Airfix 1:72 Vulcan B.2

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Newarch said:

Fantastic! No other words to describe how good that looks. What brand of paint do you use btw?

Thanks very much! I use mainly Vallejo Model Colour, Vallejo Air and Tamiya Acrylics. For Matt coat I use Windsor & Newton Galeria.

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croyde said:

This is amazing.

I had all sorts of Airfix 1:72 WW2 aircraft hanging from my ceiling using fishing line, when I were young back in the 70s.

Cotton wool was used to simulate smoke and fire.

I just remember always making a mess with the polystyrene cement and getting finger prints on the plastic pieces especially cockpit windows

I used to get frustrated making destroyers and throwing the mess in the bin.

My younger brother used to retrieve it and clean it all up and make it good.

That used to annoy me

Brilliant work sir, you're not a surgeon by any chance?

Thanks! No, I’m not a surgeon unfortunately!

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Assembled the bomb arches into the bay, first removing paint from the mating surfaces. My modelling chisel and scalpel made light work of it:





Fit was pretty good:





Couldn’t resist temporarily clipping the bomb racks in place:



So it’s just the bomb bay roof that will need finishing in the same way - once I can get the fit right:



It looks nicely detailed, but with some aftermarket resin and photo etch, it would be another level.

I decided to strip the hairy main gear roof and try again. After years of struggling, I’ve found a method of stripping acrylics and Tamiya primer in minutes, back to perfect bare plastic:



Currently re-painted and awaiting weathering.

Next up were the exhausts. They are made up of three outer pieces per engine, which of course leaves some very difficult joints to get smooth. They are slightly barrelled, I suppose the price of accuracy there is having to design them so they come out of the mould. I’m using Mr. Surfacer, which will be flatted with a curved scalpel to deal with them:



Then the intakes, which also need significant work to get the three piece assembly smooth. Not sure why a two-piece assembly wouldn’t have worked, it would be much easier to get looking right:



Finally for now, the sink marks in the upper airframe halves. I opted for Tamiya putty. Time will tell if it flats back seamlessly:





Anyway, happy Christmas all.

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CanAm said:

dr_gn said:

It looks nicely detailed, but with some aftermarket resin and photo etch, it would be another level.

This level is pretty damned good, but well done for sticking to your plan to build it OOB

dr_gn said:

After years of struggling, I’ve found a method of stripping acrylics and Tamiya primer in minutes, back to perfect bare plastic:
Anyway, happy Christmas all.

Could you share this method with us?

Many thanks for keeping us all entertained and amazed.

Sorry, forgot to say: I’ve found that the only thing that consistently strips Tamiya spray primer (and the less tenacious paint like Vallejo or Tamiya acrylics), is to soak in 99.9% isopropyl alcohol. I got some from Amazon for cleaning my 3D printer bed.

If you soak it for an hour, then remove the paint with a cut-down brush (to make the bristles stiff) it only takes a few minutes work to completely reduce it to bare plastic. Keep the part wet while you’re doing this. It’s important to do this outside or in a well ventilated area, and follow all the safety guidelines on the bottle. Works for me, but try it at your own risk!

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Assembled the wheel bays (first removing paint from the mating surfaces):





I think the diagonal tubular members are actually jacks for the main gear, so the smaller diameters might need picking out in chrome.

Spot the difference? (apart from the lamp diameters )



On one side the door jack locations are blind, on the other, they are through holes…

Also started flatting the filler in the wing sink marks:



This build will be delayed a bit by yesterday’s broken foot episode…

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RacingPete said:

Oh dear - hope you recover soon. Looking good on the model though

Thanks Pete - appreciated

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Tyre Smoke said:

How can you make such intricate and detail on your models, yet be clumsy enough to break your foot??

I was carrying the ‘big surprise” present for the kids up the drive (Lego Millennium Falcon), and my right foot twisted what felt like 90 degrees under my ankle while negotiating some uneven steps. There’s a small bone that sticks out from your little toe metatarsal, and all my weight went on it, snapped clean through, and also stretched a load of tendons and ligaments (or whatever they are).

The Millennium Falcon was fine, and after 90 minutes in A&E on Christmas Day evening, I was back home with a huge foot/ankle brace.

Awesome present, and the kids were over the moon, but I’ve come to accept that no good deed goes unpunished…It hurts like a bh.

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Pretty sure these tubular members are jacks, and that the ends would be part of the main gear yokes, so I painted appropriately:





Also fitted some pla-paper over the main gear door jack holes on the side where they were missing. Hopefully it will make final assembly less traumatic:



Then the wing sub-structure:





Then the exhaust nozzle joints, which are a sod to get smooth, and require some intricate re-scribing:



Still a lot to do to get the convoluted inner pipes right.

And more flatting on the intakes, again, they seem over complicated, with joint lines in all directions in very difficult to get to places. I ended up using Tamiya sanding sponges wrapped around various tweezers:







They were looking ok:



But a guide coat revealed a load more work still to do.

Then the air brakes. They look a bit gawky deployed, and I think ruin the lines of the aircraft, so opted to fit them closed:



The aim was to get them flush, or slightly proud (so I can flat them flush):



It proved too easy to get them recessed below the surrounding surfaces, so I drilled the undersides and, by pushing them up into position, managed to get them somewhere near:





Also continued dealing with the sink marks in the wings and fuselage, which also required some re-scribing. A couple of the panel lines kind of disappeared as-moulded, so they needed re-doing while I was at it:



Not a straightforward build, but hopefully it will all come together in the end.

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Tyre Smoke said:

My sympathies. I know from experience, the ex wife did the same thing and was on a flight to Washington DC three days later. Once the pain subsides it's ok apparently.

Saw the MF in the Lego shop, impressive.

Good to hear! Yes the MF is a great kit, we’re loving building it together.

And of course the broken foot will be told and re-told every Christmas from now on.

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Newarch said:

Sorry to hear about your foot, sounds jolly unfortunate. Still following avidly.

Cheers!

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AlfaCool said:

Hope the pain doesn't spoil your usual high standard of model work Doc.

I managed to hobble into the garage today, so hopefully it won’t impact things too much. Plus I’ve got at least 6 weeks to sand parts down…

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Continued with the sink mark filler flatting, this time the lower wings:



And filling and re-scribing the air brakes:



One side looks like it’ll be ok, the other lines are a bit flaky.

Then more work on the nose pod; cleaned up the mating faces:



And used some old loom bands to hold the halves in place:



Then the bomb-aiming blister and hatch section:



More loom bands to hold it together. Fit wasn’t bad, but will probably still need filling and re-scribing:

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Regbuser said:

Fascinating build so far

Given this kit is apparently a recent release on new tooling, how do you rate the overall extrusion quality?

It’s not as good as the latest Tamiya releases; the details seem ‘soft’ in a lot of the smaller parts, and the surface details are far less refined in my opinion. It’s pretty much the latest release from Airfix (I’m eagerly awaiting the new announcements on 10th of January, because another part of the Airfix Trophy was £100 of vouchers). The kit is OK on the whole, but there are still quality control issues that seem to have plagued Airfix new-tool kits for years. For example, the windscreen fault, the sink marks that are present in many places on the huge wing parts, and little things like the open holes on one wheel bay roof, blind in the other, despite them being mirror images, and this random rectangular feature on one of the exhausts:



It’s not pointed out in the instructions, so I assume it’s an error in the mould, but then again…why?…how? It’s things like that that to me indicate some kind of production - or quality checking problem. Let’s not forget this kit retails at over £65 from Airfix.

Can’t complain though - it will look good when finished, and it was a very much appreciated prize.

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Mark V GTD said:

Wow the camouflage on a Vulcan must be some undertaking. I have done a few Spitfires over the years but that’s on another level!!

Yes, it will take some time to mask…and a shed load of paint!

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Mark V GTD said:

That’s true - I believe it all hard edged stuff too and included the surfaces which must have been a complete belly ache. We normally order about 22 to 25 litres for a Spit. Vulcan must have needed about 50 gallons!

Yes, the camo is hard masked, which is probably easier then feathering at this scale.

The intakes will be tricky to mask - they are white inside, but with their outer edges in camo. It's fine though - a challenge to get right, but it should add up to an interesting looking model.

I think the main issue will be handling the model while painting it, and not damaging existing finished surfaces.

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Mark V GTD said:

Sorry there was a typo in my earlier post. I meant to say ‘lower surfaces’. That must be have been a huge task to apply back then. I guess at 1:72 scale you modelling chaps just flip it over and crack on! :-)

The undersides of this one are plain white - I think the wrap-around scheme was the last version to be used.

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Mark V GTD said:

Right - wrap around sounds like a very appropriate name for it! White should be much easier to handle. I do wonder what the thinking was behind the lower surface camou. Our area of expertise ends suddenly in 1945 so it’s a puzzle for me as it’s unheard of in the wartime period.

Yes, I think the RAF GR. designated aircraft: Tornados, Harriers and Jaguars (and Hawks too) had wrap-around schemes for low level stuff, where they could be manoevreing against a background of hills etc.

[dr_gn]

Continued with fettling the main parts today - starting with the sink marks in the wings:



And filled a few gaps around the engine ancilliary intakes/oulets with Mr.Surfacer:



Then re-scribed the flatted joints around the hatch/bombing window:



I offset the lines a bit from the actual joint becasue it's always earsier to scribe plastic than filler. I use Dymo tape as a flexible guide:



There's a panel line missing for the rear of the radome:



It's unfortunate becasue it needs to be a perfect vertical line in projection, ie parallel to the adjacent panel lines. It's tricky to get straight projections on a compound curved surface. I did it by eying up a rule on a grid, and dotting pencil onto the surface to coincide with the straight edge:







I did a very fine scribe becasue all it's for is a guide for masking. I want to make the mistakes now, rather than ruining the finished camo right at the end.

Both areas look OK under a coat of primer:





There are some gaps in the front faces of the main wheel bays, so I painted the sub-structure in that area, so that you won't see grey plastic if you happen to look inside there:



Similarly, painted the edges of the wheel bay and bomb-bay apertures, and will weather them to match the bays themselves:



The intakes are proving to be a nightmare to get flat, and to paint without getting sandpaper effects or runs, but once done, I can make a start on assembling the man bits.

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spitfire-ian said:

That panel line you scribed doesn’t actually run under the radome. It should only be on the top above the black section.

I’ll dig an image out to illustrate it.

Edited to add image:

Edited by spitfire-ian on Saturday 1st January 16:17

That’s not actually the one I scribed, that one is formed when you glue the nose cone onto the fuselage. Good call though - I’ll now fill the lower trench up and flat it back. That will leave it correct, and the one I lightly scribed will still be right as a guide for masking the black part.

Cheers.

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Taita said:

Holy hell how did I miss this thread until now!

Looks absolutely great - keep up the good work and I can live vicariously through you!

Can't wait to see it fully completed and painted!

Thanks! I’m looking forward to completing this one too.

My modelling projects are quite eclectic, and I often end up with several projects at a time, so the threads get a bit disjointed, and have long gaps between updates…I usually get there in the end though.