Dan Clark's

Vickers Vanguard Project

This is an attempt to make the ultimate model airliner.  Ever seen or remembered the cutaway display airliner models at the travel agents and airline offices?  Sadly, these appear to be no more as airliners increased in size and the models depicting them became prohibitively expensive.  A few model manufacturers produced cutaway airliners with interiors, such as Lindberg with their 1/96 scale Caravelle, Hawk with their 1/144 scale Comet IV, and more recently, Revell in the 1970s with their 1/144 scale Boeing 747 and Lockheed L-1011 cutaway display models.  One model, the Frog 1/144 scale Super VC10 had navigation lights and flashing beacons.  To my knowledge, no model maker produced a non-flying kit with motorized propellers.  I began to think, "Why not make a scale model with all of the above?"

Using one of my favourite kits, the Vickers Vanguard by Airfix of 1/144 scale, I investigated the above proposition and began the project.  This model would not only have a fully authentic interior, but would have four motorized propellers and flashing beacons.  The challenge was trying all of the preceding at 1/144 scale.  Modeling would have to take place at micrometer levels, and indeed, a micrometer caliper would have to be employed in the measurement of parts to cut from evergreen scale models sheet styrene.

First, a word about the subject.  Trans Canada Airlines (later Air Canada) was one of two original operators of the Vickers Vanguard, a transitional short to medium-haul British airliner of turboprop power, that was introduced in 1961, at a time when pure jet airliners were king.  Consequently, the production run was only 43 plus a prototype.  Unlike the contemporary comparable pure jet airliners, the Vanguard had a large passenger capacity in addition to a very large freight capacity.  It was almost as fast as the jets, with a cruising speed of up to 425 mph.  The highly efficient four Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprops allowed lower seat-mile costs than pure jets.  Unfortunately, their large 17 foot diameter propellers, and in particular the one on number three engine, pulsed heavily against the fuselage causing a great deal of vibration which was felt in the cabin, especially during the take-off and climb phases of flight.  On the plus side, flights were little longer than the pure jets, but passengers enjoyed unsurpassed views out of huge 26 inch by 19 inch elliptical windows.  Up to 108 Air Canada flyers were accommodated by large 19 inch wide economy seats at five-abreast and 33 inch seat pitch, in addition to even more spacious first class seats located in the rear cabin.  The interior was designed by Charles Butler Associates according to TCA's own particular specifications, giving TCA a custom-made airliner that was completely unique.  The Vanguard was large, and perhaps too large for its time, which probably scared off even more potential customers, as the analogous, but smaller Lockheed Electra sold in much larger numbers.  The Vanguard was almost the identical size to the current day Airbus A320, and could seat up to 139 passengers with low costs, so it was very much like the first air bus.

I had built the model before, so I knew about the pitfalls of constructing this particular kit.  It is no longer in production, so was purchased off Ebay.  Plenty of filler is required to make certain parts fit without gaps, especially if the model is built with the gear up, as the doors don't fit properly at all.  Also, forget about trying to display it with the provided clear plastic windscreen, whose fit is appalling.  Just plaster over it and cover with a window decal or make your own window frames.  The older kits came with a clear plastic display stand, but this was deleted on later versions.  The kit is frequently available on Ebay with the incorrect British Airways passenger livery, but the older TCA and BEA liveried versions can be pricey because they inhabit collectors' territory.  The one major error on the kit is that there are five port windows in the rear cabin and four on the starboard side, but the actual aircraft has the reverse.  More filler is required.  There are plenty of aftermarket decals produced for this kit, including an Air Canada version with windows.  The kit comes with clear cabin windows, but it is impossible to use them as intended if filler is to be used to close the gap between the two fuselage halves before painting.  The instructions specify painting the fuselage before assembly, applying the decals, poking the window holes through the fitted decals with a provided hole-poker, gluing in the windows from the inside, and then finally gluing the two fuselage halves together.  Clearly, this method would not allow any assembly gaps to be filled and then spray painted.  Most decal sets come with printed windows in any case.  Therefore, the windows are fitted just to plug the holes in the fuselage, so that decals can be applied over them later.

The "vanilla" version of the model, no bells or whistles

The project is currently as a Work In Progress (WIP), because of the multitude of tasks that are required, and so far it has taken about four months to get to the point where final painting of the exterior can begin.  The first part involved determining what parts of the fuselage to cut away and the fitting of the interior floor.  Once the floor was dry fitted, it was then possible to furnish and decorate it with bulkheads and seats.  Rare interior photographs from historical promotional material obtained off Ebay allowed the correct decorating to be determined, while airline engineering drawings gave clues so that accurate scale construction could take place.  These were also obtained off Ebay.

Cabin insert complete in white and ready for painting

Fully decorated cabin insert with 108 seats.  The starboard fuselage is also decorated, complete with overhead racks and ceiling.

Cabin colours are true to real life with model enamel custom mixed for tone and shade.  Section shown includes cockpit, radio rack space, forward entry vestibule and galley, forward economy cabin with 25 seats 5-abreast, closet space and forward toilet.

Main cabin is shown with 13 rows of 5-abreat seating for 65 passengers, followed by rear entry vestibule and galley.  Seat units are each made up from 7 fabricated parts and are all two-tone with white head rest covers.  They are accurate in scale to within 500 micrometers.  Trying to mass produce the seats using a Vacuform was not successful.

Rear cabin is show with 18 first class seats, crew folding seat and bulkhead and doors to two rear toilets.

Interior insert is dry-fitted to starboard fuselage half.  The Vanguard's ample cargo space will be used for the electrics.

Once the interior was produced to my satisfaction, which included the limitations of working at 1/144 scale, the next step was to fit the "electrics".  This included flashing upper and lower fuselage beacons in their correct position and all four engines motorized with miniature electric motors.  The flashing beacons were canablized from a Dollar Store racing car toy, which included a small circuit board to operate the lights.  They are LEDs and require a minimum 3V to work properly.  The circuit board required jumping some contacts so that the lights would run continuously, instead of intermittently.  The motors for the engines were also canablized from another toy, a radio controlled toy car called a TurboTwister.  It contained two tiny electric motors, which fortuitously were the identical scale size to a 1/144 Tyne engine.  Two TurboTwisters were used, for a cost of about Cdn$12 plus tax.  Only the motors were used and wired in parallel without any circuits boards required.  They ran on as little as 1.5V.  It is intended to run the model with 3V using two AA 1.5V batteries contained in the stand, with separate switches for the engines and the lights.

Windows are masked for painting, wiring is complete, original cutaway has been made larger

The circuit board for the beacons was glued to the underside of the floor.  Wiring for the engines easily fit within the wing space.

Model is dry-fitted to test the engines before final gluing.

The new wider cutaway to better show off the interior.

Engine test run A-OK--all four engines running on 3V.

Model has now been glued together and fabricated windscreen pillars are in place.  Once painted, all windows will be filled using Testors Clear Parts Cement and Window Maker.

Holes in the nacelle bulkheads were drilled out using a Dremel, engines were glued in using contact adhesive.  Note the black plastic sleeves on the engine shafts, which is stripped electric wire insulation used to mate the props to the metal shaft.  The cowlings (not shown here) also needed to be reamed out using the Dremel with an appropriate attachment.  Care needs to be taken when using the Dremel to avoid melting the plastic, which has a very low melting point.

Underside view.  Model has been glued and masked and is ready for filling, sanding and painting.

Detail of the stand stud, wiring loom, beacon and lower engine mounts.  Superglue was used as a first fill for the assembly gaps.  The stand shaft will be designed to contain the wiring loom, and an adjustable pivot will allow the model to be posed with variable incline.  The stand base will contain the batteries and switches for the engines and beacons.

One of the three masking process, one each for gray, white and the above illustration for silver on the wing leading edge and engine nacelles.

The completed spray painting process in gray, white and silver.

The custom-made stand assembled from assorted Evergreen Styrene products, spray painted in dark gray.

The rocker switches in place for flashing beacons and engine power.

Underside of the stand showing reinforcements and the battery holder.

Dry-fitting the model to the stand for correct positioning.  The wiring will be concealed within the hollow strut.

Application of the major decals has taken place to the model and the stand, and the engine cowlings and prop are in place.  The stand has been fully wired up, with 1.5V for the engines and 3V for the upper and lower diode beacons.  The decals were largely custom-made using Photoshop and an HP Pixma MP150 at 600dpi.

All four engines are spinning in the correct counter-clockwise direction (looking forward), but the camera shutter has missed the flashing beacons in this view.

Rear port view with engines and beacons on.  The stand strut has a pivot at its top to allow posing with variable incline.

Starboard view, with engines and beacons on.  Model still requires minor decal application, mainly to the engine nacelles/cowlings and a general final tidying up of any paint defects.

With all four engines running the model makes a wonderful sound.  I will be videoing it running and putting a the sequence on YouTube sometime soon, with a link back to this site.  One amusing observation is that the model vibrates just like the real aircraft did, especially the horizontal stabilizers.  It was found during developmental work on the real thing that putting lead weights between the spars in the horizontal stabilizers reduced fuselage vibrations somewhat.  Now, if I could just find some lead weights small enough . . .

This has been a learning process on what can be done with a standard 1/144th scale airliner model.  I would have also liked to have lit the interior, but there was no room to conceal the lights in this narrow body airliner.  It is possible to do this with Revell's Boeing 747 and Lockheed L-1011 cutaway models, and possibly also with Lindberg's 1/96th scale Caravelle model with the interior.  However, those have no props to motorize.

My model may well be the world's smallest airliner cutaway with working engines and beacons.  If you know of any others smaller still, please let me know at danswimmer@hotmail.com.

I hope you have enjoyed the progress so far.  Perhaps this has given you some ideas for incorporating into your own models.  In fact, an almost identical size floor insert (though totally different layout) can be made for the Airfix VC10, as it had the same cabin floor length as the Vanguard.  I am planning cutaways for the Airfix DC-9 and the BAC 1-11, complete with flashing beacons, for sale on Ebay sometime later this year or 2010, so:

model-makers stay tuned!

The one I made earlier:

Custom-made new livery Air Canada  Airbus A321 1/144 scale Revell kit sourced, with flashing beacons and lighted interior.  This was a birthday gift made for an Air Canada captain.  I know the engines are wrong, but that was all I had to work with.  Same source for the flashing beacons as described above, but the battery box with on-off switch and AC adapter jack, and the string of miniature lights for the cabin and cockpit were sourced at Christmas time from Lemax (a seasonal product).

Feedback:  I may not have time to answer every email, but I appreciate any comments directed to danswimmer@hotmail.com.