Wings of Intent

Here is the continuation of the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer build, in this post the Hallam Vac vintage kit.

For the Valom kit build and reference material on the type, please go to the head post here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/07/scottish-aviation-twin-pioneer-valom.html

I will re-post here for the sake of practicality some of what I posted on the head post:

A much, much older kit in vacuum-formed plastic of good gauge, with fair white metal parts -considering the age-, with decals (mine were missing) but no interior other than a cabin floor and a cockpit bulkhead. The surface detail is much simplified or not present (for example the corrugated areas of the rudders, elevator and ailerons are not molded, and will have to be created, together with the whole cockpit and -if desired- cabin). For this kit I purchased an aftermarket set of resin seats (not the ones Valom offers in this case), and the rest will be either fabricated or scrounged from the spares bin. Two airfoiled lengths are provided, one (wider) for the landing gear legs and another for the wing struts. Decals will need to be created once I decide which livery to use. This vac kit offers the possibility of relatively easily opening the cabin door and (perhaps) separate and deploy the flaps. It all depends on the workload/time the build in general build may require, as I may not live forever as I once thought.

Bagged vintage kit (1987):

The white metal parts, fair given the age of the kit. Notice the cuffed props...

...as the original:

The surfaces have some detail, nice and even engraved, but are missing the corrugations on the rudders:

No interior whatsoever is provided, just a bulkhead and a the cabin floor. The airfoiled extruded plastic is for the LG legs and struts. My sample is missing several of those, here is a photo from the Net showing how many they should be (plus the decals missing in my bag):

The kit bag had a hole and maybe they fell, or a modeler needed them for another project. In any case, luckily I still have remnants of my Contrail stock:

The cockpit transparency fortunately aged very well (the yellowing belongs to the tape):

So, we star now to gather what is useful for the build. Resin seats were ordered online from a German source. The pilots' seats were scratchbuilt:

Found on the spares bin two white metal control wheels that are a good match:

The parts' edges are marked with the fine Sharpie, scored with a sharp Xacto, and popped-out of the backing sheet:

Ahead now is the task of truing the contact areas and thinning the trailing edges. This needs to be done carefully so the edges are straight and the material is not removed in excess, hence the Sharpie line. Easy does it, and often testing.

The white metal parts are cleaned. The power eggs needed some sanding and filling to obtain a good surface (they were profusely pitted):

Well, whaddayaknow. I tracked down and bought the "Plastic Kit Constructor" magazine (#41, Spring 1995) that has an article on this very kit. Here are the pages scanned:

It's always interesting to see how other modelers approach a kit, even if you chose a different path.

This almost vintage British magazine is full of build articles, that is, unlike more modern publications that are just mouthpieces for the manufacturers, the collaborators actually built the kits, and had no problem telling what was good and what wasn't, without fear of displeasing the industry. Something you don't see often. It was also a walk on memory lane as I saw brands that are no more, and others I never heard about, and saw some ole duds that are still shamelessly sold today by the big boys in the industry, without a shadow of shame -and most importantly- without improving a pip. These very magazines had no problem telling the big name manufacturers when they actually screwed things up, and boy did they.

Some of the interior parts of the Valom kit are separated from the sprues to use as loose guide for the vac, as it provides almost nothing in terms of interior detail:

The trailing edges of the cowls were too thick, so they were thinned down:

Going slowly, but also attending to parallel builds too, so not so bad:

Heston Phoenix

Twin Pioneer

Couzinet Arc en Ciel

I.A. 38

Loening commercial

Savoia S.55

Boeing 80

Fokker F.32

To be continued...

(Photos above and below from Wikipedia)

(Photo from the SDASM photostream):

If Humpty Dumpty would have a plane, which one would it be?*

Perhaps the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer, with its chubby and somewhat cumbersome appearance.

*(The association, given the times that the SA Twin Pioneer crashed, is not arbitrary)

And what is better than a Twin? A Twin with Three Tails!

This one has been in my files for a long time. And to my surprise -given the uncharacteristic aspect of the plane- relatively well covered by the industry:

-Hallam (vac with white metal parts and strut material)

-Valom (injected with P.E. parts and an optional aftermarket set of resins seats)

-Magna Models (resin & white metal)

-Combat Kit (resin & white metal) (this is reputedly an improved version of the Magna kit)

-Welsh Models (1/144^th, vac & white metal)

My relationship with Valom kits has been somewhat contentious in the past, although if you are willing to deal with Valom’s ejector towers, somewhat hit-and-miss fit, scarcity of locating devices and a bit of roughness, I would say it’s a good option, as this is a normal kit in injected plastic that is the medium most modelers are familiar with. I bought it as a way of comparison with the Hallam vac, AND, I am very pleased to say that Valom is shoving quick improvement, as this particular kit looks better than others I have built from them. Of the two other Pioneer kits in 1/72^nd in resin, what I see on the Net is that modelers find the Magna one also rough, and the Combat better but still with its challenges. Regarding the Welsh Models 1/144^th vac kit I know nothing, and tend to stay away from ungodly scales.

The Valom kit offers a detail resin set. By “detail” I mean a cabin interior they omit from the kit and then sell you apart. Like they did with their De Havilland Albatross. The price of these sets is very reasonable, so I don’t understand why they are not included in the kits, forcing the modelers to pay a second S&H fee for the accessories. True, not all modelers bother with an interior, but many do. By the way, there is a set of civil seats and another of military ones. Needless to say I bought the civil.

The Hallam vac according to Scalemates saw the light of day in 1987. Not a spring chicken. Some of the kits in their limited range can be seen built online.

S&M Models offers decal sheets for two civil Twin Pioneers. Good for them, but their prices are a bit salty.

Montex offers masks for the Valom kit. Very affordable, but in the dreaded vinyl that often tends to detach after primer and paint are applied, and they have an adhesive with not very long shelf live. I know it’s a cheap material, but why some manufacturers insist in vinyl instead of using the so-called kabuki paper, I can’t understand.

Vacs are the Cinderella of scale model kits. On this blog you may find 30/40 models built from them. I love them as much as injected kits, and they helped me develop skills that otherwise would have never been acquired. They aided my transition to scratchbuilding, and gave me the opportunity of having on the shelf subjects not cared for the mainstream injected kit manufacturers.

Manufacturers understandably want to squeeze as many types and registrations as they can, so many end up committing the sin of “one size fits all”, as different variants have… well…. differences, often overlooked by the manufacturers. And that’s the case here with Valom, so carefully look at photos for details in the kit not present in your choice plane, and vice-versa: windows, antennas, hatches, etc.

The Valom kit has nice surface detail, provides a small P.E. fret, and (in this boxing) decals for VH-AIS in two liveries. The instructions mistakenly show TWO regs under the wings. One is only needed under the left wing. For he “Fly Pion Air” air colorful livery there are no patterns provided for the very visible background colors decoration, so the modeler is left to his/her own devices. I don’t particularly trust the paint color codes given, same for the interior for which seems they kept the military colors. Valom forgot to include the red on the leading edge which actually curves a little to meet the red wing tips. Again, the manufacturer leaves it to the modeler to check the accuracy of what the kit provides. The alternate scheme for VH-AIS has a minor color indication mistake on the engine cowls, easily corrected looking at photos. The opening closer to the tail on the left fuselage side is not present in either of these civil planes. So again, check the kit against photos of the intended plane. More to come during the build.

The instruction drawings are printed at a convenient size, which is good. But Valom does not provide indications as to where exactly parts go, which sometimes creates doubts:

As mentioned the decals provide just the motifs, but nothing about the prominent colorful bands all about the plane, in terms of masks or patterns. You are on your own. Small but useful P.E. fret, inst.pan. film, very clear transparencies but with optical distortion for the side windows:

Nice surfaces and surface detail. As mentioned above some details are not pertinent for the civil version boxings. One is the rectangular window near the tail on the left fuselage side, absent in the plane portrayed:

Now to the Hallam Vac kit.

A much, much older kit in vacuum-formed plastic of good gauge, with fair white metal parts -considering the age-, with decals (mine were missing) but no interior other than a cabin floor and a cockpit bulkhead. The surface detail is much simplified or not present (for example the corrugated areas of the rudders, elevators and ailerons are not molded, and will have to be created, together with the whole cockpit and -if desired- cabin). For this kit I purchased an aftermarket set of resin seats (not the ones Valom offers in this case), and the rest will be either fabricated or scrounged from the spares bin. Two airfoiled lengths are provided, one (wider) for the landing gear legs and another for the wing struts. Decals will need to be created once I decide which livery to use. This vac kit offers the possibility of relatively easily opening the cabin door and (perhaps) separate and deploy the flaps. It all depends on the workload/time the build in general build may require, as I may not live forever as I once thought.

Bagged vintage kit (1987):

The white metal parts, fair given the age of the kit. Notice the cuffed props...

...as the original:

The surfaces have some detail, nice and even engraved, but are missing the corrugations on the rudders:

The kit bag had a hole and maybe they fell, or a modeler needed them for another project. In any case, luckily I still have remnants of my Contrail stock:

The cockpit transparency fortunately aged very well (the yellowing belongs to the tape):

Some pages from diverse publications illustrating the type:

Having already presented the two kits and having posted some references, in order to avoid confusion we will continue here with the Valom (Injected) kit, and proceed with the build of the Hallam Vac in a separate post, here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/07/hallam-vac-172nd-scottish-aviation-twin.html

Parts are separated from their trees. I have to say that I am positively surprised about this particular Valom kit, as it shows more finesse and more precision than previous ones I have built. So far so good. The parts require some minor cleaning, but again less than in previous kits. Here are the parts that I will use as a guide to construct the necessary ones for the vac been built in parallel, which, as mentioned above, lacks any interior other then a floor and cockpit bulkhead:

You have to drill a locating hole that got plugged with plastic:

The console is very small, good luck fitting all those P.E. levers:

The console has a recess into which the inst. pan. goes (marked by me in red), not depicted on the instructions, which could cause some head-scratching, as the part also differs in other details from the drawing:

None of this is of course a big deal, but you have to keep a keen eye to spot these mistakes, as they may be the cause of trouble. Not just Valom, but even more so other manufacturers -like Dora Wings- seem not to have a person doing the necessary oversight and checks.

Here are some photos from the Net describing such console (hope I don't step on anybody's toes, as I don't remember from where I got them):

And now to remove all those ejector pin towers:

And then to rasp all those trailing edges from inside...

This air intake should have been rendered as a separate part:

There is a support for the engine, but its locating hole (if that's indeed what it is) on the engine's back is full of plastic excrescences:

The area is cleaned with a rotary tool bit, but it's not clear it the support part inserts in the engine back or is meant to be glued to a flat surface -in which case I will have to cover the hole with a thin disk. Because of the fuzzy instructions this is unclear:

The trailing edges are reduced in thickness using carpenter's scrapers:

All the parts are washed, rinsed and let to dry. Smaller parts are washed inside a coffee mesh filter:

Part 36 is in the parts' tree diagram, but absent from the building sequence schematics. I think it belongs behind that opening that is NOT there for the civil versions. You may use the clear part that closes the opening and paint it over:

(not glued):

Some planes do have that feature, though:

The wing, stab and stub-wings halves are glued. The halves match well:

The locating holes for the fins need enlarging, and the corresponding pips, fuzzily molded, need a bit of refinement to get a god fit:

This is why clear instructions are important. Valom let you guess where the engine supports should be glued, not on top of the lip as I thought, but inside the lips, where I drew the red arrow, trapped between the nacelle halves:

Once again I would like to say that the intakes on the engine nacelles should have been molded as separate parts (they are in the old Hallam vac), as they will need careful refining and touch-ups to look good, erasing the partition line.

Grossly exaggerated, this is how the fuselage halves meet. The plastic needs to be (carefully) bent and perhaps some tabs installed for a matching fit and avoid hours or work on the seam risking erasing engraved detail:

The engine supports are glued and the air intakes fixed and re-shaped using superglue, accelerator, and files. The wheels need drilling to be able to accept their axles. Instead of using the indifferently-molded seat arms in the sprue, new ones are made of lightly-sanded styrene stick and glued. The poor engineering of the power eggs prevents the engines from being just pushed-in from behind after painting the 3-part assembled cowls, and requires you to install them before gluing the lip on unnecessarily complicating painting 😕. I will remove the molded tab that hinders the more effective approach, and add the painted engines to the painted cowls later:

The props have almost no axle, just a pip. This is not convenient for holding them during painting and besides would make for a week gluing. The engines correspondingly have a very shallow hole:

The props are given metal axles and the engines are drilled all the way to receive them:

The ends of the exhausts are hollowed:

The seam at the leading edge of the flying surface halves, which was a bit uneven, is very lightly puttied and sanded. The joint at the outer/central wing panels had also little differences in the airfoil. The seam is masked and puttied over, to later be lightly sanded to restore evenness:

NOTE:

Most photos of the Twin Pioneer show the flap tracks protruding from the wing trailing edge when the flaps are retracted. The kit provides those tracks, but they are indicated all the way around (the pointy bit outwards, instead of to be glued underneath the wing:

In case you want to improve things a little (and your chosen plane has those protruding tracks), you may sand down a bit Evergreen's smaller H column (281), bend it a little, and cut the diagonal needed to glue it on:

Whatever the Pioneer plane you are modeling has the protruding tracks or not, they all have subtle fairings for them, missed on the kit's wing:

Here they are in photos:

Watch out, they are subtle!

Interestingly, the two liveries chosen for this boxing for VH-AIS lack the protruding tracks, so in this particular case you may prescind of them altogether -but not of the fairings which are still there.

I am not sure why some planes have protruding flap tracks and some don't. Observing videos of the ones that do not have them, it seems that their flaps only deploy to a minor degree, instead of fully out as in the tracked planes, which makes sense. May be some operators dispense of the extended tracks as they may not need STOL capabilities?

There is a commercial aftermarket mask for this kit: