GWH TSR2

[Adam Poultney]

Now that I've finished my Vulcan B1a conversion, I am starting work on a TSR2. I did think about building this a while ago but I decided not to so a lot of bits had been cut from the frames and test fitted.

I am going to build this in the gear up configuration using the stand provided in the kit, I also intend to have the air brakes deployed, possibly with the bomb bay opened up. 

 

 

As this is 1:144, the cockpit isn't too important. A simple black paintjob will do, pilots (also included in the kit) will be added later.

I glued the upper and lower fuselage parts together and added the intake cones using the fuselage side parts to align them correctly. There are a few sink marks around the nose which have to be dealt with. 

 

 

I've not quite decided what I want to do when I paint this. I'm leaning towards XR219, the first completed prototype and the only TSR2 to fly, but also like the idea of a what-if TSR2 early on in its hypothetical service life, or even just doing one of the later prototypes which never actually flew.

 

[exdraken]

That is NOT a Vulcan!

How dare you!

 

Nice

 

[Britman]

Yeah, stop messin abbaat.🙃

 

Keith

[Sturmovik]

Go for the what if route, it'll be better than having to paint a boring white scheme.

 

As a matter of fact, I'm also planning to buy a Mirage 2000 from Kinetic and paint as a "what if" Fuerza Aérea Argentina machine.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Sturmovik

[Adam Poultney]

17 hours ago, exdraken said:

That is NOT a Vulcan!

How dare you!

 

Nice

 

I'm sorry! 

 

I do quite like the idea of building a narrow intake early B2 soon though.....

 

16 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

Go for the what if route, it'll be better than having to paint a boring white scheme.

I like doing white though, don't have to bother with masking camo. 

 

The fuselage sides with intake parts were glued to the rest of the fuselage. I used plastic card strips to support the gear doors and stuffed the wheel wells with blue tack to further support the gear doors. Without this, it appears that the gear doors wouldn't fit so well and could be very flimsily attached.

 

 

 

I got a bit of dryfitting done to see how well everything should fit together. Looks like from here it will all fit near perfectly with only minor gaps. which will be easy to fill.

 

 

 

[amos brierley]

17 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

Go for the what if route, it'll be better than having to paint a boring white scheme.

So, what you’re saying is that my latest creation, in Ready For Inspection, is well, just not good enough  😲     I thought I’d dressed it up quite nicely.    🥳    (  😃  ).

 

A great source of ideas.

 

Coming along nicely Adam.  🙂

[Britman]

Looks like it's going a thousand miles an hour on the stand!

 

Keith

[Adam Poultney]

This white plastic makes this difficult to get photos of. Anyway, canopy and wings on. I had a little difficulty with the control surfaces not fitting correctly but they're on now. Nose cone is just blue tacked still.

I've had to go with airbrakes retracted, the supports for them just broke on being removed from the sprue. Easy to fix but I don't trust myself not to damage them again later.

 

I'd also like to hear any thoughts on what schemes the TSR2 would realistically have worn had it gone into service, especially hypothetical early schemes. Would they have kept the white or perhaps done camo over white? What serials would likely have been allocated to early production batches?

 

After looking around for a while I found this one I quite like

 

 

This one also I quite like. I noticed that both have very similar camo patterns; was a standard TSR2 camo designed or is this just what books and aftermarket decal sheets have ended up depicting with no actual basis in reality?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[general melchett]

As far as I'm aware and after talking to several members of our Project Cancelled SIG (including Damien Burke, Chris Gibson and Joe Cherrie),  there weren't any camo schemes drawn up for the aircraft as it was unlikely to have gone into service as designed/built, we just decided on something that appeared to fit the period.

As for serials, the info I was given stated that three completed airframes, XR224, XR225, XR226 and one incomplete airframe, XR227, were scrapped following the decision to cancel and that four further airframe serials, XR228 to XR231 were allocated but apparently not built. Construction of a further 10 aircraft, given serials XS660 to XS669 were started but all partly built airframes were scrapped. The last serial of that batch, XS670 was listed as cancelled, along with another batch of 50 aircraft, XS944 to XS995.

 

I built this little kit quite a while back, (Robvulcan was kind enough to throw one my way) and this time I thought I'd stick with the anti-flash white with low-viz markings (9 squadron) but this time kit it out with four Martels and that huge underbelly tank. Nice, simple kit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here with a 57 squadron Avro 730.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by general melchett

[Head in the clouds.]

I cannot see any pics General, I am gutted....🙁

[Bill Bunting]

Nice one, I built the same kit a few years ago as a trio with a Victor and a Vulcan all from GWH.

It looks best in white.

[GrahamS]

2 hours ago, general melchett said:

 

And here with a 57 squadron Avro 730.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blimey, didn’t realise the 730 was so big!

 

Graham

[Adam Poultney]

 

On 13/04/2021 at 18:49, general melchett said:

As far as I'm aware and after talking to several members of our Project Cancelled SIG (including Damien Burke, Chris Gibson and Joe Cherrie),  there weren't any camo schemes drawn up for the aircraft as it was unlikely to have gone into service as designed/built, we just decided on something that appeared to fit the period.

As for serials, the info I was given stated that three completed airframes, XR224, XR225, XR226 and one incomplete airframe, XR227, were scrapped following the decision to cancel and that four further airframe serials, XR228 to XR231 were allocated but apparently not built. Construction of a further 10 aircraft, given serials XS660 to XS669 were started but all partly built airframes were scrapped. The last serial of that batch, XS670 was listed as cancelled, along with another batch of 50 aircraft, XS944 to XS995.

 

I built this little kit quite a while back, (Robvulcan was kind enough to throw one my way) and this time I thought I'd stick with the anti-flash white with low-viz markings (9 squadron) but this time kit it out with four Martels and that huge underbelly tank. Nice, simple kit.

 

Wow! I really like the black nose on the TSR2, I might have to copy that. 

Info on the serials is quite useful, I can very easily print some in the appropriate size if I need to. I'm still undecided on the scheme I'll paint.

 

With some rare sunny weather the other day I could go outside to take photos again. Control surfaces all on now. 

Yesterday, masking. Very simple on the TSR-2, not many panels.

 

[amos brierley]

Hi Adam.     You don’t see very often a model on a display base,  this one’s all very Corporate.....    One thing in service A/C would have differed from would have been the glass fibre reinforced panels G.F.R.P would have been black. Fancy painting the nose radome, wing tip I.L.S, wing ‘H.F Notch’ and fin cap black?    Coming along nicely- nicely. 😉. 
 

[Adam Poultney]

16 minutes ago, amos brierley said:

One thing in service A/C would have differed from would have been the glass fibre reinforced panels G.F.R.P would have been black. Fancy painting the nose radome, wing tip I.L.S, wing ‘H.F Notch’ and fin cap black?    Coming along nicely- nicely. 😉.

If I can figure out which panels all of those are....

 

16 minutes ago, amos brierley said:

Hi Adam.     You don’t see very often a model on a display base,  this one’s all very Corporate.....    

 

 

I've done quite a few on stands. Aircraft are supposed to fly

 

 

Same one with one of my Vulcan B1as next to it

 

Mikromir Victor and a diecast Valiant

 

 

 

 

[amos brierley]

Superb model collection, fantastic display case. 😃

[stever219]

On 4/13/2021 at 6:49 PM, general melchett said:

As far as I'm aware and after talking to several members of our Project Cancelled SIG (including Damien Burke, Chris Gibson and Joe Cherrie),  there weren't any camo schemes drawn up for the aircraft as it was unlikely to have gone into service as designed/built, we just decided on something that appeared to fit the period.

As for serials, the info I was given stated that three completed airframes, XR224, XR225, XR226 and one incomplete airframe, XR227, were scrapped following the decision to cancel and that four further airframe serials, XR228 to XR231 were allocated but apparently not built. Construction of a further 10 aircraft, given serials XS660 to XS669 were started but all partly built airframes were scrapped. The last serial of that batch, XS670 was listed as cancelled, along with another batch of 50 aircraft, XS944 to XS995.

 

Somewhere I have a copy of a drawing provided to me by a member of the What If SIG showing the camouflage scheme intended for application to the Type 579 batch, XS660 to '670.  I'm pretty certain that it's reproduced in "Britain's Lost Bomber".

 

Serials allocated for TSR 2s were XR219 to '227, XS660 to '670, XS944 to '954 and XS977 to '995.  Of these only XR219 to '221 had been completed by cancellation day.  The fuselages of '222 to '224, '226 and '227 were complete in as much as their four main sections had been joined but final riveting up had not been completed on the later jets.  XR225's front and centre fuselage had been transported to Salmesbury and was in the join up jig with the rear fuselage by cancellation day.  Wings for aircraft up to XR226 were complete and awaiting fitting.  The first components for XS944 were due in their assembly jigs on cancellation day. 

 

Scrapping began almost immediately, the very incomplete rear fuselages of XS667 to '670 were taken out of their jigs in the week of the cancellation with those of most of the XS batch following within a week.  Most of the completed fuselages, including XR225, lingered until September 1965 before being torched into manageable chunks to be trucked away.

[Adam Poultney]

 

It's a black TSR2 and my camera really doesn't like this. I primed it last night. I think I'm going to go with a white aircraft, but whether that will be a prototype or XS serial I don't know

 

[Adam Poultney]

I've hit a bit of a motivational block on this model, I might shelve the model for a few weeks to build something for the Unarmed Group Build then return to this and finish it off. This should also give me some time to research the TSR2 a bit more to make a decision on what scheme to go with

[robvulcan]

Very nice work as always mate. Can’t believe how long I’ve been away from here. Lots of catching up to do. 
Nice to see how this kit came out. 
cheers dude