canberra kid

Please, bring on a new Halibag! John

Nicely done Sam, I hope my little site helped with the build. John

Well Alex, I've surprised myself, not only have I found the photo's, but I've also got my very temperamental scanner to do what it's supposed to but all too often refuses to do and scan them! The GR.1A is ZG712 of 13 Sqn. photographed at the much missed RAF Church Fenton air show. The sensor control panel is at the rear of the Nav's side console at the rear port side. Not the same aircraft but I just thought you would like them? And ZG713 from the starboard side I hope these help? John

Hi Alex, I took a photo of the "camera" control panel in a 13 Sqn. GR.1a it's not that big and from what I recall it wouldn't be that noticeable in 1/48 scale, I can try to find it over the weekend unless some one else turns up with one in the meantime. John

I can understand that, the blue on VX181 was a bluer blue, less grey than PRU Blue, but if who ever identified the colour would not have known she was involved in a trial with a new scheme and just assumed it was PRU blue. Graham I can't remember now what the document I saw was that quoted Cerulean Blue, but it said it was a potential camouflage colour. I suspect given the higher altitudes the PR.3 would be operating in they would have been looking at the available options. I found a tin of Cerulean Blue, made by Precision Paints I think? in an old shop in Llandudno many moons ago, unfortunately I no longer have it. I used it on my VX181, it's close to "Petter Blue" but not the same. John

That looks ok if perhaps a bit bright? It's hard to tell of a screen. John

Hi Sam Definatly not, the last use of a photo flash by an RAF Canberra was by a PR.7 a long time ago. In the time frame of your model only the servay camera and IRLS would have be fitted in the bay. John

Nice work so far Sam, as you guessed the flare bay was just that a bay for the photo flash bomb's or flare's as they are known. The need for the photo flash disappeared with the introduction of high resolution IRLS, although the capability was retained until the end. The rear bay could also carry camera/sensors. John .

On the subject of non standard blue Canberra's, VN799 wasn't the only one, the second one was the PR.3 prototype VX181 this was painted "Cylearian Blue" which was apparently being tried as an alternative to PRU Blue. John

A good question John, I don't know if the blue on VN799 was an off the shelf colour or a one off mix, Petter had his MG painted the same colour as VN799, so if he still had the car when he went to Folland they could have done a match to it by eye, or something like, he must have really liked the shade of blue. Thinking a bit more about it, the split between Petter and EE.Co was not amical, so perhaps he wouldn't have gone for the same shade? John

Very much non standard but it was the fashion then, there were some very attractive schemes around then. Colour photo's of VN799 are very scarce, the following is about the best I've seen. WT478 was a T.4 painted up to represent VN799 for the Canberra's 40th Roland Beamont remarked on the colour as being very close to the original, For the 50th another T.4 this time WJ874, this was painted in PRU Blue which is too grey and dark, they also made a mess of the markings. I was honored to attend the 50th at Warton with a display of my Canberra models, I met Bee and we got talking, I asked him what he thought of the colour match of my VN799 and he said words to the effect of it being spot on, that'll do for me! John

@rickshaw It's nether of those two colours, the English Electric A.1 was painted in, as was the fashion in the British Aircraft industry at that time, a non standard colour colloquially known as "Petter Blue" described as being a "sky blue". This colour has disappeared into history but all is not lost! Petter Blue reappeared on another of English Electrics very fine products, this time Deltic prototype DP.1 Preserved at the National Rail Museum York, and even better, a colour mach paint is available from a company called Rail Match Paints Deltic prototype blue . If you fancy having a go at the A.1 there are quite a few mods to look out for. John

This would be a nice one to build John

Again not much time to do things, so all I've managed was to break out the black and do a wee bit of painting, all very black, but things should look more interesting with a colour wash and dry brushing. John

Thanks Andre, an interesting and well executed build. John