The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

1st model for 40 plus years.iv looked on a lot of modeling site and cant find the information im looking for so im hopeing one of the genious on here can help.
id like to display my vulcan in the air(on stings and out of the way of the grandkids) but would like to be able to open and close the bomb bay doors and show off the detasil inside Im certain i can recontruct the internals of the bomb bay but the doors have me a bit UNHINGED .would anyone have an inkling of how to achieve this.

I've seen them open or shut but never operable (in 1/72 anyway)!
I've got some photos somewhere of the bay in XH558 and I'll pay them tomorrow in case they might help!

Cheers bud .anything helps.

I don't know that kit and so have no specific suggestions to make hinges.
You'll also need to figure some way to hold the bomb bay doors (tightly) closed.

It would be helpful if someone could post a few pix of the model and/or instructions.

Or you could wait a year or two for Airfix to release a new tool which will probably have the open bomb bay option.

Some links for you - http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2 ... vulcan.htm;

https://www.whiteensignmodels.com/p/WEM ... w7oFb9xZ_E;

From the IPMS Stockholm article, it appears the doors retract into the bomb bay while opening, which makes sense looking at the size versus ground clearance during loading - that really makes it an interesting project.

As promised, two shots taken of the bomb bay of XH558, before her return to flight in 2007:





This is a youtube video of the bay doors closing and then opening again on XM575; you can see that there is a piano hinge running the length of the bay doors approx. one third of the width in; this allows part to fold up inside the bay, the rest folding down so that only about a third of the overall door width is below the aircraft.

thanks for the replys.I dont think i will be doing the doors opening like the video as it looks to complicated.As it will be up in the air it only needs to be a simple hinge type for opening.

jRatz wrote:I don't know that kit and so have no specific suggestions to make hinges.
You'll also need to figure some way to hold the bomb bay doors (tightly) closed.

It would be helpful if someone could post a few pix of the model and/or instructions.

Hi its the airfix 1/72 xh558 model

That bomb bay interior is fab; after market or scratch-built?

unsure .its not my bomb bay iv yet to build it.the reason iv used this photo is just to point someone in the right direction.Im goin for a pin hinge type on the bomb bay doors .

Ah, I see there is a forward 'D' tank in there. Bombay fuel tanks were Forward and Rear D tanks or A (forward) and E (rear) tanks - these latter were shaped to fit above the Blue Steel missile but remained in service until the end.

Having built the 1/72 Vulcan a couple of years ago it did come with a bomb bay open option that was very basic so I built mine closed, the only way really to get a decent bomb bay is to buy one of the after market parts.
By the looks of the photos of XH558's bomb bay the real thing is opened by 3 hydraulic Rams (you can see one on the left and centre of the top photo posted by Iggie, obviously you won't get hydraulic Rams that small, so you won't be able to automate the doors with the space you have inside the models wing cavity.
You would need to fix a small diameter metal rod to the ends of the bomb bay doors to create a hinge, not forgetting that the doors don't pivot at the edge, but pivot slightly in from the edge to allow the hydraulic Rams movement in the real thing.

Hope this helps.

Just a bit of trivia. The serviceability of the hydraulic system was determined by the time it took to operate the bomb bay doors. The timing was done by the co-pilot and as a consequence he could go to stores and demand a chrono (with stop watch function) as a replacement for the standard aircrew watch. I've timed the doors nigh on 1000 times I guess but can I remember the details - no of course not, but then it has been nearly 40 years!