Brigbeale Posted October 18, 2021 Author Share Posted October 18, 2021 The sprue goo had set/cured when I started tonight’s modelling. it was sanded back and left a seamless joint along the wing-to-fuselage joint. I then mixed up the colour for the undersides which was one part Sky Grey to 2 parts Chrome Silver. I started by airbrushing it on to the weapons bay and main undercarriage doors. The colour looked good so I airbrushed it onto Canberra itself. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 Looks very nice with the underside painted, the other models look great too. I have the Airfix 48th kit of this type and they call out Humbrol 11 for this scheme underneath, that seems too shiny and prefer your mix. Great job Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted October 19, 2021 Share Posted October 19, 2021 Now you're talking! That's really nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 20, 2021 Author Share Posted October 20, 2021 (edited) I spent yesterday evening masking the Canberra to stop any grey or green paint curling around the edges and settling on the silver-grey on the undersides. Tonight, I started by airbrushing the upper surfaces with Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea Gray 2 RAF. Heres the Canberra on my painting/airbrushing mat. I gave it an hour to dry and then freehand painted the Tamiya XF-81 Dark Grey 2 RAF. I think it turned out pretty well. That was also given an hour to dry and I then gave it the first of two coats of my Astonish Floor Polish. As a piece of masking came away from the canopy I got a bit a carried away and removed all of the masking. That looks very good except some dust has managed to fine it’s way inside🙄. Edited October 20, 2021 by Brigbeale 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 Oooooo looking really nice with the paint on, great work on the camouflage scheme. Shame about the dust, I have the same on my Anson at the mo , tried hard to keep out but some sneaked in !!! Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Beautifully done! I'm really impressed by the steadiness of your freehand airbrush work. Remember that the top color does wrap around the leading edges of the wings and tail surfaces, though. Will you opt for a glossy, or a flat finish? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 9 hours ago, Brigbeale said: I think it turned out pretty well. I'd say! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 13 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: Beautifully done! I'm really impressed by the steadiness of your freehand airbrush work. Remember that the top color does wrap around the leading edges of the wings and tail surfaces, though. Will you opt for a glossy, or a flat finish? I have wrapped the main wings but forgot the tail wings (sorry - stabilisers)😖. I’ll mask them tonight and brush them in. The airbrushing took me nearly an hour! There were a couple of stray sprays which meant the pattern had to be extended to cover them. For the finish, I’m opting for semi gloss which is what my floor polish gives anyway. I feel a full gloss coat is too shiny in this scale. I might try a patch test of Matt to see first though. Edited October 21, 2021 by Brigbeale 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 Tonight, it was time to start decalling. YAY!!! The decals to be used were Airfix ones kindly donated by @Hook. There are a decals on the original sheet which aren’t on the Airfix sheet and vice-versa so, hopefully I can use a mix of the two. I started with the dashed lines on the underside of the main wings. They turned out to be a bit of a pain as they broke easily so it was a case of piece it them together while trying to maintain the straight line. Once they were on, I started with the yellow ones on top of the wings - with the same problems. I then placed the two main roundels on top of the main wings. Due to the fragile nature of the decals, I opted to let them dry before the application of the red dot in the centre. To end tonight’s session, gave the applied decals a coat of MicroSol. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 That looks great! I'm more familiar with US Canberras so this is a new camo scheme for me. I rather like it! Nice paint work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 Great to see the decals going on. Some great patience exhibited getting the broken lines straight. Does look good. Looking forward to seeing this beautiful Looking model decalled up. Great work Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 18 hours ago, Brigbeale said: The decals to be used were Airfix ones kindly donated by @Hook Glad to see you put them to such good use! Cheers, Andre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 22, 2021 Author Share Posted October 22, 2021 Tonight my foreshortened session saw me applying more decals. I started off with the red dots on the upper wing roundels. The port one was fine but the starboard one split down the middle. I pieced it back together as best as it would go, but it will need a touch up in the middle. I then flipped the Canberra over and cut out the two large XM277 decals. Despite a good soak in warm water, one split in two places on the ‘M’. Again I pieced it back together and again it’ll need a touch up. For the other side, I decided to apply the letters and numbers individually so I cut between each and gave them a good soak. This seemed to do the trick and they applied as expected. I just kept checking to make sure they were all in line with each other. Thats when my son came in and we had to change his headlamp units on his Mini Cooper S. Oh well - I will hopefully get more done tomorrow. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 Oooooo very nice indeed, glad those serials went on okay in the end. Hope you hot the headlamp sorted. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 I was actually managed to get an (almost) uninterrupted session in tonight! More decalling was called for, so that’s what I did - although I’ve still not finished it. The first decal on was the shark mouth from the Airfix set. Again, even though it was soaked in warm water until it just started to lift from the backing paper, the decal still split into 4 pieces. I placed the biggest part and built the rest back up from there. There’s a couple of hairline cracks showing but I’ll see what they look like once the MicroSol has worked it’s magic. The eyes were next followed by the ejection seat decals and the rest of the nose stencils. Then it was time for the 2 decals I was dreading the most - given the ease with which others have split - the waist band with the two roundels. On the original kit this decal is one piece, but with the Airfix ones, it’s a top half with the two roundels (minus the red dots) and a separated bottom half. With some trepidation, I soaked the upper decal first. Surprisingly it went on without splitting as did the lower half. I had to brush more water on to stop them from settling as I had to move them rearwards - probably due to a different diameter of fuselage between the Frog/Eastern Express and Airfix kits. The aircraft serial numbers just fitted in the space between the waistband and the rear stabilisers. I still have the tail-fin decals to apply along with the fuselage access panel decals near the waist-band. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 Looking mighty fine from here! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 Looks absolutely splendid. I think I have this scheme in my boxing. Very tempting!!! Great work Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 Really cool that the fuselage bands went on well. About those fuselage roundels, though--the red centers appear much too small. Is it possible to get larger meatballs to put inside them? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 24, 2021 Author Share Posted October 24, 2021 6 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: About those fuselage roundels, though--the red centers appear much too small. Is it possible to get larger meatballs to put inside them? I was looking at the model just now and I have come to the same conclusion about the dots - they’re too small. I use have missed that while decalling last night when even one of the dots split into 3 pieces🙄. I’ll have a look in my spare decal stash to see if I’ve got any larger ones. If not, I’ll make some replacements. I have to do the r/w/b tail ones anyway as the originals are discoloured and wouldn’t blend in with the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 24, 2021 Author Share Posted October 24, 2021 (edited) After a quick look through the spare decals, I found these from my early Airfix Wellington/Brooklands Wellington restoration/conversion. They’re a tad brighter though. So, I put them on and they look much better. They look more like the Type D roundels rather than the Type A ones from the decal sheet typically used on the lighter underside surfaces of WW2 aircraft. Edited October 24, 2021 by Brigbeale 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 Getting better all the time! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 Superb work with this old classic, not sure many would have been brave enough to tackle it but you have done lovely work here. I have heard that in some regards the Frog Canberra is more accurate than more recent offerings. Nice correction with the roundel decals, I hope you don't mind me pointing this out as an observation, but the rear part of the pilot's canopy was metal and painted in the airframe colour, ie not clear. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 24, 2021 Author Share Posted October 24, 2021 1 hour ago, 71chally said: Superb work with this old classic, not sure many would have been brave enough to tackle it but you have done lovely work here. I have heard that in some regards the Frog Canberra is more accurate than more recent offerings. Nice correction with the roundel decals, I hope you don't mind me pointing this out as an observation, but the rear part of the pilot's canopy was metal and painted in the airframe colour, ie not clear. Thanks for the heads up. Those bits of dust are really bugging me so I’m going to take the canopy off and sort it so I’ll sort it at the same time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 24, 2021 Author Share Posted October 24, 2021 Well, that’s the decalling all but done. There’s some stencils on the original kit sheet which aren’t present on the Airfix ones. I need to look at some Walkaround photos to see if they are present and where they go on an actual Canberra. I’ve used the Saint emblems from the original kit as they were clearer in appearance. I’ve also used the original r/w/b insignia and I’m glad to say they weren’t as bad as I initially thought. I’ve given all the decals a good coat of MicroSol to help settle them down. I removed the canopy and cleaned the dust out with a cotton bud. It was glued back in using a clear glue and remedial work was done to the rear section where I painted it in. I’m going to let it set until tomorrow before I do anything else to it. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted October 25, 2021 Author Share Posted October 25, 2021 Earlier today, I set about designing a Red Beard Nuclear Weapon to fit in the Weapons bay. I found a picture on Wikipedia and in the text was the sizes. I scaled them to 1/72 size and this evening, I 3D printed my representation of the device. Tonight’s session started with using clear tape to simulate the side nose windows. The edges would be painted over a little later on. The rear stabilisers were masked on the undersides to enable me to paint a straight line for the leading edge wrap-around of the camouflage. The Sea Grey was then painted on the stabilisers and around the cockpit canopy. The Dark Green was painted on the stabilisers and also around the aforementioned side windows. I then pieced together the landing gear. The main-gear was fitted into position with sprue-goo to give a stronger joint. The other gear doors were also fitted in position. The nose-gear required a bit of dry fit, remove, file, dry fit again a few times. The reason……… the nose of the Canberra was sitting too high. Eventually, I got it to sit about where I wanted it, then it too was sprue goo’d into position. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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