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Eastern Express 1/72 Canberra - 1p change from the Big H!


Mjwomack

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Father Christmas delivered this..

PXL-20210103-172406178.jpg 

I've always fancied a Canberra and this seemed an ideal opportunity... but then I started looking in the box (should've taken the money)

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Checking on Scalemates, it's safe to say that it's been round the block a few times, but seems to have started life as Frog and with a spell as Novo. Obligatory warped fuselage, and parts for two versions. As shown in the instructions (well, I think that's what they're trying to tell me)

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Mind all the parts as so crude that part 45 could equally be a hanging rail from an IKEA wardrobe! There may be parts, but only decals for one version...

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And even then only one profile. I think the painting is standard, and I'll figure out what goes on the other side.

 

Flying Office Splodge-Blogg will be cluttering up the cockpit; this might be one time when it would be desirable to 'fog' the canopy!

 

Despite all this, I'm going for OOB light relief (not a kit to be taken too seriously methinks), I'll go for reliving my childhood and throw it together.

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Good afternoon. And welcome to the GB! I think your kit is an excellent choice for this LTAT GB! A bit of an historical kit and a bit of jeopardy!...........will or won't the fuselage halves go together! Great stuff! I hope you have fun building it!

Kind regards,

Stix

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I built the original Frog version as a B(I) 8 back in the mid 1970's and it was not the best of fits even then although it was only released in 1973 I think. The alternative markings seem to have been for a B(I) 12 of the SAAF and I might even have some in my Frog spares. For some reason I saw the black painted "flat" bomb bay door insert in one of my spares boxes the other day (I built the one with guns - the rest is long gone.

 

Good luck with this one.

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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2 hours ago, PlaStix said:

.will or won't the fuselage halves go together!

I'll be faintly disappointed if they do- I'm expecting an episode of Call the Midwife; "I'm going to need hot water and towels!"😬

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Relieving the wet Saturday afternoons of my childhood, I've made a start.

PXL-20210515-154551314.jpg 

Hope I can do justice to the hyper-detail of the flight deck!! Actually it's very relaxing knowing that this kit is so bad that nothing I do is going to make it worse and equally because I've blown the budget on it already there's no compulsion to change the decals or anything more ambitious- it is what it is.

Definitely regressive behaviour, except I haven't finished it yet let alone deployed it to a fight to the death in the back garden.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I knew things were bad (really, really must curb my GB over-enthusiasm) but didn't realise I was on the last page! The model is just as bad-  I'll guess that I'm the only person who is surprised that boiling water made no impression on the invisible Russian plastic of yesteryear and the warping refused to yield.

PXL-20210604-174931203.jpg 

 

The problem is the starboard fuselage half, so I'm trying to use the port side (while resisting the urge to drink port) as a datum and hang everything off that. So much for the plan- the canon pod is precision engineered to fit where it touches, and I bulked out the locating lugs with Evergreen strip. I then spent a lot of time (hence being on the last page) pondering whether to start at the nose and work rear or vice versa. I've decided against a full-frontal assualt because there's more surface area at the back to cement and am edging forward in what feels like rivet by rivet combat and would say that I'm just over a third of the way along now.

 

Too late now, but the mouldings are very 'curvy' and it might have been better to scrap all pretence of a 'real' aircraft' and gone for curved edges all round and a desk-top display model vibe. Still per ardua ad astra and all that.

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I'm having flashbacks to my mother demanding to know where all of her pegs had gone and then having to hand them over and watch my B-17's wings sproing apart.

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On 6/7/2021 at 5:55 PM, Ned said:

sproing

If that's not the OED's word of the year come the autumn I'll be massively disappointed. However, in this instance no sproing took place and all clothes pegs are accounted for, that's not to say it was an enjoyable experience but the fuselage is joined rather than sproinged...

 

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It's bottom is just as ugly is you'll pardon the phrase...

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I keep telling myself I'm making progress; at least my bank account is because I can't get to the LHS to see what they've got for a tenner so I'm stuck (literally at one point with the vast amount of CA glue) with this one.

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Well done on getting those halves to stay together MJ. I'm just imagining the tension your glued surfaces must be under!! Yes don't give up now - it'll be fine after a bit of sanding down. Looking forward to the next installment.

Kind regards,

Stix

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😀. Yep, Ikm on the fill, sand repeat cycle at the moment- is this the most boring thing in model making? With watching the paint dry you at least have a sense of satisfaction and progress

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  • 1 month later...

It's a bit embarrassing when you can't even find your own thread because it's so long since you last looked at it.

Well, mojo boost (aka deadline) has been activated, and the good news is that the fuselage hasn't sprung open. I'm not into lots of detail in the u/c well, but this time I felt the open plan approach was a bit too much not least because you could see right through to the flight deck!

 

So, I've crudely boxed it in with some platikard from the spares box. Wings also going on, after an eternity of sanding the fuselage into plausible mode.

 

One innovative feature is that the nose gear is steerable; not sure why you'd want to do that and I won't be taking up that option.

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Wings 'fitted', that's to say as cleanly as the rest of the kit. More filler required around the nose u/c box as well

PXL-20210815-181503762.jpg 

Hope I don't have to buy another tube of filler because there's nothing left in the budget 🤷

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That's the underside painted because I've emptied the rattlecan! Fortunately it looks pretty reasonable coverage. Lots of masking before the upper surfaces because I hadn't appreciated how complicated the break was. It was all so much easier on a wet Saturday afternoon once upon a time

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Hi MJ. I'm really pleased that you've been able to make more progress and I hope all goes well over the remaining stages of your build.

Kind regards,

Stix

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  • 2 weeks later...

Without the 11th hour, nothing would ever get done!

Another rattle can has given it's all for the cause of not buying anything extra for this...

PXL-20210831-111459487.jpg 

 

Hopefully there's as much left in the gray one as it feels otherwise it might be an interesting watiff of a camoflauge. Sub-assemblies all done so I'm actually surprisingly upbeat about getting this over the line.

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GOAL! The rattle can didn't run out- 1:0 to me

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Ah, yes, you've noticed that I forgot to put some brutal feathering along the masking on the starboard engine- sloppy game management and an easy equaliser for Team Plastic 1:1

I've got some Tamyia brush paint to try and soften that out with, but I've been warned that they don't always match the rattle can version particularly well- could be nerve wracking end to this one after all!!

 

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Down to the details and decals. The details don't worry me, but as for the decals...

PXL-20210904-085116497.jpg 

I've a bad feeling about the responsiveness of the decals themselves so they're may be another raid of the spares drawer yet. And the sum total of Eastern Express's placement guide leads plenty to the imagination. To help things along I've managed to find a grainy copy of the Novo box back for more clues. I think that like the rest of this model the decals are going to be more indicative than accurate.

And so, into the final over, finishing straight, penalty shoot-out, whatever sporting image you like!

 

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The decals are fully living up to my (VERY LOW) expectations of how they'd behave

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They're all massively think and ignore the supplications of Decal Fix, though are prone to cracking whenever the fancy takes them. I swear the teeth motif was on just fine and then 30 minutes later had contrived to break apart.

 

There's a very wise modeller on here who's signature block is that 'Life's too short to worry about all the stencils', in the case of this kit life too stressful already to worry about all the stencils! Not least because of the paucity of instructions as to where they go.

 

In a nutshell, enough of them have been wrestled onto the plastic and it's time for the final touches and a short hop (famous last words) to RFI airfield.

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Well that's that! In the RFI section now, but it fought me all the way; even after putting the prescribed amount of ballast in the nose it was still a tail-sitter. I fear that the warped fuselage is starting to overpower the CA adhesive, or maybe my mind is playing tricks on me but I'm sure there's a growing crack at the nose.

 

If this build lives long in my memory it'll be in the form of disturbing dreams! Thanks though to @PlaStix for hosting.

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Hi MJ. Well it seems that this build was going to fight you all the way!! Well done for sticking with it and it makes an excellent addition to our Gallery. Very well done! :worthy:

Thank you very much for taking part in this GB.

Kind regards,

Stix

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