Vickers VC10 Standards in 1:400 Scale
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Updated: May 2025
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There's no denying the VC10 is a wonderful plane and a real looker too. Its typically British tortuous development and sales period is well known but suffice to say, as with the Trident, the national carrier (BOAC in this case) created a set of specifications and Vickers dutifully met those only for BOAC to change its mind and leave Vickers with an aircraft that couldn't compete with the Americans due to BOAC's own demands!
In a nutshell BOAC wanted an aircraft suited to hot and high conditions that could use shorter strips. Unsurprisingly, this meant its trip costs weren't quite as good as the 707s and by the time production began the hot and high requirements were less of BOAC's focus and most airports had had their runways lengthened. What followed was BOAC bad mouthing the aircraft and effectively sabotaging its sales potential in the face of competition from the very strong 707.
In a nutshell BOAC wanted an aircraft suited to hot and high conditions that could use shorter strips. Unsurprisingly, this meant its trip costs weren't quite as good as the 707s and by the time production began the hot and high requirements were less of BOAC's focus and most airports had had their runways lengthened. What followed was BOAC bad mouthing the aircraft and effectively sabotaging its sales potential in the face of competition from the very strong 707.
Of the original standard length VC10-1101s only 32 were built. Twelve went to BOAC, four to BUA and two to Ghana Airways. Several of these then saw further service with airlines in hot and high locations such as Nigeria Airways, Air Malawi, Gulf Air and MEA. Another fourteen VC10-1106s were delivered to the RAF as VC10 C.1s (latter some were converted to C.1Ks and K.2s).
Vickers VC10-1101 in 1:400 Scale
The standard VC10 has been quite well covered in 1:400 with military variants bulking up the production, however the majority of releases are very old. In fact, the last time a standard VC10 mould got an airing was in 2015 and before that it was 2008! The Aeroclassics editions are some of their earliest models and were even decaled. Somewhat oddly Aeroclassics never made an updated mould to go with their Super VC10, presumably because the owner was satisfied with his original releases.
For discussion of the Super VC10 in 400 scale see:
Vickers VC10-1101 in Real Life
Mike Freer - Touchdown-aviation (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons
Below: XV101 was one of the VC10 C.1s that was converted to a dual transport / tanker as a VC10 C.1K:
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Björn Strey, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Doug Green (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons
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For more on the VC10 check out the awesome website: vc10.net
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Also find the book by Scott Henderson and published by Scovall Publishing:
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VC10-1101 Moulds
Aeroclassics (1999)
Aeroclassics kicked off 1:400 VC10 production in 1999 with a very early mould which had decals applied rather than TAMPO printing. The mould isn't awful but there is a massive seam along the rear fuselage. These early Aeroclassics are very rare and should be seen almost as testbeds for Aeroclassics later production. They shouldn't be expected to stand up to later 1:400 moulds. Aeroclassics made 10 models (only one of which was TAMPO printed) but they did produce an example in Nigeria Airways first VC10 colours which is still unique in 1:400.
Gemini Jets (2006)
Gemini's VC10 first appeared in 2006 for a couple of RAF versions complete with nose-mounted refueling probe. Gemini have used the mould 10 times for civil versions and 5 times for an interesting array of RAF versions, 4 of which have inflight refueling probes and 3 hose and drogue fuel dispensing underwing pods. Despite this the entire production and usage of this mould occurred during 2006-2009.
A feature of the mould is that the horizontal stabiliser is moveable, though in my experience this means it actually falls off a lot and I've never really been sure what the point of this feature is. The mould looks pretty decent, but oddly it is a little chunky and significantly more so than the competing Jet-X mould. The fuselage seems a little too tall and slightly out of scale. Additionally, the flap track fairings are too large at the rear of the wing.
Jet-X (2007)
Jet-X, during its second phase, created its own VC10 very soon after the Gemini version and the proportions of the mould are quite different to the Gemini version. That makes a potentially superior casting in terms of general proportions and certainly the tailtop as a one piece is much better. Some releases have a rather pointy nosecone. The drawbacks of the mould is that the wingseam is a little more obvious than on the Gemini and that the wingtop strakes are a bit too large and squared off. Jet-X made an impressive 22 models, but there is almost no crossover with the Gemini releases. The vast majority are RAF examples and there are also 4 Ghana Airways examples. The only other releases are a BA hybrid from 2011 and a Oman Air Force example from 2007.
Interestingly when Gemini Jets decided to make an RAF example in 2015 it was this mould (nowadays part of the JC Wings inventory) that they used rather than their own previous mould. This suggests that the original gemini mould is now defunct and/or they consider this is better.
