Beware the Flying Roo! (Glencoe [ex-Hawk] 1/96 Vickers Viscount)

Thanks, Hutch!

It was a "back into the (plastic) pool" project after having spent the summer on two fairly elaborate paper-model projects. I'd actually done the hard part -- the decal art -- a few months before, so it was a pretty straightforward shot from there.

Plus, opening that '60s vintage kit was nostalgic as well as therapeutic...just like when I was first smearing tube glue on plastic bits, starting out. (Made a little better job of it though, with a few decades of building under my belt.)

Thanks for the comment!

Cheers

gregbale

I really didn't feel like Dremel-ing down all those ports, on a 'quick build' project,

Hi, Greg - if that's the sort of result you get from a "quick build", what happens when you take your time?  That's a great job!

looks really good! seems like the Viscount was a beloved plane by many 

Nice build and nice photos.

Hi GregBale!

     Guess what? I was going through the Garage this morning looking for something NOT planes related! Found this plain airplane model sized box. " Hmmmm" I thought ,"What is this?" Then I cut the tape and opened it. Can you say an original Viscount with Capitol Markings? And the Decals were bagged up between two pieces of glaze paper they use to protect them. Then slipped in a Zip-Loc type bag.

     The price on the box was Eight Bucks! I do not know where I got this. Models have a strange way of finding me. But, that makes four of them. One converted to an airfreighter! I am so glad this came up. Those Decals are Beautiful, By the way.

Thanks, guys.

GMorrison

When available I find window decals fine and often more accurate. They usually have highlight spots as Greg suggested.

I actually did decals for the windows and the windscreen (I use gradients for the highlights)...and then, perhaps foolishly, decided not to use them:

I've also done the epoxy trick -- which really isn't as much work as it sounds -- but I was out of epoxy, so just pressed on.

Anyhow, I appreciate the comments!

What a beautiful build! And your final photos with the boarding ladder, stewrdess, and scenery is superb! Outstanding work!

Man, I just looked at scalemates. I had NO idea that thing was so represented.

Lots of window decals for sure.

I've never been much on cabin interiors.

When available I find window decals fine and often more accurate. They usually have highlight spots as Greg suggested.

The Viscount designers had a love affair with circles. I don't know if that was based in part on lessons learned from Comet or which came first. Even the seat backs were pleasantly rounded things.

Theres an old school technique that seems like lot of work to me. Mask over openings from the outside. Fill with clear epoxy from the inside. Dry, unmask and polish.

Bill

It's ok not to always have clear windows. Reminds me of something.

Long time ago I built and painted a old 50's style resin pick-me-up in HO. It obviously had no windows. Must have been the instructions suggested painting the 'windows' gloss black and adding 3 tiny white diagonal lines to a corner.

Ended up being my favorite thing I ever built in HO. Saddens me that it got lost somehow in the domestic reorganization.

I've never heard of a kit's instructions advising not to use enclosed parts, either. That's funny.

Thanks, Greg.

Greg

Clever ideas on the few seats at the back and repositioning the tall flight attendant.

The windows are the kit's weak point...about a scale foot thick and mostly seriously concave...so there isn't any chance of seeing through them, so more seats would have been wasted.

An insert with the kit instructions actually suggests -- and this is the first time I've ever seen this, in an actual kit -- not to use the clear parts, opting for white glue or Kristal-Kleer type products after painting is done. In my case, I like to put 'curtains' in airliner windows, so that would have been tough. Plus, I actually did test-shots with both the MicroScale product and clear UV-cure resin...and they didn't look much better. (The kit's 'frames' are too thick to give a neat thin window...and I really didn't feel like Dremel-ing down all those ports, on a 'quick build' project, so the kit parts were 'good enough.')

In retrospect, however, I do wish I'd replaced the windshield...or at least narrowed-down the main center panel frames to something closer to the real thing.

But that's for 'next time.'

I appreciate your input.

Uh, I scrolled through quite a few pics until I figured out I was looking at pictures of your model.

What clued me in was thinking "how did he get all of these old photos in so many POVs?

Clever ideas on the few seats at the back and repositioning the tall flight attendant.

Great work.

Thanks guys.

Sad that I never got to fly in a Viscount. Reading about the particular a/c I modeled, she set something like a dozen point-to-point speed records between various Australian cities in her first year of service. But by 1967...when I was 11 years old...she was 'clapped out' and sold on for small-line service or parts or whatever.

I believe one has been preserved in Oz and restored in its 'prime time' TAA livery. Good to know those colors survive, if only in a museum piece.

I used to fly on UAL Viscounts in the early 60's.

United got them when they bought Capital.

Bill

Wow!  That is a sweet build. I love it, and I also like the livery.  I used to fly on TAA and MAL DC 3’s in New Guinea. Good times.  Thanks for posting. 

Beautiful!!

While Glencoe turned out some junk, they also had some very nice kits, especially their airliners.  I built their Curtiss Condor (civil version) years ago and it turned out great).  Still have it.

Fabulous work. I hav'nt seen that livery since I was a kid and one of my aunts was a stewardess with them.

Hi,

Your build look great. 

Pat

PS. As far as whote gloves go though, I seem to recall the flight attendents on British Midlands Airlines wearing tem on a flight I took from London to Bergen Norway maybe 10-15 years ago