Xkit Vautour IIA in 1/48th

[Marlin]

Hi guys,

This is what I plan to do during this group build.

Xkit Vautour IIa in 1/48th

Aircraft: #17, The Panther, from Knights of the North Sqn 1967.

The only Vautour to shoot down an enemy plane, an Iraqi Hawker Hunter , over airfield H3 during the Six Days War.

I don't think I'll meet the deadline, but I'll try.

Wish me luck

Best Regards

Bosse from Sweden

Fuselage

Wings

Resin

Photoetch

Undercarriage

Decals from Isradecal

[ThunderGrunt]

WoW Great Build!!

[toolo12]

Hi Bosse,

Defenitly a rare subject, good luck in the process!

[CraigSargent]

Sold mine some time ago as the 1/72 kits from Azur/Special Hobby were supposed to be out, but nothing yet. Will follow this one with interest.

[RKic]

Wow, I've never even heard of this airplane. Looks like it will be an exciting build. Best of luck

[VG 33]

Hi

A French aircraft in Israeli guise

I'm really looking forward.

Patrick

[Antoine]

Hi

A French aircraft in Israeli guise

I'm really looking forward.

Patrick

Same!

[Marlin]

Thanks for the support guys and thanks for looking.

This is my first progress report.

I've spent around 90 min sanding the fuselage to get rid of the orange peel texture.

It's not fully sanded yet. That'll have to wait until I can close up the fuselage and attach the wings and enginepods.

Fuselage.

I felt that I wanted to mount something today so I did glue the front main landinggear bay to the fuselage.

F.MLGB

2nd shot.

The aft main landinggear bay will have to wait until tomorrow evening.

A.MLGB

These two parts didn't require too much clean up.

I would be very happy to say the same about the cockpit, but that is not so.

The cockpit has a huge chunk of resin that will have to be removed to fit on top of the front main landinggear bay.

It doesn't show on the pics. It's to dark here in Sweden at the evenings now to get really good shoot.

I'm only using my mobilephone to take these pictures.

Cockpit.

2nd shot

For a first time builder of an Xkit, I think I can say I had a fun evening.

A lot of work, but what's a hobby for?

That's it for tonight on the Vautour.

Thanks again for looking

Best Regards

Bosse from Sweden

[ChernayaAkula]

A Vautour! :lol: Cool! Always liked the lines of that plane.

I'm really looking forward to that 1/72 kit (by Azur ???).

[VG 33]

A Vautour! Cool! Always liked the lines of that plane.

I'm really looking forward to that 1/72 kit (by Azur ???:unsure:).

Hi

It is likely coming by the end of this year.

Patrick

[Marlin]

Evening.

2nd update.

This evening I concentrated on the aft main landinggear bay.

It doesn't have much to hang on to so I did some bracing with bits of sprue.

Then I went on to the cockpit. And that bit had a HUGE bit of exess resin that had to be removed before it could possible fit inside the fuselage.

I tried to use a resinsaw but that wouldn't do it, so a milling bit inserted to my dremel came to the rescue.

Lots of dust, and a vaccuum session later it looked fine. The milling and sanding process took around 45 minutes.

Cockpit shown here under a fresh coat of paint.

After the main landinggear bays had set. I did a first coat of duraluminium paint on them.

Now I've sanded all internal resin bits to size. And when the cockpit is ready.

It's on to the wings. I've read somewhere that that is the hardest bit on this aircraft so I'm thinking about screwing the upper part of the wings to the fuselage before closing it up.

A pair of tiny screw from the inside through the butt joint would do it to get a tight fit of the wing joints.

That is for now, and thanks for looking.

Best Regards

Bosse from Sweden

[VG 33]

Hi

This is very nice. You are really buiding this kit.

Patrick

[4scourge7]

Oh wow! I`ve always wanted to do a Vatour. This is shaping up great for you Bosse, you are handling the resin parts really well, I look forward to your updates.

All the best, Ian

[Marlin]

Thanks for your interest.

Friday night is cocktail.. no I mean cockpit night.

I began with sawing and sanding the ejectorseat.

Then the same procedure was repeated with the instrument panel.

A test fit to see if it will fit the tub.

And another test fit to see if the fuselage fit is still OK.

More to follow.

/Bosse

[Marlin]

Continued.

After the instrument panel had an OK fit it was on to the PE.

Cockpit with PE, Instrument panel and ejectorseat.

The ejectorseat is mostly made up with PE.

Here I used my Etchmate 3D for the first time. And all I can say is .

No more pliers for me.

That's it for tonight. Next update will be finishing the cockpit.

Detailpainting, thats the real fun part.

Thanks for looking and Good Night.

Bosse from Sweden

[RKic]

you are making some terrific and quick progress Bosse. I can't wait to see this finished

[Marlin]

you are making some terrific and quick progress Bosse. I can't wait to see this finished

Thanks RKic,

I haven't had this much fun in years. I must have forgotten somewhere down the line what building really is just putting together the a second Tamigawa after another.

The Vautour is not hard to build, its fun. Yes it's a challange, but what that just the fun part. But I do hope that I will last the course. Later tonight I plan to finish the cockpit.

Hopefully one day,some forty years from now, someone will release a wunder-kit of the Vautour. But I'll be in my mid Eighties and possibly to old too enjoy it then.

Now I'm off to a dinnerparty. My Dad turned 70 a fortnight ago and that's worth celebrating in style. I volluentered to drive so no wine for me, but what does that matter.....

Soo perhaps there will be a midnight update today also.

Best Regards

Bosse from Sweden

[Marlin]

Welcome to todays update.

The story of the cockpit continues.

First a light drybrush with silver.

Then add some colour.

The ejectorseat also got a first coat off paint.

Then all thing put together, just to get the feel of things to come.

And when the paint was drying I glued the first droptank together.

That seem is going to take some sanding to get rid of.....

All in all a good session.

Best Regards

Bosse from Sweden

[4scourge7]

Real nice Bosse, PE is never my favourite and you make it look so easy!

Nice one

Cheers, Ian

[Marlin]

Hi again.

Todays update.

Ejectorseat.

I got a picture of the real seat from http://www.seatejectorcolor.com.

I printed that pic on my photoprinter on 10x15cm highgloss photopaper and wrote the FSBnumbers, Humbrol and Xtracolor numbers on the backside.

I think its a good thing to have a printout when you're doing the finer details like seats, cockpits, enginebays and such. I keep the photos for furhter reference.

I keep a small low-cost photoalbum with these pics per aircraft. It's a handy reference when your detailpainting and with the colours on the backside I don't have to run to the computer each time just to look up an FSBnumber.

And should I have an accident with spillage of any kind I don't ruin a costly Israbook or such. I can always print a new copy.

The control stick is in pewter/white metal and it had some ridges that I had to get rid of. But a few strokes with a jewellers files handle that.

Controlstick and seat got the last coat of matt black

Now the paint has to dry overnight, and tomorrow I can glue in the seatbeat and overhead ejector handle. Then the cockpit should be ready for the fuselage.

And then the real work begins.

I found an article on the net on a French site. This guy has done an excellent work on this kit.

I can't read a word in french, but the pics speek for them selves.

Have a look if your interested.

http://www.master194.com/maquettes/litteul...uriia/index.htm

Not such much work tonight. But I'm to tired to start on the wings tonight. They will be there tomorrow too.

Thanks for looking and Best Regards

Bosse from Sweden

[Marlin]

Hi,

A new update.

Tonight I finished the cockpit.

I could then glue the cockpit to the fuselage.

The seat is not ready yet, but that doesn't have to go into the cockpit until after painting so there is no rush on that part.

I coud therefore close the fuselage, which required a lot of clamps and tape. I have a gap in the nose on the underside that will filled.

As the fuselage is laying to set. I started on the lefthand side engine nacelle.

I've only glued the enginebay/outrigger wheelbay in place yet, but I did finish something else tonight.

A P-51 in IDF/AF guise with 1956 Suez stripes

Thanks for looking, please be welcome to coment on my work.

Best Regards

Bosse from Sweden

[4scourge7]

WOW, that cockpit is real nice work Bosse :)

I think you are showing a real positive attitude to what looks like some real challenges. I`m impressed at how well you are removing all that excess resin.

I notice you clamping some parts, what is the parts fit like?

Following with interest :)

Cheers, Ian

PS- Cool Mustang!

Edited November 13, 2008 by Ian Buick

[RKic]

Bosse, nice cockpit. Keep up the good work. I'm really excited to watch your progress on this kit.

[Marlin]

WOW, that cockpit is real nice work Bosse

I think you are showing a real positive attitude to what looks like some real challenges. I`m impressed at how well you are removing all that excess resin.

I notice you clamping some parts, what is the parts fit like?

Following with interest :blink:

Cheers, Ian

PS- Cool Mustang!

Bosse, nice cockpit. Keep up the good work. I'm really excited to watch your progress on this kit.

Thanks guys,

The parts fit is the worst I have ever expericenced. I don't know now how much filling will be required for all seems but it looks like a lot. But overall I don't think that this really is THE model from HEll that I was kind of prepared for. I've read just about every article on the net on the subject and I knew that I was in for tough time.

The resinbits are really nice. There isn't soo much excess materiel to remove, it was just the large chunk on the underside of the cockpit.

But a milling bit and a Dremel took care of that. Without the Dremel this aircraft would take just forever to complete.

I think this is soo much fun that I'll think I'll order one of the few remaining B-version from AvationMegastore. It will set me back some €80 incl P&P, but I really would like to have all three versions of this aircraft. The N-version in my stash just got bumped up a few notches.

Thanks again for your interest and support.

Best Regards

Bosse from Sweden

[Marlin]

Hi again.

Tonight I did manage to do some little progress on the Vautour.

The fit of these parts is just terrible. I've spent almost an hour to sand out the intake just to get an decent fit of the intake trunk.

This nacelle is going to take a lot of filling, sanding and sanding and sanding and sand.................

I think I've gotten to that part in my progress when bad laungage is starting to occur around my worktable.

The fuselage has it's share of bad seems to.

I choose to take the worst one on the underside. Look at Grand Canyon here.

Well now I think I've sanded enough for one evening.

I've read somewhere that you don't build this kit, you sand it out. There is an aircraft model somewhere in all that plastic, you just have to find it. :wub:

More to follow an other day.

Thanks for looking

Best Regards

Bosse from Sweden