Aeroclub 1:48th Avro Vulcan B2
Evening all,
I've finished off Aeroclub's 1/48th scale Avro Vulcan over the weekend - this has been my 'holy grail' of kits for as long as I can remember and I was finally able to get hold of one last year.
The kit is a beautifully moulded vacform with resin intakes and tail pipes, along with lots of white metal detail parts. It was a pleasure to put together and once the main parts were sanded and trimmed to shape, it was more or less like an injection build. The only tricky part was the fit of the tail pipes, and these required a bit of trimming and shimming and plenty of Milliput to get everything together.
I did have a couple hiccups - one of my own making which was managing to ruin the paintwork when I didn't secure my airbrush cup properly and it managed to drip grey all over my carefully masked dark green and the other was the very old decals which silvered to the point of them having to come off. I managed to raid the spares box to cobble together some stencils and Xtradecal came to the rescue for the roundels and serials.
I decided a kit of this size and quality needed an open bomb bay so spent a good few evenings scratch-building all the internal detail and I think it was worth it as it adds some nice visual interest to the bottom of the model.
Paints were my usual Xtracolor enamels with lots of Tamiya tape for the masking of the camouflage - that's many hours of my life I won't get back!
Other than that this is what you get in the box - a very large model of a very impressive aeroplane!
Anyway, here she is all done and dusted - I've modelled XL386 as it was when on strength with 44 Squadron, based at RAF Waddington in the mid-1970s...
Best regards,
Tom
A wonderful build of a not so easy kit, Thomas @vacform
Vacform are not that easy by default.
I love it how you displayed the air brakes and bomb bay in open position.
In 2009 I was fortunate to witness a demonstration flight of a Vulcan, incredibly impressive. It was aircraft XH558.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Wow. Kudos on building such a monster (even at 1/72, the Vulcan is one big model) and building it so well.
Wow! Great job! What is the wingspan of the model?
Now that’s a something! Excellent paintwork, especially around the intakes.
I have to admire someone who can make a vacuform kit and make it look this good, Thomas (@vacform). This kit must be a monster in 1/48. Well done.
Beautiful. I actually had my hands on one of these kits, down at Brookhurst Hobbies in 1992. It had a price of $120.00 - I had the money and I didn't buy it! I have kicked myself many times for that. I had built the Aeroclub Meteors, Vampires, Venoms and Hunters (multiple versions) and I knew it was inside my skill set. Why I didn't buy it...
We've all done that Tom but I'll bet back in 1992 $120 was quite a layout but as I say "all things come to he who waits", my own personal holy grail the original Airfix P51 D "This is it !" Mustang is being re-released .I got it as a Christmas present in about 1976 , it was way to much for me at that age and I'm not sure if I even finished it but always loved that amazing Roy Cross artwork and the awesome lines of the P51. I've got mine on order and when it turns up in the Autumn whatever I'm building will be packed away to be finished later, I'll probably be picking your brains for info...
For me, 1992 was the top end of my "script doctor" career here. $120 then was a cheap night out. Which is why I can still kick myself for not grabbing that.
That’s beautiful, I don’t usually comment on military models these days but this is an exception.
Excellent result on this great but challenging kit, Thomas!
Congratulations!
I would love to see this monster close up , really impressive work , I have to echo what John said about your masking up around those intakes that is really difficult to do and you nailed it.
I remember going to an airshow at Barton airfield probably around the late 80's when they were allowed to fly over the crowd, they had a Vulcan in the display and it flew over us really low , I mean REALLY low with the bombay doors open the noise was staggering you didn't just hear it you felt it, those were the days.
Nice build Thomas (@vacform) - she looks awesome and the bomb bay looks fantastic.
I'm still mesmerised to this day how this bird got off the ground and into a steep climb so quickly. And that roar...Wow.
Well done mate.
Wow! Your Vulcan is great. Vac kits have their own special difficulties, and in this larger scale, I imagine the difficulties were enlarged a bit. Your extra detailing really stands out.
I live in central California, where we have our own Vulcan on display at the Castle Air Museum. It is a treat to go see this amazing aircraft. Also, if you are lucky, you can even take a peek inside, during annual open cockpits days.
Back in the early 1970's, I was stationed at Nellis AFB in Nevada. One dayin 1971 (or thereabouts), we received a special present when a Vulcan visited the base and even did some aerobatic manuevers over the base...it was spectacular! This must have been one of the Vulcans that was assigned to the US during the Cold War. I can still see that huge delta-winged shape doing some spectacular fllying.
Thanks for sharing your mighty Vulcan with us. Congratulations!
Yikes - that has to take up a lot of space in 1/48! Looks great - the TLC and detail work on the bomb bay all look great.
Great build of that beast. I'm not much of a jet guy, but I was fascinated by the one I got to see fly at an airshow many years ago. Pretty impressive.