Victor K2 XL231

[Blue_2]

In theory I'm off work next week. So if the weather plays ball I should be working on the jet most of the week. Hopefully that'll see the port wing seen off and progress on the starboard side. We are looking to finish the wings, then tackle the fuselage. 'Lindy' is going to be masked off and get her paint touched up afterwards.
Seeing as everyone else is too chicken it seems I shall be doing the tailplane...

[Sploosher]

Thanks for the updates and pics Graham....................

must get to come and see `Lindy` again soon............

[Blue_2]

Do come see her once we're a bit further on with the repaint. She looks a bit shabby currently, with bits rubbed down, bits repainted and bits as yet untouched she looks a bit harlequin. Also we're storing all our repainting gear in the cockpit so we can't really offer a nosey inside at the moment...

Meanwhile for the discerning Victor fan, we've added a 1953-vintage Aircraft Recognition instructional film regarding HP's finest to the blog. It can be found at:
http://victorxl231.blogspot.co.uk/

[Sploosher]

Our next planned visit to Elvington is for the LMA on the 11th and 12th August, but as far as the museum itself we are not sure yet, but it will be soon before the winter weather arrives....................

Just read the blog, some excellent stuff there Graham.............

[Blue_2]

I'll be at the LMA show so no doubt I'll see you at some point. Hopefully the mobile bar will be in attendance again!
30/07/2012 update
Much progress to report this week. I was off work last week, so came in and got the final prep on the port flaps under way on Monday. I was back in on Thursday with Andre, and we got the last bit of the port wing prepped so he could get on with the paintwork on Friday.
Saturday saw Ian, Andre and I in and after finishing the prep and priming the bare areas Andre got some fresh hemp paint slapped on. More morale lifting visual progress, great to see!
Sunday Ian, Rich and I mustered in the hope of getting the starboard flaps in hemp. John attended too, and was tasked with doing some housekeeping, checking the tyres and cleaning out the maxaret tracks.
We got the inner flap prepared and the outer flap well on the way to being ready before declaring lunch. After lunch I brandished a roller in anger for the first time :eek: at the inboard flap. And I have to say I'm quite proud of the result!
However an inopportune shower put paid to hopes of getting both flaps in paint by the close of play yesterday.
In other Victor news, we've had many visitors this week associated with Lindy, including former ground crew and one of her copilots from the Gulf War. Many anecdotes were passed on to us, some of which will hopefully find their way onto the blog. Speaking of the blog do go have a nosey, more new goodies have been added this week.
So a productive few days, our thanks to the Red Arrows and the spare display Tucano for their morale flypasts on the Saturday, and thanks also Christine for the morale cupcakes!
Photos of the work to date. Thanks to Ian for the use of his wide angle lens for a couple of the shots.
Firstly a very tidy repair by Pete, one of the longest-commuting members of the team.

Port flaps and wing done

Stbd inner flap. For the data plate enthusiasts!

Port flaps again

From the tailcone

Starboard flaps

Finally 2 shots which I think show the vast improvement the new paint has made to Lindy's appearance.



More progress next weekend hopefully

[Dan4th]

Your hard work is paying off, Mr. Blue

And you chose some rarely seen angles
for your photos -- they are all worth
studying at length, which I'm in the
middle of now....

Lindy really IS starting to look better
than nice

Danf.

[Kermit]

Great work, well done all, Lindy looks great !
Hope to pop in some time next month and look forward to even more progress by then !

[Sploosher]

Nice work Graham....................

we shall be at the LMA too, but not sure which day yet, as we are meeting up with Jakspeed and are waiting to hear what day she is going ,


will try and spot you in the bar and come over and say hello...........

[Blue_2]

You'll either find me on the Victor or propping up the bar. One or the other's a dead cert!

[Minty4371]

Just seen a photo of the names & positions of the last crew on the nose.
Will that be kept there, or painted over?
Photo seen on XM655 Twitter feed.

[Blue_2]

that must be an ancient photo, as that was overpainted years ago!

[Blue_2]

8/8/2012 Update
A bit of time off work meant that I could attend for a long weekend on the jet. The Friday was the first day of the big push, which basically consisted of me starting on with the tail, and Rich and Andre carrying on with the starboard wing and outer flap. Rich had to work Saturday but Ian came to play instead. Brian and Grant also got busy with sandpaper and primer over the weekend too!

My aim for the end of the weekend was to have both elevators and the remaining flap which had defied us painted by close of play Sunday. This is no mean feat, when you consider a) how far up in the air the tail is, and b)the span of the tail is about equal to a Hawker Hunter's wingspan (I'm told). I can say this was achieved, with only the leading edge underside of the starboard elevator needing to be painted. i would have done this, but was feeling out of sorts so thought it best left for another day; weather permitting Saturday will see it off, and the central part of the tailplane undergoing prep.

The Starboard wing prep has continued, and I believe the leading edge is dealt with. Overall despite some challenging weather (red hot to deluge in seconds, and a VERY near lightning strike) a weekend's work we can be proud of. Andre's going to owe us serious beer after this job's done!
Some pics for your perusal. Most are off my phone but a couple are from the camera of Mr. Finch.
Starboard elevator


Port elevator prepped and primed

...and hemped!

Brian trying to look busy

Port wing looking rather lovely in its new paint

All flaps now painted

and port elevator underside done and dusted

Some from the camera of Ian. Firstly the rain patterns on Lindy's port wing after a vicious shower

Grant and Brian busy, Tony Agar coming to round them back up as slave labour on his Wooden Wonder!

Yours truly at work on the port elevator

Port elevator completed

Do visit the blog for more on the repaint; linky at the bottom of this post.
If anyone's into such things it's the Large Model Aircraft show at Elvington this weekend. Victorites should be around both days so come say hello and see the hard work we've been putting in!

[Jigsaw]

Another brilliant update. Looking very good mate

[Yorkie]

I hope to get back to YAM sooner rather than later as my one and only trip last June was cut short as we had to be somewhere

Hope you don't mind me posting some of mine, I never got around to posting these at the time for some reason.








That one didn't really work but it's different I guess.


Love the photo with the frost on the wings, beautiful

Some great photo's

unfortunatly being a regular down at YAM i feel that the photo op down there was spoilt some what when the nimrod arrived. you used to be able to stand near the fire station and get the full wingspan in.

now you have to be lucky or know someone who works there to find out when they are moving the pair.



still a lovely place, I have to try harder to get 'nice' shots (although lindy looks great from all angles)

[Dan4th]

Got to say I'm Impressed!

Lindy just looks better and
better all the time

Hope she appreciates all the
tender ministrations and
returns the favo(u)r by doing
good things mechanically, too

Danf.

[Xplumberlives]

Bravo Guys keep up the great work!

[Blue_2]

Brace yourselves for a bumper update ladies and gentlemen!

Update from last week, the wing prep mostly continued and I got the tail upper surfaces finished. We were a bit distracted by the large models flying on the airfield though!













And now to this weekend's business. I wasn't in Saturday, however the hard graft of preparing the starboard wing continued. I was in Sunday and intended, weather permitting, to prep and paint the tail leading edges and bullet. Ollie was on intake duties while everyone else attacked the wing and starboard tank.
Here it gets shown some new paint


Intake lip under prep

One leading edge done, the paint demarcation line is now correct

The very end of the tail also done. In this shot can be seen the colour difference on the wings between old and new paint.

Outer wing in paint

Ollie's hard graft pays off, no.4's intake about rubbed back to original factory white

Paint finally going on the wing

Tail looking better (bullet removed for refurb. Unless anyone has a nice shiny one on a shelf...?!)

A view from the wingtip. As you can see, we beheaded our taskmaster Andre and mounted his head on the starboard carrot, as a warning to others to never make us repaint the jet again!

Starboard side of the bullet done

And port. I had to re-do this (and Andre had to re-do a patch of wing) after a badly-timed shower spoilt the paint.

An overview of the starboard leading edge, now mostly in paint



Now to bring you all bang up to date here's some pics, hot off the press, from today. The fairings under the port side tailplane were prepped, primed and painted by yours truly yesterday, and the RWR exhaust vent (inside and out!) and all bar 2 panels on the starboard side recieved the same treatment today.













It's a good thing heights don't bother me! Although the novelty of climbing up and down that bl**dy giraffe has now well and truly worn off, trust me...

So...
Port wing-done
Tail-done
Flaps-done
Port intake-done
Port HDU pod-done
Underwing tanks-done
Starboard wing- outer portion and leading edge done, rest under prep
Starboard intake-well under prep
Still to do- fuselage, fin, starboard HDU pod

I do believe we're making progress....

[Jigsaw]

I do believe you may be right regarding the progress mate. Great update

[MOD]

Thanks for the photos and report

a) Was anti-flash white ever an option for the repaint job?

b) An aircraft looking this good should be flying ... OK I'll settle for fast-taxying.

Ian

Edited to restore Smilies (thanks to Wedgy)

[Blue_2]

Thanks chaps!

Ian, anti-flash was never on the cards. We like to do things right, and to put her to anti-flash correctly we'd first have to take off all the tanker gear, reinstate the bomb bay, buy a Blue Steel, add 1 1/2ft back to each outer wing, change the tail bullets, re-fit the ecm gear, and that's just a list of jobs from off the top of my head! Otherwise we'd fall foul of the same purists who slate XM603 for the wrong roundels and tailfin top, and Rich's Shack for the anti-glare panel and not being a pure MR.2 (yet!). Once the armchair experts start carping, you end up thinking 'why the hell do we bother?'. So rather than run that particular gauntlet we're taking her back to her state during her final few years' service as a K2 rather than making her B.2ish.

I'm still saddened it's not K.2 camo we've gone for though!

As for returning to fast taxying, all I'll say is there may be a glimmer of light at the end of that particular tunnel finally...

[MOD]

Ian, anti-flash was never on the cards. Yes I do see where that would be 'impractical/inappropriate'
I'm still saddened it's not K.2 camo we've gone for though! Me too .

As for returning to fast taxying, all I'll say is there may be a glimmer of light at the end of that particular tunnel finally... Excellent news (potentially).

Regards to you; Andre and Christine and the rest of the team there.

Ian

[Dan4th]

Mister Blue::::::::::::::

This is Absolutely Great

You are showing me parts and pieces of the
Victor Aircraft I didn't even SUSPECT Existed!!!!!!!!!!

I'm thinking you and your mates have seen
a few things of which you weren't aware, either

When I first started out on the Old-Old Vulcan
"Forum" way back when, I really didn't think much
of the Victor -- too "Weird" for my taste.....

But over time I have Seen the LIGHT!

And I truly hope you'll get her up and TAXYING

Danf.

[Dan4th]

No progress report so far this week,
so I thought I'd post this up for those
who might not have seen it......



Danf.

[Blue_2]

Cracking little video!

...And now, here is this week's update. More progress, even thought the weather wasn't on our side. Sunday saw the starboard side fairings under the tailplane finished off and the fin leading edge begun! It's nice to not have to climb quite so high now... It took a while to sort the panels; I'd done all but 2 on tuesday, the remaining 2 I'd left for Sunday as they had evidence of corrosion. With a lot of elbow grease the 2 panels had all corrosion removed (eventually!) and after priming, a good coat of hemp added.



Given this side of the fin gets the worst of the weather it was a nice surprise how good condition it is actually in though.
Andre and Rich were very busy with the painstaking work of prepping the wing, more on that later.

A view along the fairings

I ventured down onto the wing to record progress there, seeing as our resident recorder of such things had gone AWOL to Brunty to play Buccaneers. Rich busy cleaning out a seam

And Andre taking some surface corroded fastenings back to bare metal

These 2 shots should give you an idea of just how seriously we're taking the prep on this job. We don't want to be doing it all again in 2 year's time, so it's being done once and it's being done right.
Bare metalled



And primed up

A rare sight on Sunday, as the sun snuck out briefly so I got a quick shot of my handiwork on the tail. The colour difference is very much evident! The bullet fairing is off site for restoration; I hear this is going well and the bullet will be ready to re-fit in the next couple of weeks.

Finally, we've started down the (vast) tailfin...

[Jigsaw]

Excellent as always