Sea Victor- Finished!

[sandiego89]

Not to be outdone by the U.S. Navy Seaplane Striking Force, in the early 1950's the UK set out to develop a family of jet powered seaplanes that could operate away from large bases.  

Coming up the HP "Sea Victor"....

I have wanted to do one of these for years, and have a 1/72 Victor in the stash for this very purpose, but never got the guts, but when I saw the old Lindberg 1/92 kit on the bargain table ($9 US), I could not resist. Wish me luck- it is a rather old kit.  

SeaMaster for inspiration (which is a different oddball scale)
 

Scratch built top loading weapons bay hatch.  


Hull together.  The bottom planing hull will be the hard part.  

[PR19_Kit]

What a fascinating idea! 

The Victor and the Seamaster have some configuration factors in common, and worse, both suffered crashes because of failures in the T-tail assembly. I'll be very interested to see how you do the hull undersides.

[martinbayer]

Stéphane aka Stargazer2006 did an illustration for one: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,26120.msg469706.html#msg469706

Should be a great looking model!

Martin

[Cliffy B]

Popcorn and beer are at the ready, please continue! 

Do I spy a parasite fighter in that last photo?!

[sandiego89]

Do I spy a parasite fighter in that last photo?!

Ha! no parasite, that is just the central forward part of the horizontal elevator. 

[Cliffy B]

Do I spy a parasite fighter in that last photo?!

Ha! no parasite, that is just the central forward part of the horizontal elevator. 

Awww, it would make a perfect one though! 

[McColm]

Couldn't get the Revell 1/72 Victor to align when I tried to build it, so I went for the Ekranoplan version. Got a Sea Master or did have used the tail plane on the Ekranoplan build and the engines on the 1/144 Sea Shadow hovercraft.
Great build, great work

[NARSES2]

What a fascinating idea! 

Indeed it is, as is that Lindburg box, never seen it before

[sandiego89]

Thanks for the interest. Contemplated balsa for the hull shape, but decided to go with styrene frames and thinner styrene for the planking.  Bottom of the hull coming together.  I made the main keel shape by inserting a styrene strip into the bottom gap between the hull halves to give it more stability.  Then crafted frames/bulkheads. Some complex curves.  Much cutting and putty work.  

Bulkhead making.  These are still sqaured off.  I then flared the outside of them to give them some shape, then cut slots into the hull to place the bulkheads. Finally cut the bulkheads in half veritically to fit to the main keel.  


Framing in


Side view. Can see some curves on the hull. Need thin styrene to make the curves. 


Covered in putty.  Few more panels to fit.  Some shaping will be required to round off.

[rickshaw]

I imagine there is some means of moving the weapons loaded through the top hatch forward to the bombbay?  Otherwise the CoG will be rather to the rear.   I like the work you've done on the hull.  Starting to look the part.

[PR19_Kit]

The P6M Seamaster had the same arrangement with a weapon loading hatch aft of the wing, and I think they had a conveyor thingie to shift the load forward to its racks on the inside of the rotary bomb door. When I manage to find my Seamaster book I'll dig deeper.

[sandiego89]

Exactly like Kit said- this is just like the P6M Sea Master. The loading hatch is aft of the main spar and there is is a dolly to move stores forward to the weapons bay which is amidships- so no CoG worries.

Here is a diagram of the loading bay on the P6M.  Hatch is aft (to the right), then a trolley takes the weapons forward to the rotating weapons bay.

Source Martin P6M Sea Master, Stan Piet/Al Raithel, Martineer Press, 2001, page 139.  A most excellent book!

[kerick]

Stéphane aka Stargazer2006 did an illustration for one: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,26120.msg469706.html#msg469706

Should be a great looking model!

Martin

Those pics look like they are right out of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea!
Your close up of the nose of the Victor look very Buck Rogers. Looks like I need to find a Victor kit myself.
I'll keep my eye on this one, this is going to be good!

[ysi_maniac]

Courageous modeling indeed!

[Dizzyfugu]

This is a great idea: one of thise things which are sick but show some kind of vision!

Great, looking forward to progress and what becomes of if (esp. concerning wings and air intakes).