general melchett Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 (edited) Hi everyone, my latest offering comes in the form of an early proposal for a nuclear missile equipped variant of the ubiquitous VC10, one of several such interesting proposals submitted by the Vickers Corporation and BAC in the early sixties. A bit of background for those interested. The VC10 was seriously looked at for adaption to a variety of roles including ballistic missile carrier, maritime and electronic recon, AEW, and even the worlds largest interceptor!!!.To meet these roles Vickers and BAC proposed using multi role modular aircraft with interchangable noses and fuselages, totally unique at the time. These nuclear equipped aircraft were to have worked alongside then gradually have replaced the V-Bombers in time. This version the ALBM carrier was based on the Type 1106 variant ,(as used by Transport Command) but had the standard 1100 airliner fuselage matched with the Super's 1150 wings (to take the weight of the Skybolts and which had a more appropriate Mach rating) and uprated Conway Co.43 engines.The nose was heavily re profiled to encase the NBS and H2S systems and tanks were fitted to the extreme wing tips. Up to eight Skybolts could be carried pushing the total payload up to a massive 40,000lbs, this is the main reason that I added a new beefier undercarriage with a lower pressure footprint enabling it to be flown from more RAF airfields.There was also mention of fitting reheat to the Conways, RATO packs or even replacing them altogether with Bristol BS.81 turbofans of 36,000 lbs thrust each. An impressive way of looking at the strike potential would be to say that it would take 72 Vulcans and 32 Victors to carry a creditable deterrent whereas only 42 VC10's would have been needed to do the same job! Weapons to have been carried were 8 (or more usually 4) Douglas Skybolts, 4 Z.89's or 6 Bristol X.12's....a truely frightening war load!!! Reference was mainly supplied by Chris Gibson and his wonderful book, ''Vickers VC10, AEW, Pofflers and other unbuilt variants' and is a goldmine of information, (hopefully allowing other models to be built in time!), The model is basically a hybrid of parts namely Airfix fuselage and tail, Welsh models Super VC10 wings, Braz Super engines, Zvezda TU 160 Blackjack undercarriage and lots of good old fine Milliput and requisite elbow grease!. The fuselage was built as per the kit but with the windows filled and Milliput used to recontour the nose to make it more Nimrod like and match the 1/144th drawings I had made for the build. The wings were then added from the WM vac kit and wingtip pods added from the spares bin, new pe wings fences were added from the two six set then the excellent Braz Super|VC10 CO 43 engines were fitted,(vastly superior to the Airfix efforts!!), The Skybolts came from the old Crown B52 kit and pylons were scratchbuilt again according to plans, next the undercarriage from the Blackjack kit was cut down and adapted to fit before finishing off with a mix of decals using the Two Six Gulf Air set, Freightdogs Anti nuclear markings and stencils and bits from the spares bin again. Finished off in Tamiya white and Vallejo satin clear the model was given a light wash of Promodeller dirt and burnt umber oil paint thinned with white spirit.Finally Little Cars red and clear lenses were added again as per drawings and that completed a fun build of an aircraft that would have been truely impressive had it ever entered service. Mine has been finished as a Wittering based aircraft (139 'Jamaica' squadron circa 1965). The only thing left to be fitted are the pale blue serials ( I've run out!!) which will be XM720 from a cancelled second batch Victor... There's was a fair bit of conjecture as to what name it it have been given, (the name Poffler was used but as usual this was thought to be a typically obscure project code name to throw any would be spies off the scent!), and after a bit of searching it appears that the name Vigilant would have been quite likely as it continued the 'V' theme of the other V-Bombers in service. Seval drawings of the time showed it in camo scheme but as the Skybolt was designed to be launched at around 40,000 feet I thought the anti flash white more in keeping with the role. Anyhoo after all that, hope you like it, (a similarly equipped Trident is in the pipeline too for those interested ).... Forgot to mention this this one of two models I'm doing for the 'What-If ' group build... Cheers all, Melchie..... Here along side my earlier BAC Rapier B1, (nuclear equipped Concorde proposal.....next Trident?)... Edited October 25, 2010 by general melchett 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kspriss Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Fine work as always there General. That new nose is very nimrod-esque. Like the skybolts too...are they still available in 72nd scale do you happen to know? Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted October 25, 2010 Author Share Posted October 25, 2010 Thanks Steve, yep Colin (Freightdog) has them in 1/72nd, resin and damn fine they are to, both noses included, Melch.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kspriss Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Thanks Melchie.....think im going to get a couple to go on my second vulcan Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringbag Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Bloody 'ell Andy. that's impressive. Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlamgat9 Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 (edited) What a wonderful model! Andy, your stuff is truly inspirational! Edited October 25, 2010 by Vlamgat9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Wow, stunning. How the RAF could of been so very different. Really looking forward to the Trident too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Millman Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Just been reading about the VC10 in James Hamilton-Paterson's book "Empire of the Clouds" (bought on a recommendation at Britmodeller) and I have to say this project reeks of pure modelling and invokes the spirit of that book. No big-scale, bells and whistles giant Christmas model, "I've got a bigger kit than you" one upmanship; no pre or post production shading with thinned soot; no crazy paving panel lines; no artistic techniques ad nauseum and sod the correct colours. Just an appropriate to scale, beautifully made and cleanly finished model that tells its story honestly and tells it well. Superb. But why oh why aren't there articles on modelling like this in the magazines any more? Just "reviews" (I use the word loosely), adverts, ego-trips and big scale "soot jobs". Here we have fine scale modelling, conversion, nostalgia and history plus a great bit of "what if" conjecture. Seriously impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kspriss Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 well said Nick!!! steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilot Officer Prune Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 . . . I have to say this project reeks of pure modelling . . .No big-scale, bells and whistles giant Christmas model, "I've got a bigger kit than you" one upmanship; no pre or post production shading with thinned soot; no crazy paving panel lines; no artistic techniques ad nauseum and sod the correct colours. Just an appropriate to scale, beautifully made and cleanly finished model that tells its story honestly and tells it well. Superb. But why oh why aren't there articles on modelling like this in the magazines any more? Just "reviews" (I use the word loosely), adverts, ego-trips and big scale "soot jobs". Here we have fine scale modelling, conversion, nostalgia and history plus a great bit of "what if" conjecture. Seriously impressive. Well said! I really wish I'd said that! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devilfish Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Some of the best "What-ifs" are the real ones, aren't they? Outstanding model. And I totally agree with your choice of colour! I'm just wondering how it would get off the ground with 8 Skybolts under those wings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigsty Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Superb. But why oh why aren't there articles on modelling like this in the magazines any more? Just "reviews" (I use the word loosely), adverts, ego-trips and big scale "soot jobs". Here we have fine scale modelling, conversion, nostalgia and history plus a great bit of "what if" conjecture. Seriously impressive. If memory serves, doesn't Andy have an all-but-permanent spot in MIS for just this sort of thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev67 Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Another fine model you have there, what white did you use Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avro683 Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Has Gerry Anderson seen that? Nice one Andy. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Nice one! Julien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev1n Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Thats cool Scott Henderson's book on the VC10 has some drawings and ideas for VC10 development - if I could get enough kits I'd love to have a go at some of them, including military versions and the twin fuselage version.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Cor! MH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted October 25, 2010 Author Share Posted October 25, 2010 Again many thanks for the kind comments from everyone, .It's great to know that so many of you feel the same way about these subjects as myself and that's what gives me the pleasure in building them.I'd love to see more people have a go at these projects as they make a great change from the more usual subjects not to mention challenge. Nick thanks for that, I agree with you re the magazines and this one, (and a few others)are destined to appear in the 'new' MIS where I hope to do just what you describe and get back to basics, concentrating more on the basics of the build and the scratch work involved. Devilfish, With an all up weight in excess of 400,000 pounds,(weapons and fuel) it would have needed mighty engines to get it into the air (also boundry layer was to be used). As I mentioned in the text reheat was to be fitted to the Conways, (similar to the engine touted for the Hawker P1121 fighter), RATO was investigated and finally a complete engine change to the much more powerful Bristol.BS81 turbofans, which unlike the Conway had a fair bit of further development potential. Kev I used Alclad white primer, Tamiya white, Klear, finished with Vallejo satin, then polished using Micromesh.. Kev.... twin fuselage version.... ....now that's an idea Thanks again everyone...I really do appreciate the replies, Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F111Fan Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Well General, you've done it again! Great build, looks great but I can't get used to that nosejob... and the Vicky-10 seems to suit white rather well actually! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen T Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Oh Wow! that is stunning and a lovely finish, Think i'm going to have to get a copy of that book looks very interesting. Glen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 That certainly is different when comparing it to a normal VC10, asuperb model indeed. Looking forward to the Trident, will it be the anti-sub variant that I have drawings of in Derek Woods book "Project Cancelled"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hovis Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Chris T on a bike....! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted October 25, 2010 Author Share Posted October 25, 2010 Thanks again fellas, Glen the book is well worth getting, Chris has done a great job on archiving all the sub variants and he's got a few more in the pipeline!!, Jabba, The Trident has yet to be researched fully but I assure you it will be a bit different!, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atdb27 Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Kin 'eck Andy! You have some wonderful models. Another Classic. Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted October 25, 2010 Author Share Posted October 25, 2010 Thanks Adrian, hope to add a few more in the series in the not too distant future... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now