Revell/Lindberg 1/96 Avro Vulcan

 One of the three classic British V-bombers, the first prototype Vulcan VX770, had it's maiden flight on 30^th August 1952. Underpowered with 6,500lb. thrust Avon engines, without cabin pressurisation, wing fuel tanks, and not even a co-pilots seat, the first prototype was not representative of production aircraft, however it did win the race with the Handley Page Victor to get into the air first.

 The second prototype, VX777, first flew on 3^rd September 1953, just in time for Farnborough. It had 9,750lb. Olympus engines, full pressurisation and fuel tanks, and radar fitted, much closer to the production aircraft. It also had a 16 inch longer nose than the first prototype, for stowage of the extended nose wheel leg, and a small under nose blister for the bomb aiming position.

 During high speed and high altitude testing of the second prototype, various aerodynamic problems surfaced, including buffeting and an alarming nose down trim change at high Mach numbers. Above Mach 0.89 damping in pitch decreased unacceptably. Several fixes were attempted, including pitch dampers and vortex generators. Eventually the 'Phase 2' wing was fitted, extending the leading edge and effectively reducing the thickness/cord ratio  on the outer wing, resulting in the cranked wing of the production aircraft.

 The second prototype flew with the phase 2 wing in October 1955, and was later fitted with the enlarged phase 2C wing in 1957, as the prototype of the Vulcan B.2. It remained a test aircraft and was scrapped in 1963.

 First released by Lindberg in the 1950s, the kit represents the second prototype Vulcan, as originally built and flown in 1953. Moulded in a light grey, brittle plastic, the kit barely fits in the large top opening box. There are 6 parts for the airframe, with additional parts for engine intakes and exhausts, a cabin floor with two seated figures. The rudder, ailerons and elevators are all supplied as halves, and are designed to move. The elevators have a crank arrangement to attempt parallel operation. There is a multitude of parts for the undercarriage.

 The parts are very cleanly moulded with a little flash here and there. There are a number of sink marks are visible on several parts, some will be troublesome to fix. The detailing is of the fine raised line variety, but it does not have idiot marks moulded. There are a lot of ejector pin marks, some on joining surfaces that will need cleaned up, but most will be hidden.

 As expected from a kit of this vintage there is not much detail. The cabin is a floor with two seated figures. Oddly the figures are sliced vertically, cut in twain from shoulder to crutch. The engine intakes are open holes into the wing, the exhausts are also open, giving a clear view through the model. The undercarriage is simplified with very shallow wells, and thick doors, the wheels are very toy like, with no rim or hub detail. There is a large stand hole, but no stand provided. One of the wheel doors was undershot. There are clear parts for the cabin windscreen and two tiny portholes. There is no frame detail moulded.

The decal sheet has markings for VX777, the second prototype. The decals are somewhat dull, but in good registration. The instruction sheet shows nine clear construction steps, with a three view painting and decalling guide, the decal placement is accurate, but the painting scheme incorrect for the second prototype.

I started with a dry fit of the main airframe parts, fit was good, with just a little clean up of the joining surfaces. The instructions suggested 15 grams weight was needed to stop it tail sitting, I ended up with 30 grams of lead in the nose and under the cockpit floor, using a 20 gram and a 10 gram wheel balance weight.

Started construction with the elevators, ailerons and rudder, joined the halves, and clamped with clothes pegs. Added the crank to the elevator. Then joined up the intake parts, needed clamped as they were slightly warped. A little trap is that they are handed, but have the same part numbers.

I then assembled the cockpit, joined the pilot and seat halves and added them to the floor. There is a nasty join line down the front of each figure, but it can't easily be seen once the cockpit is closed up, so I ignored it. Fitted the floor and weights into the starboard fuselage half, checked that it closed up OK, then painted the whole cockpit semi-gloss black.

I painted a little detail on the pilots, really all that can be seen of the cockpit when it's closed up. However, what can be seen is a great void, all the way to the tail. Did the easy fix, and painted the whole inside of the fuselage halves black. Did the same to the inside of the wing halves as well.

I assembled the wing halves, trapping the intakes, and adding the elevators, ailerons and intake splitter plates. There was a slight warp at the root, that needed clamping to close it up properly. Added a few clothes pegs mainly around the tips, and left it all overnight. The leading edge needed a light sand to tidy up the joint. I filled the sink holes inside the intake with a drop of Mr Surfacer, difficult to sand, really should have fixed them before joining the intake halves. Closed up the fuselage halves, trapping the rudder and left it clamped up to harden.

I then fitted the wings to the fuselage. Tabs at the roots assured a strong fit that locked the wings in place, didn't really need glue. There was a small gap at the roots, a line of Mr Surfacer was enough to fill it. I then added the exhaust nozzles.

The first two prototype Vulcans were finished in gloss white, so I ignored the instructions, and box art, which showed a camouflaged aircraft. As I attempted a gloss white paint job, my rattle can turned from a spray can to a dribble can, despite being nearly full. Being too lazy to drive down to the shops and buy some more paint I thought I'd use what was available. My first try was overall light blue, which looked fine, until I realised that it was going to be in the display case with the Lindberg Victor, also overall blue, so it needed something different.

The pink group build started at this time, so a trip to the shops to get some pink paint, and another can of gloss white. I had a bit of an experiment using photoshop to come up with a scheme. I used a rattle can gloss pink, cherry red, burgundy, blue and light blue enamels. After the first coat I found a few more sink holes and a couple of spots that needed cleaned up. Lots more masking, painting and waiting for paint to dry. The pink paint, called 'Sherbet' was very soft, and showed tape marks after the masking was removed. I sanded it back, and reverse masked, then resprayed the pink. After seeing the end result I think gloss white was the way to go!

While the fuselage was in the paint shop, I turned my attention to the undercarriage. Needed to remove a mould seam on every part. I painted the legs and wheel hubs silver, and the tyres Tamiya German grey.

I used the kit decals representing the second prototype, they were thick and dull, but reacted ok to Micro Sol. I added some home made nose art decals from a picture I found on the internet. Our editor may well fuzz them out (Nah. Details are rather indistinct, so I think it is safe. Ed). I laser printed the decals on Microscale 'trim film' and had a bit of a struggle getting the A5 size film through my A4 printer. The decals were very transparent, should have been printed on white film rather than clear.

Just about last, I added the windscreen, and hand painted the frames. I used Micro Kristal Klear for the portholes. Then added the undercarriage and pitots.

I sealed the decals, and the rest of the model, with several coats of matt varnish, which didn't really hide the high gloss, but evened out the decals.

A very easy build of an iconic jet bomber. The kit went together with no problems. Only a few hours to build, and a month doing the paint. This is not the Frog kit, which had the phase 2 wing shape of the B.1 production version. 1/96 is an odd scale but for this size aircraft I think it is OK, the 1/72 Airfix Vulcan B.2 kit is a monster, and the various 1/144 and 1/200 kits a little small.

I was stunned when I first saw a Vulcan in the mid 1960's, and always wanted to model it. Only took 50 years to finally do it. A good kit for beginners, and a great blank canvas for some decorative artwork, hopefully better than mine.

R.I.P. Greg.

Jackson, A.J. Avro Aircraft since 1908. Putnam, London, 1990

Wilson, Stewart. Vulcan, Boeing B-47 & B-52, Aerospace Publications, Weston Creek, 1997

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Vulcan

Peter Burstow

May 2014