My Viscount Project
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:14 amHere's a couple of models I made earlier. I can recall seeing Viscounts at Essendon Airport in the 1960s and always thought they were a very elegant looking aeroplane.
When I first planned to make myself a couple of Viscounts to reflect the Two Airline Policy the only 144 kits readily available were the Welsh Model vacform kits which present all sorts of challenges, so I was not keen on getting to work on them. Then S & M released an injection molded kit of the 800 series Viscount so I bought a couple. The problem of what to do with the old Welsh Models kits was solved when I saw how dreadful the cockpits on the S & M kits were, and needed replacement. So, to make a decent model of the Viscount I grafted the cockpits from the Welsh Model kits I had onto the S & M fuselages. This involved a bit of trickery because the vacformed fuselages are a little wider than the S & M fuselages. Still, a little patience and ingenuity overcomes most modelling problems.
Here's the Viscount 800 series made straight from the box with the exception of the new cockpit.
The decals come from Underworld Decals sheets. I got mine from Southern Sky in Western Australia, still with the intention of representing the Two Airline Policy, but with a difference. Instead of Ansett-ANA colours, Underworld also offered decals for the 700 series Viscount that was leased to MMA and crashed near Port Hedland at Christmas time in 1968. (I like to make models of Western Australian aeroplanes when I can because the beginnings of civil aviation in the West was the subject of my PhD thesis.)
The 700 series was a little shorter than the 800 series so slices had to be taken out of the S & M fuselage before and aft of the wings, though the length difference between the 700 and 800 series was not great enough to stand out unless you put the two models next to each other. There were also other differences between the two series including the bulged engine nacels on the 800 and the oval doors on the 700 and the square doors on the 800, but the decals take care of the latter problem.
Here is the MMA Viscount 700 series model with the Welsh Models cockpit and the slightly shortened fuselage:
Since there were only two versions of the Viscount I've only made two models of them, so that's all there is.
When I first planned to make myself a couple of Viscounts to reflect the Two Airline Policy the only 144 kits readily available were the Welsh Model vacform kits which present all sorts of challenges, so I was not keen on getting to work on them. Then S & M released an injection molded kit of the 800 series Viscount so I bought a couple. The problem of what to do with the old Welsh Models kits was solved when I saw how dreadful the cockpits on the S & M kits were, and needed replacement. So, to make a decent model of the Viscount I grafted the cockpits from the Welsh Model kits I had onto the S & M fuselages. This involved a bit of trickery because the vacformed fuselages are a little wider than the S & M fuselages. Still, a little patience and ingenuity overcomes most modelling problems.
Here's the Viscount 800 series made straight from the box with the exception of the new cockpit.
The decals come from Underworld Decals sheets. I got mine from Southern Sky in Western Australia, still with the intention of representing the Two Airline Policy, but with a difference. Instead of Ansett-ANA colours, Underworld also offered decals for the 700 series Viscount that was leased to MMA and crashed near Port Hedland at Christmas time in 1968. (I like to make models of Western Australian aeroplanes when I can because the beginnings of civil aviation in the West was the subject of my PhD thesis.)
The 700 series was a little shorter than the 800 series so slices had to be taken out of the S & M fuselage before and aft of the wings, though the length difference between the 700 and 800 series was not great enough to stand out unless you put the two models next to each other. There were also other differences between the two series including the bulged engine nacels on the 800 and the oval doors on the 700 and the square doors on the 800, but the decals take care of the latter problem.
Here is the MMA Viscount 700 series model with the Welsh Models cockpit and the slightly shortened fuselage:
Since there were only two versions of the Viscount I've only made two models of them, so that's all there is.
