How Smooooth was a Vickers Valiant?

[Killingholme]

Hi all,

 

I visited Cosford for the first time yesterday and one thing really struck me- their Vickers Valiant was almost totally devoid of panel lines in the aircraft skin, rivets, inspection panels and other protrusions that seem to characterize the surfaces of surviving Vulcans and Victors. Is this finish representative of an in-service aircraft or is it an artefact of a particularly slick restoration? If the aircraft were as air-smoothed as it is presented for display today, it looks like I'll be filling almost all the panel lines on my Airfix kit!

 

Will

[Steve McArthur]

I went and looked at some of the pics of the Valiant at Cosford and it looks like at least some of the panel lines from the Airfix kit are there, but size and condition of the plane hide them pretty well. On a V-bomber you tend to naturally stand further away than you would from a  Gnat to get an overall view of the plane. The real world gaps for panel lines don't really scale with the size of the plane, so taking several steps back will make them harder to see.  On a clean glossy white plane stored indoors you also won't notice many panel lines. It's dirt and crud that stick in recesses that make it easy to pick out the the panel lines.  Roll the plane outside and let it rain on it a few times with just dust blowing in the air and it's like applying a panel line wash.  

 

The heavy emphasis many modelers put on accenting panel lines is really more of an artistic style than having anything to do with reality. I've worked around aircraft most my life and am convinced many modelers have never seen an airplane any closer than waiting at a boarding gate at the airport.

 

You have to evaluate why you see some lines and not others on real aircraft. Control surfaces, doors and access panels that are opened frequently do stand out more than edges between skin panels. Aircraft paint can be sprayed fairly thick and it does help mask panel edges, especially glossy white. But, any break in the paint makes these more obvious. Removable panels have larger gaps and sometimes gaskets or seals that are just visible enough to accentuate those lines. Handling these panels with grubby fingers will also leave behind smudges that will tend to help these panels stand out.

 

Most gaps between riveted skin panels would be features too small to mold in 1/72 scale or even 1/48, but modelers nowadays expect all panels to be accentuated, so you get panel lines grossly overscale due to the limits of molding technology when you really shouldn't be able to see them at all on a model.

 

Flush rivets can be nearly invisible under paint on real aircraft even when looking for them.  Accentuating these on models always looks odd to me. Raised rivets will still stand out no matter what the paint.  

 

Rarely opened access panel that are screwed down will blend in just as seamlessly, until you have to get in there. These panels are often painted with all the screws in place and from a distance are nearly invisible after a repaint. Many will blend in as well as riveted panels. Once you open them up it becomes another story, you end up cracking the paint around the panel and it's easier to make out.  I've often had to use a pick to scrape paint out of screw heads just to be able to get a good bite with the a screwdriver. You also tend to knock all the paint off the screws so these stand out even more until the finish is touched up.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Steve McArthur