Villiers Vindicator B1A (or B2 maybe..)

[PR19_Kit]

As this original idea of KiwiZac's has got to the 'about to cut plastic' phase I thought I better open up a project thread on it.

As I mentioned in the original thread, there's a LOT of plastic to cut and join up again.



The Vulcan kit is totally unbuilt, apart from its Blue Steel that was going to fit under the Victor, but that's been overtaken by events now. The Victor has had a lot of work done to it, as you can see in the pic, but there's still a lot more to do on it as it's a vintage M'box kit after all. The Mach 2 Valiant is pretty well pristine, or as pristine as a Mach 2 kit is ever likely to get anyway!  At least I won't have to  clean up and polish its canopy for this build....

[KiwiZac]

*tears of pride*

[RAFF-35]

Now with the spare parts, a delta wing Victor needs to be built 

[kitnut617]

Watching this with interest   

[McColm]

This might be going off the subject but the Vulcan wings without the engines attached fit rather well to the Mach2 Valiant.

[PR19_Kit]

The landing gear's going to give a few problems.

The main gear really has to be the Victor's, as the wings and engines already have the gear bays installed and they're about the correct height too, both the Valiant and the Victor having similar high set wings on a fuselage that's about the same diameter. The Victor nose wheel will be too short due to the 'fish belly' nose of the Victor and the Vulcan gear will be maybe three times too long! 

With the Vulcan nose in place on the Valiant fuselage I'll need to do some CPE ('Creative Plastic Engineering') to inset the Valiant nose wheel bay into the Vulcan nose I think.

Any other ideas would be welcome.

[kitnut617]

Why don't you drop an email to Neil Gaunt at Aircraft in Miniature and see if he would sell you just the landing gear from his Valiant B.2 conversion   

[PR19_Kit]

Why don't you drop an email to Neil Gaunt at Aircraft in Miniature and see if he would sell you just the landing gear from his Valiant B.2 conversion   

Not a bad idea Robert, I may do that, but I'd have to move the Kuchmann carrots on the Victor's wing inboard a tad for the bogies to fold into.

It'd sure look different though. 

[kitnut617]

Why don't you drop an email to Neil Gaunt at Aircraft in Miniature and see if he would sell you just the landing gear from his Valiant B.2 conversion   

Not a bad idea Robert, I may do that, but I'd have to move the Kuchmann carrots on the Victor's wing inboard a tad for the bogies to fold into.

It'd sure look different though. 

If that's the case, just get the whole conversion, you'll have ready made Kuchmann carrots 

[KiwiZac]

To be fair, I think I was going to do mine gear-up   

It's really exciting to see this come together!

[PR19_Kit]

I think I've done enough 'drawing board engineering' now and this'll be the final build version of the Vindicator B1B, a half upgraded version of the B2. 

It's got an added IFR probe, a TFR radar thimble radome, Kuchmann carrots on the wings and the Victor type tailplane. I'll have to use Victor main gear, but on extended legs that'll shrink as they retract (if Grumman can do it on the Bearcat and Hawker can on the Sea Fury, I can do it on the Vindicator....) and a Valiant nosewheel leg and bay, also with a slightly extended leg, all of which will give the Vindi the slightly nose up attitude that was so characteristic of the real thing. 

Now to get out the razor saws and BIG files!

[PR19_Kit]

I'd forgotten quite how awful Mach 2's plastic is to work with, it's so long since I've done one of their models. 

The Valiant fuselage halves have been cut off the sprues (ZILLIONS of gates!) and then filed down, a bit like a vacform, except I had to use a second cut file to make any impression on their apology for styrene! As there's no location pips I've added small strips top and bottom on one side, and I've sawn off the nose where the Vulcan nose will fit. The nosewheel bay and its mounting platform have been assembled but the platform is at least a millimetre too wide to fit, what a surprise. 

The Vulcan nose itself has been sawn off the inner wings and glued together, there being no point whatsoever in doing anything inside the cockpit, it's just going to be painted black and the canopy added. I've also glued the fin halves together, but that'll need trimming at the base to suit the drawing, and the ECM bulges filed off the tip.

Maybe some pics tomorrow.

[KiwiZac]

Exciting!!!  Vincent Villiers V will be smiling down on you.

[PR19_Kit]

Well plastic has been sawn (and mightily filed in the case of the Valiant bits!) and glued together (where possible in the case of the Valiant bits!) and photographed.

As you can see there's a diameter discrepancy between the Valiant fuselage and the Vulcan nose, the Valiant being about 45.5 mm dia and the Vulcan some 39 mm dia. I've positioned the Vulcan nose about where it needs to be to look correct (so it looks like the Vindicator plans are wrong..... ) which means I'll need to fabricate a spacer around 1" long, but I have a cunning plan that involves a Boeing 767 fuselage, of which I have legion. 

The Vulcan fin has been shorn of its ECM bulges at the fin tip and will need to be sawn off along the line I've drawn on the pic to match the slope of the Valiant's tail, which should be a matter of moments with the aid of my trusty X-Acto razor saw.

The Valiant fuselage is just as bad as I thought it might be, one side being deeper than the other in some places and shallower in others and it'll be a putty queen for sure! It's a pity as the Mach 2 moulding has quite fine engraved panel lines, most of which will vanish under tons of Presto putty soon. I see LOTS of panel line engraving in my future too as both the Airfix Vulcan and the M'box Victor come from the raised panel line period of modelling history.

[kerick]

Saw off the tail and add two more fins and you have something resembling Space Cadets!
My whole world is on a tangent these days.... Carry on sir!