The Empire Strikes Back - VC10 K3 ZA149 - ** FINISHED **

[DavidWomby]

I think I've marked the correct windows to fill in as the K3 had fewer windows than the civil airliners. However, it looks like Frog may have missed on window further forward on the starboard side - I'm still checking that.



The Novo/Frog kit has this bulge under the fuselage - I can't see it on any pics of the real thing so I'll sand it off unless one of you convinces me it should be there.



This shows how the wingtip needs to be reshaped compared to the lighter coloured Airfix one.



Does anybody know the colour for insides of the slats and the leading edge of the wing that was exposed when the slats were down: hemp? bare metal? grey? How about the flaps when they were down - hemp on the whole upper surface of the flap? What about the areas exposed on the lower wing when the flaps were down? Were the wheel wells LAG like the undersides?

David

[philp]

Google VC-10 flaps and you get some neat pics. Also found this video of a taxi at a show. https://youtu.be/KbiIrKa8q1s;

If you put this full screen the inside of the slats appear to be the same grey as the outside.

Lots of good info on this page to look around at.

http://www.vc10.net/index2.html;

There are some pics of landing gear on the site but all of the wheel well area just looks dark which could just be shadow from the angle.

Did find this one that shows the inside of the main gear doors look grey.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/arc ... 90399c.jpg;

[DavidWomby]

Thanks for the video link. That was a great way to pass time drinking my morning coffee. I agree the leading edges under the slats look painted grey, so on mine they will be Hemp. It also has clear shots of the starboard side showing that Frog did miss one window!

David

[splash]

Have you seen this website? http://aircraftwalkaround.hobbyvista.com/vc10/vc10.htm

[DavidWomby]

Have you seen this website? http://aircraftwalkaround.hobbyvista.com/vc10/vc10.htm

No, that's a new on on me. Thanks, Splash. I'm off to browse while on coffee #2.

David

[iggie]

I hope some of these might be of use; taken at Brize in September 2008

[DavidWomby]

Lovely, Iggie. Just lovely. Such an elegant aeroplane.

Also, it's evidence that I can legitimately build it with flaps and slats down but undercarriage UP. I think that's probably the config I will build as I HATE painting wheels.

Thanks

David

[iggie]

Lovely, Iggie. Just lovely. Such an elegant aeroplane.

Also, it's evidence that I can legitimately build it with flaps and slats down but undercarriage UP. I think that's probably the config I will build as I HATE painting wheels.

Thanks

David

No probs David, glad to be of service! I'd forgotten I had them until I was on my way home from London this lunchtime and then had to find which back-up drive they were on.
Got some nice Tristar ones if you're interested!!
I was sitting at the end of the Brize runway waiting for XH558 to take off to go somewhere (I don't recall where) and return, and so caught a load of the day to day stuff as well.

[MarkyM607]

Beautiful pics, love the VC-10 she's a lovely lady!!.

[DavidWomby]

Ok finally some progress.

The odd bump under the fuselage is gone, the wings are started (cut for fence and glued together), the windows are in where I need to fill them to block them off and the missing window has been added to the forward starboard fuselage. I have to work out what to do about a stand and then I can close up the fuselage.



David

[iggie]

Was the bump ever supposed to be there in any of the variants, or was it artistic licence?

Good progress though, and nice work to recreate the accurate window layout!

[DavidWomby]

Don't get too excited. The wings are not glued on but I had to post this as it's beginning to look like a VC-10. The fuselage is now closed up. There will be a bit of seam filling/sanding to do but not much. You can see the windows I blanked off.



This hole in the bottom is the main wheel wells. There is a part not installed yet that runs up the middle to separate the two main wheel doors.The stand will be just ahead of there where the red filler is.



David

[iggie]

Very nice!

[Kitaholic]

Don't see one done very often and you're making a cracking job

[DavidWomby]

I'm running in to some nasty fit issues plus there's a lot of quite thick flash on some of the parts that's I've been busy removing. I'm also finding quite a few small sink marks but they'll be easily dealt with.

The fuselage seams need a lot of sanding - the starboard half is about 1mm larger in diameter than the port half so there's quite a ridge top and bottom to get rid of. As a relief from this, I assembled the engines. The main parts include the nacelles and the pylons and went together nicely and I like the way they fit into slots in the fuselage.



Unfortunately, the exhausts and tail beaver tail and the intakes are horribly bad fits. The intakes diameter is way larger than the nacelles and leave a big lip all round.





Lots of sanding ahead here too.

David