Whiff Vigilante

[SebastianP]

A couple of months ago, I bought a really cheap Revell RA-5C Vigilante in 1/72. Things to know about this kit, other than its copyright date of "prehistory", is that it has recessed panel lines, no real interior to speak of, and some really awkward pin- and sink marks. Oh, and like most old revell kits, the decals stink.

Anyway, given the bad decals, and some previously featured builds of the Vigilante I found here, I thought I'd go ahead and make a modernized version, just for the heck of it. I've got some leftover armament from earlier projects, including some MERs, Harpoons and even a pair of SLAM-ERs, and some suitable low-vis national insignia (off an A-6E, so I'd make this an A-5E to go with the A-6E and A-7E...). I've also got Revell decal sheets for all three of their "new" Tornado kits (IDS, ECR, GR.1), as well as both their Typhoon kits, so I could make a German, Italian, Spanish or British version as well... (Viggie with four Storm Shadow missiles!)

I've also finally managed to track down the broken-off left tailplane of my Revell Raptor, which is most likely going to end up in a Typhoon color scheme given that I seem to get the US scheme right (I've had to wash off the metallic color twice, which was how the tailplane broke). That will also give me the opportunity to do a Meteor-armed Raptor...

I really wish there was a twin-seat Raptor conversion out there - the Italeri kit, while a dog of monumental proportions, at least has the benefit of being able to take a new upper front fuselage with about the same amount of fuss as it takes the original piece...


Cheers!

SP

[tigercat2]

I agree; the Vigi does open itself up to a great deal of Whiffing.  Here is an "EA-5D".


Wes W.

[chrisonord]

I am looking forward to seeing this one, I did a modernised version of the Vigilante a while back in Navy markings, and I have another to do this one will have Strike eagle bits on it also and several MER's on it
Chris.

[Maverick]

For those interested, I've profiled quite a number of Vigi's in my Gallery.

Regards,

Mav

[pyro-manic]

Big fan of the Vigilante here - looking forward to seeing it.

[SebastianP]

Photos are contingent on my camera behaving, which is rare... Though I haven't actually tried in a while. The camera in question is a dinosaur - a Fujifilm Finepix 2400, with 8 MB memory and a voracious appetite for batteries. And a glitch somwhere inside that makes it switch off at the slightest movement. Thoroughly irritating...

Currently, there's not too much to see - I'm working on sanding down the rear fuselage to eliminate some of the huge steps and sinkmarks. In between bouts of sanding, I'm reorganizing my sprues to see if I can find all the ones I need for at least one kit so I can finish something, I've got way too many kits in progress and I've been letting some of them sit for too long, so who knows where all the parts are...

The Vigilante is one big momma of an aircraft, the biggest fast jet I've ever built in 1/72. It looks huge compared to the rest of my flightline, which includes a Raptor, an Intruder and a Phantom at the moment, in addition to small fry like the Typhoon and Gripen. The only kits I have built up that are bigger in overall dimensions are a Chinook and a Super Stallion, and that's only due to the rotors. It's even bigger than my 1/48 Gripen...

Anyway, it's bedtime plus 2 hours over here, so I'm applying a few more dabs of putty and heading for bed now. Cheers,

SP

[Cobra]

This is Super Cool Small Q:think you might try the Vig in JMSDF Markings? this Babe is Something I'm sure the Japanese would have Used if Given Some!!!! just asking. Keep up the Great Work!!!!

[tigercat2]

How about a Vigi as a USAF interceptor; NAA tried twice to sell such a version, once in 1960 and again around 1970, IIRC.


Wes W.

[SebastianP]

I agree both of these options would look cool, but I don't have any suitable decals, and this whole project is an exercise in reducing my pile of half-built kits so I don't really want to go out and buy something to raid... The only Hinomaru decals I have are sized for a P-3, which is way bigger than neccessary for the Viggie, and I don't have any stencils to go with them either (Japanese are stencil crazy).

Most of my collection is European or US right now - I've got modern German, Italian, Spanish, British, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, US and Saudi decals that I know where to find. I also think I have a couple of old Italeri Hornet sheets, which have Swiss, Australian and Canadian decals (80's style); I'm not sure these still exist, though. And there's supposed to be one of those gargantuan Revell Su-27 sheets floating around, with Russian and Ukraine markings.

I'm sadly rather low on ordnance, which is mostly my own fault and a source of serious wallbanging when I think too hard about it. I bought up most of the LHS' collection of weapons sets, built the weapons, then lost the lot of them in a move. Now they're out of stock at the local distributor, so I can't get any new ones...

What this means is that I'm more or less limited to what ordnance came with the kits I've bought since that move, which is not too shabby in the air-to-air department (two Typhoons, a Raptor and a Revell Viper - that's enough ordnance to arm an airforce...), but less spectacular on the mudmoving front. I've got Harpoons (4, all crude), SLAM-ER (2, cruder), MER's with rockeyes (2 racks, twelve bombs), GBU-10s (2, from the Viper), HARM's (four good ones from Revell, a few not so good ones from Italeri), JDAMs (two 1000-pounders from the Raptor), four Taurus and Storm Shadow missiles, and a pair of RBS-15 anti-ship missiles from a Gripen kit....

Cheers,

SP

[SebastianP]

In searching for my floor just now I found an old can of Mr Muscle oven cleaner I thought I'd emptied. Turned out it wasn't nearly as empty as I'd thought, it was actually on the heavy side of half full. So a couple of my worst messed up paint jobs got themselves thrown in my bathtub with a thick coat of oven cleaner on them. I've been out scrubbing them and reapplying the foam a couple of times, but I'm finally getting down to bare plastic or primer...

The viggie has received its first layer of paint as well, dark ghost gray for the top surfaces. It'll need at least a couple of more layers of that stuff, it went on really thinly and the base plastic is bright white. I've decided to be modest about my whiffery, and do it up as a late 80s USN machine with four Harpoons, which gets rid of a bunch of otherwise unused ordnance while still looking decent. My other contender for the Harpoons will receive SLAM-ER instead (the P-3 Orion). Wish I had some low-vis decals for that thing, though. Might be able to use some of the larger-scale helicopter stuff I have, but I'm doubtful.

As an aside, I really hate white paint. The only decent *white* paint (as opposed to brownish or yellowish) is GW Skull White in a rattle can, but I'm still a novice spray painter so the results are kind of hit-and-miss. Getting too much of that stuff on, or painting from too far away, just makes a mess, and I don't know what to strip it off with (as opposed to enamels, which are way easier to get rid of..)

Cheers.


SP

[SebastianP]

I've been spending the last couple of hours doing my best Indiana Jones impression, digging for specific bits in the huge pile of loose sprues and open boxes that is my work area right now. Suffice to say, it's been way too long since I cleaned up that mess. I've found everything I was looking for except for two bits - the bit that goes inside the back of the canopy of one of my Typhoons, and one of the minor landing gear doors for my Gripen. I may also be missing the clear sprue for one of my two Tornados, but since there are various other bits broken on one of those, I'm thinking of writing it off as a parts source. The landing gear door and canopy backing should turn up sooner or later, though. (and there's a decent chance that there are spares for the Gripen at least, somewhere under the rest of the mess. Those doors are notorious for falling off, and I've had four previous Gripen kits in that scale...)

The viggie is still drying, though I've been looking through my decal stash for appropriate slime lights etc for it. I've got some old F-15 decals that may be a good source for those...

Also, I've been playing Ordnance Techie and assembling all my various bits of kit ordnance - it's turning into quite the pile. Painting and decalling all these things will take forever, but hopefully the results will be worth it. :-)

SP