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WH660 in 1/48 Scale: Red Dean Canberra that nearly was


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3 hours ago, Tornado 01 said:

One thing I will point out is that WH660 was built as a B.2 and thus had the different starter bullet shape on the intakes

 

The website UK Serials

 

Go to WH has a picture of the nose

 

That picture you mention is such a sorry one!  Now, regarding the inteke bullets, I think I've got it.  In the Alleycat intake set, there are two sets of bullets: a pointy pair and a rounded pair.  I gather the rounded ones apply to some B(I)8s and the PR.9s, while the pointy ones for most of the others.  However, earlier Canberras had short pointy bullets and later ones, such as the B(I)6 had longer ones reflecting a later version of the Avon engine.  What I have done is shorten the Alleycat bullets, so I think I've got them right but I'll check again.

 

As an aside, the rounded bullets are perfect as noses for easly development round Red Deans!

 

Meanwhile, I'm starting to mask-up for the camouflage.  Two days masking and two minutes spraying!

 

50874742038_ba6baa0100_b.jpg

 

Cheers and thanks,

 

Neil

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stumpy rounded ones are for the B.2s/PR.3/T.4 and conversions thereof.  The longer pointed ones were on most later build airframes B.6 B(I).6 & 8 plus PR.9 etc

 

But its a small point when going into the delights of the Airfix kit

 

Tim

 

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21 hours ago, Tornado 01 said:

stumpy rounded ones are for the B.2s/PR.3/T.4 and conversions thereof.  The longer pointed ones were on most later build airframes B.6 B(I).6 & 8 plus PR.9 etc

 

But its a small point when going into the delights of the Airfix kit

 

Tim

 

It looks like it did have the short, pointy ones.  Here's a picture of WH660 taking-off.

 

50877970753_161290c100_b.jpg

 

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Hello folks, my apologies but just a quick update this weekend although I hop you like the result: painted and varnished.

 

50895941521_bc5c8ef88d_b.jpg

 

50895229548_7c77794d89_b.jpg

 

My garage is tidier than it appears here!

 

Next up will be a few development Red Deans.

 

Cheers,

Neil

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To begin, thank you to @Tornado 01, @mark.au and @Nikolay Polyakov for your kind comments.  Nikolay, I'm going to flatten-down the radome - the paint was very fresh when I took the photos!

 

Meanwhile, while I let the paint dry rock hard for a few days, I have turned my attention to the armament: the Vickers Red Dean fully-active air-to air missile.

 

To recap, the Red Dean was designed as a fully-active air-to-air missile.  This means that it would be a fire-and-forget missile which, when its inbuilt radar locked-onto its target, it would continue to follow the target until it was close enough to explode.  Now, this was a big ask: to put it in context, the original Sparrow I missile was designed to be fully-active and it was a failure, while its successor, the semi-active (i.e. the launching aircraft provided the radar illumination and the Sparrow followed its lead) Sparrow II was, eventually a success.  The West didn't see an active fully-active missile (terminal phase homing) until the hugely expensive AIM-54 Phoenix, while it was only the AIM-120 AMRAAM before fully-active missiles became relatively common.

 

The Red Dean was a brute: being 16 feet long, whereas the Sparrow / Skyflash was 12 feet and about a third of the weight.  It would have been extremely 'draggy' and, dare one say, possibly not as agile as smaller contemporaries.  Ultimately, the aircraft for which is was destined, the 'Thin wing' Javelin and - potentially -  Avro Arrow were cancelled and so was Red Dean.  There were likely other reasons for cancellation: there was some prejudice against Vickers' ability to develop a guided weapon, but technology might have been a factor.  Red Dean was an early-1950s design, predating any form of miniaturisation and reliant on vacuum tube electronics.  It was quite probably 'too much too soon' and it is noteworthy that the British missiles that did make it into service: Firestreak and Red Top were much smaller and used infra red homing.

 

As an aside, the radar that the Red Dean was paired-with, the AI.18, did continue into service with the Sea Vixen and integrated successfully with both the Firestreak and Red Top.

 

I had built a prototype Red Dean using 6mm plastic tube and plasticard.  It represented a WTV-5 test round that was likely to resemble the definitive Red Dean Mk.1   Note the Firestreak for comparison.

 

50668465987_c5556bcf2a_z.jpg

 

I have now begun building two slightly earlier WTV-4 Red Deans to hang beneath the Canberra.  The principal difference is the rounded rather than ogival radome although the rear fins are also different.

 

50905517223_67a511a4d1_z.jpg

As I mentioned above, the spare intake bullets from the Alleycat intakes set could have been made as WTV4 noses!  Here is the WTV5 prorotype alongside two WTV4 versions built today.  Note the Sparrow, borrowed from a 1/48 Phantom kit, by way of comparison.

 

50906208662_f061d859a3_b.jpg

 

Next will be painting the missiles: the WTV5 will be a speculative white finish, while the two WTV4s will follow the scheme seen on the two Red Deans in museums.  Below is a shot by me taken at Cosford.

 

50905547453_6a51088d5a_b.jpg

 

That's all for now, more to follow.

 

Cheers,

 

Neil

 

 

Edited by neilfergylee
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  • 2 weeks later...

Some significant progress last week.  My main emphasis was on the missiles and I shall upload some more photos of the results shortly.

 

The Red Dean pylons were clearly special one-off affairs but, fortunately, they are well-documented.  I was able to adapt the B15/16 pylons through a great deal of carving and filing, while the rear pylons were scratch built from card.  Finally, a U-shaped styrene section acted as the launch rail.

 

Here is the starting point with the unmodified pylon on the left and the adapted version on the right.

 

50906086086_9298e35f1f_z.jpg

 

Here we see both pylons as WIP showing a trial fit of the rear pylon.

 

50908817171_7f78dc5ebc_z.jpg

 

Below is a reasonably well-known image of a Red Read WTV-4 test round on Canberra WD956.

 

50945108888_4244ec4558_z.jpg

 

And here is my equivalent with a model WTV-5 round added.  I have used miniature magnets as the method of attachment.

 

50932137468_675790143c_z.jpg

 

Meanwhile, I want to work on the underwing serials.  Using the Model Alliance set, one problem was that there was no letter 'H' in the set.  Therefore, I had to perform surgery on a letter 'P' and a straight number one.

 

50931447393_435863bda2_z.jpg

 

And so here is a status shot showing progress.

 

50932136806_c953b37e9d_z.jpg

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers,

 

Neil

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23 minutes ago, Lord Riot said:

Outstanding Canberra! Those camo colours look superb, so well painted. Brilliant cockpit too, love those realistic dials. Makes me want to make more Canberras!

Thank you!  You're making me blush!

 

Neil

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Nice work Neil, those Red Deans and pylons look superb.

 

As an aside, we often see debates about 'colour' on these forums and your two pics of the underside above illustrate well the pitfalls of even colour pictures, one looks grey, the other more towards blue, yet you only moved it approx 500mm to the left. It shows the vagaries of picture taking.

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On 15/02/2021 at 18:50, Head in the clouds. said:

Nice work Neil, those Red Deans and pylons look superb.

 

As an aside, we often see debates about 'colour' on these forums and your two pics of the underside above illustrate well the pitfalls of even colour pictures, one looks grey, the other more towards blue, yet you only moved it approx 500mm to the left. It shows the vagaries of picture taking.

 

Thank you for that: it's quite satisfying to model an unusual subject, especially where scratchbuilding is a must.

 

You raise a good point regarding colour: the top picture were I was half-way through applying the underwing serials was taken indoors at night using an LED lamp that, notionaly, produced a white light.  The second, showing the completed serials, was taken in natural light, indoors, on a dull day.

 

Don't get me started regardng TSR.2 undercarriage colour!

 

Cheers,

 

Neil

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Another update.  Somehow, as I get closer to finishing, progress slows down!  Here goes...

 

I have spent a fair bit of time working on the wing hardpoints and this included adding small magnets to act as the means of attachment for the missiles: useful as I do want to be able to swap between marks of Red Dean.

 

50974361662_dd9b260386_c.jpg

 

 

Meanwhile, there was one detail I was going to have to scratchbuild.  Canberras used for weapons drop and launch trials carried camera pods at their wingtips, replacing the more usual tanks.  These had a very distinctive shape and I am not aware of any accessories that share their appearance.

 

50974295616_b00932983a_o.png

 

Therefore, I decided to adapt one of the bomb halves by shortening it, bulding it up with scrap and then filler.

 

50965433381_b587d5c301.jpg

 

Things did get disgusting for a while but as can ben seen, I was able to produce a suitably representative shape:

 

50965403581_7a34365ecc.jpg

 

The overall effect of the hardpoints, missile and camera pod seems to be satisfactory.  Note also the wingtip pitot which was a shortened F-100 by Czech Master and the slightly drooped flaps attached by short brass rod pins.

 

50974361652_65440b3e8b_c.jpg

 

Another area for attention was the markings.  Looking at this image from Black Box Canberras, I realised that not only were the ejection triangles of a slightly different design to the usual ones we see on more recent images, but the emergency access signs differed from the kit.

 

50973685798_87eb2cf920.jpg

 

So, I ended-up printing my own detail decals.  I use PowerPoint to design them and it does a good job.

 

50974492202_0d93faac0b_c.jpg

 

There is only one problem with self-printed decals: they are rather thin and you can't print white.  You can buy clear or white decal film but if you choose white, then it's no use for detailed items because you have to trim the decal to remove all the white film.

 

50974258041_908978ff47_c.jpg

 

As you can see, the decals are a bit silvery (I'll fix that) and you can see the contrast between the kit's fire extingusher decal and my self-printed efforts.  Frankly, I don't think they look outrageously dark but I am going to have to print a sheet for the fire extinguisher.

 

Therefore, this is the present state of play:

 

50973511338_9c9bab34fd_c.jpg

 

Outstanding tasks:

 

  1. Remaining decals;
  2. Add vortex generators to the fin (long nose-specific);
  3. Bomb bay opening/closing mechanism;
  4. Paint aerials into leading edges (Red Dean-specific).
  5. Light spray of varnish to seal the deal.

 

And then onto the next project!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Neil

 

Edited by neilfergylee
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