Yet another Canberra - Airfix PR9 ***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

I suppose given the nature of this GB it is not entirely surprising that there have been a few Canberras entered, though not quite as many yet as in the Vietnam GB where I built a B-57G, and a lot less than there are Mig-17's in the current Africa GB! Anyway I intend to enter another one.

I could do it in the earlier Green/Grey scheme to avoid a clash with other modellers, but I do rather fancy the final Hemp/MSG scheme, and bought a tin of Xtracolour Hemp at the same time I bought the kit quite a few years ago, so I will probably go with that. I have to finish off entries in another 3 GB but am nearing the end of those so should be able to start before long - looks like the first thing I have to do is sort out the rudder! A smear of Milliput extra fine should sort that out hopefully. I did build a Canberra recce plane quite a few years ago - the Matchbox PR9, and I also built the old Frog kit back in the 1970's which was a B(I)8 so this will be my 4th Cranberry. It looks like this is the 4th version Airfix have released starting with theB(I)6 in 1973, and later changing to the B-57B/E and finally this and the B(I)8 so just how "new" most of the parts are may be open to question! It certainly looks like the nose/cockpit area is relatively recent as are the BOZ chaff and flare pods.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited April 26, 2021 by PeterB

[stever219]

None of the parts in this kit or the B(I)8 are common with any previous Airfix Canberra kit.  You’ll need more than a smear of filler to deal with the over deep and over wide panel lines, especially on the fuselage.  I’ve always had a soft spot for the Canbera so I’ll enjoy watching yours make progress.

[Brad]

Welcome, the more the merrier, nice one.

[PeterB]

13 hours ago, stever219 said:

None of the parts in this kit or the B(I)8 are common with any previous Airfix Canberra kit.  You’ll need more than a smear of filler to deal with the over deep and over wide panel lines, especially on the fuselage.  I’ve always had a soft spot for the Canbera so I’ll enjoy watching yours make progress.

Interesting - I must have misread the entries on Scalemates - looked again and it seems this is indeed a new tool not a re-working of the 1972 one!

 

Pete

[Tim Moff]

Interesting you mention the Hemp/MSG scheme - according to MoD docs on the SIG that look official it was LAG rather than MSG? I don't know either way, be good to nail it down!

 

https://ipmscanberrasig.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=184431457

 

 

Any idea where the MSG references come from?

[PeterB]

Hi Tim,

 

Sorry - typo, getting senile😆!

 

Pete

[Tim Moff]

4 minutes ago, PeterB said:

Hi Tim,

 

Sorry - typo, getting senile😆!

 

Pete

No probs - I asked as I have seen it quoted as hemp/MSG elsewhere....am still looking at what to do - I have the 1/48 kit which is a beast, but apparently the decals are poor....and all the aftermarket online seem to be sold out....I may have a cunning plan though...

[Adam Poultney]

I'm slightly jealous of this kit! I keep on meaning to get hold of one of these... Looking forward to seeing any build progress

[PeterB]

Having finally got most of my builds in other GB finished or nearly so, I can make a start on this at last.

Here is the cockpit not that much will be visible - I did debate not bothering with the navs bang seat down in the "coalhole" but hey- I paid for it so I used it. Like the Bf 110 I have just built in the Africa GB this mould was released in 2010 though this boxing was a couple of years later. The instructions therefore the generation before the current "3D" ones which made it a bit tricky to work out where all the bits actually go - hopefully they are right! Unlike the 110 Airfix did not include any decals for the instuments so I need to do a little painting as I seem to have missed the pilot's LH console. Hopefully this will be a better fit than the ruddy bus I am also building in this GB and should progress a bit faster - fingers crossed! 

 

The Canberra is probably too well known for me to bother with a background history. I will limit myself to saying that when it entered RAF service in 1951 it was a thoroughly conventional first generation jet with straight wings of rather large area which made it capable of reaching higher altitudes than pretty much any other bomber of its day. It was such a success that it was either exported to or production was licenced to a total of 16 other countries including the United States. Once it was replaced as a bomber it still gave useful service as both a trainer and a photo recce plane, together with numerous other more exotic versions - if you wanted a reliable airframe as a chase plane or to test almost anything on the Canberra was often first choice it seems. The last PR 9 was retired by the RAF in 2006 but I believe a few Canberra/B-57 are still flying in the States for research and photo-mapping. Given the speed with which technology has advanced since the end of WWII, for the Canberra to stay in active RAF service for 55 years is perhaps an indication of just how right English Electric and their designer Teddy Petter got it (though the navs in the PR versions might not agree entirely)!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited May 25, 2021 by PeterB

[stever219]

@PeterB the cockpit that Airfix have given us is only pertinent to the first three PR. 9s as originally built.  In those jets the nav didn’t have an ejection seat, having to bale out through the entrance door, as did his compatriots on the B(I)8 fleet.  The nose also resembled that of the B(I)8 having the bomb aimer’s transparency and side windows.  The arrangement was changed to the now familiar arrangement of hinged nose with centreline-mounted ejection seat after XH129 was lost on a test flight, along with the navigator, when the starboard wing failed during a limit load test.  Fortunately the view of the interior on this model is very limited unless you’re going to have the nose swung open.  If you’re modelling it closed you’ve got extra room for some dark-painted ballast. 

[PeterB]

Cockpit finished and installed in fuselage together with nose bay and 47g of lead - hope the undercarriage can take it! I had to file a bit off both the cickpit insert and the wheel bay to get a good fit, but the fuse is now joined up.

The insert over the cockpit does not fit too well but is fixable, otherwise it is not too bad. In view of the comments on other builds I filled and sanded down the rudder - the grooves that Airfix erroneously put on it are still there but a lot less obvious. I have not bothered with the little windows in the nose as they would be a pain to mask, so will use Krystal Kleer later.

 

For some reason the instructions would have you assembly and fit both the wings and tail now, but I have gone out of sequence and fitted the bomb bay door as to my mind it would be easier to get at if it needed work and it would strengthen the fuselage before adding the wings. May regret it later.

Turns out it was not a bad fit after all.

 

Next up wings/engines. Anybody know what colour the insides of the wheel bays should be - Airfix say silver or white presumably depending on which of the 4 schemes you are using -though they do not tell you which is which. I am going for the Hemp/Light Aircraft Grey scheme.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[DaveJL]

Looks good mate, pretty much a scaled down version of the 1/48 kit I'm doing. Re the wheel bays, I asked the same question and did some research. Looks to my untrained eye to be white, or a very, very light grey. I think I'll plump for white over a black base coat.

[PeterB]

Thanks Dave,

 

I am modelling mine towards the end of its service career and am debating whether or not to ft wing tanks - I am also unsure when they might have used the Boz pods, leastways I assume that is what they are. Unfortunately none of the books I have are later than 1999 and I can find no mention of them. Any thoughts?

 

Pete

[DaveJL]

On 5/26/2021 at 11:24 PM, PeterB said:

Thanks Dave,

 

I am modelling mine towards the end of its service career and am debating whether or not to ft wing tanks - I am also unsure when they might have used the Boz pods, leastways I assume that is what they are. Unfortunately none of the books I have are later than 1999 and I can find no mention of them. Any thoughts?

 

Pete

Same with me mate! Again, the Boz and fuel tank question was one I asked but didn't get any information. From the limited information I was able to find, I don't believe the PR.9 flew with wing tanks and the Boz were not flown with routinely. I'm satisfied that my Op Telic machine didn't have the Boz pods.

[PeterB]

Ok, 

 

As I built my B-57G in the Vietnam GB with all the lumps and bumps, together with tanks and bomb pylons I think I will do this one clean - it should show off the nice lines of the Canberra even though the "fighter style" canopy does spoil it a bit perhaps. I will make a start on the wings and tail now that I have reached a decsion.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Wings done.

I think it was @Evil_Toast_RSA mentioned in his build the problem with the sprues - some of the attachment points are very big and a number are in very unfortunate positions - I had to repair one of the wings when a sliver of the lip in the aileron cut out broke off. The fit is generally quite good - far better than the ruddy bus kit I built in the GB! However, unless I am even more senile that I thought, some of the parts are numbered incorrectly either on the sprue or the instructions - specifically ailerons, flaps and exhausts seem to have been "swopped" round". Fortunately it is pretty obvious which goes where. I will now glue the wings on and leave them to set overnight. Better dig out a drawing showing the dihedral as Airfix don't provide any info for them or the tail, which was pretty poor to my mind!

 

This should go fairly quickly I hope.

 

Pete

Edited June 1, 2021 by PeterB

[PeterB]

The wings and tail are actually a pretty good fit and take up the correct angle more or less by default.

Still going to need a little touch of PPP but I am happy with that. The balance seems OK so I have put the nose on. So far so good.

 

Pete

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

8 hours ago, PeterB said:

Wings done.

I think it was @Evil_Toast_RSA mentioned in his build the problem with the sprues - some of the attachment points are very big and a number are in very unfortunate positions - I had to repair one of the wings when a sliver of the lip in the aileron cut out broke off.

 

Phew, not just me then :D! 

[PeterB]

I am having a bit of a problem with this one.

I have been using Halfords rattle can primer for years but for once it went on very rough - could have been the hot humid weather, or maybe it was getting a bit thick as it was near the bottom of the can. Whatever, I rubbed it down with a 3000 grit Tamiya sponge and it did not seem too bad, but after 3 thin coats the Hemp is still a bit grainy. I put 4 coats on the undersides and it looks like I will have to do the same on top, and then perhaps a coat of Klear as it is supposedly self levelling. Probably not going to be the best of paint finishes! 

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[Brad]

I have found that humidity really plays up with paint. During summer if our evaporative cooler is on, it's impossible to paint. It seems though you have done a pretty good job on the paint, it looks good.

[PeterB]

Given that this moulding is only 12 years old - maybe less, I had expected an easy build, but the fates have decided otherwise! Actually it has gone together pretty well, the only problems up to now being a combination of vague location instructions, poor sprue placement and my problems with the primer, but it is going a bit downhill at the moment.

Firstly, although Airfix provide a large sheet of decals for 4 versions, they seem to have been saving the pennies by expecting me to paint on the various panels on the underside! I used decal for the large black panel so that was not too bad, and the radome cream one on the other side was fairly easy to mask and paint, with thin decal for the edging etc, but the groups of 6 squares outboard of the engines were a bit of a pain. There is no "guide" moulded on the wing and the panel lines do not match up with the drawing they provide for painting/decal placement so it involves a bit of guesswork. They are about as good as they are going to get, but why on earth did they not provide decals - Airfix get "Nul pointes" for that. The other problem is the ruddy undercarriage. As I mentioned on another thread the suggested 45g ballast presumably is if you are putting it behind the cockpit, but as I am using thin window lead strips I got a lot of it actually in the nose so it is decidedly nose heavy. Not normally a problem but the nose leg is rather flimsy and the axle was damaged getting it off the sprue so I have replaced and reinforced it. Also, the main wheels have very little contact with the legs so in spite of a blob of CA they are likely to be vulnerable to the weight - I am not impressed.

 

Anyway, I am getting there slowly.  After a bit of filling and touching up, I have a few aerials, wheel doors, canopy and nav lights to add followed by the decals. The port aileron is a poor fit - flush at the top but not at the bottow, so maybe I should have squeezed the wing together a bit more - oh well, these things happen. I will be filling in small hole caused by the sprue breaking the trailing edge as I mentioned earlier, together with the rather too pronounced panel line near the wingtips - it is not an actual joint but Airfix imitating Matchbox!

 

I will be glad to get this one finished.

 

Pete

 

 

[DaveJL]

Nice job Peter. It seems some of the issues are replicated in the 1/48 kit. It's been a bit of a slog but will be a nice addition to the shelf, as I'm sure yours will be too!

[PeterB]

All the bits are now on (I think). Airfix seem to have become a little confused in their attempt to show the various different aerial fits for the 4 versions and as a consequence they show the large blade aerial part 24J both on top of the fuselage and also on the side, though clearly the latter is meant to be part 20J. In any case, two of the ruddy aerials including the aforementioned 24J pinged off into the unknown and have had to be replaced by DIY versions.

So, hopefully a final touch up and it will be decal time! I will be glazing the small nose windows with Krystal Clear as I mentioned earlier. It might just be finished by the end of the month.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[Brad]

Good work, keep plugging away mate.

[PeterB]

I mentioned earlier that Airfix seemed to have been confused about the various aerials - well the same applies to the decs it seems. There are 7 stencils for fuel filler caps and the the sheet has 3 different versions. The instructions say use decs numbered 27 but that in fact is a single yellow rescue arrow - they should have said 12!

Speaking of yellow, a lot of the stencils are that colour but unfortunately they are invisible on my Xtracolour Hemp paint. OK I know that different paint manufacturers differ in shades but this looks close enough to me. I also know that the original version used on Nimrod maritime recce planes was somewhat darker and more brown, which is no doubt why when they were on a deployment to I think either the Far East or the Med, some wit painted on the "Elsan Airways"  slogan according to an article I have somewhere - the authorities were not amused and it had to be removed when they returned home!

 

Anyway, nearly finished - just a few on the wings and the ones on the nose to do!

 

Pete

Edited June 25, 2021 by PeterB