Issues with the Airfix Trident

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Not sure if I'm in the right place... after all, the Trident isn't exactly a modern aircraft, is it?

Anyway... I recently built an Airfix VC10 for the VC10 STGB. I went into it totally blind. I expected it to be a simple OOB build 'cos, after all, a VC10 is just a VC10, right?

Wrong!

For starters, the kit represents a prototype with different wing fences, which I had totally forgotten about despite having seemingly spent half of my life staring out of a window at them! Then I found out about the extended wingtips and leading edge. So I was continally modfying my build.

However, I finished the model and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now, I have an Airfix Trident for the Civil Airliner GB. I will be building this as a BEA Trident 1.

Are there any issues I should be aware of before the GB starts?

[Jessica]

Here's a build from a few years ago which highlights the major fixes. The aircraft is a -1E which may not be exactly the one you're doing. Trident versions are a trifle confusing. Here's a thread which talks about the different versions and how to convert them. It's too bad the the associated pictures have been taken down

Maybe Kev1n can be persuaded to repost some of them?

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Thanks, Jessica. That's exactly what I need.

However, I can't guarantee that my build will be of the same standard as Yufei Mao's...

[stringbag]

Drop me a PM with your e-mail address Enzo and I'll mail you some useful info.

Chris.

[richellis]

Id do that. It is very useful info.

[Kev1n]

I'll happily resurrect the Trident thread and repost the pics as soon as I get a moment to do them anyway

Remind me Enzo when the GB starts....

As to fixes for the afx Trident 1.....in a nutshell;

The cabin windows are completely wrong for any version of the Trident

The nose hear should be offset to one side

The fin needs to be extended slightly

the bullet fairing on top of the fin needs to be a bit more pointy

The wing root fairings need to be added

Yufie's thread pretty much covers most except the cabin windows

It's not the hardest kit to fix - afx did provide a pretty good blank canvas from which to make any version

but...

you NEED photo refs of the aircraft you want to build, and as many as you can get hold of

It's very easy to say "A BA Trident 1"....but not all BA Trident 1's were the same....

depends how accurate you want to be - you could just build oob and it will still look like a Trident 1

Do it well and a good model is still a good model.

Edited August 16, 2012 by kev1n

[Martian]

Kev's right there. I did mine a few years ago on a small Scottish island with only a few basic tools to hand (I painted it when I got home). All I did was to offset the nose gear and do a basic re-scribe. I had a ball building building the kit and for all the basic assembly I did it still looked great.

Martin

[Arpie]

I built one years ago and from looking at refs it's the tail bullet and wing root that stood out most when done. Must admit i didn't realise about the windows a good tip for next time. However I built mine out of the most recent boxing and the nose gear already was off centre wonder if this has been changed at some point?

[Kev1n]

However I built mine out of the most recent boxing and the nose gear already was off centre wonder if this has been changed at some point?

one thing that you can almost guarantee with airfix is that airliner molds will not be changed

[Radleigh]

Always wanted to do a Raspberry Ripple 'What-if' with one of these. I love that Chinese one above!

[Kev1n]

pics reposted to the original thread as linked above by Jessica, so feel free to go check it out - I'll be adding to it over the next few weeks anyway

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Thanks, kev1n. But you have to know this doesn't let you off the hook. I still blame you for this new-found obsession with airliners!

[stevesig]

The SIG Newsletter article 'what I wrote' fom 1997. Maybe of help?

[Kev1n]

Thanks, kev1n. But you have to know this doesn't let you off the hook. I still blame you for this new-found obsession with airliners!

really? oh well - I get blamed for most things so you being obsessed isnt going to make a lot of difference

Steve's piece is excellent - print it at A4 size and the drawings he did are 1/144 scale

The only reservation is the strake on the T1 is present on the right side only

[garryrussell]

Just a note on the "Strake"

The One-Eleven has similar too

It's a fuel pipe from the wing tanks feeding the APU, on later Tridents it was internal

[Kev1n]

there y'go - now we know

[skippiebg]

Here's something that might help...

[skippiebg]

Just to add to what has been written above:

Items for correction visible on the image above:

1. flightdeck canopy too far aft by about 1.25mm

2. nosecone too thin at its forward end (the radome) and too fat further aft (to the nose gear bay)

3. fuselage lacks the small but distinctive dip just ahead of the centre engine intake

4. centre engine intake way too small and thin

5. tailcone taper needs attention (this is especially true where it meets the fin -- there is a bulge there that ought to be eliminated; for more, see Item 8 below)

6. rudder about 4.5mm too short of chord

7. APU spike about 1mm too high and way too fat.

Items for correction not visible on the image above:

8. fin is far too thin (in a sense, Airfix did to the Trident what they should have done to the TriStar...): needs a slab of plastic card cemented to each side to give it the correct thickness

9. wing, viewed from the front, lacks the _very_ distinctive leading edge kink at about 1/3 span where there is a change from anhedral (inboard) to dihedral (outboard).

The above remarks (and the corrections they advocate) might strike you as more than a tad excessive, but I make them in good faith, as a died-in-the-wool Trident fanatic. Yufei Mao did not correct almost anything on his stock Airfix Trident and it still looks a winner.

The only real criterion on what to do or not is what pleases you

Edited August 22, 2012 by skippiebg

[Kev1n]

I feel almost overwhelmed.....

As skippiebg says, there is a *lot* you can correct...if you feel the need...

but I will file all that away for future reference.

I might, at some point, have a go at all that - it would make an interesting final build; me being me tho'...

I would have to include the entire interior as well

[richellis]

glue it together, paint, stick in decals and it looks like a Trident.

[viscount806x]

Just a note on the "Strake"

The One-Eleven has similar too

It's a fuel pipe from the wing tanks feeding the APU, on later Tridents it was internal

Thats because the APU was originally in the belly on the 1C. It had a great empty bay known as 'The Old APU Bay' where they put a centre fuel tank on the 1E onwards. Lots more Trident useless info from my memory banks if anyone wants them. Did I tell you that it was a wonderful engineers aeroplane - definitely a triumph of tech achievement over economics!

[richellis]

It would have been great with the correct engines

[stevesig]

Here's something that might help...

All very impressive - it shows what the benefit of internet references and computer wizardry has accomplished in the 15 years since I wrote the newsletter article. Seems like the Dark Ages!

[skippiebg]

SteveSIG, your article has given me many, many hours of pleasure while whittleing away at my endless succession of (sadly, dud) Tridents! My observations aren't really the acme of computing or the internet -- just a Photoshop excercise with half an Airfix fuselage, a scanner, and an old Hawker Siddeley brochure acquired at a swapmeet many, many years ago

[JMChladek]

When it comes to airliner conversions, one can do as much or as little as they want. Fixing the fairing issues and some of the other obvious ones is what I would probably do. But going for 1.25 mm differences on the windscreen probably gets into the realm of "not big enough an issue to worry about." Plus, it would probably cause some issues with the decals anyway if you plan to do it in a marking livery that has a decal that wraps around the nose. Besides, if all these birds were hand built with little differences, it could be that the Airfix kit is closer to some Tridents than others.

As long as the conversion work is fun, I say do it. If it isn't, I say curtail the more extreme stuff, fix the easy bits and do it more out of the box. Ultimately, it has to be up to the individual modeler as to how much he or she is willing to do.

Edited August 24, 2012 by JMChladek