Airfix BEA Vanguard

[Jon020]

An Airfix Vanguard

This is an aircraft that I’d always had in the back of my mind to do a model of one day because it is my friend’s favourite aeroplane. Many years ago (when I used to do that sort of thing) I did a fine art pencil drawing of one in the very early BEA scheme. That drawing still hangs framed in his house and a RFI post on this forum encouraged me to go and see if the old Airfix kit was available anywhere so that I could build him one. The thread, by ‘Strangeways’ is here

And the brief notes that were made about the build gave me a few points to consider for mine. One of these was using clear epoxy resin for the cabin windows. More research found this further thread by ‘SuperTom’ that I read with interest, bookmarking it to come back to when I’d found a kit

After much (I’ll admit, quite half hearted) searching, whilst more actively searching for other stuff (as we tend to do), I found a ‘newish boxed’ version for a reasonable fee on an auction site and acquired this.

The kit by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Whilst the box was probably less than 10 years old, and therefore the transfers were ok, the same could not be said for the rest of the contents, which, although bagged, contained far more plastic than I’d expected. Whilst the kit has been reboxed and given new decals over the years, I suspect the molds may well have been original (or nearly) and date from its origins in 1962. I found raised panel lines (expected) and more flash than I’d ever seen in a kit. I forgot to photograph the fuselage and wings (the worst elements) as I set about trying to clean them up a bit almost immediately, noticing that these alos had a few chunks taken out of them where they’d been torn at some point off their sprues… but I remembered to take a photo of this sprue which was by far the best of the bunch, but some flash is still evident. Cleaning up would be the order of the day for this build.

A sprue example with flash by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Fuselage

So… all in all, some work would be needed. A look at the clear parts revealed that they were all there, but that some work may be needed, or an alternative approach sought (as mentioned previously). Initially, I decided to close the main doors to keep it all cleaner, and these needed padding out a bit to give a more-flush finish with the fuselage skin.

Padding out the main doors by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

In order to provide some secure space for ballast and to give a more secure ‘fit’ of the two halves, I added a new bulkead to the rear of the cockpit and a floor that would later allow a little bit of cockpit detail to be scratch built for. The cabin would remain blank, but I didn’t expect the cabin windows to be too transparent once finished.

New bulkhead and floors by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Floor and bulkheads by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

With the halves taped up, I tried a test fit of the windscreen. Not good.  I tried some cleaning up and further test fits but eventually gave up. I recalled the comment in ‘Strangeways’ post about removing the crown so opted to look into this late on.

Test fit poor windscreen fit by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Rescribing. Ok, this is probably my least favourite part of any build or preparation and this needed a lot.

Rescribing begins by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

This is my main scribing tool, a HIQParts 0.004 tool, and I use plenty of dymo tape.

Good old dymo tape by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

An application of Tamiya panel liner shows all evils and mistakes afterwards. I’ll be rubbing most of this smooth at the end as airliners rarely show panel lines except when dirty or on an aged bare metal finish and this will have neither… but it serves to get most of it right to begin with.

Not perfect but.... by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Back inside the fuselage, I boxed up one half of the lower bays using plasticard and sprue goo to seal everything in; the basic seats and instrument panel/console are evident here.

Cockpit seats and panels and ballast bays by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

And then I took the fuselage and placed it on to an artists canvas board that I picked up from Lidl, which will make an ideal slightly textured base once this is finished.

Artist board for base size check by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Resin windows. So, per the previously mentioned threads, I bought this stuff and thought I’d give it a go

What I used by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

By following the instructions and mixing up far more than I needed (I need to learn here) I taped up the outside of the fuselage halves (covering the outer of the windows using a PVC tape that was quiet smooth, and gently poured some of the resin in to the halves from the inside. I used a cocktail stick to try to rid it of all the small bubbles and got most (but a few appeared during curing annoyingly on the outside of the windows so will be filled with something like gluenglaze at the end of the build. Once this was done, I put the two parts aside on a dust free covered shelf for 48 hours to cure.

Clear epoxy resin poured and cured by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Once dry, I pulled the tape from the outside and cleaned off any tape glue residue and was quite pleased to see a relatively flush set of windows that would sand and polish up quiet well.

Flush windows by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Holding the two joined halves up to the light, a suitable amount of transparency was evident, but not too much.

Transparent enough by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Having let this settle, I painted the interior parts a few shades of dark grey and black to just tone it all down, and added a few little paint marks to the instrument console that might be visible through the windscreen later. I then taped the halves together, put a a little glue on the two parts of the crown and then taped over this to mark a cut line to remove the crown.

Masking for a cut by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

I cut through this using a razor saw and then set about padding out the rear part of windscreen aperture a little aith plasticard.

The cut by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Some fettling followed and I added a little plasticard along the cut face to pad it back out again… evident in later photos.

I then glued the bulkheads and floors and added a great deal of liquid gravity (delux lead balls) sealed with rocket hot CA glue, and let to dry. I was not going to allow this to be a tail sitter.

Bulkheads glued in and ballast added. by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

To check balance, I took the wings and horizontal stabilisers off their sprues, taped the halves together and popped them in their slots (after cleaning up the slots that were full of flash). This would represent most of the additional weight of the kit (apart from paint and glue) and I could then check the CofG pivot point. I balanced the model on the tin section of some tweezers moving it fore and aft until it balanced. This was just forward of the wing leading edge, about 2 to 2.5cm forward of the main gear, so it should sit fine.

At this point, you’ll also note that I decided to add thin plasticard strips along each side of the fuselage to represent the strengthening plates on the airframe. I thought that this may be better than my poorly executed engraving and once sanded back to a very thin profile, wouldn’t be too bad… hopefully under some paint it’ll look fine.

Balance check by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

I glued the fuselage halves together with some Mig Ammo night blue thin cement. I started at the nose, applied the glue liberally allowing it to work into the seam and applied pressure and then taped it. I did this to resolve the slight warp in the two halves. Once the front was cured, I applied more glue to fuselage behind the cockpit and along the top and bottom, squeezing applying tape and slowly working all the way aft to the tail and cone. Once dry, the tape was removed and the security of the joint checked – all good.

Fuselage halves glued by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

I then set about sanding these joints to remove further flash and secure a good rounded surface. Holes in the upper surfaces were filled with some delux putty and smoothed whilst curing.

And filled and sanded by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

The windscreen and crown were then taped in place and then glued in with Tamiya thin. Their fit wasn’t brilliant; I had to pad out the join between the crown and the windscreen with some plasticard, and I did try to smooth out some blemishes on the inside of the windscreen before fitting, but they were mostly inside the material. Hopefully they’ll not show too much at the end of the build.

Adding the windscreen and crown by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Not a bad fit but sanding needed. by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Once the parts were dry, I set about some fairly crude re-shaping, starting with a 200 grade standing stick to start to get the shape to what it should be.

Coarse sanding by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Some finer sanding then followed (400 grade sanding stick, then 600 grade) slowly improving the shape and smoothing the surface.

Finer sanding by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Then I moved on to a 1000 grade sanding stick, then a 1000 grade sanding sponge, then 1500 and 2500 grade sponges, slowly improving the smoothness of the plastic and glazing as it went.

Smoothing off by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Further sanding with the 2500 grade sponges, then 4000 and 8000, then some micromesh and then just the sponge side of the sanding sponges… followed by some Tamiya polishing compounds (coarse and fine) produced a relatively smooth and shiny surface which will suffice for now.

The result of more smoothing and polishing by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

This has ‘rounded’ the screens off a bit but I’ve found a set of masks that I’ll carefully add later which will hopefully help redefine the screens with some paint.

That’s the hope anyway. This is going to be a generally simple build but hopefully the result will be ok in the end. But yes, my build never end up being simple.

Thanks for reading.

Jonathan.

Edited September 27, 2024 by Jon020
typo correction

[Irish 251]

The kit nosecone shape is not accurate and will benefit from being made more pointed, if you are in the mood.  This image shows the shape of the production aircraft.

G-APEM  Vickers Merchantman "Agamemnon" by Irish251, on Flickr

Edited September 27, 2024 by Irish 251

[Jon020]

15 minutes ago, Irish 251 said:

The kit nosecone shape is not accurate and will benefit from being made more pointed, if you are in the mood.  This image shows the shape of the production aircraft.

G-APEM  Vickers Merchantman "Agamemnon" by Irish251, on Flickr

Thanks. Good point. I'll look at doing something with the radome.

[David H]

I just bought an early boxing  (TCA markings) and i too think the nose is a bit off. It looks more like a Nimrod nose and not pointy enough. In fact its the first thing that caught me eye when i was looking at the parts.

 

Having said all that, really impressed by your progress, so far!

 

-d-

[heloman1]

Airlines are not my bag but it's British so that's good enough. You have made great progress.

 

Colin

[Jon020]

I think one issue now with the nose is that I have now added the under nose scoops which needed a little fettling and are now a little thin... I'll not get away removing them easily and reshaping the nose with them in place may be a challenge. I'll have to think about this a bit I think.

Thanks for the heads up though.

J

[Jon020]

On reflection. I think I can have a go at this, carefully, by inserting a small plastic rod in the nose and then making some plastic formers to define the nose in plan and profile and then fill with filler of some kind. 

Having seen previous builds, I was happy to build this effectively straight from the box. Yes the nose was a bit Nimrod like (I liked that) but that's only fine until you know it's wrong. So I was happy... but yes that has to change. I'm grateful for this being pointed out and it'll teach me not to go so far in a build before posting anything 😉

Ignorance is bliss, as they say. 

I'll have a go and report back... fingers crossed.

[Sheepie]

Great to see so much effort go into a Vanguard! I'm lucky to say I've spent a very long time restoring the only remaining Vanguard in the world and even featured in the TV series about it! Can say from experience those Y Plates that run along the fuselage caused me the biggest headaches in real life, they're the stuff of nightmares to replace

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Nice work on this, and your use of clear epoxy resin in the window cavities is something I've taken careful note about. What brand/type of PVC tape did you use?  When I experimented with this on a "mule," I got air bubbles in some of the clear resin that adhered to the tape I was using.  Also, some of the resin leaked and created a little mess.  Other resin simply popped right out of the window frames.  What is the size of the windows in mm on this model, and what, do you guess, is the largest height/width this technique could work with?

[FortyEighter]

Wow!

 

I've got a couple of these and thought that they might be a quick build at some point but your excellent description / photos of amendments suggest that I was wrong!

 

Will follow your build with interest.

 

Mike

[Jon020]

Short update – Now that I Nose

 

With my thanks to you all for pointing out the shape issue. As mentioned, I gave this a go with adding a piece of plastic rod that was glued into a hole in the centre of the nose and eight thin pieces of plastic shaped to triangles and glued around the rod. I then sanded this a bit to get the basic shape I sought, judging by photos. I then applied a layer of delux filler and let that set… sanding smooth to the profile I sought after. It wasn’t quite there, so I wrapped a narrow slither of Tamiya tape around the cone, to the extent that I wanted the filler to sit and applied a little more filler, and left that overnight.

Today I sanded this second layer carefully after removing the tape and was happier with the end result. Yes, it does now look a little more ‘Vanguard’ like. Thanks for pointing this out.

Note that I also slightly reshaped the intake scoop openings. Not a perfect reshaping but better than the originals. With these to be finished in ‘almost’ black, I suspect the shape will be largely lost.

I also note the two windscreen wiper motor bulges that sit under the windscreen. I thought about adding these but figure that they may mess with the cleanness of getting the transfers to settle around the windscreen, so I may make something and add it at the end of the build.

Photos:

Frame for nose cone by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

 

Nose cone frame, shaped by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

 

Filler applied, dried and smoothed by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

 

New profile by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

 

And yes, there is some stress fracturing in the windscreen (only just noticed). I had to apply a little pressure when gluing it so that it filled the fuselage width sufficiently… I guess it was a little too much for it. Hopefully once the windscreen frames are there, it’ll be less obvious.

Thanks for reading

Jonathan

[Gimme Shelter]

great work there - an interesting new civil build to follow, and looking forward to seeing more from you

[kev67]

Great work on the Vanguard, the only thing I would do is thin down the strengthening plate as it is to over scale on your model

[Jon020]

On 30/09/2024 at 13:14, kev67 said:

Great work on the Vanguard, the only thing I would do is thin down the strengthening plate as it is to over scale on your model

Thanks Kev... They're as wide as they are as this was the width of the panel lines on the kit... yes, probably not too accurate but they'll have to do. Hopefully it'll look ok once paint is applied. Fingers crossed. 

cheers

Jonathan

[David H]

Well, the nose definitely looks better! Its one of those somewhat odd, but distinctive outlines that makes it a Vanguard.

[woody37]

Love seeing these old kits getting the proper treatment, great work so far, we don't see too many of these built which is a shame. I have a CMR resin S.23 and fitting the windows is one of the reasons I've never got round to building it, but the resin approach might be a great solution.

[heloman1]

Looking good. Neat work with the rod to re contour the nose, it has worked well.

 

Colin

[Jon020]

Ok… so I’ve fallen somewhat behind on writing up this build, which I suspect you’ve realised is not one of my detailed builds but just a series of excuses made whilst working with a kit made from old mouldings in soft plastic and trying to make something half reasonable as a gift for a good old friend.

Initially, I assembled the wings and set about getting the fuselage mating face to be as smooth as possible for later attachment. I would usually join the wings to the fuselage at this stage but realised that painting them would be easier detached from the fuselage. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I tidied the ‘fit’ enough so that it works later on. The wings were mostly re-engraved although I left some raised panel lines where it seemed appropriate. I thought that the amount of paint that I’d need to apply would cover most ills and it’d be the colour and markings that would attract the most. The outer nacelles have two intakes underneath and the kit represented these with just some bulges. I initially tried to replicate these by cutting the forward section off and grafting a piece of hollowed out plastic rod, but this looked too small and a bit rubbish

First attempt at outer engine shroud replacement by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Latterly, I removed the entire bulge and created new intake pieces from larger hollowed out plastic rod that I shaped, attached and then reshaped to match an approximation to the intakes. I’ve no idea what these are for: Pressurisation ram intakes would be my guess… perhaps I ought to read up on it.

I wanted to not add the propellers at this stage but have a way of still allowing them to rotate later. The hub/shaft is fitted inside the forward nacelle piece and the propeller glues to the shaft. To ensure that these stayed accessible later, I added some pieces of plasticard on the forward face of each nacelle to push the back of the shaft once the forward piece was attached.

Revised shrouds and prop hub keepers by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

On the subject of the forward nacelle parts, they needed some reshaping, to round-off the front edges and to redefine and re-shape the lower intake. A before and after photo to illustrate the point:

Improving the shape of the fwd cowls by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Once the nacelles were finished and gaps sealed with some sprue goo, they could be sanded smooth, the two wings shown mid-way through the process.

Wings engraved and cowl sanding by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

A close up of the underside of the outer nacelle of the no. 4 engine

Outer underside close up by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

All of the other kit parts were removed from their sprues and cleaned up… over a couple of evenings… it took quite a bit of effort, especially with the propellers that were quite badly shaped and needed reprofiling quite considerably. The wheels aren’t very defined but seemed good enough although I refined the tyre profiles and flattened the bottoms, and the gear bay doors lacked any form of attachment so some plastic-strut pieces were added to each to aid assembly later (all in the box at the back). So, a last shot of the assemblies ready for some primer.

Ready for first primer by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

And yes, it was ‘first primer’… some grey Mig Ammo one shot applied liberally… highlighting all rough areas needing attention, which they got.

First primer and rub down by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

After much smoothing and re-priming, the main parts acquired a coat of Mig Ammo A-Stand black base.. my preferred primer/base to work up from.

Black base by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

To this, I started some mottling of white (upper surfaces, wings, tail, horiz stabilisers (upper and lower surfaces) and grey for the lower surfaces, below the window-level black band that I’d add later. I used Tamiya XF2 matt white for the upper surfaces and a mix of XF2 and a little XF-20 Medium grey and a little more XF-53 Neutral grey to get the shade and tone I was after. This was applied gradually to individual panels and along panel groups to provide a textured underpainting that would break up the top coat once applied. I varied the grey shades on each application to again break up the uniformity. This went on two or three times, slowly building the underpainting’s opacity

Mottle/shading colour build up by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

More white upper and grey lower mottling by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

For the upper layers, which of course I forgot to photograph, I applied a more opaque covering and more smoothly applied to the lower surfaces, and a couple of coats of Gloss White X-2 to the white areas (not the wings), all of which was enough to break up the underpainting and generally unify most of the finish. The fuselage and tail was then liberally attacked with some copious amounts of Tamiya masking tape to define the black area that would be applied in lieu of the transfers (which I didn’t really trust to go down well enough) but were used for patterning and marking out where the tapes would be positioned, especially around the nose. The doors were ‘mostly’ masked as these would have the BEA red square transfers added and I wasn’t sure how that would sit over black paint… hopefully, the lighter patch will allow enough ‘red’ to appear. The nose undercarriage doors were painted the same grey as the underside.

Masking for black markings by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Underside, masked by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

The fuselage was then given a few light coats of Tamiya X1 gloss black. Yes, I could have used matt for a better coverage…. But I didn’t. Nope… I’m not sure with hindsight either. But it gives a good deep black. The wings were given a few (loads eventually) coats of Mission Models MMP-101 Insignia red. I had a bit of a panic when I found that my poly mix bottle had gone hard… but I found a new bottle (phew) and mixed that up as I usually do using their thinner too. It goes on well, but as with all red paints, it takes some time to get the right degree of coverage.

Black and red down by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Always a nervous time… unmasking; but it looked ok once everything was removed. Not perfect, but clean up wouldn’t be too difficult.

Unmasked before tidy up by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Not too shabby pre clean up by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

The red areas of the wings were then masked off (more masking!!!) to allow the ‘metal’ areas to be treated.

More masking by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

I wasn’t sure how well the A-Stand black base would sit on top of the mission models red so I bottled out and added some Tamiya X1 to give me the black base I wanted. I know that this deferred the risk to later when adding the A-Stand metal lacquers, but I’d read that a light misting shouldn’t eat into the Tamiya acrylic. Fingers crossed. The extra masking is because I planned to do the forward cowls in a slightly different shade from the start. Looking at photos of the aircraft when quite new, all metal parts looked quite shiny. I’d add some toning later but thought I’d start them off quite bright. I used A-Stand polished aluminium for the main sections of the nacelles, undercarriage doors and leading edges and then unmasked the forward sections and used their Chrome … which gave a slightly different shade, slowly misting and then building up opacity.

The propellers had also been black primed and got the chrome applied to the spinners. Later, I brush painted (Mig-ammo metallics) the blades matt aluminium for some variety. I used that also for the inners of the gear bay doors and the undercarriage legs and wheel hubs.

Black base and more masking by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Once unmasked, they looked fine. These metal shades in the A-Stand range are quite fragile so I’ll add a layer or two of Aqua Gloss to seal it all in; it’ll dull it a bit, but that’s fine.

The fuselage had a couple of bits added… a plastic nodule painted red for the upper anti-col beacon and a pair of black-painted nodules to either side of the nose just below the triangular shaped windscreen panels… which I think housed the wiper motors.

Unmasked wings by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

But that’s it for now. I’ll keep the pressure on me to finish this one and sort a small base for it too. Thanks for reading. Happy New Year everyone… and happy modelling in 2025.

Jonathan

[Jon020]

 

Dear all, another month nearly passes and the season is beginning to turn at last, although the recent storms and rains are doing the best to remind us all that Winter still has a while to play out. The wind and rain are battering down outside, so a little while writing up this final WIP post on this tread will be followed by an attempt to take some more proper photos to edit of the finished article, or a return to looking closely at EA-6B prowler undercarriage bays, which I need to detail. Decisions, decisions.

So, let’s finish off this one first. The decals were from the kit, noting that whilst the plastic was formed from very old, worn moulds, the transfers weren’t that old and worked as expected. I had a few issues with the door decals; I ended up cutting the red BEA squares from the overall decal and applying these then adding the top and then the bottom door frame parts to line up with the kit door pieces… almost. I’m at a bit of a loss as to why these didn’t align, but rather than dwelling too long on that, the approach allowed me to add these bits and move on. I then cut the royal mail markings and the Vickers Vanguard information markings from the black bars and applied these in the appropriate areas. The main BEA squares on the wings and fin needed some persuasion to settle down with some Daco String, but settle they did; apart that is from the fin/rudder join that I sliced with a sharp blade and some more Daco Strong. The painted-on result was good enough.

Decals applied by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

I sealed everything with another coat or two of Aqua Gloss and left it to dry. Weathering was very limited, to just using Tamiya panel liner black to pick out the main control surface shadows. It’s an airliner and should be kept pretty clean by an operator like BEA. Nobody wants to board a tatty looking airliner.

A brief pre-assembly photo of the components all prepared ready for some glue. Note, that the upper ADF loops have been painted black, I added a small red nodule for an upper anti-col beacon, and two small nodules painted gloss back either side of the nose below the windscreen for the wiper motors.

Main components ready for assembly by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Prior to assembly, I decided to do the unmasking. Apart from one windscreen panel mask that I’d replaced with tape (as the mask had not conformed too well to the curve it was sat on), all were the thick vinyl masks from Thunderbird models (they mostly worked and were much better than nothing!). They took some persuading to be lifted, but patience won through and all came off ok. With the thickness of the clear resin and the edging of the cut outs, it provided a bit of a ‘frame’ to each cabin window which I thought looked ok. The windscreen needed a little squaring off with a sharpened cocktail stick but again, it looked good enough. There’s just enough transparency there to see the instrument panel can console and seats that I added. So, here’s the three big assemblies awaiting gluing.

Fuselage unmasked; wings dry fit by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Assembly. I attached each wing in turn using 5 minute epoxy carefully and sparingly applied to each wing stub. This set securely quite quickly and gave a solid bond. I’d spent some time fettling the mating surfaces beforehand and a reasonably good join was obtained.

The undercarriage bay doors were added using the studs I’d added to each one and then the wheels added onto the gear legs carefully, with just enough glue to affix the wheels to each other but allow them to rotate inside the leg so that the wheels could ‘sit’ square and on their tyre flats. The propellers were finally affixed and whilst I’d intended these to spin, in the end two were quite a tight fit and refuse to budge. I’d not try to hard as the soft plastic and thin propeller blades are not going to be too strong to force a rotation. Parking them in the cruciform position was my favoured pose.

Assembly complete by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

A quick view underneath. Yes, I could have added some streaks, but why spoil a pretty airliner by representing poor or overdue maintenance. The nose tyre flats needed balancing and re-covering.

Undersides by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Another view, from the front.

Front end close up by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

 

The base

To anchor the model, I wanted to give it something to pose on. I’d picked up a couple of artist cardboard canvas boards (30cm x 30cm) a while ago on the basis of them looking to be the right size for this model. I worked out approximate sizing for concrete slabs and marked these out on the board with a soft pencil and then scored these using an old, blunt, flat blade, broken screwdriver.

Base - marking panels by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

I gave this a good coat of halfords primer and then sanded the worst of the raised texture from the face… just to soften it a bit.

Base- primed and sanded back a bit by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

I then mixed up some grey shades using Tamiya white, neutral grey and medium grey, looking for a ‘concrete shade’, with which I applied two separate mottling coats to slowly build up the opacity. After this, a few overall softer and filling-in coats were applied to blend the tones together.

Base - mottle coats by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Once dry, I posed the model to check scale and with photos of Vanguards sat at on the ground at Heathrow T2, marked out a few markings using Tamiya tape, which were then given a few light coats of Tamiya XF2 matt white, and (where needed) some yellow on top,

Base - markings masked by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Complete (albeit missing the walkway and concrete panels demarcation) but worth checking for balance. Just a bit too clean. To this, I added the concrete demarcation marks with a soft pencil for ease, then sealed it all with a coat of Aqua gloss, which soaked in.

Base main markings applied by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

I used a mix of abletung 502 oils – mostly neutral grey and faded white, but with some starship filth and black in places, applying sparingly panel by panel with a old brush then blended further with a clean(er) larger flat brush to work in and blend the tones. A quick photo was taken to illustrate the effect of clean vs ‘use stained’.

Base weathering with oils by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

 

Job done

And finished, and sealed with a light coat of aqua gloss (and probably in need of a matt coat to finish, a few final photos of the end result

Finished #1 by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Finished #2 by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Finished #3 by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

 

Thoughts

This model was something that I needed to finish and I’m glad that I did. It was not a good model to work with, but it caused me to look at these challenges and find new solutions – poorly fitting windscreen, cabin windows in need of replacement, not wanting a tail sitter, poor raised panel lines, etc etc… but I thin the end result was well worth the effort. Not my favourite of aeroplanes, but I cant help but admire it’s poise; it should have sold better, but probably suffered from the usual British fate of being a design too tailored to one customer, and sales likely were lost out to the Electra; at least the Viscount did ok (comparatively). But if ever one was to do a model of this aeroplane, this is THE livery… one that can’t be beaten.

I hit lucky finding a recent(ish) rebox of this kit in this livery; there isn’t much out there in the form of aftermarket offerings, but the masks were a godsend (with the proviso that the smaller cabin window masks were too large and too few… needing tape masks to be cut out by hand)… I need to get some form of cutter for the future.

Glad it’s done and pleased it looks quite tidy.

I’ll sort a RFI thread once some better ‘camera’ photos have been sorted.

Best wishes to all… and here’s to some good modelling in 2025.

Thanks for reading.

Jonathan

[woody37]

A great result, the base really finishes it off.

[Trumpton_Orbital]

Wow, this is a superb build! I love the base too, it really elevates it to another level. Absolutely love it!

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul.

[David H]

A Brilliant build. The perfect paint scheme, perfectly executed on the most basic of kits.

 

I'd be shocked, if we saw X-Scale come to the rescue with an all-new tooling of the VC-9 Vanguard. For the short term, given that the general shapes are in the ballpark, the model would be an excellent candidate for some 3D printed aftermarket intake scoops, engine nacelle front ends/intakes, wheels, and just perhaps a piece to de-Nimrod the front end.

 

Agreed that the BEA scheme is the only way to fly with this model.

 

Looking forward to more photos. Too bad we don't live closer, because i'd loan you my VC10 for background to stage behind your model.

 

Will this be the end of airliners for you...or do you have any follow on ideas??

 

Once again: An outstanding job on a model kit that probably pre-dates the Wilson era.

[VG 33]

Hello

 

This is really fantastic as you transformed this old kit into a jewel. Thank you for sharing with us.

 

Patrick

[Jon020]

4 hours ago, woody37 said:

A great result, the base really finishes it off.

 

3 hours ago, Trumpton_Orbital said:

Wow, this is a superb build! I love the base too, it really elevates it to another level. Absolutely love it!

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul.

Thanks Paul. I think it's turned out as well as it could have ... and several lessons learnt along the way.

 

1 hour ago, David H said:

A Brilliant build. The perfect paint scheme, perfectly executed on the most basic of kits.

 

I'd be shocked, if we saw X-Scale come to the rescue with an all-new tooling of the VC-9 Vanguard. For the short term, given that the general shapes are in the ballpark, the model would be an excellent candidate for some 3D printed aftermarket intake scoops, engine nacelle front ends/intakes, wheels, and just perhaps a piece to de-Nimrod the front end.

 

Agreed that the BEA scheme is the only way to fly with this model.

 

Looking forward to more photos. Too bad we don't live closer, because i'd loan you my VC10 for background to stage behind your model.

 

Will this be the end of airliners for you...or do you have any follow on ideas??

 

Once again: An outstanding job on a model kit that probably pre-dates the Wilson era.

I think it would be quite something if those bits that need replacing could become available in the aftermarket, but I suspect that'd not happen until this got a re-release by Airfix and flooded the market with them... or perhaps someone did a new tool 🤔 but I doubt that would happen as it was quite a limited production run. 
Thanks for the suggestion of the VC10... wouldn't that look ace. I've fallen behind on your build I think... I'd better tale another look, although I thought it finished or nearly last time I looked. As for airliners... the trouble for me is that they can be quite large, but recently I spied a series of kits that I'd made a few from back in the 80s... the Hasegawa Loveliner series at 1/200. I've acquired a few of these what could be nostalgia builds at some point. I started with a KC-10A, then a Northwest DC10, a 747-400 (early box with no decals), and more recently a BA Tristar (which I think was the first aircraft that I flew home from holiday on, with a new friend I'd just got to know, who I then married... and we're still together 34 years later (I told her the kit would be for us 😁. I also picked up some Laci flaps and engines for the L1011 and 744. Decals wise, a couple of months ago I bagged a job lot of 1/200 decals covering multiple types (cheap!) so I'm still picking which 744 to do, but the kit has the GE engines, it came with resin PW4000s and i bought some resin RB211-524Hs... so no restrictions on choice. 
I quite fancy doing an A321... but specifically, it'd be a Neo and would have the single slot inboard flaps and the enlarged rear wing-fuse fairing that is different to all that have come before - the XLR... as it's something that's kept me focused for the last 18 months or so.
But that's all to come in the future.

As for now, it was back to the small prowler, and I just spent the last couple of hours scratch building details for the forward part of the main gear bays (which I've opened up) and will make open doors for. I do like a challenge... apparently 🤦‍♂️
But thanks for your very kind comments.

1 hour ago, VG 33 said:

Hello

 

This is really fantastic as you transformed this old kit into a jewel. Thank you for sharing with us.

 

Patrick

Thank you Patrick. Very kind of you.

 

Thanks all.. I'll post a link to a RFI as soon as I get my self organised.

[Sheepie]

What an absolute stunning model! You've done an absolute fantastic job on that!