one, maybe Revell or Zvezda would like to bring a competitor to Airfix's 1/72 B2? Or maybe another company would produce a 1/144 kit?

 

The main points of the conversion were to reshape the wings and remove B2 surface details, replace the tailcone with a smaller version, extend the rudder, remove B2 air scoops and exhausts and replace them with the equivalents for the B1 and a number of smaller details. The main compromise made on this model between accuracy and actually being able to build it was to leave the intakes as they are; B1s and B2s built up to XH556 had narrower intakes than B2s built from XH557 onwards. To represent this on a model in 1/200 scale would be very difficult.

 

I chose to build XH481 as I don't have an XH4-- Vulcan. It was the 34th Vulcan built including prototypes and was converted to B1a standard in the 1960s. The B1as were withdrawn at the end of that decade and XH481 ended up as one of the last surviving B1as, eventually expiring on a fire dump some time before 1977. Four Mk1 Vulcans survived longer: B1 XA900 (RAF Museum Cosford), B1 engine testbed XA903 (airworthy until 1979), B1a XH483 and B1a XH500. The two B1as both also were destroyed on fire dumps in 1977, having first been raided for any spares to keep XA903 flying. XA903 was eventually cut up in 1984 and XA900 two years later in 1986, leaving no complete Mk1 Vulcan in preservation, although a few cockpits survive.

 

Starting off with a few WIP highlights:

Marking the wings for cutting

 

Chop!

The tail gets an extension

A new tailcone and the bomb bay's backwards details are corrected

 

Shiny and white

 

Home made decals

The WIP thread is here if you want to read more:

 

And now the completed model! I had to take these photos in the kitchen because those are the only decent lights in my uni accommodation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the exhausts are made from scratch as they are entirely different to the B2 details in this area

This fantastic image of Vulcan B1 XH497 from the IWM, which is on the cover of a book about the Vulcan by Tim Mclelland, shows how dirty the underside of B1s could get.

 

To demonstrate the difference in Vulcans, the B1 next to a B2 in an end of service wrap around camouflage scheme:

 

 

 

 

 

[Abandoned Project]

3 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

What a shock, I've built another Vulcan!

Keep 'em coming. 

Your commitment to accuracy, quality and quantity with your Vulcan fleet is superb. Bravo Sir. 

[Viking]

Interesting work on backdating the kit The B.1 looks to be a more 'pure' aerodynamic shape, and who doesn't love a Vulcan! . What a shame no complete ones have survived into preservation.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Homer]

Two beautiful models well done 👏 

[ajmm]

Very nice! Thank you for the detail on how to convert a B2. Very impressive work - a super finish. I too share your frustration at the lack of B1 Vulcans, especially in 1:144 - my preferred scale. My grandfather flew B.1s. 

[Lord Riot]

Brilliant that! I’d love one of these in 1/72, just wish I had the skill to pull that off.

[Remus389]

Both look excellent ! 👍

[RMCS]

Lovley build 

[Adam Poultney]

2 hours ago, RMCS said:

Lovley build 

 

2 hours ago, Remus389 said:

Both look excellent ! 👍

 

6 hours ago, Homer said:

Two beautiful models well done 👏 

 

Thanks all!

 

14 hours ago, Abandoned Project said:

Keep 'em coming. 

Your commitment to accuracy, quality and quantity with your Vulcan fleet is superb. Bravo Sir. 

Thanks

Quality, not quantity? Nah! I'll take both. Add accuracy and it seems like one of those sets of three that you can have only two of, but do I care? I don't have time to, got more Vulcans to build!

[Adam Poultney]

10 hours ago, Viking said:

Interesting work on backdating the kit The B.1 looks to be a more 'pure' aerodynamic shape, and who doesn't love a Vulcan! . What a shame no complete ones have survived into preservation.

 

Cheers

 

John

It is really a shame, but hardly surprising. About 30 or so were converted to B1as and as such were full of state of the art ECM equipment meant for and in use on B2s when they were retired at the end of the 1960s, in a time when most of the museums around today that have aircraft the size of Vulcans didn't even exist yet. 

The unconverted B1s had been withdrawn and most were scrapped in the mid 60s. Some early examples such as XA893, which Cosford has the cockpit of in storage, barely made it past the end of the 1950s (I think this one was scrapped in 1962 but stopped flying a few years before that). 

XA900's tenure at the RAF Museum was pure luck, it happened to be at the airfield where the RAF museum was to be built. XA899 was also at Cosford, but that didn't go to the museum at all. 

The only one that had a chance really was XA903, I think it was offered to museums but with the imminent retirement of the first B2s there was no interest in saving the old testbed. The cockpit was saved though, so it's at least not entirely gone.

 

 

And I absolutely agree, it looks far more 'pure' than the B2. Best looking variant I think

[Adam Poultney]

3 hours ago, ajmm said:

Very nice! Thank you for the detail on how to convert a B2. Very impressive work - a super finish. I too share your frustration at the lack of B1 Vulcans, especially in 1:144 - my preferred scale. My grandfather flew B.1s. 

A 1/144 B1/B1a kit would be the top item on my list of things I want to see made into kits. I know Mikromir have it at least as a future project to consider, but I'm not sure they're the ones I want filling that gap given their track record of making kits that end up as more filler and putty than plastic. Their Victor isn't bad though, so if they can replicate that quality I'd take it. 

Do you have any logbook entries from your grandfather's time flying Vulcans? Do you know which airframes he flew?

[Adam Poultney]

If anyone's interested, the RFI for the camo B2 is here

[cardiff guy]

loving these well done.

 

Regards Glenn.

[Adam Poultney]

1 minute ago, cardiff guy said:

loving these well done.

 

Regards Glenn.

Thanks

[ajmm]

I haven’t had a crack at the victor yet but Mikromir kits are getting better the whole time. The Valiant (one of their first) is pretty difficult but the Hastings is a really beautifully engineered and well thought out kit. 
 

And thanks. We do have his log books. I’ll have a look for them (just moved house). He was CO 50 Squadron at Waddington from 63. 50 received 617’s cast off B1s when the latter upgraded to B2s I think I read. 

[Adam Poultney]

10 hours ago, ajmm said:

I haven’t had a crack at the victor yet but Mikromir kits are getting better the whole time. The Valiant (one of their first) is pretty difficult but the Hastings is a really beautifully engineered and well thought out kit. 

I've got my second Mikromir Victor stashed, it might make an appearance in the upcoming bomber/strike/ground attack group build. I would love one of the Hastings at some point, maybe in a scheme similar to Duxford's silver example.

That Valiant though.... well I decided to improve a diecast instead of building one as it was just more accurate. 

 

[ajmm]

Sensible man. Mine keeps looking at me forlornly from the shelf of shame.