Vickers Viagra - stays up for hours!

kitbasher · March 22, 2008, 07:54:35 AM

Time to throw my hat into this particular ring, then! Here are the parts (all from the spares/scrap box) for the 'Vickers Viagra', a long-range survey/general purpose RAF aircraft of the 1930s. At the moment it'll be an all-silver machine from the RAF's East Africa Survey Squadron, based in Nairobi in 1935.
Fuselage/tailplane - Airfix Messerschmitt Bf110 (the tailplane/rudders arrangement was the original idea for my Supermarine Spartan)
Fins/rudders - Eastern Express Spitfire
Wings/struts/engine/prop - Airfix Gladiator
Undercarriage struts - Airfix S6b
Main wheels - Matchbox Meteor
Windscreen - Novo Miles Magister
Seats - Matchbox Alpha Jet
Instrument panel - Kopro Spitfire IX

The Rat · March 22, 2008, 08:16:08 AM

Oooh, I think I can visualize this one already, should be a real looker!

Brian da Basher · March 22, 2008, 08:38:29 AM

Very cool, Robert! It'll be interesting to see if what you come up with is close to what I'm imagining!

Are you considering adding spats?

Brian da Basher

jeff3385 · March 23, 2008, 04:53:08 AM

YEAH... what he said!!! Gonna need spats. Main reason for that is to protect the wheels from being punctured by the Cape buffalo horns on landing. Just can't seem to keep those critters off the field.

The Rat · March 23, 2008, 06:07:36 PM

If, instead of staying up for hours it crashes, do we name the location 'Viagra Falls'?

HOG · March 28, 2008, 06:13:12 AM

Didn`t know Vicars did Viagra

The Rat · March 28, 2008, 03:32:43 PM

Ignore the terrible puns KB, just pour yourself a stiff one, grip your instruments, toss off your misgivings, and don't let these guys jerk you around.

kitbasher · March 28, 2008, 03:36:47 PM

Quote from: The Rat on March 28, 2008, 03:32:43 PM
Ignore the terrible puns KB, just pour yourself a stiff one, grip your instruments, toss off your misgivings, and don't let these guys jerk you around.

I know, but it's so hard!

philp · March 28, 2008, 03:56:53 PM

Don't know if 4 hours of endurance will complete the mission.

Also, if the mission takes over 4 hours, will the crew need to see the flight surgeon?

John Howling Mouse · March 28, 2008, 07:42:54 PM

And, again I say: "I think I need a cigarette."

kitbasher · April 28, 2008, 12:18:20 PM

With the UCAV formely known as 'Falcon' out of the way, I'm able to move forward with the Viagra.

Upper wing has been chopped in half ready for a new centre section to be added to increase span. Seats are almost ready but I need to tidy up the cockpit fairing (to be made from the Bf110 canopy).
The engine is proving problematic (the Airfix Gladiator item being awful) so it's probably going to be pinched from an unbuilt Matchbox Swordfish which in turn will be whiffed at some point. Or does that beak the rules?
As for the undercarriage - I think it might just have to be of the variety beginning with 'S' (got to curry favour with the moderator!).

Brian da Basher · April 28, 2008, 12:46:03 PM

Wow you're hitting the bench hard, kitbasher! This one totally has the right look! Your hint at the steamlined undercarriage has me on tenterhooks awaiting your next update!

Brian da Basher

lancer · April 29, 2008, 08:08:22 AM

Quote from: kitbasher on April 28, 2008, 12:18:20 PM
I think it might just have to be of the variety beginning with 'S' (got to curry favour with the moderator!).

You don't mean that streamlined of all landing ger the marvelous amazing strake by any chance???

kitbasher · May 03, 2008, 03:37:39 AM

Seats are now more or less the right shape, the 110's canopy has been opened out and the KP Spitfire instrument panel fitted. Holes have been drilled for the camera ports at the back end of the cockpit, and sprue will be fitted before the seats go in to represent vertical cameras. The underwing gud fairings on the Gladiator wings have been prepped to look like camera ports (along the lines of the early PR Spitfires).
The cockpit interior has had a red ochre colour applied - tis is similar to the colour very much in evidence inside a Swedish Hawker Hart on the IPMS Stockholm website.
And I've decided to keep the Gladiator engine despite earlier misgivings

kitbasher · May 22, 2008, 12:21:22 PM

Slow but steady progress with this feller! Cockpit's done. It's a 2-seater, with the second crewman a camera operator who faces backwards on a lower seat than the pilot. There's two cameras in the fuselage and one each in underwing blisters (which getsme out of rubbing down the Gladiator MG blisters!). The filler's ready for sanding at the weekend, when I hope to make some more progress.
I've widened the span with plastic sheet and built up layers as the basis of a mid-span fuel tank that gives the Viagra its 'staying power', along with a fuselage fuel tank.
No bread clips, yoghurt cartons, lollipop sticks or sticky back plastic will be hurt in th emaking of this model!