Brigbeale

Well, the Canberra build is nearly finished. This afternoon, I designed the representation of the Canberra specific Red Beard carrier which was made out of marine plywood. This was to reduce buffeting which apparently could tear the bomb bay doors off. The Red Beard was then painted Olive Green while the carrier was painted to represent the plywood. They were then glued into the weapons bay and the doors fitted. The aircraft numbers were then placed on the nose wheel doors. One split while the other worked perfectly. Other stencils from the original sheet were placed around the fuselage. A few touch ups here and there were also required. The Canberra was then given a coat of Galeria Matt Varnish. It was still wet when I took the photos but starting to dry. There’s just a couple of antennae to put on and paint in the right colour (depending on placement). Also, a recent acquisition turned up today. I’ve been after one for ages to make a Hurricane IID. I built a Matchbox one when I was a kid, but it went the same way as all the other models once my brothers got their hands on them.

I measured the rear of the wing tip tanks which have a point on them, and found a half mm difference, so I’m happy with that. With regard to the Red Beard and the Mark 7 bombs, I’m going to stick with my initial plan to use the former in this build, but thanks for the suggestion/info though. Tonight’s activities were limited again. I made the nose wheel doors out of 0.5mm styrene sheet as the originals were way to thick in this scale. Once the sprue goo had set enough to hold them in position, I painted them with some of the extra paint I mixed up from when I airbrushed they undersides. I used a cocktail stick to ‘paint’ the yellow dashes on the top of the main wings. I also painted the engine intakes Matt black.

Earlier today, I set about designing a Red Beard Nuclear Weapon to fit in the Weapons bay. I found a picture on Wikipedia and in the text was the sizes. I scaled them to 1/72 size and this evening, I 3D printed my representation of the device. Tonight’s session started with using clear tape to simulate the side nose windows. The edges would be painted over a little later on. The rear stabilisers were masked on the undersides to enable me to paint a straight line for the leading edge wrap-around of the camouflage. The Sea Grey was then painted on the stabilisers and around the cockpit canopy. The Dark Green was painted on the stabilisers and also around the aforementioned side windows. I then pieced together the landing gear. The main-gear was fitted into position with sprue-goo to give a stronger joint. The other gear doors were also fitted in position. The nose-gear required a bit of dry fit, remove, file, dry fit again a few times. The reason……… the nose of the Canberra was sitting too high. Eventually, I got it to sit about where I wanted it, then it too was sprue goo’d into position.

Well, that’s the decalling all but done. There’s some stencils on the original kit sheet which aren’t present on the Airfix ones. I need to look at some Walkaround photos to see if they are present and where they go on an actual Canberra. I’ve used the Saint emblems from the original kit as they were clearer in appearance. I’ve also used the original r/w/b insignia and I’m glad to say they weren’t as bad as I initially thought. I’ve given all the decals a good coat of MicroSol to help settle them down. I removed the canopy and cleaned the dust out with a cotton bud. It was glued back in using a clear glue and remedial work was done to the rear section where I painted it in. I’m going to let it set until tomorrow before I do anything else to it.

Thanks for the heads up. Those bits of dust are really bugging me so I’m going to take the canopy off and sort it so I’ll sort it at the same time.

After a quick look through the spare decals, I found these from my early Airfix Wellington/Brooklands Wellington restoration/conversion. They’re a tad brighter though. So, I put them on and they look much better. They look more like the Type D roundels rather than the Type A ones from the decal sheet typically used on the lighter underside surfaces of WW2 aircraft.

I was looking at the model just now and I have come to the same conclusion about the dots - they’re too small. I use have missed that while decalling last night when even one of the dots split into 3 pieces. I’ll have a look in my spare decal stash to see if I’ve got any larger ones. If not, I’ll make some replacements. I have to do the r/w/b tail ones anyway as the originals are discoloured and wouldn’t blend in with the rest.

I was actually managed to get an (almost) uninterrupted session in tonight! More decalling was called for, so that’s what I did - although I’ve still not finished it. The first decal on was the shark mouth from the Airfix set. Again, even though it was soaked in warm water until it just started to lift from the backing paper, the decal still split into 4 pieces. I placed the biggest part and built the rest back up from there. There’s a couple of hairline cracks showing but I’ll see what they look like once the MicroSol has worked it’s magic. The eyes were next followed by the ejection seat decals and the rest of the nose stencils. Then it was time for the 2 decals I was dreading the most - given the ease with which others have split - the waist band with the two roundels. On the original kit this decal is one piece, but with the Airfix ones, it’s a top half with the two roundels (minus the red dots) and a separated bottom half. With some trepidation, I soaked the upper decal first. Surprisingly it went on without splitting as did the lower half. I had to brush more water on to stop them from settling as I had to move them rearwards - probably due to a different diameter of fuselage between the Frog/Eastern Express and Airfix kits. The aircraft serial numbers just fitted in the space between the waistband and the rear stabilisers. I still have the tail-fin decals to apply along with the fuselage access panel decals near the waist-band.

Tonight my foreshortened session saw me applying more decals. I started off with the red dots on the upper wing roundels. The port one was fine but the starboard one split down the middle. I pieced it back together as best as it would go, but it will need a touch up in the middle. I then flipped the Canberra over and cut out the two large XM277 decals. Despite a good soak in warm water, one split in two places on the ‘M’. Again I pieced it back together and again it’ll need a touch up. For the other side, I decided to apply the letters and numbers individually so I cut between each and gave them a good soak. This seemed to do the trick and they applied as expected. I just kept checking to make sure they were all in line with each other. Thats when my son came in and we had to change his headlamp units on his Mini Cooper S. Oh well - I will hopefully get more done tomorrow.

Tonight, it was time to start decalling. YAY!!! The decals to be used were Airfix ones kindly donated by @Hook. There are a decals on the original sheet which aren’t on the Airfix sheet and vice-versa so, hopefully I can use a mix of the two. I started with the dashed lines on the underside of the main wings. They turned out to be a bit of a pain as they broke easily so it was a case of piece it them together while trying to maintain the straight line. Once they were on, I started with the yellow ones on top of the wings - with the same problems. I then placed the two main roundels on top of the main wings. Due to the fragile nature of the decals, I opted to let them dry before the application of the red dot in the centre. To end tonight’s session, gave the applied decals a coat of MicroSol.

Blimey Chris, I’ve just caught up with this after you mentioned the dust getting in your Anson on my Canberra thread. I thought my painting was good with my airbrush but your results with a paintbrush are far better.

I have wrapped the main wings but forgot the tail wings (sorry - stabilisers). I’ll mask them tonight and brush them in. The airbrushing took me nearly an hour! There were a couple of stray sprays which meant the pattern had to be extended to cover them. For the finish, I’m opting for semi gloss which is what my floor polish gives anyway. I feel a full gloss coat is too shiny in this scale. I might try a patch test of Matt to see first though.

I spent yesterday evening masking the Canberra to stop any grey or green paint curling around the edges and settling on the silver-grey on the undersides. Tonight, I started by airbrushing the upper surfaces with Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea Gray 2 RAF. Heres the Canberra on my painting/airbrushing mat. I gave it an hour to dry and then freehand painted the Tamiya XF-81 Dark Grey 2 RAF. I think it turned out pretty well. That was also given an hour to dry and I then gave it the first of two coats of my Astonish Floor Polish. As a piece of masking came away from the canopy I got a bit a tried away and removed all of it. That looks very good except some dust has managed to fine it’s way inside.

The sprue goo had set/cured when I started tonight’s modelling. it was sanded back and left a seamless joint along the wing-to-fuselage joint. I then mixed up the colour for the undersides which was one part Sky Grey to 2 parts Chrome Silver. I started by airbrushing it on to the weapons bay and main undercarriage doors. The colour looked good so I airbrushed it onto Canberra itself.

I started proceedings tonight by sanding back the dried Mr Surfacer. The top joints turned out ok but the bottom ones on the main wings still had a step which will require sorting out even though it’s underneath. I’ve done a fair bit to upgrade the Canberra, so it would be a shame to just let something like that to slide. After looking at a couple of photos of Canberra’s, especially XM263 taking off (at least I hope so, as if it’s landing, the pilot’s left it a bit late to lower the gear!), which shows the external rings the same colour as the fuselage. So, I glued them on. I then flipped the Canberra on its back and filled the gaps in the front and rear of the weapons bay (which I’d forgotten to do earlier) and also ran some along those underwing seams where the wings meet the fuselage. Sorry - forgot to take pictures of it. I then started to think about the actual colours for the Canberra itself. I’ve read that the underside is neither silver or grey - it’s somewhere in between. I built an Airfix Lightning F3 (if I remember correctly), which I painted the underside Tamiya Chrome Silver. It looked ok when I painted it but now, with the talk of the ‘Canberra underside colour, it now seems too Silver. I also built an Novo Hunter which I painted the undersides a Sea Grey (probably as I’d run out of Sky Grey). And then there’s the Matchbox Buccaneer which has a grey underside but I can’t remember which (but it’s a bit too dark anyway for consideration). Also in that photo is the kit closed weapons bay doors which painted with Sky Grey (at the top), then Chrome Silver (bottom left) and a mix of 1 part Sky Grey to 1.5 - 2 parts Chrome Silver which I think is the shade I’m aiming for. Now that leaves the top. I’m thinking Tamiya Ocean Grey 2 (RAF) for the grey (obviously) and a Tamiya Dark Green 2 (RAF) as on the Buccaneer, Jaguar and Lightning. The Hunter has a different Grey (Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea Grey) on it which may be more in keeping with the Canberra. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions……..