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Swift, Silent, Styrene


David H

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I think the weathering looks fine in its execution, the amount is dependent on how often the airframe was cleaned back in the day.

 

As it happens, I took this pic yesterday for my own reference.  It may help?

 

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2 hours ago, kev67 said:

Looks excellent what you have done, don’t forget about the periscope above the cockpit, it will be only be a small dot I know in 1/144

https://www.airliners.net/photo/British-United-Airways-BUA/Vickers-VC10-Srs1103/1612066

standard VC10 but I  imagine they were on the supers

i actually gave that some thought; the plan was to drill a hole in the top of the canopy "cab" and replicate the port with a small piece of round styrene rod from Plastruct or something. I could try drawing it on with a sharp pencil... not sure what i will do, if anything.

 

BTW that's a cool picture. Reminds me i still need to add the DF installation to the upper fuselage. Also you can see in the photo how the engines were 11-12 inches closer in to the fuselage than on the Super... If and when i do a "Standard", it's gotta be British United.

 

-d-

Edited by David H
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Well kids, the feedback i got was pretty unequivocal: go no further on the weathering- and dial it back a bit, if you can.

So, i made my best effort to do that.

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The wings are noticeably dirtier than the fuselage, partly because of the various things leaking out and partly because i suspect they were not washed down as often as the fuselage.

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The deep panel lines on the wings are really "sucking" the washes and oils in more than i think the rest of the model surfaces have. That's not helping.

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Up next will be weathering of the undersides. From what few photos i could see the VC10 wing was not very "leaky" and stayed fairly clean.

I drew on some missing panel lines on the wing lower surfaces and blasted the belly with semi gloss super clear. Next move is to decide where the leaks and streaks should go.

Until next time...

10-286

 

Edited by David H
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  • 1 month later...

Greetings again, from your pals at Vickers-Armstrongs (Washington) Ltd.

 

I spent a rather futile June interviewing for jobs, punctuated by a birthday and a little bit of flying.

 

As the VC10 enters the home stretch , i've started tending to little details i've noticed here and there, as well as missing details that had been annoying me for some time.

First, the dual ADF Loop Aerial fitting.

This was nothing more than some masking and spraying of some small rectangles with Tamiya Nato Black.

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And now, the undersides. Going by photos it becomes obvious that Roden sort of "Phoned it In" with respect to details on the underside. The underside of the VC10 fuselage, wings and nacelles were marked with all manner of vent holes, drains, and breather/louver things. I've drilled out the fuel tank drain vents and added some missing panel lines un the wing undersides in the vicinity of the slat actuators. Not exactly sure what they are, but photos depict some dark circles where the slat actuators are located. Not sure if these are some kind of inspection window, or a vent of some sort to cool the actuator, or maybe dump bleed air overboard. Haven't decided if i'll add them or not.

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There is still more to be added to the belly, but i got sidetracked by 2 things:

1) The undercarriage:

On all three of my kits, the left and right halves of the mold did not come together perfectly aligned, resulting in a strut that needs *extreme* cleanup, with "offset" axles. I'm trying to rebuild the axle/carry-through structure using a combination of styrene plugs and brass tubing to maintain strength and make for a more durable attachment to the wheels. The wheels, by the way did not start off being perfectly round, but i think they're improved to a degree where they're presentable.

 

2) Believe it or not, i started another Super VC10.

Along the course of the build, i'd been continuously gaming out improvements to the kit and different ways to get better results during the construction phase. So far, i developed a better way to fill the cabin windows, build up the horizontal tailplane, and i thickened the engine nacelle pylon, i staggered the inboard engine inlets forward of the outers, and i started mixing dental acrylic resin powder with the superglue to improve the filling characteristics.

Photos to follow, once i can get my squirrel brain to focus.....

 

Thanks for shopping!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well folks, work has been getting done on the VC10.... slowly.

The left and right halves of the landing gear molding do not come together (i'm shocked- SHOCKED!), and the worst aspect of this is the landing gear axles. They are staggered. I really couldn't let that one go by. So, i had to chop the axle stubs off, and then carefully drill a teeny, tiny hole through to take an axle.

 

I built up and painted the tyres, which in itself wasn't too bad if you overlook the fact the wheels are not exactly round. In selecting a method of connecting the wheels, i went through an initially frustrating iteration of cutting very small brass bushings from tubing. Due to the odd sizes of tubing and drill bits available, the first results were singularly unsatisfying. The axle holes were just too loose and the wheel/tyre went all wonky when pressed up against the base of the axle.

 

Then i hit upon the idea of making some brake stacks/ spacers from some .010 styrene, made with a punch and die set. Once these 4 discs were glued in place, the whole issue of mounting the wheels seemed to get easier.

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The next thing i did was re examine the axle-bushing interface. Searching through my stock of rods and tubes, i found a suitable piece of K&S aluminium tubing which, while somewhat bigger than the brass i was working with, was a perfect match for the drill bits i had and its softer and easier to cut and sand. So, i ripped out most of the brass bushings and superglued new aluminium ones in place, before i sawed off the excess and tried to sand the backsides more or less flat.

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If i were to do this over, once i had the holes for the bushings drilled i would countersink the backside of the wheel to take the styrene brake discs and set them slightly into the backside of the wheel. I'll save that for the next VC10, i think.

Where matters stand right now is i'm deciding on a material to make the axles from. Brass Rod and Brass Tubing are both acceptable, but i found a nice piece of steel wire i'd like to use.....if i can find a suitable tool to cut it with.

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At this point in the build it's been very much two steps forward, one step back. This is one of those illustrative moments that underscore the importance of building two identical assemblies in series, rather than simultaneously . Based on my experience so far, this protects the modeller from duplicating his/her mistakes. There's definitely a learning curve involved here.

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I spoke earlier of the "Next" VC10. All along the course of this build, there have been ideas coming together that i wanted to test on another model to see if they worked. Here's an example....

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The assembly and alignment of G-ASGH' empennage gave me a lot of problems, resulting in bending, breaking, repairing, bending again, breaking again of the starboard tailplane. There's just something about all of that sweepback, incidence, and parallax that makes it really hard to set the tailplane "right". There's no dihedral or anhedral.

Originally, i wanted to cut the aft part of the fin "Bullet" away so i could build up the tailplane as a separate assembly to be added at the end, but the more i investigated, the more i realized it was gonna involve some tricky cutting.

So, what i did was after i assembled and cleaned up the fin, i glued on both lower surfaces of the tailplanes after i cut away the alignment pins and flat-sanded the mating surfaces. I then turned the tail upside down and taped the mating surfaces of the tailplanes down to 2 wooden blocks of equal height. This would at least ensure there was zero dihedral. Once set up, i added the upper tailplane halves and puttied, filled, filed and sanded as normal.

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The fit of the upper surfaces to the fin "Bullet" was slightly better, but still not Tamiya-Like quality.

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I have also come up with a "better" means of filling the cabin windows, and i've done some re-engineering of the engine nacelles..... but all that is best saved for a separate thread, once i get this beastie done.

 

Thanks for shopping, and as always keep those letters and cards coming.

 

david

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This VC-10 just gets better and better. It has always been one of my favourite civilian aircraft and what you are doing to it is phenomenal. As for how you are dealing with the main undercarriage, well that is incredible.

 

I am looking forward to seeing more of this and your next one too.

 

Ray

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Right then.....

 

Significant progress made today. First off, painted and installed the FOD covers...

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Secondly, after much angst, the main bogies are finished and ready for installation.

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I would not consider these to be my finest work, but considering the near disaster i started with, i think they're at least up to standard with the rest of the model.

 

Next up will be the nose gear. Byeee for now....

 

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7 hours ago, Serkan Sen said:

Looks fantastic David. It seems that you are very close to RFI.

Serkan

It's pretty close. There's still a bunch of blade antennae to go on, and a few more details to paint on the belly. Nose gear needs to get done first before i can put any pointy sharp bits on the underside though. Planning to use more of the NH photo etch stuff for that.

 

I wanted to have it done for the Nationals next week, but there's no safe way i can take this model on the airlines.

 

-d-

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EXTRA!!

In my book, undercarriage installation represents the beginning of the end game.

Speedbird Golf Hotel is on her feet....though just barely.

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One of the legs was a snug fit, so for that one i used the white cap, resin-infused Tamiya liquid cement.

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The other main leg was installed with medium viscosity CA.

The nose gear was more involved than i expected. I lopped off the mounting pin on the top, and carefully bored down the core of the strut. I then inserted a piece or brass rod, same material as i used for the axles. This brass rod was cut over length on purpose, and then slid into a piece of K&S .064 diameter aluminium tube.

I then bored out the mounting hole oversize, in order to feed the tubing in.

Took a couple of tries, but the nose gear attachment is much, MUCH stronger now. The strut incorporates sort of a trailing axle and there's a tendency for the strut to bend back, so you need to glue it securely vertical to prevent bending.

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This is probably the best shot i have of thee nose gear, for right now.

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Somewhat amazingly, the VC10 has only 2 gear doors i need to worry about. NH provides some in photo etch so i will at least give them a try.

At this point, we're really just down to the brittle, bendy, breaky bits. It really becomes an programme management challenge to figure out which sequence to add all these things, in order to keep one thing from getting in the way of another.

 

But for now.... i'm off to Omaha. See you later.

 

10-324

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

All right, lads. I think we're there. Seen here on the ramp, at Jackson Pollock International Airport...

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For the record, this is the first airliner model i actually finished.

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This project has been a real learning experience, which of course is another way of saying something like, "Well, i'll not gonna do THAT again!"

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Right now, i'm still casting about for the best photos of the finished model. So, these pics serve as a placeholder until i write my final report in RFI. There will be much to cover.

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During the course of this build, a lot of details came to light that were too late to incorporate in this build...some were ideas i gamed out in my head but the timing wasn't quite right to incorporate them. So, why build only one when you can build two with twice the aggravation?

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Stay tuned for my final report, once i regain my sanity.

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9 hours ago, mark.au said:

You should finish them more often!  It’s been a pleasure following this one.

I really shoulda started with something a little easier.... but when it comes to first generation jet airliners i don't have a lot of choices.

 

A second VC10 is underway, but not sure how far along it will get before it gets shunted aside. It's being used mainly as an engineering mockup to try building techniques on. For example: Engine nacelle enhancements and i'm re-thinking how to do those big, inboard wing fences.

 

Most of the problems with the Roden kit are minor inconveniences, but the undercarriage drove me to drink!

 

-d-

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  • David H changed the title to Swift, Silent, Styrene

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