1/48 Canberra PR.9, XH168 'Eastern Promise,' 39 Sqn, Op Telic, 2003. Finished 24/06.

[DaveJL]

Hello all,

 

Here is my entry for this GB - Airfix's 1/48 Canberra PR.9 in the markings of XH168 'Eastern Promise' of 39 Squadron, operating from Azraq Air Base in Jordan, during Op Telic in 2003. 

 

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/124987

 

Delivered in 1960, this Canberra served with 59, 13 and 39 Sqns. In 1981, the aircraft was placed into storage at St Athan for a number of years before being re-activated for service with the then new 1 PRU (39 Squadron). This Canberra was written off in a landing accident in September 2003.

 

Kit:

 

 

Aftermarket:

 

 

Will be using a Pavla cockpit set, Hypersonic Models corrected canopy, Mastercasters corrected rudder, Xtradecals and an Eduard mask. I know there is an issue with the horizontal stabiliser shape/dihedral but I don't really fancy doing a lot of cutting and butchering so I'm content to leave it as it is.

 

I'll also be building this little kit on the side (it'll be armed so won't count in the GB  )

 

 

Also of 39 Squadron, this will be built wheels up to sit nicely on the display with the Canberra.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[Brad]

Excellent choice, welcome.

[Edge]

Great choices.

I’m part way through building the MQ-9. Nice kit but has some huge and unfortunately placed sprue gates. 
 

Edge

 

[coneheadff]

Great choice Dave!

Another one on my loooong list of kits I want to build.

[DaveJL]

Thanks chaps. Been itching to do this one for a while now.

 

2 hours ago, Edge said:

Great choices.

I’m part way through building the MQ-9. Nice kit but has some huge and unfortunately placed sprue gates. 
 

Edge

 

Usual Kinetic it would seem

 

[DaveJL]

Finally made a start on this one. Cockpit was first out of the box:

 

 

The Pavla set is certainly an improvement over the kit parts, albeit with fairly vague instructions. They don't reference what parts of the kit to chop etc for the fitting of resin.

 

 

So in the end I just winged it when it came to the cut:

 

 

I'd ordered a couple of other bits:

 

 

I've no idea why I ordered the Navigators ejection seat as it literally will not be seen. Was only a few quid so no harm done. The CMK IP was ordered for the lovely etch, something lacking in the Pavla set. The cockpit parts were all built up and prepped, ready for paint:

 

 

The aforementioned CMK (Eduard) etch will have to be butchered onto the Pavla IP as the CMK one is a bit of an odd shape. Should be fairly straightforward (I hope!). I set that aside and fitted the main landing gear wells to the wings.

 

 

That's about it, just lots of prep. The cockpit is an all black affair so that should be a quick enough job to paint. I'll add some basic details to the Nav's seat, before squirrelling it away in the tomb of a flight station. I've a few questions if anyone is able to assist.

 

1. What colour would the landing gear assembly and wells be?

2. Are the inside of the flaps the same as the underside of the fuselage (Light Aircraft Grey)?

3. Did Telic jets fly with the BOZ pod under each wing?

 

Finally, which of the below camera panels is correct for my airframe and time scale?

 

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

A bit of work done today. I'm fairly happy that the PR.9s did not carry the BOZ pods during Telic - the only image I've seen of a jet in theatre, granted it was XH135 and after the official end of hostilities, shows no pods so that'll do me. So I was then able to press ahead and close up the wings. But wait! The kit instructions give the option of making holes for the wing tip tanks if one desires. I did not desire but noticed they were already moulded in the plastic. So a bit of styrene rod and liquid sprue was required:

 

 

Once dry, I trimmed the rod down and closed the wings. As these were drying I wanted to build up the ailerons. The wings have the beginnings of two small blisters on them, which suggested to me they would continue onto the aileron itself. Airfix suggest you fit parts 34C and 36C, which are blister less. Ignore this as the correct PR.9 ailerons are included on the J sprue (forgive me, I forget the numbers and have already chucked out the sprue gate). Anyway, this is what the PR.9 ailerons on the top side should look like:

 

https://www.ulsteraviationsociety.org/canberra-pr9?pgid=kla2ppq9-14f520a8-f060-4b62-b6fd-809844c8f354

 

On a side note, the UAS website has some great pictures of XH131. I'm hopeful that once restrictions ease here further, I can pop down to see it. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been to the UAS since it moved from Langford Lodge many years ago. There's a pristine Buccaneer, Canberra and Phantom FG.1 (the team have just acquired a centre line fuel tank for this) less than an hours drive from here and I've never seen them!!

 

I digress. Airfix's instructions with my sophisticated computer edit over the top:

 

 

The different kit parts:

 

 

I then fitted to the wings, with an ever so slight droop as seen below:

 

 

Engine faces were also fitted:

 

 

I'd also not paid much attention to how big the Canberra was. Here's a reference shot for one of the wings beside a 1/48 Spitfire:

 

 

Not much, but took a bit of research just to sort the wings! I'm hoping to get some painting on the cockpit done next week.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[TonyOD]

10 minutes ago, DaveJL said:

A bit of work done today. I'm fairly happy that the PR.9s did not carry the BOZ pods during Telic - the only image I've seen of a jet in theatre, granted it was XH135 and after the official end of hostilities, shows no pods so that'll do me. So I was then able to press ahead and close up the wings. But wait! The kit instructions give the option of making holes for the wing tip tanks if one desires. I did not desire but noticed they were already moulded in the plastic. So a bit of styrene rod and liquid sprue was required:

 

 

Once dry, I trimmed the rod down and closed the wings. As these were drying I wanted to build up the ailerons. The wings have the beginnings of two small blisters on them, which suggested to me they would continue onto the aileron itself. Airfix suggest you fit parts 34C and 36C, which are blister less. Ignore this as the correct PR.9 ailerons are included on the J sprue (forgive me, I forget the numbers and have already chucked out the sprue gate). Anyway, this is what the PR.9 ailerons on the top side should look like:

 

https://www.ulsteraviationsociety.org/canberra-pr9?pgid=kla2ppq9-14f520a8-f060-4b62-b6fd-809844c8f354

 

On a side note, the UAS website has some great pictures of XH131. I'm hopeful that once restrictions ease here further, I can pop down to see it. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been to the UAS since it moved from Langford Lodge many years ago. There's a pristine Buccaneer, Canberra and Phantom FG.1 (the team have just acquired a centre line fuel tank for this) less than an hours drive from here and I've never seen them!!

 

I digress. Airfix's instructions with my sophisticated computer edit over the top:

 

 

The different kit parts:

 

 

I then fitted to the wings, with an ever so slight droop as seen below:

 

 

Engine faces were also fitted:

 

 

I'd also not paid much attention to how big the Canberra was. He's a reference shot for one of the wings beside a 1/48 Spitfire:

 

 

Not much, but took a bit of research just to sort the wings! I'm hoping to get some painting on the cockpit done next week.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

 

Wait 'til you see my Spitfire comparison shot 🤪

 

Going to follow with interest!

[DaveJL]

Cheers Tony!

[DaveJL]

Some progress today. Firstly, the cockpit parts were all sprayed black and once dry, details added. The ejection seats were painted up and the etch IP was grafted to the resin part from the Pavla set. Some weathering added and all sealed in with a flat coat. I also popped in the forward windows (I know these are in the wrong position but I'm content to leave them as they are and not do any re-constructive surgery!). 

 

 

Test fit with the ejection seat:

 

 

Navigators station (which to be honest might not even go in as zero can be seen of it:

 

 

I then set about some necessary surgery using the the Hypersonic Canopy. Contents first:

 

 

Basically the fairing at the rear of the cockpit needs chopped off; like thus:

 

 

With the new resin part attached:

 

 

No issues there. once that was done I was able to fiddle with and fit the kit part around the cockpit:

 

 

It's a bit of a sod to get fitting so I just dabbed some super glue at each corner once I was happy with how it sat. Now the Airfix instriuctions suggest that this is a mere drop fit once you close up the fuselage halves. Yeah, alright!!

 

 

Not really sure what's going on there. Nothing seems to be fouling the attachments so a lot of head scratching ensued. I've decided that the easiest way is going to be to attach to the cockpit to one side of the fuselage and then somehow offer up and glue the remaining side in place. Not quite sure how that will go; I'll find out tomorrow one way or another

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

A bit more done today. Firstly, the fuselage was closed up. The mounting of the cockpit was a faff and left a step all around. Nothing major, but filler was needed. Shouldn't be too tricky to blend in. I was going to drill the missing Navigators portholes before closing up, but these are provided as decals and I'm happy to compromise with that.

 

 

While that was setting, I looked at the nose cone. The clear part from the kit is too small for the aperture, almost comically so. A dab of canopy glue sorted this:

 

 

A few corrections were then needed:

 

 

The tail fin next. The fillet on the kit is a bit too long. To be honest, I wouldn't have noticed this if I hadn't stumbled upon a few build threads showing the error. Anyway, this is the real thing:

 

 

Followed by the kit part as it is, with the rough area to be sanded marked out:

 

 

And some sanding later:

 

 

It isn't exactly precision work but it'll suffice. Anyway, once that was done, I cleaned up the seam lines on the fuselage and fitted the nose. Again, there was a slight step which required some blending in. Simple job:

 

 

Note that I've added some tabs on the lower fuselage to aid in the fitting of the camera bay panel. How much of the Navigators position can one see. None? Good, because I didn't fit it

 

A final bit of work today was the large panel for the cameras. I'm satisfied that the correct panel is the one with the large rectangular window at the front. But on looking at the below picture, it looks like this camera has been replaced by a blank panel:

 

https://www.airliners.net/photo/UK-Air-Force/English-Electric-Canberra-PR9/1137469/L?qsp=eJxtjrEOwjAMRP/FcwaUUkDZ6MIIAz9gOQYilTayPVBV/XeaRmJiu7tn%2BW4GGgfjj92nzBB

 

So, I fitted the clear part, which is a good fit other than it sits slightly low, and splodged on some filler to cure that:

 

 

Nothing very exciting, but we're getting there.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

A bit more done after work today. Firstly, I popped on the horizontal stabilisers. As I mentioned at the start of the thread, I'm aware there is a shape issue with the dihedral, but I'm not willing skilled enough to do the required surgery so it'll stay as is.

 

 

There's a bit of a gap between the join so will need to sort that. I also test fitted the Mastercasters rudder:

 

 

Much nicer than the kit part but I did manage to break a bit off when removing it from the casting block so I'll need to fix that.

 

 

I then finished off the wings. The engine parts were fitted and blended in a few days ago (the fit is very iffy here) so that was cleaned up. Looking at the online references to hand, I noticed that the clear lens piece that Airfix provide running right to the edge of the wing is incorrect. There also appears to be a small bulge both fore and aft, whichI'm assuming is some sort of RWR, along with a navigation light to the side as seen in the pictures below (the second of which is from the Walkaround section on here courtesy of  @RichardE ).

 

 

 

 

 

My effort consisted of the sophisticated application of a small, thin piece of styrene tube sanded into some sort of shape. The nav light was again provided by Zap canopy glue which is nice and easy to shape:

 

 

Hard to make out but you get the idea. My next job, I can avoid it no longer, will be to sort out the filler around the cockpit.

 

More soon and stay safe.

 

Dave

 

[Tim Moff]

Some great stuff going on here @DaveJL - I promise I am not a copycat but have a similar build in fruition, needed some time away for work/sons footie after the Jaguar build - have this kit in the stash so great to have a Pathfinder probing the way ahead - mine will be a little spin off hopefully....

[DaveJL]

2 hours ago, Tim Moff said:

Some great stuff going on here @DaveJL - I promise I am not a copycat but have a similar build in fruition, needed some time away for work/sons footie after the Jaguar build - have this kit in the stash so great to have a Pathfinder probing the way ahead - mine will be a little spin off hopefully....

Thanks Tim, hope the thread is of some use to you! There's been a bit of work needed so far, but like the Jag, it's enjoyable Airfix stuff 😁

 

On that note, a lot of filling and cleaning up done over the last few days. The area around the cockpit required a few applications of filler and plenty of sanding to get it nice and smooth. Looked like a dogs dinner at the start but cleaned up well.

 

 

Will need to re-spray the coaming and rear panel black as these got a bit messy during the sanding stage. Now to the camera bay. This was a bit of a pain to fit, the locating tabs I fitted definitely helped, but was still left with a step at each side, though not as bad as the cockpit part. Some filling and sanding later and it was done.

 

 

That took plenty of time spaced over the weekend so I thought I'd sign off with an easy job and fitted the wings:

 

 

Finally looks like something other than a lopsided cockpit and filler! 

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[TimJ]

Great work so far, it's coming along nicely. 

[DaveJL]

55 minutes ago, TimJ said:

Great work so far, it's coming along nicely. 

Cheers Tim. Plenty of work, but enjoyable none the less. Certainly builds up into a rather large model!

[DaveJL]

A little bit of progress after work yesterday. Another clean up was done with some wet and dry around the cockpit and camera bay. It's as about as good as I can get it now, will need to see what the primer reveals. Hopefully nothing mind you, but need to re-scribe some lost panel lines in those areas. Aside from that, I fitted the rudder, slightly offset to one side as per some of the reference pictures that I have seen. Then a few antennae were added; I replaced the rearmost upper example with one from the spares as the Airfix part was too thick. XH168 also appeared to have the rail like antenna (?) below the cockpit on the port side.

 

 

My references showed that there is an additional antenna on the lower fuselage, aft of the camera bay, seen below, picture again from @RichardE;

 

 

So the spares box was raided again:

 

 

There also appears to be a clear nav light and another small antenna just aft of the circular camera, so will need to fit those post painting. My next job is to re-scribe lost panel lines around the cockpit and re-spray the framing before fitting the last few bits and pieces. In the meantime, the Canberra is a lot bigger than I thought, as Eduard's 1/48 Spitfire getting a piggyback clearly shows!

 

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

Small update from the last couple of days. A lot of the images I have seen of the last PR.9s in service show the fuselage without the rectangular bump that I'd added early on, so that was removed and the area cleaned up.

 

 

I then added the last few lumps and bumps across the airframe. 

 

 

I noticed a small black coloured bump under the nose, I assume some sort of sight or sensor for the navigator:

 

 

So I chopped up and sanded a bit of scrap plastic to a rough shape. Will add some Zap glue post painting to replicated the clear window:

 

 

Hoping to get the cockpit framing re-sprayed tomorrow and add the windscreen from the Hypersonic set. Once that's done I'm fairly confident it's ready for primer.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

A couple of hours done this afternoon and I think we're ready for primer. I firstly sprayed around the cockpit parts to tidy them up and used the rest of the paint to check the filled areas. Looked fairly good so I moved on and fitted the lovely Hypersonic windscreen. The profile is excellent when compared with the kit part. Well done @JeffreyK!!

 

The Eduard masks then went on; some modification needed to fit the corrected windscreen but easily done. The framing was then sprayed black.

 

 

Panel lines re-scribed also. The camera bay windows were fitted after the recesses were sprayed (black of course!) and masked up:

 

 

Final shot before primer:

 

 

Hoping to start painting next week.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[TonyOD]

This is looking super smart. I admire your attention to detail.

[stever219]

@DaveJL looking good.

 

The triangular fairing below the nose is the outside end of the navigator's periscope,  Apart from the two small (too small?) side widows this was his only view of the outside world for several hours whilst at work.

 

It looks like you've filled all along the belly insert, but part of this is the pyrotechnic bay doors which extend from the rearmost of the 3 transverse scribed lines adjacent to the wheel bays to the transverse line adjacent to the trailing edge of the flap wells.  There's a noticeable D-section fairing running along the top edge of the opening which terminates between the two uppermost reinforcing ribs just aft of the doors' trailing edge (you can see it in the image of XH135 near the top of the thread.  If I've posted out of turn please ignore my ramblings and blame it on Canberra-related OCD.

[DaveJL]

1 hour ago, TonyOD said:

This is looking super smart. I admire your attention to detail.

Thanks Tony!

1 hour ago, stever219 said:

@DaveJL looking good.

 

The triangular fairing below the nose is the outside end of the navigator's periscope,  Apart from the two small (too small?) side widows this was his only view of the outside world for several hours whilst at work.

 

It looks like you've filled all along the belly insert, but part of this is the pyrotechnic bay doors which extend from the rearmost of the 3 transverse scribed lines adjacent to the wheel bays to the transverse line adjacent to the trailing edge of the flap wells.  There's a noticeable D-section fairing running along the top edge of the opening which terminates between the two uppermost reinforcing ribs just aft of the doors' trailing edge (you can see it in the image of XH135 near the top of the thread.  If I've posted out of turn please ignore my ramblings and blame it on Canberra-related OCD.

Thanks Steve. I admire your OCD

 

The fit of the entire insert was quite poor so I did just fill the entire length of it. I could lightly engrave the filler to to highlight the doors, which should be highlighted with a wash etc later on.

[Adam Poultney]

On 11/04/2021 at 16:35, DaveJL said:

during Op Telic in 2003. 

A pretty good year I'd say, especially in May. I was born on the 8th, a month and a half after Op. Telic began

[Tim Moff]

7 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

A pretty good year I'd say, especially in May. I was born on the 8th, a month and a half after Op. Telic began

Bloody hell making me feel old - I crossed the border on the first night 😩

[DaveJL]

@Tim Moff it even makes me feel old and I was only watching it on the news as a wide eyed 13 year old!!

 

On a side note, I haven't done much work on the Canberra since last week. It was primed but there were a few areas that really wasn't happy with so had to re-sand and re-fill. A bit more work to do, unfortunately I lost a bit of interest in it.

 

 

It was set aside, while I focused on my Spitfire and starting a Me-109. In order to try and get some enthusiasm back, I ordered some more bits. The stencils in the kit are terrible looking but luckily @xvtonker sorted me out with a set of the Model Alliance stencils. I also noticed from my references that the PR.9 has a number of static wicks on the trailing edge of the wings, rudder and horizontal stabilisers. So a set of Eduard wicks was ordered along with a Neomega Martin Baker MK3 ejection seat. The Pavla one, on closer inspection, wasn't correct for a later PR.9.

 

 

I also ordered some EZ line for the wire thing(?) that runs from the side of the cockpit to the vertical stabiliser. No idea what this is but it's quite prominent so I'll have to add it:

 

 

You can see said wire quite clearly in this picture:

 

 

For a further attempt to restore enthusiasm, I painted the seat:

 

 

And for a further, further attempt to restore enthusiasm, I've booked a tour at the Ulster Aviation Museum later this week to get a look around their PR.9 (XH131). Hopefully seeing out up close will be the boost I need (needless to say, the missus is delighted to be dragged along).

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave