Scratchbuilt 1/72 Vickers Vildebeest
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Introduction
“A camel is an animal designed by a committee.” Perhaps
that is how the Vickers Vildebeest came into existence. It certainly isn’t
a very attractive aeroplane but one cannot help being fascinated by its
bulk and huge presence. Many years ago I built the old Contrail vacform
of the beest but I can’t even remember what happened to it. Lately
I had a hankering to have another one and decided to scratch build one.
Since the Vildebeest is fairly boxy and has very straight forward wings
I figured it would be a quite an easy build. I was right and it turned
out nicely.
The Vickers Vildebeest was a large single engine torpedo bomber . When
seen with a figure standing next to it, the aircraft appears huge. It
was in fact about 15 feet in height with a wingspan of 49 feet. It carried
a torpedo between the nicely panted wheels and was armed with two machine
guns. All of this makes for a fascinating subject to model.
I found a fairly comprehensive set of plans and many good photographs
on the internet. Once I scaled the plans out to 1/72 scale I was ready
to begin. The fuselage was the most complex part of the project so I began
by cutting the sides out of 15 thou sheet plastic and the formers out
of 40 thou. The top rear and lower sides were also made of 40 thou so
I could sand them down to a slightly curved section.
The area forward of the rear cockpit was higher and more complex than
the rest of the fuselage so here I carved a plug out of softwood to the
desired shape and then plunge formed the section out of 15 thou sheet
heated over a candle as done by Harry Woodman in his book Scale Model
Aircraft in Plastic Card. Once the sides and formers were glued together
I glued rounded bits of 40 thou plastic to the area where the moulded
shape would go. This strengthened it and also demarcated the location
of the front cockpit. When the front decking was in place and the glue
dry, the whole fuselage was sanded to shape and given a coat of liquid
poly. This makes the plastic look factory fresh and creates an almost
pristine smooth finish. When dry the cockpit opening was made and panel
lines scribed with a scalpel blade.
Setting the fuselage aside, I turned to the flying surfaces. As I said
before the Vildebeest was fairly boxy with straight forward wings so I
simply cut out two plain rectangles of the basic shape of the wings from
40 thou plastic sheet. I put these in a rig as described by Harry Woodman.
Using his technique I ended up with two wing panels with a permanent camber(see
illustration). I then used an Aeroclub T-al section with very rough sandpaper
attached to it and sanded the curved wing section’s leading and
trailing edges until I had the proper airfoil shape.
As the wing of the Vickers Vildebeest was quite thick in section I glued
a sheet of 15 thou plastic to the under surface of each wing with liquid
poly. Once attached the underside was sanded to conform with the top leading
and trailing edges. Next I used wet’n’dry sandpaper, 600-1200
grit, to get rid of the deep scratches left from the initial shaping of
the airfoil. This was most important as the model was to be finished in
silver so no scratches could be left on the surface.
The shape of the wing tips was now made and the locations of the ailerons
etc. The wing tanks were simply 10 thou card scribed and glued to the
correct locations on the wings. Once I was satisfied with the appearance
of the surface I gave both wings a coat or two of liquid poly to finish
then off before scribing the ribs and ailerons. After this I made the
tail surfaces out of 40 thou sheet and sanded them to the proper shape
the same as the wings. Once they had a coat liquid poly they were ready
to scribe.
When scribing the rib positions on the wings etc. I first re-mark the
rib locations on the plan so that when I lay the part to be scribed over
the plan I can still see just where the lines should go. I attach the
wing to the plan by stretching a bit of Blue Tac across the entire wing
and press it firmly to the plan. Then it is simply a matter of making
a quick swipe with a number 11 scalpel blade using a thin steel ruler
as a guide. Once one side is scribed the part is turned over and the process
repeated. If only one side is scribed the part will curl up. Doing both
sides makes the wing lay flat. If the wing is a bit warped it can easily
be corrected by some gentle tweeking of the plastic between your fingers.
Having made the main parts, the assembly could go ahead. As usual, I
made the wing cell as a unit. After drilling holes in the wings to receive
the four interplane struts, I made little pegs at the ends of each piece.
The struts were then glued firstly to the lower wing and left to dry.
Once ready, the struts and lower wing were glued to the upper wing and
left to dry thoroughly. Whilst I was waiting for the assembly to dry I
attached the tailplanes to the fuselage. When they were dry I offered
up the wing cell to the fuselage and glued it in place. I lined up the
assembly over the plan to make sure everything was properly aligned and
set it aside. Once dry the upper and lower cabane struts, made of Contrail
material, were glued into position
Next the landing gear. The unique panted tail wheel was made from a
bit of thick sprue and filed to shape. For the main wheel pants I made
soft wood plugs and plunge formed left and right sides ala Harry Woodman’s
advice on page 52. Once I had the four halves cleaned up and glued together
I attached two slices of a proper sized tyre to the bottom of each completed
pant. I made the undercarriage parts out of soft flower arranging wire;
it is very pliable but strong. A simulated shock absorber was just a bit
of 10 thou sheet folded over and glued.
With the basic airframe complete I was ready to paint the beest. I checked
all over to see that no blemishes were obvious and added another coat
of liqid poly to the flying surfaces and the fuselage. I chose to spray
the entire model with Tamiya Silver Leaf and when thoroughly dry and the
decals on, I gave the fabric areas a coat of Klear/Future to contrast
with the bright metal parts. So I left the wing tanks, forward fuselage
and wheel pants bright silver.
With that done I added the details. Nothing can be seen of the Videbeest
front cockpit except the seat which I added. The Pegasus engine and exhaust
collector E045, scarf ring and Lewis gun were all Aeroclub items. These
white metal bits were painted Humbrol number 67 tank grey and highlighted
with silver dry brushing. A little number 70 brick set the exhaust collector
off from the engine assembly. A forward gun sight and various bits and
bobs were fabricated out of sprue and stretched sprue. I decided earlier
to present the model with the Handley Page wing flaps extended. These
were made of slightly curved strips of wine bottle foil and left their
natural colour.
When I was satisfied with the details I rigged the model with hot stretched
sprue; the hardest bit being the radio antennae . The last item I added
to the finished model was the torpedo. Funnily enough I had one in my
box of spare vacform bits. It was from the old Contrail Vildebeest I had
built years before. I had left it off that model; this time my Videbeest
is ready for action!
I enjoyed doing the Vickers Vildebeest a second time. The aeroplane
has that old and new appearance that many between the Wars aircraft have.
The Videbeest even more so because it’s successor was the redoubtable
Fairey Swordfish. Even during the battle for Singapore in 1941 the RAF
still had over 50 Vildebeest in service to use against the Japanese invasion
fleet. The aircraft played an important part in the development of torpedo
bombers culminating in the Gruman Avenger. As such it deserves a place
in any model collection.
Sources:
The World Wide Web
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