B-57B Night Intruder

[opus999]

My CF-188 build has stalled out waiting for decals to come in the mail. So I'm going to start a project I've wanted to do for a long time:

 

 

I bought this in 1996 with the idea of fixing one of my biggest modelling disappointments ever. See, in high school I got this:

 

 

And I worked really hard on it to make it the best I could, and I got to the decal stage.... and... I got this:

 

 

 

which, does not look like this:

 

 

The decals were transparent, and while bright red on the sheet, turned a hard-to-see dark red on the model. I was terribly disappointed since I'd been looking forward to making that model for a while and the manufacturer let me down. For years afterwards I thought of ways I could re-do it and make it right, and it always came back to making some sort of stencils, painting them white and then painting the red over that. I just couldn't figure out how to make the small "U.S. Air Force" on the sides of the fuselage. But, I found the kit and bought it hoping I'd figure out how to do the red lettering properly someday.

 

A couple of years ago I was looking at other people's builds and found a few B-57s with bright red lettering, and they all had the same scheme, which meant they all used the same decals.  But no one was kind enough to say what they were!!  Well, one person did, which is how I got them. So if any one is in the same predicament I was: it is Xtradecal X72103:

 

 

So, away I go! The obligatory parts shot:

 

 

and the decals, which thankfully I'm not using because they are woefully out of register:

 

 

 

 

And here are the replacement decals:

 

 

I've looked at a lot of photos of the "Night Intruder" B-57s and most are quite glossy, but those that were in Vietnam became a little more dull. I think I will stick with glossy because the subject was at Laon Air Base in France, 1957, and I figure they kept the aircraft clean as it wasn't war time. I plan to dress it out with full ordnance (that is 2 bombs and 4 rockets per wing) -- I found plenty of evidence of peace time Night Intruder B-57s carrying bombs under the wing, but I haven't found any pictures with rockets. I've seen several models of peacetime B-57s with rockets, but I don't know how accurate that is. But, unless I hear any different, I'll probably swipe the rockets off my Testors B-57 to use on this one.

 

There really isn't any weathering on this project, except for the wheel wells and the cockpit. I couldn't find any pictures of these gloss black B-57s with noticeable weathering. probably because they are black. I plan to make the red lettering a little grimy, but nothing too drastic.

 

As for the Testors B-57, it will likely get hung up on the ceiling, but since the Xtradecal sheet has all the markings I need for a SE Asia camo version, I may consider re-making it at some point.

 

I really, really hope the lettering turns out as bright as I've seen on other's builds.  It would be nice to have this finished properly!

 

[Stalker6Recon]

This should be fun, I am definitely along for the ride! You are very different than me, that is for sure. But back when I was building in the 80's, the only available paints were the testors enamels and information on how to fix a mucked up paint job were non-existent, we didn't have the internet. I remember doing an F-15 back then, and messed up the paint job something fierce. I tried in vain to remove the paint with spirits, but it just became a gooey mess. So in typical viking fashion, she took a final flame flight out my back window!

 

Back then, unless you had money to buy magazines (I could hardly afford to buy the tiny paints, much less a magazine) modeling was a learn on your own experience. I would get tips from my dealer, but that was still of limited value. I had no patience back then as well, so when things went south, it usually always meant a quick death, when I think about it, I am surprised that I ever got a kit fully built at all!

 

Good luck in your do over!

 

Anthony

[StephenCJ]

I am following too, Have a few canberras to build

[opus999]

1 hour ago, Stalker6Recon said:

I am definitely along for the ride!

Welcome aboard!

 

1 hour ago, Stalker6Recon said:

when I was building in the 80's, the only available paints were the testors enamels and information on how to fix a mucked up paint job were non-existent, we didn't have the internet.

Yeah... I had that same experience. I had no idea what I was doing... I only had my Dad's advice (He'd been modeling for years). My first real glue-together model was in 1982. The Testors Canberra was built in 1987. So, it sounds like we have similar experiences.

 

The town I live in is the one I grew up in and it was small and there were no model stores here. I had to wait until we went to a "Big City" to visit relatives (Seattle, Portland, Spokane) and then my Dad and I would hit the shops.

 

1 hour ago, Stalker6Recon said:

I tried in vain to remove the paint with spirits, but it just became a gooey mess.

I tried this too! I tried taking the paint off of a P-47 I'd botched pretty bad.  For me, it didn't become a gooey mess, but the plastic became very brittle and broke apart when I took it out of the paint thinner. Ugh... when I finally got the internet, I read that brake fluid would remove enamel paint, so a number of good models with bad paint jobs got "the bath" and were refinished. Now, I've found Simple Green does a pretty good job of taking enamel off.

 

Of course, now I try to only use Lacquer, so I'm not exactly sure if the Simple Green method would work either.

[opus999]

4 minutes ago, StephenCJ said:

I am following too, Have a few canberras to build

Welcome aboard! I hope to make some real progress on this as we have a long weekend here in the US. But... I also found out about some chores around the house and yard that were planned, so that may slow things up a little!

Edited May 25, 2019 by opus999

[StephenCJ]

5 hours ago, opus999 said:

But... I also found out about some chores around the house and yard that were planned, so that may slow things up a little!

You could have a 'sickie'.

Edited May 25, 2019 by StephenCJ

[Stalker6Recon]

4 hours ago, opus999 said:

would hit the shops.

Wow, that must have sucked...what did you do if you forgot to buy the right paint or glue? Just wait until the next trip?

 

I am hoping to stay with acrylics, but been warned that they don't do well in the Philippines, I hope that is not the case, only one person has said this and he is tying to sell me his paints. Bit of bias maybe.

 

Thanks for the new tips as always!

 

Anthony

[opus999]

4 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said:

Wow, that must have sucked...what did you do if you forgot to buy the right paint or glue? Just wait until the next trip?

Well, I was lucky that my dad had a large supply of colors so, early on, my aircraft had "approximate" paint schemes. Of course, the color call-outs in Revell and Airfix kits weren't very precise either ("Dark Green", "Lt. Gray") so I probably did the best that could be done. When I started getting Testors kits and discovered FS numbers, I was unhappy with our collection of paint and then yes, I had to wait.  Luckily, my grandma lived in Spokane, which is about 2 1/2 hours away, so we would go at least once a month.

 

We did have limited supplies of "Basic" colors (red, green, black, etc.) and different glues here at the department stores, but that was about it.

 

4 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said:

I am hoping to stay with acrylics

Have you used a lot of acrylics? I have tried and had terrible results, so I plan to stick with Lacquers.  Actually I started a thread asking folks about Acrylics and what their preferred paint was. 

 

I live in an extremely dry climate, so I don't know anything about how paints behave in tropical climates. Did you grow up in the Philippines? It kind of sounds like you didn't.

[opus999]

9 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

You could have a 'sickie'.

I am feeling a bit peaked...

[opus999]

Here's a re-cap of what I did yesterday.

 

I put all the sub-assemblies together except for the main wings. For those I want to dress up the landing gear bays a bit before I glue them together as they are quite plain.

 

 

I see a bit of sanding in my future.  There was a little flash on some parts and others didn't fit together well. The bombs especially don't look real great, so there will be some work on those ahead.

 

 

Also, there is some raised riveting on the wingtip tanks that looks pretty bad, so I plan to remove that.

 

 

I painted all the cockpit parts.  I pulled out my old Testors B-57 instructions for the color call-out because the Airfix instructions only have the Humbrol numbers and I was too lazy to look them up. The interior gray called out was FS36230 (Dark Gull Gray), but my bottle was dried up so I used the MRP FS36237 I had left over from my CF-188 project.  They looked virtually the same (and I confirmed on colorserver later that they are very very similar).

 

 

 

 

Later in the day I did some more painting -- I looked up pictures of the B-57's cockpit and it looks like the side instrument panels were black:

 

 

I plan to do some drybrushing to pull the raised detail out.  Dry brushing is still a bit of a challenge for me to get right, so I don't know how well it will go. Practice makes perfect, right?

 

And I spent some time painting the seats:

 

 

You can kind of tell from the photos that they molded wrinkles in the seat cushions and head rests.  It would be nice to pull that detail out a bit -- I may try a wash to do that. After that I will do very light wear and grime in the cockpit.  Then it's off to the races as I glue the fuselage together and glue the sub assemblies on. I expect some work on the wing roots, but every thing else seems to dry fit pretty well together.  The fuselage will have a bad seam because of flash and I am a bit apprehensive about fixing that because of the raised panel lines.  I will likely obliterate the panel lines around the seam and I don't know how to fix that. Well, I could re-scribe, but I've established that I don't do that very well.

[Stalker6Recon]

41 minutes ago, opus999 said:

It kind of sounds like you didn't.

Nope, I just picked up my stuff and moved here after selling off what little I owned. When I landed back on US soil from deployment, I knew the place I left was not the same place I had returned too, and within a week of being back home, I started planning to leave again. I considered the places I had not been too, South America and Asia were the two top choices. After considering my injuries and how much I would have to rely on the VA for health care, the pick was made for me. The Philippines is the only country outside the USA with a "permanent" VA care facility. I say that with quotes because it looks like they are getting closer and closer to shutting it down, the benefits they give all other veterans, are now being denied to veterans living here. It's a real shame, many guys have built lives here, have homes, investments, and now the VA is abandoning us here. Can't just leave to the USA again, but also can't afford to pay for our care out of our own pocket, then wait for 6 months hoping to be reimbursed, they could even deny the claim, and then you are out the money, and not getting it back. It is a real shame what they are doing to us.

 

If I had known a decade ago that the VA would stop giving me treatment for my service connected injuries, I would not have moved here, but now I am stuck. Such is life, especially one where you are trapped in a socialized medical system, like the VA.

 

As for using acrylics here, I did spray a rifle about 4 years ago with Tamiya and it went down fine and still looks good today, but Tamiya is not a true water based paint. More of a hybrid paint. I plan on trying Lifecolor (they have a lot of FS paints, no charts needed) and maybe some Mig paints as well. All else fails, I will go back to Tamiya fully, just hate that they don't have an FS line and some colors require mixing to even get close to the proper color.

 

Looking good so far, making quick work of this kit, you might want to slow down, enjoy it a bit!

 

Anthony

 

[Johnny_Sokko]

Cool subject. I love the way the decals were printed absurdly out of register, yet someone still shoved them into the box at the factory!

[Stalker6Recon]

1 hour ago, opus999 said:

It kind of sounds like you didn't.

Nope, I just picked up my stuff and moved here after selling off what little I owned. When I landed back on US soil from deployment, I knew the place I left was not the same place I had returned too, and within a week of being back home, I started planning to leave again. I considered the places I had not been too, South America and Asia were the two top choices. After considering my injuries and how much I would have to rely on the VA for health care, the pick was made for me. The Philippines is the only country outside the USA with a "permanent" VA care facility. I say that with quotes because it looks like they are getting closer and closer to shutting it down, the benefits they give all other veterans, are now being denied to veterans living here. It's a real shame, many guys have built lives here, have homes, investments, and now the VA is abandoning us here. Can't just leave to the USA again, but also can't afford to pay for our care out of our own pocket, then wait for 6 months hoping to be reimbursed, they could even deny the claim, and then you are out the money, and not getting it back. It is a real shame what they are doing to us.

 

If I had known a decade ago that the VA would stop giving me treatment for my service connected injuries, I would not have moved here, but now I am stuck. Such is life, especially one where you are trapped in a socialized medical system, like the VA.

 

As for using acrylics here, I did spray a rifle about 4 years ago with Tamiya and it went down fine and still looks good today, but Tamiya is not a true water based paint. More of a hybrid paint. I plan on trying Lifecolor (they have a lot of FS paints, no charts needed) and maybe some Mig paints as well. All else fails, I will go back to Tamiya fully, just hate that they don't have an FS line and some colors require mixing to even get close to the proper color.

 

Looking good so far, making quick work of this kit, you might want to slow down, enjoy it a bit!

 

Anthony

 

[Stalker6Recon]

22 minutes ago, Johnny_Sokko said:

the box at the factory! 

When he said they were out of register, I thought he was nuts, and for a minute, I still didn't see what he was talking about and figured he was just being really picky. Those aren't "out of register", nothing can describe what occurred with these, seems like yellow and black just don't want anything to do with each other. And the "checked by Steve" guy is an idiot coke bottle glasses, no wonder he also didn't notice. (what does that say about me?) 🤔

 

Oh well, at least nobody paid for me to get it wrong, but I did recover fairly quick. There is off, and then there is OFF!

 

Anthony

[Nikolay Polyakov]

I love an Airfix kits, and Canberras! Looking forward for your build! 🙂

[Hook]

17 hours ago, opus999 said:

The bombs especially don't look real great, so there will be some work on those ahead.

 

Those look like nothing ever carried in / on a B-57. Presumably, they are meant to represent British bombs and are a leftover of the kits original B.6 incarnation. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

 

 

[mike romeo]

I understand that the nose cone has kind of a nipple shape to it, rather than a more accurate blunt cone shape, so you may wish to try some sanding and filling there if it bothers you.

 

I'm far from an expert on the cranberry, btw, just repeating what I read somewhere.

 

Regards

 

Martin

 

[Stalker6Recon]

What are the odds? After joining the build, I was reading one of my modeling magazines I bought last week from a local reseller of used books/magazines etc. The issue is old, REALLY OLD. But it was new when I bought it.

 

After flipping through and reading a lot about the Lancaster and the Folk Wolfe 190, I flipped the pages and this is what I found. Should have noticed, it is right on the cover as well.

 

Since this is the Brittish version, not sure if there is any info that might be helpful, but if you have a question, I can certainly check for an answer via the multi-page profile.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

 

[RidgeRunner]

You've caught my attention as I have a couple lined up for builds.... Eventually

 

Martin

[opus999]

4 hours ago, Hook said:

Those look like nothing ever carried in / on a B-57. Presumably, they are meant to represent British bombs and are a leftover of the kits original B.6 incarnation. 

I was going to post about that! As I was sanding them last night I thought they look like no other US bomb I'd seen. I think I could take the bombs and pylons off of my old Testors B-57 to use here.

[opus999]

4 hours ago, mike romeo said:

I understand that the nose cone has kind of a nipple shape to it, rather than a more accurate blunt cone shape, so you may wish to try some sanding and filling there if it bothers you.

 

I'm far from an expert on the cranberry, btw, just repeating what I read somewhere.

 

Regards

 

Martin

  

Martin,

 

The kit comes with 2 nose cones -- both the blunt shape and the nipple shape.  The instructions say that the blunt shape is for the B-57 and the nipple shape is for the RB-57. Good eye.

[opus999]

22 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said:

It is a real shame what they are doing to us.

That is an understatement. That's terrible. I am sorry to hear about that.  My dad is a Vietnam vet and I have seen some of the absurdity that Vietnam vets went through with the VA, but at least they didn't have to worry about it being taken away entirely!

 

21 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said:

I plan on trying Lifecolor

I've heard a lot about Lifecolor. In my Acrylic paint thread a lot of folks recommended Colourcoats to me. I haven't tried them yet but plan to on my next build (F2H Banshee). There's only one supplier for the US, so I have no idea if they're available in the Philippines.

 

[opus999]

2 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said:

What are the odds?

Wow, that's pretty cool!  I'll make sure to give you a shout out if I get stumped on something.

 

Off topic -- That Lancaster with the green/gray camo on the cover looks awfully nice in that paint scheme! Almost like a fleet air arm camo. That gives me some ideas...

[mike romeo]

50 minutes ago, opus999 said:

Martin,

 

The kit comes with 2 nose cones -- both the blunt shape and the nipple shape.  The instructions say that the blunt shape is for the B-57 and the nipple shape is for the RB-57. Good eye.

Thanks for the reply.  Glad it's not a problem for your build.

[opus999]

Just a couple of pictures. Yesterday I just about finished the cockpit. I drybrushed the side panels with gunship gray, and then I followed up with a very light drybrush of Testors Steel. I gloss coated the seats with Tamiya X-22 clear, did a water color wash on them, and then dull coated them.  I dull coated the floor and scuffed it up a bit with Tamiya black pastel.  Late last night, I glued the seats together and glued them in the cockpit.  It was after midnight, so I didn't do anything else on the cockpit, but plan to add some wear by drybrushing silver on the seat sides and by silver chipping on the control column, which is what I've seen in many pictures I've found of the B-57 cockpit.

 

 

 

I also worked on the main gear bays because they were completely plain. That would've been especially obvious in the final product because the nose gear bay has a lot of molded detail.  So I used my old Testors B-57 as a guide.

 

 

I used 1mm half round styrene -- It's a little bigger than the spars in the Testors model, but won't be noticeable.  I also wanted to use square plastic rather than half-round, but I didn't have any that size.  I think it will look OK though.

 

 

I also sanded the sub assemblies and got them all cleaned up as well as sanding off the rivets of the drop tanks and sanded their terrible seams.  I didn't get any pictures because it was after midnight, and the ol' brain was shutting down at that point.