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

[The Wooksta!]

Bearing in mind you got the blasted thing together - a feat in and of itself - let alone making it look half decent, you really need a pat on the back.

[zenrat]

Thank you my friend.

[zenrat]

Fiddly bits time.
I've been painting  the UC doors, flaps, airbrakes, undercarriage and wheels.
UC doors and flaps seem lacking in detail.  Were Victor flaps really perfectly smooth inside?
Undercarriage at least has some moulded detail but i'm not convinced it's going to be particularly sturdy given how it is designed with the part holding the wheels (bogey?) separate from the rest of the retraction mechanism and attached by only a small connection point.
And the wheels.   There certainly are a lot of them.  It would have been nice if the hub detail had been moulded concentrically...

[PR19_Kit]

UC doors and flaps seem lacking in detail.  Were Victor flaps really perfectly smooth inside?

Yes. 

[zenrat]

Well look at that.  Matchbox were accurate(ish).

The Victomic featured an prototype improved flap design proposed for production Victors where the flaps, in order to produce lift while acting less like air brakes (just look at the angle those inner flaps are at in Kit's photo) deployed on cantilever mechanisms which dropped them down and back so they finished at a shallower angle but further back.

At least that's the plan.  I've fitted the cantilever arms to the wings but as the undercarriage is yet to be attached I don't know how close the deal;oyed flaps will come to the ground.  The standard inner flaps come pretty close but i think mine will be OK as they will be at a shallower angle.
Touch wood.

[zenrat]

No actual physical hands on work today but i've been reading through all 18 pages of this thread copying and pasting relevant stuff into the draft back story.

Reading the posts about Flask trains has brought back a vague memory.
I can recall, or think I can recall standing at Clapham Junction or London Bridge station late one night after the pubs shut watching a flask train rattling through the station.  And then turning and exchanging raised eyebrows (but no words) with a complete stranger.
It's hazy, and I wouldn't put my hand on my heart and swear it actually happened but it is in there.

[NARSES2]

I can recall, or think I can recall standing at Clapham Junction or London Bridge station late one night after the pubs shut watching a flask train rattling through the station.  And then turning and exchanging raised eyebrows (but no words) with a complete stranger.
It's hazy, and I wouldn't put my hand on my heart and swear it actually happened but it is in there.

Interesting if it was London Bridge. No idea of what year you are referring to, but I know the tunnel running under the river from LB which is now the Thameslink route was always in use by freight even though most people didn't know it was there. The thought of nuclear flasks being transported beneath the City of London is slightly scary though.

If Clapham Junction then it would have gone via the over ground lines now used by the service that links Brighton with Milton Keynes and points north.

The one good thing to come out of the now defunct franchise system was that a lot of these old, unused direct links were opened up again 

[zenrat]

It would have been between '94 and 03 as those were the years i was working in London and commuting between Ecrodnya and town.

If Clapham Junction they could have come/gone via Earls Court/North Pole Junction/Loughborough Junction.  West London Line its called IIRC.  Long time ago though and I haven't looked at a track diagram since I left.

[zenrat]

Getting close to completion.  I should get her up on her wheels tomorrow.
Taking heed of Lee's warning I have jacked up the nose wheel by 4mm.

[NARSES2]

If Clapham Junction they could have come/gone via Earls Court/North Pole Junction/Loughborough Junction.  West London Line its called IIRC.  Long time ago though and I haven't looked at a track diagram since I left.

Yup that's the way the Brighton to MK service goes nowadays. Often wondered why it was called North Pole Junction ? When I was a nipper my dad, a BR worker, told me it was where the London Polar Bears lived 

[zenrat]

I used to work in the department which produced the documents which listed all the line closures for railway engineering works.
One year they decided it would be funny to include an item about North Pole Junction being briefly closed at midnight on 24/25th December for passage of a sleigh hauled by a Rudolph class locomotive.
It didn't go down too well.

Anyhoo, Victomic is up on her feet.  As I mentioned above somewhere, that is a 4mm lift in the nose gear.  Lee is correct in saying that OOB they ride too low.
Victomic WIP 27-09-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[NARSES2]

I used to work in the department which produced the documents which listed all the line closures for railway engineering works.
One year they decided it would be funny to include an item about North Pole Junction being briefly closed at midnight on 24/25th December for passage of a sleigh hauled by a Rudolph class locomotive.
It didn't go down too well.

I think that's brilliant  Might of got away with it back in the 70's, you were allowed to have a sense of humour then. Mind you without the Net things didn't get into the public domain anywhere as easily I suppose so it was far easier to control.

[sideshowbob9]

Looks quite pugnacious from that angle.  The change in length definitely lends an air to the "this isn't your standard Victor" theme.

[zenrat]

Thanks Bob.
I have it in mind to shorten one of the Airfix Victors by the same amount but then complete it otherwise OOB.  It would be interesting if anyone could pick it without having a standard one alongside.

All the gluing is finished.  Just some final detail painting and washes.  And the back story.

[PR19_Kit]

I'll take all your cut-off Victor fuselage bits and glue them into an ULTRA long one.