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Yet another Vickers Vimy


CliffB

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My offering for the GB will be this Eastern Express re-pop of Frog's Vimy bomber.

P1070422.jpg

The decal sheet on the right was generously donated by Stevehed (thanks again Steve), and comes from an original Frog kit. This includes decals for an O/A aluminium dope machine F8643 - my choice for this Vimy.

Plenty of plastic..

P1070421.jpg

but unfortunately in the case of the fuselage halves, more than there should be! More on that later....

Hope you enjoy the GB everyone

:cheers:

Cliff

Edited by CliffB
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Nice choice Vimey fan... :analintruder: A pair of Vimey's will be cool...and if you do the silver one, not too redundant...

GB Cheers,

ggc

Edited by CPNGROATS
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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm starting to think about starting the Vimy (I'm never one to rush).

As some of you may know the bomber version of the Frog Vimy as a few 'issues', which are well described in a PAM News International article from the 1980s (I think).

The biggest problem is that the side profile of the fuselage is incorrect, with the deeper forward fuselage section extending too far backwards - pushing the dorsal gun position and side windows back too far as well. The photo illustrates the problem (the masking tape shows roughly what it should look like).

P1070435.jpg

In scale terms the gun position is around 4 feet too far back.

The origins of the problem stem from the fact that Frog's original release of the Vimy represented Alcock and Brown's transatlantic plane. In real life the A&B plane had been converted from a Vimy bomber, one mod being the extension of the forward fuselage backwards to enclose the dorsal gun position. The kit fuselage profile is therefore correct for the A&B machine. Some time after its original release, however, Frog decided to issue a bomber version of the Vimy and rather than make new moulds, the originals were simply modified by adding a dorsal gun position (where it would fit!), plus a few other tweaks - hence the problems.

Fortunately, the article gives pretty clear guidance on what needs to be done to sort things out. It looks like it should be fun :)

Cliff

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  • 2 weeks later...
The biggest problem is that the side profile of the fuselage is incorrect, with the deeper forward fuselage section extending too far backwards - pushing the dorsal gun position and side windows back too far as well. The photo illustrates the problem (the masking tape shows roughly what it should look like).

Fortunately, the article gives pretty clear guidance on what needs to be done to sort things out. It looks like it should be fun :)

Cliff

All that and rigging too! Will you have time to do it by September? My hat's off to you mate, good luck.

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Per, you're right that there's a bit to do. Against that, there's no fancy interior and no fiddly canopy to mask. I actually think that I've got it easy! ;)

I managed to make a bit of start at the club night this week - just playing about really. Here's a photo of the fuselage taped up just to see what it looks like.

P1070445.jpg

Conclusions:

1) Pretty ugly

2) Pretty small for a 'heavy' - similar in size to the Anson I'm doing.

Cheers

Cliff

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Looking good Cliff... :analintruder:

Cheers,

ggc

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Thanks guys. I can't wait to get started properly on the Vimy but have promised myself that I WILL get my Anson finished first :bangin:

Hopefully just another couple of weeks.

Cliff

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally made a start on the Vimy today.

Soon found out that this is the hardest kit that I've ever made (quite literally!)

Took me one and a half hours (and two blisters), to sand down the undersides of the wings to remove the shrinkage and ejector pin marks.

P1070742.jpg

The plastic is rock hard - never seen anything like it before :wall:

Hope it glues OK!

Cliff

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Cliff, my Vimy has those marks as well...going to need some filler... :analintruder:

Cheers,

ggc

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Just a quick update on my somewhat slow progress with my Vimy.

I've ordered a Windsock Datafile to help me out with the interior details, so as I was waiting for that to arrive I thought I would clean up and assemble the flying surfaces.

Not too bad a job overall, but the upper wing comes in three parts, the outer two of which have to be set at the correct dihedral angle. The parts join using an odd jig-saw like tongue.

P1070741.jpg

Cleaning up the resulting joint led to the loss of one rib, so I've tried to recreate this using microstrip, sanded to shape once in-situ. Looks OK now, but things may change once the primer is on.

P1070752.jpg

The finished articles, complete with ailerons etc.

P1070751.jpg

:sleep_1: Hopefully something more interesting to report next time!

Cliff

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The Windsock Datafile arrived last week and has answered many of the questions that I had about the Vimy interior.

The biggest relevation (to me at least), was the fact that the Vimy actually had three gun positions - the two featured in the kit, plus one underneath the fuselage (ventral position).

So I've strated to chop the kit about - here are the mods so far:

1) Top decking removed and existing dorsal gun position blanked off.

P1070755.jpg

2) Bomb aimer's window cut out (this didn't feature on the Alcock & Brown machine)

P1070754.jpg

3) Existing fuselage side windows blanked off and new ones formed in the correct postion, further forward

P1070756.jpg

4) Ventral gun position created

P1070757.jpg

Next step is to work out how to recreate the interior, complete with wood panelling, struts and bracing wires! (sometimes ignorance is bliss -_- )

Thanks for looking,

Cliff

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I really like the work you've done on correcting the kit Cliff. :clap:

As you say though, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Looking forward to your next update.

Deacon

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Looking very nice, Cliff...

Cheers,

ggc

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Thank you Deacon and ggc.

Here is today's update.

A couple of hours work with some plasticard and the crew compartments are taking shape...

P1070760.jpg

Should hopefully get some paint on tomorrow.

Cliff

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Not too much to report today, but at least things are starting to get colourful at last!

P1070761.jpg

The Vimy had a fabric covered, wire braced, tubular fuselage, although in the crew areas this was lined with thin wooden sheets (I've ended up doing a very simplified version of this).

Cheers

Cliff

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