Airfix 1/72 Valiant

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

I made this kit a couple of years ago now, it was a greatly enjoyable experience (apart for the hundreds of tiny stencil decals, the almost finished kit sat on top of the cupboard for months waiting for me to get around to them!). The fit was good, except for the engine exhausts and intakes, which needed a fair amount of filling and sanding to get right. The decals were good (even though there were a lot of them), with 4 options if I remember correctly, including a silver prototype and a camouflaged later machine. The kit was built straight from the box with no additions, though Airfix did sell a conversion set which had parts and decals for a tanker and a PR machine. I have tried to add oil staining and grime around the engine panels, but it did not come out as well as I had hoped.

As I said a good kit, the only problems being where to put it and that it took 3 rattle cans of Humbrol white to cover it all properly!

/media/tinymce_upload/c31c3f1c33aebded244f19842d10dd12.jpg Here the cockpit entry hatch can be seen in the open position, both the fight deck and lower navigation/electronics level are detailed.

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Here the open bomb bay can be seen, this was cleverly engineered on the real aircraft so that the doors retracted into the sides of the bay to reduce drag.

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Close up of the massive atomic bomb, which I believe was called a Yellow Sun, appropriate as the RAF slang for a nuke was a 'Bucket full of sunshine'. A full payload of 21 x 1,000 pdr bombs was also included. Visible is my overdone weathering on the engines.

[John Symmons]

That's one huge model PMM hope you've a large shelf to display it. Really nice build and the weathering looks fine, I'd hardly call it over done, look very realistic in the photos. 

Excelent build well done, were the decaled marking toned down on the decal sheet or did you over-spray them if so there're very well done. Either way the model is a credit to you, thanks for sharing it.

Remember we do this for fun     John the Pom

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Thanks John,

 

The decals are as they come. If I remember correctly there were two sets of decals, one toned down and the other full colour.

Cheers 

Jason

 

Ps I built this for fun!

[Ratch]

The markings are a pale 'faded' version of the Type D. This was sometimes used when applied over anti-flash white. An intermediate (less faded) pale version was applied to some Vickers Valiants prior to the introduction of the definitive Type D 'faded' shading.

[Rael]

The oil staining around the engine's is more than decent, its just a shame the aircraft was built for such a sinister purpose.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

The oil staining around the engine's is more than decent, its just a shame the aircraft was built for such a sinister purpose.

Thanks Rael,

 

Yes sinister indeed. I read a quote from a V Bomber crewman from the 60's recently, after joining his new crew as junior member he asked the captain, an old WWII Bomber Command guy, where he should navigate to after the bomb was dropped, if they were ever called to action, the designated point being Malta or Cyprus. He was told it shouldn't be a problem as they were very unlikely to survive, but if they did on no account come back to Britain, as it would just be a smoking ruin, best bet would be to carry on East until the fuel run out, land in Siberia and find himself a plump local wife to settle down with!

[Dad Paul B]

Great Build. How did you manage toget the tail flash to sit around the surface features on the tail? (I bottled it and cheated and placed it behind them). The weapon is a BLUE DANUBE, Britain's first Atomic Bomb (the same casing was used for a 'Megaton Class Weapon' (actually just under 500 kT so rounding up) called VIOLET CLUB which was never actually issued to the RAF but kept as an emergency capability as both the US and Soviet Union had Megaton Thermonuclear weapons by the time we had a fission bomb of around 20 kT. YELLOW SUN was put into service from 1958 and used a service engineered version of the VILOET CLUB warhead. It was slightly smaller than BLUE DANUBE (21 ft by 4 ft and around 6800 lbs compared with 24 ft 6 in by 5 ft 4 in and 10,000 lbs - a similar size to the GRAND SLAM, though around half the weight). Most notable was the flat front on YELLOW SUN which slowed its descent to the subsonic range and improved its stability and the safing system - 6,500 ball bearings which one Armourer Officer managed to spill over the floor of a hangar and had to recover, count and sign for.

The warhead was changed in 1961 to the RED SNOW used in BLUE STEEL (a 1 Megaton Thermonuclear weapon) and called Mark 2 which continued in service until 1970 with the Waddington wing. By this time the attack profile required a low level approach, climb to around 8,000 feet with an 8 mile lob onto the target. If the planners had it right then the weapon would detonate about 9 seconds before a SAM could hit the bomber.

Lovely to see one of these and can't wait to see the Victor when it comes out.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Thanks Paul,

 

I wasn't sure about the name of the weapon, but knew they always start with a colout eg Red Beard etc. Thanks for putting me right.

 

 How did you manage to get the tail flash to sit around the surface features on the tail? (I bottled it and cheated and placed it behind them). 

I cut off the section of the fin flash that went over the vortex generators and mixed a pale pink that matched the rest of the flash as closely as possible. In other words cheated!

[Rael]

The oil staining around the engine's is more than decent, its just a shame the aircraft was built for such a sinister purpose.

Thanks Rael,

 

Yes sinister indeed. I read a quote from a V Bomber crewman from the 60's recently, after joining his new crew as junior member he asked the captain, an old WWII Bomber Command guy, where he should navigate to after the bomb was dropped, if they were ever called to action, the designated point being Malta or Cyprus. He was told it shouldn't be a problem as they were very unlikely to survive, but if they did on no account come back to Britain, as it would just be a smoking ruin, best bet would be to carry on East until the fuel run out, land in Siberia and find himself a plump local wife to settle down with!

Yes I recently watched a similar documentary on TV like this called Vulcan's, Victor's and Cuba and It said the exact same thing you did.

[geoff1707820983]

I would like Airfix to reissue this kit as they did not keep it in the catolouge long enough.  

[John Symmons]

It always amasses me the amount of side-bar information that often comes out in these postings, thanks PMM & Dad Paul B for making this posting live even more. Lovely stories and info, just hope you're not giving out classified information.

I got into a little bit of hot water when I was an ATC member, as I was very anti-nuclear bomb and often went to meetings wearing the CND badge. Talk about a conflict of interest. I'm even now relieved that Btitian has scrapped them. I often wonder just how they did that. Now if only we could get the yanks to follow suit ???? Mustn't start down that road here.

Remember we do this for fun    John the Pom

 

[Dad Paul B]

There are a lot of interesting books on the subject. Wg Cdr Ken Hubbard's 'Dropping Britain's First Hydrogen Bomb' is interesting as it deals with the operational necessities of throwing a very expensive physics experiment out of an aircraft at 48,000 feet with no way of redoing it if any part of it goes wrong (Britain never tested an H-Bomb on the ground). He gives pretty short shrift to a Squadron Member (49 Sq) who was part of the Moral Disarmament movement. Nuanced views are not a feature of this period when it comes to differences of opinion. Unfortunately this Manichean approach (100% with us or against us) hasn't been overcome yet but things have improved. Of course when it comes to Deterrence it is all a question of putting on a face and hoping this prevents you getting into the situation of having to make the decision so any perception of doubts in the chain could make your deterrent that little bit less convincing.

John, you may have missed the recent Parliamentary Debate (Blame Aussie News Coverage if your ID refers to your place of residence). We may not have them on planes any more, we hide them under the Atlantic and Parliament has jsut authorised a new flotilla of subs to replace the Vanguards. There was surprisigly little fuss about this compared to the 1980s when we last had the Deterrent Debate. Subs and Missiles are also not very interesting modelling subjects. Don't be too down about this though. Four Countries have given up actual nuclear weapons (South Africa, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine).

[Ratch]

I'm even now relieved that Btitian has scrapped them. I often wonder just how they did that.

 

When did the UK scrap its nukes?

[John Symmons]

I think I'm refering to the airborn ones. I believe you still have the nautical ones, I often wonder why, unless it to help keep the yanks in check. Yes! Yes! I know this is a modeling forum so I'll not say anything more. 

Anyway very nice model of the Valiant and interesting replies, enjoyed reading.

Remember we do this for fun     John the Pom