Airfix 1/72 Victor B2 BS

[Billos]

Well not sure if this is the right place for this, but I was just closing up the fuselage and cockpit area and snapped a pic, then I thought, eerrrrmmm that looks... strangely familiar.....

I guess we'll never know now, if Gerry Anderson based Fireball XL cockpit on the Victor......😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Billos
Fix Picture URL

[Billos]

I really don't understand the reasoning for doing the entire wingtip as a transparent part. The only thing that's transparent is the nav light and I do think that could easily have been done as a separate part on it's own. As it is it becomes very vulnerable after fitting the wingtip. And of course needs to be masked off when spraying...??? It's a mystery. Also of course don't fit the pitot tubes until the very final step, as per the instructions. A curious mix of 'why did they do that', and 'spot -on'

 

[Billos]

As per other comments about the flaps, DO NOT cut off the fairing as instructed in steps 28 & 29. What you do need to do is sand the underside of all the flap fairings flush both inner and outer, otherwise it is impossible to get the raised flaps to sit flush and leaves a huge gap to the top side of the wing. DO cut off the pegs as per step 98b.

[David H]

Well, i see your problem.

 

As to why it was done that way, it was to cater for the full length wingtip of the B. Mk. 2, plus the shortened wingtips of the K. Mk. 2. It was an effort to reduce bending moments out at the tip to increase fatigue life of the wing....along with "uprigging" the ailerons.

 

-d-

[Billos]

Here she is with first coat of primer top and bottom. I used white pva  to temporarily fit the full bombay door as a mask. I'll be fitting the proper bluesteel fairing, with it's puzzling 1mm gap?

 

 

Next step is to spray the underside white, then fit the wheels.

 

[Billos]

13 minutes ago, David H said:

Well, i see your problem.

 

As to why it was done that way, it was to cater for the full length wingtip of the B. Mk. 2, plus the shortened wingtips of the K. Mk. 2. It was an effort to reduce bending moments out at the tip to increase fatigue life of the wing....along with "uprigging" the ailerons.

 

-d-

No I understand why they need the alternative wingtip, just why Airfix went the full transparent route. Why they didn't just provide a "normal" part...?

[Steve Coombs]

8 hours ago, Billos said:

I really don't understand the reasoning for doing the entire wingtip as a transparent part. The only thing that's transparent is the nav light and I do think that could easily have been done as a separate part on it's own.

Doing it this way means the nav light is already in place and properly faired in, and without any risk of losing it to the carpet monster. If you're going to paint the wing anyway, which the vast majority of people building the kit will do, nobody's going to notice any difference in the underlying plastic when all is finished.
Looking back, the recent Airfix Beaufighter could have benefitted from this approach (IMHO).

[Adam Poultney]

Your photos aren't showing up. 

[KingTiger435]

4 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

Your photos aren't showing up. 

open them in a new tab, should solve it, it's weird.

Vitctor is looking real nice though, looking forward to seeing it finished

[Serkan Sen]

Even only with primer the airplane looks very good. I had a Revell Victor

kit but didn't have time to build it.

Looking forward to see finished model too.

Serkan

[David H]

12 hours ago, Serkan Sen said:

Even only with primer the airplane looks very good. I had a Revell Victor

kit but didn't have time to build it.

Looking forward to see finished model too.

Serkan

Aside from the intake splitters, which were actually kind of hard to engineer in the late 1970s, for its time the Matchbox/Revell Victor was a very good kit.

[Billos]

On 16/03/2022 at 07:37, Adam Poultney said:

Your photos aren't showing up. 

Fixed It. I changed the source folder name on my website, but forgot it wouldn't automagically propagate. Can you confirm you can see pics now please.

[Dave Swindell]

11 hours ago, Billos said:

Can you confirm you can see pics now please.

No, they're not showing.

If you want everyone to see them, they need to be hosted on a site with a current SSL certificate.

Any browser with half decent security will block content from sites without one by default.

[Billos]

@Dave Swindell thanks for the headsup. Working on a cert for my site.

Now back to the model. I've seen many references to the 1mm gap at the bluesteel fairing, but that is easily dealt with with a bit of scrap. Much more mysterious and glaring to me is that as built this leaves a huge gap between the tail of the missile and the end of the bomb bay. Every model forum seems to have ignored this, but looking at the few available pics of a victor from below with a Blue steel, there is no visible gap. I believe that the missile should have a fairing/cap over the engine exhaust to fill this gap. Can anyone confirm this, and if possible give  a pointer to the size/shape of that cap/fairing. Thanks.

[Billos]

OK so this picwhich is also on the other Victor thread within Britmodeller clearly shows that there is a fairing at the rear of the Bluesteel. I'm really surprised the model doesn't have it. Anyone know the dimensions/have any reference for it?

[Markh-75]

On 17/03/2022 at 03:55, David H said:

Aside from the intake splitters, which were actually kind of hard to engineer in the late 1970s, for its time the Matchbox/Revell Victor was a very good kit.

Yes I liked the Matchbox kit, had one about 30 years back! great to build and paint.

 

[Billos]

So more on this whole transparent wingtip thing. I still don't get it. Doing it the way Airfix have done it means you have to keep the lens masked off during spraying, and it's always in danger of being broken off during handling, since the clear plastic is very brittle. It would make more sense to me to mould it in with the Pitot tube, which itself has to be filled and faired in right next to the lens... Anyway for my Second Victor (yes the 2nd one 😁) I simply cut it off and glued it back on afterwards!