Jinxman Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 That's a big difference between the wing/exhaust that's been fettled and the untouched one - well worth the effort I would say. That bomb bay also looks the part. 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted July 6, 2019 Author Share Posted July 6, 2019 Update #6 With the wings now complete it was time to tackle that banana warped fuselage. Prior to cementing these bits together I made up a rudimentary cockpit from a few spare bits and mounted this onto the kit supplied cockpit floor. I had to adjust the positioning of this a little lower, otherwise the canopy would have been hitting the top of the ejector seat which may have prevented it from sitting properly. Various areas were painted black and the seat embellished with some very basic home made decal seat belts. All this will hardly be seen under a rather thick but reasonably clear kit canopy. The close cockpit tub photo does look kinda shoddy, however to my failing and out of focused naked eyes it'll do the job fairly adequately. Now there's something about kits with open bomb bays, rarely do the fuselage pieces line up well enough to hide the join line and often leave a misaligned gap. My solution to having a nice smooth opening was to slice a piece of plastic card to simulate the curved internal structure. I've then left a sizeable chuck of scrap plastic that will be cut and filed to size using the fuselage curvature as a guide. Time will tell if this is successful, however it'll hide a nasty area that would have been glaringly obvious each time I looked at it. I'm hoping that it will all sort of blend in once the bomb bay doors are in position. Once again it's all guess work and something else that I failed to think about when choosing to open the bomb bay area. Still lots to clean up around the fuselage and then there's that clear nose cone that just looks like trouble to get right!. This kit is going relatively too slow for my liking, however as I've struggled to finish a Canberra kit (two failed attempts in the last few years), I'm determined to get this one home and at a standard I'm happy with. Cheers and thanks.. Dave 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Great progress , and loving the "mansize" coffee stirrer ! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Nicely finished cockpit there. Just enough to show it's there without any wasted effort. One of my favourite reads is Empire of the Clouds. The Canberra cockpit is described as an ergonomic slum in one memorable chapter. Tony. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Hi Dave, great cockpit! You forgot the throttle, and the half dozen little labels that tell the pilot what happens when he pushes it forward or backward... For the sake of completeness, I would really appreciate if these all important items were to be present... Beside these glaring omissions, it is a fantastic build!!! JR 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 Update #7 - starting to look like a Canberra! Got quite a bit done over the last few days, however have failed to photograph the various steps that took place. One of my fears was that the glass nose cone would not fit properly. This would have been pretty much my fault as I had not realised I filed two great flat spots when I cleaned up the left and right nose windows. If I was to build another, I'd cement the windows and nose glazing first, then file it all smooth thereafter. Thankfully a little bit of CA filler sorted this out however I diid make more work for myself in the process. The nose glazing still need their final coat of 'Future' however the micromesh hasn't let me down as the clarify in all honesty isn't that bad. New Bomb Bay doors were created from the one piece closed door part provided in the 1973 Airfix kit. This was cut in half (quite badly) and trimmed to size, hopefully they look something like the reference photos I was using. Wings and Hori Stabs were attached and all the large gaps filled with Perfect Plastic Putty. I'm not sure if these gaps have filled properly, however I am sure the primer coat will let me know if I haven't! To provide a little bit of interest I have also cut away the kit's elevators, however these still need to be cleaned up and re-attached in the common downward position. The canopy has been 'cleared' however not cemented as yet. At this stage this looks to be quite a good fit. Just the nose wheel well assembly to fix and then do a quick once over before hitting it with primer. I pretty much got to where I was hoping on this kit before another block of work so am pretty happy with my progress. Now stepping back and taking a look at this thing, I am quite happy with the overall lines of this kit. In my opinion this Frog Canberra really looks the part from every angle. I have not taken a micrometer to it, however the fuse, wings, engines just all blend in beautifully to capture the classic lines of this great aircraft. Well done Frog. Cheers.. Dave Oh... that's right, these two stash fillers found their way into my mailbox yesterday!! 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Looking good! That does look very Canberra-like! your improvements have transformed it. Now if only they did it with a domed canopy... Regards, Adrian 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 2 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said: Oh... that's right, these two stash fillers found their way into my mailbox yesterday!! Mmmm, where have I heard that before? 😀 It really looks the part - the general shapes are better than Airfix's 1/48 offering, especially around the tail area - very nice indeed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 4 hours ago, AdrianMF said: Looking good! That does look very Canberra-like! your improvements have transformed it. Now if only they did it with a domed canopy... Regards, Adrian They did Adrian, a few years prior to Daves 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 2 minutes ago, TonyW said: They did Adrian I actually have that kit. I think I've opened it once, shuddered and put it all back again. Nice box though! Somewhere down the line I'm thinking there could be a FROGfix mashup between the later FROG kit and the Airfix bubble cockpit one with the funny nose. I saw one flying at a Southampton air show in about 1997 and thought it was the coolest jet I ever saw... Regards, Adrian 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Great work Dave All the more impressive when you consider all the hosting work you are doing for this GB Cheers Pat 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 That's really good progress Dave. I'm sure this one will make it to the finish line. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 10, 2019 Share Posted July 10, 2019 5 hours ago, AdrianMF said: I actually have that kit. I think I've opened it once, shuddered and put it all back again. Nice box though! Somewhere down the line I'm thinking there could be a FROGfix mashup between the later FROG kit and the Airfix bubble cockpit one with the funny nose. I saw one flying at a Southampton air show in about 1997 and thought it was the coolest jet I ever saw... Regards, Adrian That's an interesting idea. I've never seen it done that way round but Ray Rimmell had a couple of articles back in the day where he cut both nose sections off at the sloped pressure bulkhead and grafted the FROG nose on to the rest of the Airfix kit. Apparently the fit was very good. The newer Airfix Mk8 makes that a bit redundant now but there's still no out of the box solution for the earlier bomber variants in 1/72. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted July 10, 2019 Author Share Posted July 10, 2019 29 minutes ago, John said: The newer Airfix Mk8 makes that a bit redundant now but there's still no out of the box solution for the earlier bomber variants in 1/72. Perhaps John, however this 2008 kit is literally covered in deep and wide panel lines that look nothing like the smooth skin on the real Canberra so this is one area where the Frog kit wins out. As for fishbowl 1/72 Canberra's there's always the SMS kit, however it's not exactly a shake and bake effort but does look good if completed well. Point taken though, it would be nice to finally get a good quality and effortless build early 1/72 Canberra kit but the major modelling firms don't seem to have the same opinion. Cheers.. Dave 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted July 10, 2019 Share Posted July 10, 2019 Looking good there Dave, I can see a good result coming from your careful preparation. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 Update #8 - Finally some paint! Apologies for dragging this one now for so long, however assembly has practically finished and it's now time to apply some paint. I started by painting the underside in what we all know as High Speed Silver. My favourite silver of choice these days is Tamiya's AS-12 Airframe Silver. This comes in an aerosol can, however I prefer to decant it and mix it with Gunze's Mr. Levelling thinner. If there's one thing that silver paint is good for and that's reminding you that your build skills are not as good as you think they are! My initial 'primer' coat did show up quite a number of flaws and I must admit that these did look worse it direct sunlight than normal indoor light. Either way, the joins were not good enough, so it was sand and refill time again until I achieved a better result. It's still not perfect by any stretch, however will be good enough for a classic kit of this vintage. Anyway, here's some photos, two after the initial primer and fix up sanding session and a few more of where I think I'll settle on. Cheers.. Dave 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 1 hour ago, Rabbit Leader said: If there's one thing that silver paint is good for and that's reminding you that your build skills are not as good as you think they are! My initial 'primer' coat did show up quite a number of flaws and I must admit that these did look worse it direct sunlight than normal indoor light. I am with you on that one Dave. having added some silver to the nose of Spirit of St Louis, I can see that there is more sanding needed on the joins - everything looked OK under primer though. This Canberra is looking fantastic after your tidy and silver respray. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 Looking good Dave. Taking one step back does help sometimes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 That looks very good - be careful not to get any blemishes on it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebra Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 That looks very nice Dave. Decanted AS-12 is great stuff isn’t it. I brush it on small parts sometimes, works pretty well for that too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted August 11, 2019 Share Posted August 11, 2019 Great improvements Watching , By the way is that Firefly the start of the HMAS Sydney brood ? Martin H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted August 11, 2019 Share Posted August 11, 2019 Hi Dave, terribly impressive build and the flawless painting on such an old kit will be used as an example for decades to come at the Australian Modeling Academy!!!! Congrats Sir! JR 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted August 11, 2019 Share Posted August 11, 2019 (edited) She's progressing well Dave,having a copy of this kit puts the extra work you've done into perspective,great work and that silver finish looks superb too! Edited August 11, 2019 by stevej60 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ventora3300 Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 Lovely silver finish on this Canberra now, Dave (your favourite AS-12 Airframe Silver, I see). With the Leveller added, surely you won't need any gloss coat before the decals go on? This certainly shows up the Canberra's huge bomb bay for it's size, and apparently it handled like a fighter. Fascinating subject and build - keep soldiering on. All the best. Mike. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 I suppose that there was the usual "trade off" performance wise - the big wing made it very agile and capable of high altitudes but probably slowed it down a bit. Still, it was groundbreaking when it first flew and even the Americans bought it. Not bad for EE's first jet! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now