Roden 1/144th Vickers Type 1154, Vickers Super VC10, East African Airways.

[general melchett]

Hi all, another one out of the traps. Built for December's issue of Airfix Model World, this is Roden's lovely 1/144th Type 1154, Vickers Super VC10, finished in the splendid East African Airways 'Lion in the Sun' livery. A great little kit (it's that nice, I've acquired another four of the blighters) it builds into an excellent rendition of one of the most graceful airliners to ever take to the skies. Some aftermarket was used on this one including NH Detail PE set which included among other things a cockpit, wing fences, main gear doors, engine covers as well as a variety of aerials. The only let down was the decal sheet. The colours looked off, with the yellow stripe looking more mustard  than yellow and the details appeared soft and lacking finesse. Luckily, on the up side, Ray at Twosix Decals, came to the rescue with his superb EAA Super Viccy10 set, unfortunately on the down side, the set is designed for a modified Airfix kit (or Frog/Novo Super) and so needed a bit of tweaking to fit correctly. Firstly the doorways needed rearranging via some careful surgery and a fresh scalpel blade plus a few of the windows required repositioning. However, the biggest headache was the rear end. The kit decals depict the early version of the EAA scheme with the 'straight through to the tail cone' fuselage stripe whereas the TwoSix Decals version represents the second iteration which extended and curved around and under the rear fuselage. Being designed for the earlier kits meant yet more surgery. A lot of Mr.Mark Softer and Mark Fit Strong was sacrificed in order to persuade the decals to conform to the underside of the rear fuselage but it all worked out in the end. To avoid the 'see through' effect, jet pipe detail was added using styrene tubes cut to length and inserted into the rear of the nacelles. Due to the TwoSix Decals covering the entire area around the engine mounts I didn't fancy trying to fit these after the engines were on so decided to remove the fuselage mounting 'stubs' and sand the area smooth before applying the decals. I then cut out a deeper slot, fitted a new tab to the engine nacelles (before painting) and fitted the nacelles after the decals were applied. This meant needing a perfect fit on both nacelles...which took a fair bit of time not to mention patience but we got there in the end.

 

The model was painted using a mixture MRP-098 Light Gull Grey and decanted Halfords Appliance White automotive paint. The wings and tailplane had multiple lightened (and a few slightly darkened) shades of the base coat applied to some panels as per available photographs of the real thing. MRP-186 Light Grey was applied to the engine nacelles and undercarriage wheel hubs. Weathering was kept to a minimum as these aircraft were kept extremely clean during their service with EAA. Sadly this particular aircraft, 5X-UVA was involved in a fatal crash during an aborted take off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1972. RIP all concerned. 

 

Cheers all, hope you like it and thanks for looking

 

Melchie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SAT69]

That is pure gorgeous!

[canberraman]

An outstandingly beautiful build of the most elegant jet airliner of all time.

 

Mark

[Vince1159]

i've got MAM's 1/200 diecast and your's is a beauty...

[RMCS]

Superb finish 

[Skodadriver]

Congratulations on an excellent build General.

 

Thanks for the tip about the NH Detail p/e. I wasn't aware they did a set for the SVC-10.

 

Dave G

[Bandsaw Steve]

That’s a super Super VC10!

[Swamp Donkey]

Stunning looking VC10

 

SD

[Viking]

Definitely Queen of the African skies, no more beautiful airliner was ever built. Superb workmanship as always General.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Vesa Jussila]

Looks good. You have done real nice job. All work with decals have paid off.

[general melchett]

Thanks everyone, always appreciated. 

 

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Definitely Queen of the African skies, no more beautiful airliner was ever built.

 

 

Totally agree John, poetry in motion, particularly when compared to modern offerings, but then, I'm a child of the sixties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fritag]

2 hours ago, Viking said:

Definitely Queen of the African skies, no more beautiful airliner was ever built. Superb workmanship as always General.

 

 

Dad-in-law was a flight engineer on RAF VC-10's - always to be referred to as 'Queen of the Skies'; although the Britannia bore that appellation when he flew them; so there might have been a bit of tribalism affecting his objectivity....

 

But either way John is clearly correct about the workmanship.

[general melchett]

Thanks Steve, 

 

9 minutes ago, Fritag said:

 although the Britannia bore that appellation when he flew them; so there might have been a bit of tribalism affecting his objectivity....

 

I think you're right, the same thing went for the 747......and probably a few others in their time.

[Max Headroom]

Even as a die hard military modeller, I love the Vicky 10 ❤️ and your build (as per usual) does the model full justice 
 

Trevor

[Wulfman]

Splendid work !

 

Wulfman

[Pete in Lincs]

Mmmm, Pretty. Me like.

 

23 hours ago, general melchett said:

 However, the biggest headache was the rear end.

Isn't it always so.... (Snort!)

[Uncle Pete]

Nice one, General, very nice.  I always liked the look of the VC 10 and as it happens it was my ride for my first ever transatlantic trip when BOAC still existed... Not so show my age or anything!  (I was extremely impressed with the acceleration on the runway).  Coincidentally, the night before I flew I played a gig for BOAC with the Sydney Lipton orchestra.

 

[Alex1978]

Wow...what a beauty

[general melchett]

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Isn't it always so.... (Snort!)

 

It was only a matter of time, wasn't it 

 

Thanks Uncle Pete, sadly a type I never flew on. BOAC eh, well if you're going to fly on one, fly in style!

 

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I was extremely impressed with the acceleration on the runway

 

Just to watch it tear down the Bruntingthorpe runway, blasting everything in it's wake and doing an excellent job of clearing the standing rainwater gave you an excellent idea of the power of the aircraft.

 

 

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the night before I flew I played a gig for BOAC with the Sydney Lipton orchestra.

 

Now that is in style, a memorable time all round.

[hurricane39]

Stunning.  First plane I ever flew on as a child.

[general melchett]

Thanks hurricane, appreciated.

 

I just thought I'd show an image of the rear underside taken during the build (pre any light weathering). Getting the TwoSixDecals to conform to the shape was 'interesting' but as you can see, perfectly doable. Nothing wrong with the decals, they are magnificent, it's just that they were designed for a modded, ancient Airfix kit.

 

 

[David H]

I was just reading about that accident. It was very much a freak event. How an aircraft jack finds itself on a runway is beyond me. Then, only one T/R deployed and the brakes failed. A real mess. High speed aborts usually do not end well.

 

-d-

[general melchett]

Very much a freak accident although a problem with the anti-skid brakes return line was an on-going issue at the time resulting in several incidents. Re the jack on the runway, that has shades of the 2000 French Concorde crash, only that one got airborne. Funnily enough -d- as I was writing the article, news came in of the Corporate MD-87 RTO at Houston...thankfully, in that instance, while the aircraft was totally written off, there were no fatalities.

[kev67]

H Andy

 

How are you,  another excellent build and finish, the Roden kit looks superb, and seems an accurate kit, although 1/144 is not my scale as you know

[Maginot]

Schmick!