A while back I came into a 1/72 Victor tanker… I am planning on building it into the Falklands war version and hanging it from the ceiling. I got to thinking, it wouldnt be hard to reel out the center drogue… Probably just a matter of some thick copper wire… Anyway, I was thinking I could hang a Bucaneer or something behind it… But A Vulcan would look REALLY good.
So I did some poking around, I found some PE sets for a 1/72 Vulcan… But I am not finding an actual kit. Does anyone make one? I am taking a wild guess in saying whoever made one it is now out of production… If that is the case can they be found reasonably cheap?
Airfix made the 1/72 Vulcan. It’s an early 80’s vintage kit, raised panel lines etc. and has a few fit issues, but its the only game in town. Axxording to Airfix’s website, it’s currently in issue, so it should be available.
Oh yes, Airfix still pop’s & sell’s the 1/72 Vulcan, it’s almost hard to get away from here in the UK.
As a matter of coincidence, I completed the Vulcan a few months ago & I am heading towards making a start on painting the Revell Victor at the moment. As the review states, the Vulcan has some issues, mainly surrounding the intakes & wing root / fuse joint - I found the wing root to be the bigger pain. If you have done the Victor, you should find the Vulcan pretty easy, the Victor is a Matchbox re-pop & shows it age - it has way more problems than the Vulcan.
Another caution would be the decals, I dont know if they are all s****, but the ones I got were poor.
Here is my Vulcan XH558 & the real XH558 from this years Leuchars air show (awesome big bird, granted its subsonic, but mind popingly powerfull & agile);
** XH558 is finished in a non standard under & over glossy camo pattern - I assume for the benefit of the crowds, the genuine items at the time of Blackbuck only had topside camo & it wasnt as glossy.
milairjunkie, what method did you use to mask the camo pattern? I’m building that kit now and investigating how I want to mask the camo pattern. Did you just use masking tape??
In 1/72 there is just the Airfix Vulcan. It shouldn’t be hard to find one, there was a recent Falklands commemorative gift set. There are several aftermarket sets for it which cover the tricky areas (intakes and tail pipes);
Seamless intakes and undercarriage bays from Two Mikes
I have built the Vulcan, with the all the problems. I think there is a resin correction set for the engine intakes. Also, is there any truth to the rumor that Airfix are doing a 1/48th Vulcan?[:)]
I believe the 1/48th version they showed recently was a teaser to see if there was any interest in an actual 1/48th kit. It would be awesome to see it become a reality, but you’d need an awful lot of real estate to display it on though.
I tried Freehand painting (airbrush), masking with Maskol, masking with Blu-Tac (Silly Putty), with thin Tamiy tape & with 3M thin PVC pinstripe tape, none of which worked & none of which were even close to a sharp, smoothly curved pattern.
After some advice I got from this forum, I went out & bought some broad (80>90mm) regular diy masking tape. I then covered the top fuse/wing & tail surfaces in overlapping (enough to hold the tape together for removal) strips of the tape (this was easy as the Vulcan has relativley flat upper & lower surfaces), I did it in L/H & R/H sections, touching but not overlapping the tape along the upper fuse centerline. Then referring to some pics I sketched the camo outline pattern onto the tape & removed the tape in the two large sections split on the centreline. I then did the same for the bottom.
These masks were then put on a flat cutting surface & the darker (green) camo area cut out. I painted the model in the lighter grey & then applied my mask over this. The joins between the upper / lower & left / right sections were tidied up with thin Tamiya tape & the nose section, which this method would not have worked on was masked using thin 3M pinstriping tape (It’s pretty flexible). I then shot the darker colour, crossed my fingers & removed the tape - Voila, it worked very well compared to any other method.
The process was a bit on the tedious side, but took a damn sight less time than my numerous previous attempts.
Also, be warned, the decals which come with the kit (mine anyway) are VERY bad, they are thick, glossy & have a white edge to them.
The Airfix site shows that the Vulcan kit is out of stick. I found one at a hobby shop In Edinburg. That is a great looking model. I hope mine turns out as nice.
I just put those ugly kit intakes into my Vulcan, closed up the wings and fuselage, and now I hear there are seamless intakes. [banghead] I’m not usually into aftermarket stuff, but I certainly would’ve purchased these!!
