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F203 - English Electric (BAC) Canberra B(I)12 - "Kiwi Konfrontasi" ++ Finished ++


Rabbit Leader

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It's been a long time coming, however the Frog Squad GB is now only one week away and officially open to start declaring our nominated entries. 

 

Introduction - 

 

First onto the work bench for me is Frog's classic rendition of the English Electric Canberra. Back in 1973 both Frog and Airfix graced the modelling public with 1/72 Canberra's. Thankfully, they decided to talk to each other to produce different versions of this classic post war jet. Overall, the Frog kit was rather basic however seems to compare rather well to published scale plans. The Airfix kit was more detailed featuring an open bomb bay and separate control surfaces, however suffered badly from an over bulged nose section that spoilt the look of this kit. My intention with this build is to use the Frog Intruder kit as a good base and embellish it somewhat with a few spare bits from the Airfix kit. Over the years I have also stockpiled a few AM bits so will incorporate most of these to help raise this kit to a (hopefully) higher standard. 

 

I've also decided to build this kit in RNZAF colours for a couple of reasons. I've always been attracted to aircraft that operated in the Malayan and Indonesian 'conflicts' and it’s a small way of showing my appreciation to a number of Kiwi BM members / mates whom I chat with on regular occasions. Throw in the fact that I don't have a completed Kiwi aircraft in my collection and it all starts to make sense. So here's a few obligatory Box top and Sprue runner photos of said kit so fingers crossed, by the end of all this mayhem, I can add a classic Frog Canberra to my expanding display cabinet. 

 

Cheers and I look forward to seeing all your classic Frog builds... Dave   

 

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Looking forward to this Dave,this kit and I have history,I bought it way back as a kid probably when it was just released and was gutted to find one of the

fuselage halves so badly warped as to be unusable,I had to fill in the complaint slip and post it off never thinking I'd see any action,sure enough a few week's

later a box arrive's with both fuselage halves inside perfect,the only time I've ever filled in one of these form's to this day!

Edited by stevej60
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Funnily enough @stevej60, my fuselage halves are as bent as a Queensland Banana as well, hence my desperate attempt above to tape and elastic band these two parts into shape. I don’t suppose someone has one of those original complaint slips handy, although Frog might have a Facebook page by now - pity I’m not on Facebook! 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Hi Dave,

 

Looking forward to seeing you build this one (RNZAF):popcorn:

I recall seeing Canberra's parked up on the apron at RNZAF Base Whenuapia as kid.

 

Roll on Saturday

 

Regards

 

Alan

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52 minutes ago, Greg Law said:

Good to see this choice. As you know my Dad flew in the Kiwi Canberra's on recon missions during the Malaysian emergence. 

Even more reason to get this one right Greg. Fingers and toes crossed I can bring this home and do it justice! 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update #1 -

 

Thankfully I found some time today to make a small start on one of my builds. First things first, the wife and son where sent away to work and the daughter driven to school. When I got home the two cats were lurking, so out they went too! That's better a little bit of piece and quiet to get things started.

 

Now as things go, this Canberra kit is a little on the basic side (as @stevej60 has already eluded too), however in my opinion it measures up quite well and looks to be a decent platform for one to add a little bit of personal flair. In real life, the Canberra is a very smooth looking aircraft so using this Frog kit with its minimal external detail will 'hopefully' end up being a good representation of the real thing.  

 

I first tackled the nose wheel bay. Frog provide a horrid looking piece of thick plastic that sits snug inside the fuselage cut-out. I sanded down the inside of the doors and used plastic card and strip to make up a box like structure. This will illuminate the see through appearance should one like to flip their model over and look underneath - something I seem to always do!. 

 

Original piece 

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Modified piece. 

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Next I tackled the engine intakes. A while back I purchased a set of High Plane Models resin engine starters. You get two types of starters in each pack, the short ones for earlier Canberra B.2's and these longer ones that are more appropriate for the B.6 and later versions. The Frog parts are OK, however these resin bits are much better. Some surgery is required to fit them so I hollowed out the inner section by drilling and sanding until I was happy with the end result. In the lower photo you can see the the modified engine front on the left and the original Frog piece on the right. 

 

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The internal fuselage glazing was added and the fit here was what I suspected, not exactly great but nothing that a good dose of wet 'n dry and micro mesh can't fix! Here's a couple of photos showing the parts prior and post all the sanding and polishing. The end result is not bad but much better than leaving them as is. That's it for today's update and hopefully I can boot the family out the door again tomorrow to get another good dose of bench time. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

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16 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Update #1 -

 

Thankfully I found some time today to make a small start on one of my builds. 

 

I first tackled the nose wheel bay. 

Next I tackled the engine intakes.  

The internal fuselage glazing was added

Great start Dave, and a bit more than 'small'! You've obviously got well into your stride here - we'll expect spinning turbines now! The black glazing frame is a great piece of planning and attention to detail (first tried on the Airfix Beaver?) because these are the things that can really draw the eye on the completed model. No rushing now! Good luck with this build. All the best. Mike

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Update #2

 

When considering a build like this, I feel its best to tackle some of the harder issues at the start. This way if your good intentions end in failure, you know early and can ditch the whole project and move on to something else. Most of the kits from this generation suffer from incomplete or totally non existent wheel wells and this Frog Canberra kit certainly fits that bill. Once again I resorted to the ever present plastic card and made some solid side walls. These were then sanded to a uniform height until I was happy with the end result. 

 

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Some thin plastic strip was added to the edges and walls with Tamiya's extra thin cement. Once dry, the excess was snipped off and filed flat. 

 

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The roof of the wheel well is another two bits of plastic card. This was was first scored and plastic strips were added to represent some detail. Hopefully these will all line up with the sidewall strips, which is highly unlikely but perhaps will be close enough. Once a wash is added, any slight misalignment may not be that noticeable. 

 

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That's it for the Canberra today. Slow but steady progress. 

Cheers.. Dave

 

 

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Looking good. I think the basic shape of the plastic is very good - with the extra detail you are adding in it will look like a proper Canberra.

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Update #3 

 

Not a heck of a lot done today as I took the missus to see "Rocketman" and will hopefully be cheering on Queensland's own Ashleigh Barty to her first Grand Slam Tennis final appearance - Go Ash!! The Canberra wheel well sidewalls and ceiling got a splash of silver paint and once dry were assembled as shown. I'll add a light wash later on in the build, so will leave them bright and shiny for a little while longer. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

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Great work Dave

I'm amazed you have found time for building at all with the time needed to keep up with all the builds on here.

Already looking forward to the next instalment 

cheers Pat

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update #4

 

Pat must be getting bored on his holiday as he's trawling (or is that trolling?) through all the dormant GB posts on here. I'd best get in before he fires a rocket my way! 

I had resurrected this Canberra build two days ago and will spend a little more time on it again today. I'm currently working on the wings and have completely assembled both sets, although I haven't photographed this far as yet. 

 

I first mounted the hollowed out engine nose cowl rings to the lower wing halves so they would act as good guides for aligning the resin Engine starters. I feared that if I did this the opposite way, one or both of my starters could have ended up cock-eyed or looking something like @JOCKNEY's avatar 🤪 !! Now I've only used superglue to cement these starters in place. I then had horrid images of one of these units possibly coming loose and falling inside that huge wing cavity. I therefore, future-proofed myself by finding two suitable sized scrap wheels (1/100 Boeing 707 I think?) and firmly glued these behind as best I could. I'm hopeful that this strong bond will survive the heaviest of my modelling knocks and drops? As one can imagine there's plenty of gaps and filler to sand so this will be shown in the next update once I get there. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

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I'll delete my chase up post and instead say ....

 

Great work Dave, an outstanding example you are setting as a co- host  keep up the good work !

 

Actually @vppelt68drafted that for me as he's playing good cop this evening  

 

Cheers Pat 

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Update #5

 

Just posting some more progress pics from today's effort. Both sets of upper and lower wing parts have been glued together to enclose the engine starters and the rather thick exhausts pieces. Once these units were dry, all seams were given a good sanding and filling with PPP, Mr. Surfacer 1000 and CA. I'll probably go over these with micromesh prior to priming. I had to hollow out the engine exhausts quite a bit and hopefully they look a little closer to the real deal. The first pic shows my exhaust improvement effort on the left and a still unimproved example on the right. Attention was also given to a series of annoying sink holes around the trailing edges of the upper wings. It's hard to tell if I've filled these enough, so may need to revisit this area after priming. Thanks to @PhantomBigStu, I now have a spare Airfix Bomb bay that sits nicely inside this Frog Canberra's fuselage. The cut down tooth pick is trying to straighten the warped section of the fuselage so that I hopefully don't have a huge gap to fill when the wings are attached (I'm dreading this!). Hopefully another update tomorrow. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

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