Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Hello again,Now I've finished my Beaufighter I've been looking for my next project. I pondered the Airfix Swift, and a Revell Mil 24 Hind, but when I was looking over my stash in the loft I found my old half build VC10, that's been gathering dust up there since we moved in 23 years ago!/media/tinymce_upload/6d8e82e2ca1d90bea08c0bca6c750cac.jpgThis was brought for me as a present in the mid 80's by my Nan, now sadly long gone. Around that time I also had a weeks Summer Camp with the Air Cadets at RAF Brize Norton. If I remeber correctly we had 4 air experience flights in VC10 C1's of 10 Sqn, mostly doing circuits and bumps at Brize, except for one trip when we flew up to RAF Leuchars in Scotland and did 2 hours of circuits there instead! Two lasting memories are of the chairs all facing the rear, and of one of the load masters being air sick, to us cadets' amusement.Anyway, I got stuck into the kit pretty quickly, and soon had the major pieces together. For some reason I then lost interest in it, and it's been hanging around ever since./media/tinymce_upload/20585bfccdf55291a3ad8da4aa23d191.jpgA quick inspection of the plane revealed that I did not do to much of a bad job 30 years ago, but did not fill any seams as I went, and some of them are quite bad. Also several of the fuselage seams have split. The undercarriage boggies have broken off, but I still have all the wheels, if not their mountings, I'll rebuild these from plastic rod and tube. I also only have half of the nose probe. Luckily this is the actual probe part, and it should be pretty easy to build a replacement mounting from card.I intend to rebuild this as a 101 Sqn bird from the late 80's in the Hemp over Light Aircraft Grey scheme, I'll use the formation markings from the kit and the serial and roundels ill come from the spares box. The only problem with the markings is the 101 sqn flash on the tail, but I intend to make this by painting clear decal sheet. I will be keeping modifications to a minimum, just adding the missing inner wing fences, there's enough to do already!/media/tinymce_upload/567156dc81d4605ae9b1ef97c96cca26.jpgI started off by flooding all joins with fresh liquid glue, then added some filler to the belly and engine nacelles. When sanding down the nacelles I had to be careful not to flatten the rounded sides. There is also a really bad seam on the engine mounting, which I am cleaning up with rat tailed files. /media/tinymce_upload/9194dc4969533dbbe83d8886f951265d.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/77531455d99daf21feca5f91bbd9e030.jpgThere are also several sink marks to deal with, and the raised surface detail could do with sanding down a little.I'll keep you all posted as I progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_fleming Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Please do - I have a few of these lurking in boxes upstairs (Including a couple of BA issue ones) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Mock Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 If you need a clearer painting guide for the Hemp/LAG scheme, give me a shout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 Thanks Jonathan, I'll take you up on that, I've been trying to get the scheme from blurry photos.The builds progressing with plenty of filling and sanding, but not much to see, that's why no more photos posted yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewe Manton Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Nice recovery job. I shall be most interested in the new Roden kit when it gets the Tanker release in the new year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_fleming Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 Did Airfix ever release it with Hemp decals? I remember the original boxing, and the later grey one - did it have Hemp as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted December 17, 2015 Author Share Posted December 17, 2015 I don't think they ever did the Hemp version.Here's a quick update on work completed so far, most of the seems are sorted, and I've repaired the nose probe and most of the undercarriage. Next is finishing off the remaining seems, then making new wing fences from plastic card./media/tinymce_upload/db08b920125c8cdb58f102b4f58932c0.jpgHere's the nose section, you can see where I've had to fill sink marks on the spine, just behind the front blade aerial. A new probe mounting has been fabricated from laminates of plastic card, drill to accept the original probeand sanded to shape. The glazing was filled and sanded to fit better, then re-polished./media/tinymce_upload/e67f89df54a275d47802a48c52e3719a.jpgHere's the rear spin, with plenty of filler to smooth it out, had to be careful not to flatten the curve of the fuselage. The engines are painted light grey to check seems after filling and sanding./media/tinymce_upload/4b542a5039acb15dba3024d1c52738e6.jpgMore major filling on the belly, and the repairs to the undercarriage in progress./media/tinymce_upload/1be8b5f53ea22f99ef3fc0ca0318054d.jpg10 wheels ready to fit, and 2 refueling pods in the process of being painted light aircraft grey and hemp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Mock Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/vc10_zpsyqe0f4u0.jpg Sorry for the watermarking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 Thanks Jonathan, that's great! Really Helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewe Manton Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 That's coming along a treat, looking forward to seeing it done the more I see! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 Thanks Drewe,This is the first airliner I've built since the 70's! I prefer military, but I guess this one ticks that box. Even my wife said it was a bit boring for me compared to what I usually build, with lots of bombs and guns hanging off them :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratch Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 But variety is good too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Mock Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 Thanks Jonathan, that's great! Really HelpfulNo problem, I darkened the Hemp for more contrast on the drawing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_fleming Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 Is that from the last Tanker issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_fleming Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Answering my own question, the rather excellent Airfix Tribute Forum has a PDF of the instructions confirming that the last issue had Hemp scheme decals.http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=32911Not sure how I missed that, as I have two in the stash! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fighter Pilot Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 I much preferred taking fuel from a VC-10 than a Tristar and it's centre line hose. Still, they were guaranteed to find the only cloud in the northern hemisphere every time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_fleming Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 Was that the wing pods Jamie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewe Manton Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 I much preferred taking fuel from a VC-10 than a Tristar and it's centre line hose. Still, they were guaranteed to find the only cloud in the northern hemisphere every time!A soecial service extended only to fighter types to keep you on your toes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Mock Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Trivia note: in Star Wars, when you see the R2 units being lowered into the X-Wings, they're using old refuelling drogues. Some of the access ladders were also scrounged from the RAF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fighter Pilot Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Was that the wing pods Jamie? Yes mate, HDUs, Hydraulic Drum Units (pronounced "Hoodoo"!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 Since my last post I've now made and installed the missing inner wing fences. First I marked on the wing surface the approximate location of the fence using permanent marker. I then used my razor saw to open up a cut in each wing./media/tinymce_upload/2510888644fb22346eb46b493f6bec39.jpgNext I measured up the fence and marked it out on meduium thickness plastic card./media/tinymce_upload/a304f488d1132186170e36b58123b0dc.jpgThe card fence was then cut out and the edges cleaned up./media/tinymce_upload/421d0cbddfe9ca540bf0780ab5aafa31.jpgThe fence was then fitted into the cut in the wing and flooded with liquid glue, when this was dry some more shaping took place./media/tinymce_upload/91c09657670651c961929f0df87f36df.jpgWhen I was happy, I gave it a coat of light grey to check for any imperfections. I actually did both sides at the same time so they had more chance of matching up. They aren't exact, just done mainly by eye, but I think they look about right./media/tinymce_upload/21f264b3b38f353ee2656cf76dcd079c.jpgI'm ready now to start applying the colour scheme, which will be the next post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_fleming Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 Lookis good so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 I've now completed painting the basic scheme, which was hand painted with a number 3 brush, and the paint was Humbrol Acrylic, thinned with Humbrol thinner. First to be done was the underside light aircraft grey, Hu166, which was covered with 2 coats, then came a mammoth masking session, which took about 2 hours :-(Next was the top side colour of Hemp, Hu168. I think I thinned this a bit to much as it took 4 coats! I was also not to happy with the colour, it seemed to light, so I added a touch of sand brown to darken it up. When the masking came off, it looked pretty good, then came the detail painting, and a coat of Humbrol Clear varnish ready for the decals./media/tinymce_upload/e777fd6a7b2ccec95d51f921853db5c2.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/ffe918f339c7b6c0546aaacacafbffe3.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/e54863ee2f1bb23ddc7587728c33e7cb.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/9c17b8d0d49f0120454632d687735af1.jpgThe decals will be a mix of the kit decals for the fuelling formation markings, Xtradecals for the national low viz markings, and Modeldecals for the white serials and code letters, and for the yellow walkways, sliced up painted clear decal film./media/tinymce_upload/e98ec192c2146d8f05178be536f2cde4.jpgI should have this done in a couple of days when I will post again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewe Manton Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 That is looking quite fantastic, you've done a great job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 Thanks Drewe,This has been a real labour of love for me, that's why it's in the older Hemp scheme, not the latter grey colours. I remember as a 16 year old air cadet on summer camp at Brize watching all the light brown VC10 tankers on the far side of the airfield. Another thing I remember about the place was that the terminal building had captured Argentine anti-aircraft guns either side of the entrance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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