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Mikromir Handley Page Victor B1


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I've got some time off uni at the moment aside from a few practical sessions I need to be here for, so I'll be going home at some point this week. That means I'll have plenty of time to build something. I intend to build a V Bomber of some description for this, and of course I have plenty of options in the stash. I won't be back to full time lectures until the first week of February so I think that's enough time to build something a bit more complex than a simple 1/200 Vulcan (I'll save my last one of those to build at uni). 

I'm undecided what I'll build, but here are some the options:

 

1. FROG 1/96 Victor B1

This is a very old kit, a 1958 tooling and honestly well ahead of its time. It has recessed panel lines, and although they won't stand up to today's standards they aren't bad at all. The shape has some errors, primarily the oversized intakes and the very complex shape of the nose; the modern Airfix kit is the only one to ever get this entirely right. In 1/96 these are a respectable size, it's a huge shame that 1/96 or 1/100 were dropped as a common scale because it's a really nice halfway point between 1/72 and 1/144 for aircraft of this size.

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2. Mikromir 1/144 Victor B1a/K1a

Although this kit is labelled as a Victor B.1 on the box, it actually represents a B.1a or K.1a as it has the extended outer wing leading edge which replaces the early leading edge flaps. Obviously the pure tanker variants would not qualify for this group build, although some did retain the ability to carry bombs so perhaps would, but I would be building a pure bomber.

The box art portrays Duxford's Victor B.1a(k2p), XH648, one of a handful of Victor B1as which were converted to two point tankers to make up for the sudden lack of available tankers due to the grounding and retirement of the Vickers Valiant fleet, the two point conversions were simpler than the letter three pointers which made up the majority of the Victor K1a fleet. Unfortunately the artist has portrayed a combination of Victor B1 and B2 intakes, which let it down a little, but regardless the plastic inside the box is an absolute gem. It's fairly accurate especially for a short run kit, but will need new airbrake fairings as the photo etch ones are just wrong. New decals are advisable as Mikromir's ones aren't the best, I'll print my own for the serials and if I choose a white scheme I'll do the roundels and fin flashes as well. 

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I do have one of these already, but it is not really up to my current standards so another one would be very nice.

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3. Airfix 1/72 Vulcan B2

This one is a challenging one given the time I'm working with, it would quite possibly have to be a part 1 now and part 2 when I'm next back home for any time. But I do like my Vulcans and would love a 1/72 anti flash example in my collection.

You may have seen my first build, which I thoroughly enjoyed rivet counting my way through, although there were some moments of burn out throughout the build.

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I intended to build two, I started my second kit but never got past the cockpit of that one, so it will qualify for the 25% rule. This second build would be be completed to the same standard as my first, but taking into account some of the mistakes I made the first time around. I have decals to represent a 9 Sqn Vulcan, the anti flash 9 Sqn scheme has my favourite tail markings of any Vulcan scheme and you can see those on my 2020 build of a GWH Vulcan as XM601. The serials I have are for XM603 or XM605, but lately I've been thinking that I will likely change to building the ill-fated XL385 or XL388 in their early configurations because I was to do an Olympus 201 engined aircraft since @FZ6 kindly sent me some 3D printed engine fronts for them which I haven't had a chance to use yet.

 

4. Trumpeter 1/144 Vulcan B2

Another one I'll likely do in anti flash white, I want to convert this to an early B2, perhaps XH539 or XH556, with the early narrow intakes which the first ten B2s had as they were converted from B1s early in production.

Unfortunately this kit is very much the opposite of the Mikromir kit, great box art which is much more accurate than the plastic inside (aside from the inexplicable presence of the TFR blister on the nose, yet they got details such as the Skybolt and MRR blisters right). 

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5. Kader/Lincoln Intl. 1/148 Valiant B1

The final V Bomber option for this group build will be another kit of 1950s vintage. This is a very old and basic kit. I bought it from kingkit's incomplete section, thinking it was only missing part of the stand but it was actually missing half of one of the wings, they had put in a FROG Gannet wing which is about the same size and the same colour so given their single not particularly good quality photo they put on, I did not notice this detail and so I ended up with a kit missing a vital part. Not very happy. I thankfully managed to find another one in pretty poor condition on eBay which I have taken the wing from.

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So, which one will I go for? I'm not sure. I'll make that decision when it comes to actually starting this group build. 

Edited by Adam Poultney
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What a great selection Adam.  I'm particularly envious of that FROG Victor - it looks to be a beautiful example.  IIRC we may/should be having a FROG Group Build in 2023 (if that influences your thinking at all).

 

Cheers

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I'm back home now, and so the constant driving to and from Nottingham over the next few weeks begins..... 

Anyway, I'm going to start either this evening or tomorrow, a little ahead of the official start date of the GB. Due to the fairly limited time I have available I want to be building as soon as I can; this should be ok so long as I keep it below the 25% mark until the official start date. 

I think I'm going to leave the Trumpeter Vulcan and Kader Valiant for Big and British, a lot of that will be running while I'm at uni and those kits are a good size to build there. So it's down to the two Victors o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶1̶/̶7̶2̶ ̶V̶u̶l̶c̶a̶n̶.̶ ̶

I'd welcome any opinions on what people would like to see, and why, help me make the choice because I am ridiculously indecisive at times.

 

 

 

EDIT:

On further consideration I think I'll also rule out the Vulcan because I want to get some aftermarket for it that will take a while to arrive. I also think given the time constraints that this would be a little too ambitious. 

 

Edited by Adam Poultney
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31 minutes ago, Col. said:

Do you feel the FROG Victor will make for a suitable project given the time you have available Adam?

Certainly the time is ok on either of the Victor kits. I could probably even do my Airfix one as it builds up much faster than the Vulcan but I have other plans for that kit. The FROG kit will probably be the easier build having far less parts and bring a fairly simple kit, the Mikromir kit is modern but short run with all sorts of things to modify and adjust but in 1/144 none of it should be too bad on time.

 

I've got the Mikromir out at the moment, taping together the main parts and looking through countless Victor images and also trying to figure out exactly what a Victor B1a is, I think I might be wrong about the key defining difference being the leading edge and it might instead be an ECM upgrade similar to the Vulcan B1a; I don't know Victors anything like as well as Vulcans. I'm pretty much set on doing it in white.

So far I've got two choices though, either I modify the leading edge to the result type and do a white B1 (or maybe B1a?) with full shade markings which is my first choice of scheme for this one, or I can leave the leading edge and do one that is definitely a B1a and does have the kit's leading edge, but due to the total lack of aftermarket decals for Victor B1s in this scale I am pretty limited on what ones I can do (basically I'm looking for anything without squadron markings, or very basic ones I can design and print myself), and most of the ones with the later leading edges while in white had Sqn markings. I've found one and only one that I can do easily so far, it appears that XH587 did not have squadron markings applied at one point and had pale markings; I'd prefer full shade but can live with pale.

There is one more option for what I could do with this kit, which is XA918 in its K1 configuration in anti flash white. However as it was no longer a bomber, being a three point tanker, it would not be suitable for this group build.

 

With the frog kit, I can easily enough just build a regular early B1 with the original leading edge in my first choice of scheme, although I'll have to print off some appropriately scaled decals. However part of me wants to leave the rare frog kit until I find a frog Valiant and I can build all three together. 

 

So at the moment I am leaning towards the Mikromir kit, although exactly what I'm going to do with it is yet to be determined

 

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In the end I've decided to build the Mikromir Victor B1. Exact scheme undecided but it will almost certainly be in stone variety of anti flash.

So finally setting off just a little ahead of schedule here... with assembling the fuselage?

What about the cockpit?

Well, there is a cockpit and it's not bad for the scale, but in my opinion it's just not worth bothering with. I plan to paint in the cockpit glazing anyway so it will not be seen regardless. Best not to risk possible fit issues; this is a short run kit so every part is a potential fit issue.

Anyway, first thing to do once the area to glue is cleaned up is to add some plastic card tabs to keep the parts aligned.

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Sorry for the terrible photos, the lighting in here isn't great. Anyway, tabs seem to have worked. 

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I'll leave that to dry and next clean up the area for the lower wing parts to attach.

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Spoilt for choice!

Sure the Victor will be an ideal candidate for the job though. Is it a fairly modern kit or a re-box of something older?

 

Good luck

Darryl 

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27 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Spoilt for choice!

Sure the Victor will be an ideal candidate for the job though. Is it a fairly modern kit or a re-box of something older?

 

Good luck

Darryl 

The Mikromir kit was first released in 2019, but it's very much a short run kit so being recent doesn't mean it'll be an easy build.

This particular one has a few short shot parts I'm going to have to deal with and I'm already aware of the main fit issues from the first one I built. 

 

Despite the quality of the kit, it is still the best B1/B1a/K1/K1a/B1a(k.2P) kit there is. The other three are from the 1950s. The others are the 1/96 FROG kit, which was one of the candidates for this thread, the 1/96 Lindberg kit which @CliffBis going to be building in this GB, and the 1/148 Kader kit. The FROG moulds are long since lost and the detail is well... from the 1950s, the Kader Victor is kind of Victor shaped and the Lindberg doesn't know if it's a prototype or a production aircraft. 

At least the Victor B1 fares better than the Vulcan B1, with no modern kit.... or any kit at all tooled since 1959, not even resin or vacuform. The Vulcan B1a is even worse with no kit at all ever. 

 

 

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  • Adam Poultney changed the title to Mikromir Handley Page Victor B1 or B1a 1/144
12 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

Of course there is another option, ignore the leading edge issue entirely....

..and have it taunt you for ever after :lol: No I think you're quite right to tackle the Mikro Mir option. That way anyone of us interested in the subject can watch your progress to steal your methods and tips ;) 

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7 hours ago, Col. said:

..and have it taunt you for ever after :lol: No I think you're quite right to tackle the Mikro Mir option. That way anyone of us interested in the subject can watch your progress to steal your methods and tips ;) 

I've already got my first one with the wrong leading edge and it does bug me a bit that I got that wrong.... Oh well, it sits at the back of my 1/144 v bomber shelf anyway. 

I'm thinking the B1a is probably what I'm going to do, mainly down to time constraints starting mods can really get complicated if I run into unexpected problems. Classic pale marking anti flash it is then. 

 

Back to the kit, one of the things I'm going to have to deal with later in the build are these photo etch parts. The landing gear ones are incredibly fiddly so I might replace some with scratch built plastic card alternatives. The airbrake fins (the largest parts)well definitely need to be replaced. Mikromir for some reason have four large upper fins, which is just wrong.

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If you look at an actual Victor, such as the RAF Museum's K2 XH672, you can see that only the upper side of the airbrakes have these large fins. The lower edge just has a bit of a ridge along it. I'll be replacing the kit etch with a set of plastic card ones, hopefully the stronger bond of plastic glue on a thicker part will stop them constantly getting knocked off as well.

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On a side note about the RAF Museum's Victor, it's actually the third Victor that they have displayed at Cosford. The first one was XA923, a white a Victor B1 and the last to exist in that configuration, it was scrapped along with their Vulcan B1 (XA900, also the last of its variant) in 1986. While the physical aircraft is gone, the ten or so years it sat outside at the museum mean that there are plenty of good photos out there for reference. 

The second Victor at the RAF museum was XH592, a camouflaged Victor B1a. This too was scrapped in the 1990s (around 1994 I think), shortly after the arrival of the Victor K2 XH672 at the museum. This Victor K2 is the one you can see at the museum today. It's a shame the rarer Mk1s got scrapped but at least a Victor is inside safely. It probably has worked out for the best that it was a K2 at the RAF Museum, given that we lost one to the scrap man at Marham in 2020, and the other two surviving K2s are kept outside. With Duxford's XH648, a B1a(k.2P), under restoration currently and looking like it may be getting closer to completion with the first paint being reapplied we now have one Mk1 and one Mk2 in safe hands.

 

Anyway, tangent about the RAF Museum's record with Victors aside, here's the actual progress since yesterday's early start:

 

I've only had to use a little filler, with careful adjustment and assembly the fit of the main parts isn't actually that bad. The area of filler around the tail is to remove some totally fictional panel lines which seem to line up with where the serials should be. It's an odd decision to include these, so I'll assume it's a mistake and they should have been removed from the cad file before tooling but weren't.

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I've also added a small amount of nose weight and the canopy parts. Because I'm going to paint them in I'd like to just get them on now rather than later like I usually would since I don't have to be careful about avoiding damaging the clarity of the parts

 

The wheel wells have been added to the centre wing section. I found it helpful to go around the edges of these with a file and add a slight chamfer, once I did that they fit more or less perfectly. The nose gear one was a bit more complicated but it also fit pretty well with a little adjustment.

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If you build this kit, you will find that the centre wing part does not fit to the fuselage at all as is. However again with some care it can be made to fit very well indeed, take a little material off all mating surfaces and you won't have an issue.

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The line I'm going to draw for the 25% mark of this build, a little arbitrarily, with be when I have the intakes installed in the lower wing part and that subassembly glued to the fuselage.

 

And of course, I couldn't possibly have a Victor thread without my hamster named Victor making an appearance

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I forgot to mention I also added more plastic card strips to the inside to help hold the join between the fuselage halves together. I know these can easily split with such long flat joints, in fact I already had that happen where the area of filler is just behind the gap for the wings (one of my Airfix Victors has a similar split unfortunately).

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There are also some more strips added in the nose but they're now sealed in behind the canopy so no pictures of those.

 

 

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I've marked out where I'd have to take the leading edge back to if I were to modify it. I'd be sanding back to solid plastic so it shouldn't cause any issues. Now all I need is a good set of drawings that I can use to accurately rescribe the surface detail. If I can't find any, I will have to approximate from photos.

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I'm going to have to decide on a scheme soon before I start cutting up wings and stuff, and whether I'm going with a B1 or B1a.

I think the B1a is a nicer looking variant, I like the extended leading edge and the larger tailcone, which I assume is Red Steer similar to a Vulcan B1a or B2; the B1 (both Victor and Vulcan) used Orange Putter. However, I prefer the schemes applied on the B1 and there's the added advantage that I wouldn't have to print and new decals for that; I found a set of appropriately sized letters and numbers for both the underwing and fuselage serials in my decal box. It does also open up the possibility of a silver scheme but I'm pretty sure I'll go with white.

Just really wish I could find a Victor B1a with the drooped leading edge, full shade markings and no squadron markings.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Just put a coat of Tamiya spray can primer on the intakes, it's not gone on that well... I'll let it dry, give it a light sanding to even out the surface and then hope for the best when I put on the Halfords Appliance Gloss White. But note to self: must clean the surfaces on this kit before painting. 

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19 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

must clean the surfaces on this kit before painting

 

Possibly related to the short run moulding equipment needing a release agent?

 

You are certainly making progress fast Adam. Anyone would think you had other things to do ... I don't know, maybe a degree or something. 😁

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32 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

Possibly related to the short run moulding equipment needing a release agent?

 

You are certainly making progress fast Adam. Anyone would think you had other things to do ... I don't know, maybe a degree or something. 😁

Yes that's probably it, mould release. Everything else will be cleaned before I put any paint on it.

 

That rapid progress will be stalling out a bit, I'm going back to uni this evening and to RAF Cranwell from there tomorrow. Finally getting back in a glider after two months on the ground.

 

 

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Well the group build has officially kicked off now! Can't wait to see everyone else's builds starting, hopefully a few more V Bombers will be joining (although I think there's quite a few people signed up to build them for Big and British so maybe they'll be waiting for that). But anyway, update on my Victor

 

After a coat of Halfords white the intakes are still a bit patchy in places but honestly with these intakes being so narrow I can live with that. Won't be seen. 

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And the engine faces are painted. Very easy job with a chrome pen and a citadel nuln oil wash

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First intake dealt with needs a bit of adjustment on the outside and in the contact area on the wing but it will fit.

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Also now fully dealt with are the strange panel lines at the back end

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And some work on the seams towards the front.

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And this is where I would be leaving this for the weekend because I was going to go to the rugby match in Leicester except that got cancelled as the visiting French team got covid. Oh well, extra half a day to work on this before I go back to Notts and then Cranwell.

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With a lot of tape we have something that is Victor shaped! Minus the tail... Not a good look for a Victor given that I can think of at least two that went down after losing their tails.

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There's still some adjustments to be made to the intakes to get them fitting perfectly but they're getting there.

 

Comparing to my Victor B2R based on the GWH kit in the same scale, you can see just how much larger the intakes got on the B2.

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I'm not entirely convinced by the shape of the GWH nose. Mikromir look to have done it better, capturing the double curvature of the canopy nicely. 

It's a shame the GWH kit is so flawed (the questionable nose is the least of its issues) because it's a very nicely moulded kit

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