Airfix 1:72 Vulcan B.2

[Riley Blue]

Newark Vulcan for comparison with those above:

Edited by Riley Blue on Friday 7th January 15:46

[edusa]

silly question but i feel someone will know the answer.Where do the intake covers get stored when the planes flying? Are they in the plane somewhere? THe RED things in the pictures.

[Trevatanus]

edusa said:

silly question but i feel someone will know the answer.Where do the intake covers get stored when the planes flying? Are they in the plane somewhere? THe RED things in the pictures.

Would be removed by ground crew and left at base.

[edusa]

Trevatanus said:

edusa said:

silly question but i feel someone will know the answer.Where do the intake covers get stored when the planes flying? Are they in the plane somewhere? THe RED things in the pictures.

Would be removed by ground crew and left at base.

But that only works if they are coming back?I mean commercial planes would have to have an enormous stack of them at every airport for bad weather and other events.On a security note military planes,if you saw them being put in a hangar you know the trip will end back at base?

[dr_gn]

edusa said:

Trevatanus said:

edusa said:

silly question but i feel someone will know the answer.Where do the intake covers get stored when the planes flying? Are they in the plane somewhere? THe RED things in the pictures.

Would be removed by ground crew and left at base.

But that only works if they are coming back?I mean commercial planes would have to have an enormous stack of them at every airport for bad weather and other events.On a security note military planes,if you saw them being put in a hangar you know the trip will end back at base?

If they were going somewhere to stay for any length of time, there would be room in the bomb bay. I saw XH558 at Farnborough on static dispaly a few times and it had its own intake plugs in place. ETA I think there's a small part of the bomb bay doors that can be opened without the full length of them being open.

[edusa]

That makes sense i cant see them taking alot of space.

[eccles]

edusa said:

That makes sense i cant see them taking alot of space.

Smaller aircraft often have what's called 'soft covers'. So instead of the big red rigid intake covers you'd have soft fabric ones that took up far less space for landing away from base.

[dr_gn]

edusa said:

That makes sense i cant see them taking alot of space.

There's a box in the cockpit for the pitot covers etc, but I doubt enough room for the intake covers - even if they'd fit through the crew hatch. As you say, the bomb bay is huge, and the covers wouldn't take much room up I guess.

[Buzz84]

edusa said:

But that only works if they are coming back?I mean commercial planes would have to have an enormous stack of them at every airport for bad weather and other events.On a security note military planes, if you saw them being put in a hangar you know the trip will end back at base?

If a commercial plane ain't flying it isn't making money, so the model that most work on is to maximise the amount of time the aircraft in the air. so they are never around enough to use covers. When they do sit around for a bit they will normally be at the airlines home base or maintenance facility where the covers will be in the stores.

(Ignoring pandemics and volcanoes - and then they would bung them in a van and send them out with a maintenance crew who will prep them for storage where ever they end up)
(hurricanes/tropical storms etc - they are normally known about in advance so airlines will cancel the flight and the aircraft wont fly in if there is a chance it wont get out again)

---

But on topic again - great work on the Vulcan, very impressive even if a little challenging. slightly worried that I bought my dad this kid for Christmas, what have i got him into!
(Massive vulcan fan, good with his hands but probably not done a airfix kit in an incredibly long time if at all...)

[dr_gn]

Buzz84 said:

edusa said:

But that only works if they are coming back?I mean commercial planes would have to have an enormous stack of them at every airport for bad weather and other events.On a security note military planes, if you saw them being put in a hangar you know the trip will end back at base?

If a commercial plane ain't flying it isn't making money, so the model that most work on is to maximise the amount of time the aircraft in the air. so they are never around enough to use covers. When they do sit around for a bit they will normally be at the airlines home base or maintenance facility where the covers will be in the stores.

(Ignoring pandemics and volcanoes - and then they would bung them in a van and send them out with a maintenance crew who will prep them for storage where ever they end up)
(hurricanes/tropical storms etc - they are normally known about in advance so airlines will cancel the flight and the aircraft wont fly in if there is a chance it wont get out again)

---

But on topic again - great work on the Vulcan, very impressive even if a little challenging. slightly worried that I bought my dad this kid for Christmas, what have i got him into!
(Massive vulcan fan, good with his hands but probably not done a airfix kit in an incredibly long time if at all...)

Thanks! It certainly isn’t as straightforward as I’d hoped.

[edusa]

But on topic again - great work on the Vulcan, very impressive even if a little challenging. slightly worried that I bought my dad this kid for Christmas, what have i got him into!

Thats going to take him about 18 years

[dr_gn]

So after much fettling, I’m going to have to pause this one - I’ve worn out all my sanding sticks. I don’t think that’s happened before, and I’m still only on the minor panels…





Should get some replacements next week.

It’s as if the parts have distorted after coming out of the mould. I can spring them into position, but…come on this is a £60+ newly tooled kit. Not good.

[couzens]

dr_gn said:

So after much fettling, I’m going to have to pause this one - I’ve worn out all my sanding sticks. I don’t think that’s happened before, and I’m still only on the minor panels…





Should get some replacements next week.

It’s as if the parts have distorted after coming out of the mould. I can spring them into position, but…come on this is a £60+ newly tooled kit. Not good.

Shame to hear/see this. I rarely comment on your threads but I'm a long admirer of your work!

Do airfix take note of build threads/feedback like this?

[dr_gn]

Thanks.

I assume Airfix must be well aware of these kinds of issue; this kit is by no means an exception, in my experience. As long as people buy enough of them, I doubt things will change, and if they do change I’d expect a price increase.

Don’t get me wrong, it’ll look great when it’s finished, and is the best kit of the type out there anyway. It’s just I find flatting filler and re-profiling things and re-scribing panel lines a tedious part of the process. This rework is never perfect either, so it can spoil an otherwise very nice kit.

[Taita]

Agree, not good enough in 2022 with modern forming technologies. Possible you just got a duff one? Eg know anyone else with the kit?

Edited by Taita on Monday 10th January 20:00

[Mark V GTD]

edusa said:

silly question but i feel someone will know the answer. Where do the intake covers get stored when the planes flying? Are they in the plane somewhere? The RED things in the pictures.

If its returning to base - in the hangar.
If the aircraft is flying away and staying overnight, we store the intake bungs and cover/s in the aircraft storage lockers if possible. If its away for a few days (eg at a show) generally there will be a road vehicle following so we put them all in that.

[dr_gn]

Taita said:

Agree, not God enough in 2022 with modern forming technologies. Possible you just got a duff one? Eg know anyone else with the kit?

No idea - I started watching some build videos on YouTube, but they’re in about 400 parts, so I couldn’t be bothered to finish them.

[AW111]

dr_gn said:

So after much fettling, I’m going to have to pause this one - I’ve worn out all my sanding sticks. I don’t think that’s happened before, and I’m still only on the minor panels…





Should get some replacements next week.

It’s as if the parts have distorted after coming out of the mould. I can spring them into position, but…come on this is a £60+ newly tooled kit. Not good.

Is it possible to spring them into position and then warm them with a hot air gun to stress relieve them, or would that end up worse?

[dr_gn]

AW111 said:

dr_gn said:

So after much fettling, I’m going to have to pause this one - I’ve worn out all my sanding sticks. I don’t think that’s happened before, and I’m still only on the minor panels…





Should get some replacements next week.

It’s as if the parts have distorted after coming out of the mould. I can spring them into position, but…come on this is a £60+ newly tooled kit. Not good.

Is it possible to spring them into position and then warm them with a hot air gun to stress relieve them, or would that end up worse?

It’s possible, but there’s a fine line between heating them enough to bend them, and melting them. It’s possible to use boiling water, but again, there’s a risk of breaking them if you spring them too far in the first place. With the fuselage spine, it seems to be a localised distortion along the length, but right in the edge, so holding it in place is difficult.

[MBBlat]

dr_gn said:

No idea - I started watching some build videos on YouTube, but they’re in about 400 parts, so I couldn’t be bothered to finish them.

Florey models did a 5 part build series and didn’t seem to find the problems your experiencing
https://youtu.be/JaFpCCnFS3s

The amount of waffle that seems to happen in certain, usually British or Australian, YouTubers to stretch a simple build into a multi part series is amazing. The Yanks and Eastern Europeans seem to be able to convey the same build in one or two videos.