PK-551 : Handley Page Victor K. 2 Tanker.

[TonyW]

With the Hawker Tempest now done and in the Gallery, I find a Victor sized gap on my workbench.

I can usually justify pretty much anything with a bit of creative thinking, and in this case I've decided it all depends which end of the binoculars I'm looking through.

 

Here's the kit itself:

 

 

 

A full size plan is included which will be a big help with laying out the cammo pattern. A nice bit of thinking there from Matchbox.

 

All the parts were removed from the sprues ages ago, so work can start whenever I like. This evening sounds good to me. 

[Mike Dean]

Has the paint dried on Tempest yet?! Straight into another build (and a biggy). That's the way do it.

 

If you need some spare pilots, you can leave the three back seaters off the kit, as you can't see knack in the back once finished. You can barely see the two in the front office.

[JOCKNEY]

Great stuff Tony

I've always fancied building one of the Victor tankers and of course the Vulcan from that famous bombing raid on Port Stanley Airport.

Does this have the decals to do that in this kit or will I need to go AM ?

Best of luck

Cheers Pat

[TonyW]

There are three kit options Pat,

 

XL161 55 Sqn, 1979 

XL192 57S Sqn 1982 and

XL233 OCU Marham 1975

 

I should think at least one of them was involved in the Vulcan refuelling epic, but I'm the new kid in town with anything to do with the V Bombers. Hopefully more knowledgeable voices will chime in here. What is provided looks good. The da-glow areas are very bright and everything else looks good to me.

 

All three versions sport red and blue roundels and cammo topsides. A bit like the Matchbox Buccaneer with it's two near identical versions.

 

For its size, there's not much in the box. Parts are big and chunky and so far seem to fit reasonably well although there are a few areas already that will need a bit of filler. I'll hold judgement here for a while.

Option wise, with the hard parts, you get tail airbrake open or closed, cockpit door open with access ladder or closed, and tanker lines and baskets stowed or played out a bit.

 

I'll be building straight out the box with any refinements restricted to whatever is too glaringly wrong to ignore. I have a relaxed attitude to that as well.

 

A bit of a chiz however, is what I thought was a full size cammo layout is a bit undersize. Not by much, but enough to make the nice big plans a bit pointless. As a decal guide they could have been smaller or do the job properly and make the plans that little bit bigger. It's a bit late for me to be moaning about it now though.

 

 

[stever219]

@TonyW my copy of Vulcan 607 is with a friend at present so I can’t check which Victors were involved in Black Buck 1 but I know that XL231 wasn’t amongst them.  The jet involved in the famous long slot musical chairs was XL189.

 

At the time that the Matchbox kit was first issued the Hemp and Light Aircraft Grey colour scheme was just starting to appear as the jets went through major overhauls and only one K. Mk. 2, XL231, had ever flown with the so-called “Type D” national markings so Matchbox did what they could markings wise and did one jet from each unit that flew K. Mk. 2s.

 

One area where you will need filler is the joint between the upper and lower outer wing panels; Matchbox give us quite a sharp contour where there should be a smooth curve rather like that under the outer panels on Vulcans.

 

From memory Matchbox have missed off several aerials, including a prominent blade aerial on the port side of the fuselage just aft of the dinghy stowage and, for Operation Corporate, the Omega aerial under the tailcone at the aft end of the airbrakes. 

[TonyW]

35 minutes ago, stever219 said:

 

 

At the time that the Matchbox kit was first issued the Hemp and Light Aircraft Grey colour scheme was just starting to appear as the jets went through major overhauls and only one K. Mk. 2, XL231, had ever flown with the so-called “Type D” national markings so Matchbox did what they could markings wise and did one jet from each unit that flew K. Mk. 2s.

 

 

 

The thought of D Roundels has got my attention! They would brighten up the airframe quite a bit. I could be very tempted to go this route.

Would there be two on the upper wings?

[TonyW]

I might have to move up a scale or two, working with big bits is so much easier. I just went with the flow. Loads got done.

 

 

 

 

If I hadn't forgotten to bring a few brushes up with me, the cockpit and inner fuselage would have had a coat or two added. Not to worry, there's always tomorrow.

 

Here's the annoying size discrepancy between the plan and parts. I'm trying to not let it wind me up, but failing somewhat.

 

 

 

 

[PeterB]

Hi Tony,

 

According to the Osprey Combat Aircraft book on the Victor, 24 were converted to K2, of which 23 were operational at the time of the Falklands War. One was being serviced and two were allocated to training, and the remaining 20 took part in one way or another, though until I dig out the Vulcan book mentioned earlier I cannot confirm which flew the various Black Buck missions.

 

pete

Edited January 21, 2022 by PeterB

[stever219]

2 hours ago, TonyW said:

 

The thought of D Roundels has got my attention! They would brighten up the airframe quite a bit. I could be very tempted to go this route.

Would there be two on the upper wings?

Not only was XL231 the only Victor K. 2 to fly with “Type D” national markings but I think she retained her Wittering Wing lion on the fin.  I’m pretty sure that she’d have had a roundel on the port wing only.  When she finished the K. 2 development flying programme she was repainted with the red/blue tactical national markings and Matt rather than gloss camouflage.

[TonyW]

I've moved back down to the shed with this build as it's starting to grow a bit too much for my indoors computer desk. Tempests, Phantoms even, are OK but a Victor is pushing things a bit.

Once back in the shed, I had room to lay sub assemblies out without having to think about where I was going to put them.

 

First job was to paint the cockpit area black. A trial with the fuselage clipped together and the clear area sat in place confirmed what many builders have already said, that there's very little to be seen in there. Black it is then. I may add front seatbelts later.

Next was a bit of nose weight. The instructions suggest 40g, whatever that is. I added a load of oval nails and old cross cut screws, secured with Milliput until I had more than enough weight. 

Just to be on the safe side I've also reinforced the fuselage joint area with plastic strut.

 

 

The fuselage got joined and clamped with rubber bands and some of the other sub assemblies were primed with white auto primer. The V tail unit has been assembled and primed, likewise the underwing stuff.

 

 

The airbrake is going to be closed on this one. I'm trying to keep to a simple build here. The Airfix offering would be a better bet for a more detailed build I suppose but that will be for another day.

 

 

I've left the build until tomorrow now.

The inner wing units have been joined to the fuselage and the V tail glued and clamped on as well, but I've not taken any pictures to show this.

I'm planning on getting the whole airframe assembled tomorrow. It will then be left to harden off fully before the bodywork starts.

The primer I've added has highlighted quite a few areas that need filling. There are sink marks all over the plane and some of the panel gaps are a bit alarming, the tail unit will need a fair bit of work to tidy it up for instance.

 

It was a bit of a shock to see how quickly the plane grew once the inner wings were added. The Matchbox Phantom and Buccaneer in the pictures are both dwarfed by it, and that's not something that usually gets said about either of those two!

 

More later.
 

 

 

[TonyW]

A bit of sillyness happened this morning. I mocked up an early Klingon Battlebird but the madness passed and I got on with a bit of proper assembly instead.

 

 

Here's how things look at the moment. 

 

 

After a bit of attention with a file, the airbrake was fitted. The fit wasn't of the highest order. The outer wing joints were sanded as level and square to each other as I could get them, then they were fitted with copious amounts of tube cement, levelled, taped and clamped and now left for a day or two to harden completely.

Then the filling begins...

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

I love the look of the Victor, you are spot on about the Klingon Battle bird 

Cheers Pat

[TonyW]

My stocks of 320 W+D paper are running low. Several acres of Victor are responsible for that, it's a big plane!

 

 

The raised panel lines had to go. The amount of filling needed all over the plane would have removed a fair bit anyway, once clean up started there. A nice smooth surface will give the decals their best chance of settling down nicely as well. Panel lines will be replaced with ruled pencil ones instead. I've managed to avoid removing the Vortex generators but the primer coats needed are going to give problems there later on.

 

The freshly sanded airframe then got a few coats of HiBuild primer that are currently drying. Necessary bodywork should be quite apparent now. There's going to be a few primer/filler episodes over the next few days. Rather than post the same sort of pictures repeatedly , I'll bow out of posting until later in the week.

 

 

 

Here's my current Victor pile. Alongside the big Matchbox one there's a load of old kits awaiting a bit of restoration. 

 

 

 

 

There are two 1.96 models. One FROG, one Lindberg plus a couple of Lincoln ones. The white one has balsa wing tanks added by the previous builder, probably many years ago if the nicely patinated paint job is anything to go by. At some point the new Airfix kit will join this lot. 

 

[Adam Poultney]

A frog Victor! Very rare indeed! I'd be jealous if I hadn't recently bought an unbuilt example myself.

 

Unfortunately the Matchbox Victor is one of very few v force plastic kits I don't really have any intention of building. For the amount of display space it takes up I'd rather pay the extra for an Airfix Victor which has a much better shape. This old Victor just has too many errors that would be too hard to correct, unlike the old Airfix Vulcan which builds into a very good and reasonably accurate model with a bit of effort. 

 

Regardless, I do enjoy seeing them built. I see you're going with camo, which is the best option for this kit as it hides the poorly shaped nose by breaking the outline up a bit.

[JOCKNEY]

Blimey seeing that Me262 next to the Victor gives an impression of the size !

 

Got one of these in the stash, must resist  

 

Looking great mate

[Adam Poultney]

4 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Blimey seeing that Me262 next to the Victor gives an impression of the size !

 

Certainly are big aren't they!

 

 

 

[TonyW]

3 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Blimey seeing that Me262 next to the Victor gives an impression of the size !

 

Got one of these in the stash, must resist  

 

Looking great mate

 

Meanwhile, in another dimension, a Panther had a near miss while attacking a Victor escorted by a Me262. 

Even the Luft '46 mob would find that a bit far fetched, but it happened here today!

 

[71chally]

Coming along really nicely there, really looks the business.

 

Which kit and scale is the smaller silver Victor in your group shot?

[TonyW]

1 hour ago, 71chally said:

Coming along really nicely there, really looks the business.

 

Which kit and scale is the smaller silver Victor in your group shot?

 

It's an old Lincoln International kit. Box Scale, but I believe it works out to 1.148. The also did a Valiant to the same scale. I have a built one of those also. They liked a bit of action on their box tops. The Lancaster one is similar to the Victor blood and guts.

The company were registered in New Zealand but their kits were produced in Hong Kong. They were labelled as Empire Made. Plasty also released some of the range in Germany alongside early Airfix kits. Later boxings carried the Kader brand.

 

[Rabbit Leader]

Just getting back to this GB after lots of other non-modelling related stuff. You're making a great job of this Victor Tony and from those photo angles it appears you've managed yo get a good join along those horrible internal intake dividers. She's looking great. 

Cheers. (a belated) welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave 

[TonyW]

The ducts are lined up OK Dave, the actual join itself isn't the greatest though.

Getting the internals looking right won't be easy and I'm leaning towards making a set of intake covers to get out of a lot of very fiddly work. The tailpipes could get similar. Looking at pictures of the real thing on the net is interesting. The big red covers seem to add to the detailed look, rather than take away.

[TonyW]

The short lived 'Golden Sunset' scheme was abandoned when it was found to trigger explosive bowel evacuation in the local seagull population.

 

 

 

Looks like my meds are running low....

[Rabbit Leader]

Those local Seagulls sure are nasty! Nice Bloodhound setting in the background too, what's all that about Tony? 

Cheers.. Dave 

[TonyW]

8 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Nice Bloodhound setting in the background too, what's all that about Tony? 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

I've been looking for an Airfix Land Rover to sit alongside the plane once it's finished, a bit like I did for the Comet build in the FROG GB. Just a bit of background detail to help things along.

No Land Rover found yet, but the Bloodhounds were in a box that I thought might contain one, it would have been rude not to give them an airing. They need restoring, like a whole load of other models sat here. There's a really good picture out there of a Valiant I think, on an apron, with a field full of Bloodhounds behind it. My pair are a nod to that kind of thing.

 

Here's the sort of look I would like for the Victor...

 

 

 

 

 

[PeterB]

I see the Lincoln boxing says "no cutting or sanding required" or words to that effect - just like Matchbox then!😁

 

Pete

Edited January 27, 2022 by PeterB