Handley Page HP.80N Victomic - Finished Pics Page 19.

[zenrat]

Greebling has begun on the first wing.  I'm not going to add too much more other than a scoop or two and more stuff on the fuselage relating to the reactor.
Discretion is the key here.  It's an alternate timeline prototype not an atompunk flight of fancy.   
Victomic WIP 08-07-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[zenrat]

The crew.  With colour coded helmets.  Colours as per Original Series Trek.

Victomic WIP 09-07-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[crudebuteffective]

The crew.  With colour coded helmets.  Colours as per Original Series Trek.

Victomic WIP 09-07-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

I guess the ones in red helmets dont have ejector seats

[The Wooksta!]

Only the pilots in the V bombers had bang seats - most of those with full crews lost it's surmised that the pilots elected to stay out of loyalty to those who couldn't get out. 

One that I recall did bang out when one crashed near the Canadian lakes drowned - he was the only one of the crew who couldn't swim.

[zenrat]

If I am not mistaken only the Command Crew (the pilots - yellow helmets) have ejector seats.

<edit> as Lee said while I was typing this.

This kit really is not very user friendly.  I have been looking at the fit of the upper and lower parts of the intake vanes, guides, deflectors, flow directors or whatever you call them.  The vertical strakes in the intakes.  It's crap.  It really is an abortion.  It's going to need a lot of putty in a hard to sand but very obvious area.  I can see why a lot of finished builds of this kit are fitted with intake covers.
I did look into resin replacements but the only ones I could find would end up costing me, with postage, three times what I paid for the kit.
Let me think about that umm no.

Of course, a nuclear powered Victor might have a different arrangement with lower sanding requirements.

[PR19_Kit]

I did look into resin replacements but the only ones I could find would end up costing me, with postage, three times what I paid for the kit.

I did spend some of my hard earned on the Flighpath upgrade for the Victor, which includes those resin mouldings, and they almost weigh MORE than th erest of the kit! So far I've only fitted one of them, and that was 10-12 years ago.

Nowadays an Airfix Victor would cist much less than an M'box Victor and the upgrade, AND you get a Blue Steel thrown in as well.

[zenrat]

I may treat myself to an Airfix Victor when I get this years tax rebate.  But I won't be chopping it up like I am this one.  Not at over $100 a shot.

Although...

[zenrat]

Crew have been firmly superglued to their seats and tomorrow i will begin knocking up some simple consoles for the engineers and the science officer.
I may also need to add a couple of simple panels and sticks for the front seaters.

As far as the wings go I decided the best way to approach the issue of the intakes is to eliminate a lot of the seams and thus make more space to get sanding tools in there.
So I chopped out most of the strakes(?).  Obviously the laminarity of the airflow into nuclear engines is less critical than on the standard Sapphires Conways.
I see from photos that when they switched from Sapphires to Conways with the B2 that they increased the size of the intakes.
Compare.
B1...

...and B2.


I also found this picture of the first prototype, WB771.  Possibly at Farnborough in '53

The prototype scheme is described as "spiffy" (the sort of thing my father would say) and consisted of a black fuselage with a red cheatline and silver flight surfaces.
WB771 later crashed when the tail tore off during a low level run on 14th July '54.  All on board were killed.
I may or may not adapt this scheme.

I have also just realised that as this predates the B2 I should be removing the carrots.

[PR19_Kit]

Fascinating pic there, it's an aircraft recognition contest in one pic! And look how close the photogs are to the runway, and others just sitting on the grass!

I see an Avro 707 over on the left, with a Seamew to its right and then the Short SB5? Right in the far background there are the Hunter and Swift prototypes, and taxying past the hanger is the unmistakable shape of the Beverley, then called the Blackburn Universal Freighter, and over to the right an anonymous Canberra.

Nostalgia rules OK. 

[NARSES2]

Nostalgia rules OK. 

And most (all ?) are probably wearing ties and some jackets as well 

[zenrat]

Today I sat down to scratch up some simple consoles for the engineering and science crew in the back seats.
But having offered up the cockpit interior, fuselage halves and canopy and studied how much was visible through the crew access door and windscreen I decided not to bother.

Having made that decision I glued the cockpit interior to one of the fuselage halves.  It didn't fit very well.
I continued work on the modifications to the inlets.  Slapping some putty on one wing and removing parts on the other to match what I had done on the first one.
And I have removed the carrots from both wings and patched the resulting holes

Tomorrow the fuselage halves will get closed.  Hopefully i will remember to add some weight.  I have written "WEIGHT" in texter in big letters on both one fuselage half and on the bottom of the cockpit insert.  Doesn't mean i'll remember though...

[zenrat]

I did remember.  I glued three M12 nuts under the cockpit floor before I closed it all up.

Big step today.
I took the razor saw to the fuselage, removed a couple of inches and glued it back together again.
This was required because the Victomic's reactor was mounted behind the bomb bay resulting in the aircraft's CoG shifting rearwards and requiring a shortened rear fuselage to compensate.

[PR19_Kit]

........ resulting in the aircraft's CoG shifting rearwards and requiring a shortened rear fuselage to compensate.

Why didn't they just add some VERY big nuts to the nose, just like you did? 

[Old Wombat]

........ resulting in the aircraft's CoG shifting rearwards and requiring a shortened rear fuselage to compensate.

Why didn't they just add some VERY big nuts to the nose, just like you did? 

They did, they called them "pilots" but they just didn't have the gravitas to do the job.

[PR19_Kit]

They did, they called them "pilots" but they just didn't have the gravitas to do the job.

Ooooh!

Coat? Hat?