Retired Bob Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 Having followed the TSR.2 builds and immersed myself in the videos and photos that accompanied them I decided it was time to get my kits out of the stash and get them built. When Airfix produced their injection moulded TSR.2 kit in 2006 it totally passed me by, however, later that year I had popped into an art shop in the nearby town of Darlington to buy some paint and there, sat on a shelf was the kit, since only 11,000 were produced for world wide distribution it was very fortuitous find indeed, I happily paid the £16.99 for the kit, and took home. A few years later Airfix released the kit with some added parts to make a Japanese cartoon version called the Stratos 4 TSR.2MS. This kit contained the same white plastic as the original release, but with better decals, plus some rocket boosters and female crew members to make the cartoon version. This way Airfix released more TSR.2 kits without compromising their limited initial release claim. I didn't buy this newer release until 2018 after reading the excellent build thread of the TSR.2 by Bill @Navy Bird, I followed his example and obtained the Stratos 4 boxing for the better decals and some sets of CMK resin upgrade parts, Eduard p/e set and a Master brass pitot tube. My only other attempt to build this ill-fated aircraft was the Contrail vac-form back in the 70s, my first attempt at a vac-form and none of the AM wheels and seats available, it didn't end well. Now is my chance to rectify that and build my kits, one to be as the prototype aircraft built in the anti-flash white and the other as if the aircraft had not been cancelled and reached RAF service instead of the F-4 Phantom. And it was the TSR.2 that replaced the Canberra aircraft in the Strike/Interdiction role by the 1970s. Here are the kits and AM that I am using. I will start with the original kit first. I have tried to obtain a second set of CMK resin upgrade parts but have only managed to find the weapon bay and u/c set so far, I already have some resin wheel and seat sets so that might have to do for the 'what if' build. Thanks for looking and any comments or questions are always welcome. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 Not a big start but I cut the main parts off the sprues, taped the fuselage parts together and added the lower half of the wing, (I just noticed that I placed it upside down) my cunning plan is to assemble the fuselage like this including the lower wing half (The correct way) and improve the fit as much as possible then add the upper wing section. The 3 upper wing parts have been cleaned up with some sanding sticks to improve the fit I then glued them together and clamped them straight while they dried. (Bill found this the best way to get a smooth upper wing section.) I have only just noticed that the different seat sets, both are by CMK, that the cream coloured ones have moulded on seat straps the grey ones have separate seat straps in p/e. Thanks for looking, any comments or questions are always welcome. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackroadkill Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 15 minutes ago, Retired Bob said: questions are always welcome I have a feeling you'll be asking yourself a few of these by the time this build id done, Bob! I'm really enjoying the TSR.2 builds going on in the GB and will certainly look forward to seeing your results. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 7 minutes ago, jackroadkill said: I have a feeling you'll be asking yourself a few of these by the time this build is done, Bob! As I sit here, sanding stick in hand trying to improve the fit of the Flying Pancake air intakes I stopped asking myself "why do I do this?" years ago. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzio Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 Good luck with the TSR-2! I built the TSR-2MS version during lockdown (and to this day it feels like I am the only one that has) and lost my sanity. I love me some filler/sanding/scribing/swearing action! Lol Those CMK upgrades did nearly send me over the edge, especially the airbrakes! I have to correct something though. The anime version (don't say cartoon near some otaku as they'll go mad!) is just called the TSR-2MS. The show is indeed called Stratos 4, but that is also the name of a fictional aircraft within the show. There is also a MiG-31MS and Yak-38 prone trainer within the series - think of the prone piloted Meteor and you're there. Still looking forward to seeing this one progress and how much you curse the kit. That wing to fuselage join is a right bundle of fun! Kind regards, Dazz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 My eldest son was into anime but if they're drawn.....As to the Stratos 4 bit , not a clue, I was just copying what was on the box,. I spent some time this afternoon cleaning up the air intakes and that huge resin brick that is the bomb bay/main u/c bays and fitting them into the fuselage, only a small loss of blood due to a slip of the scalpel, so far, along with a few tuts. Once I'm happy with those it will be cockpit fit next, I'm planning on taking it slowly, getting the best fit I can and improving the surface detailing as I go. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzio Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 Haha yeah I get your point. It's one of those, if you like splitting hairs. 🤷🏻♂️ I am a fan of the show so I know quite a bit about it... It's about 20 years old now... Damn. I do have the later boxing with the newer decals somewhere. If you need a back up? - I'm not going to use them. I'm only interested in the TSR-2MS version. Sounds like the kit is fighting you already! Kind regards, Dazz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-er Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 Always good to see another TSR-2 build, Bob One day I'll find one at a price I'm willing to pay and subject myself to the torture of building it. In the meantime, I'll just watch the rest of you highlighting the problems and take notes James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted August 5 Author Share Posted August 5 10 hours ago, Dazzio said: Haha yeah I get your point. It's one of those, if you like splitting hairs. 🤷🏻♂️ I am a fan of the show so I know quite a bit about it... It's about 20 years old now... Damn. It's like Gerry Anderson, they weren't just puppets, it was 'SUPERMARIONATION' now that was my era. 10 hours ago, 81-er said: Always good to see another TSR-2 build, Bob One day I'll find one at a price I'm willing to pay and subject myself to the torture of building it. In the meantime, I'll just watch the rest of you highlighting the problems and take notes While I was looking for any CMK resin sets on a well known auction site, I noticed a couple at reasonable prices. 'Just sayin' 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted August 5 Share Posted August 5 Brave man! 👏🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 I'm having some work done on the house so I've been busy moving things and cleaning up so not much time for any modelling. I'm still trying to improve the fit on the fuselage parts of this kit, my second CMK resin undercarriage/bomb bay improvement set arrived so both of my kits can have that well detailed chunk of resin that replaces the Airfix offering. There is a fit issue (Isn't there always with resin AM parts) Other builds have mentioned the shrinkage issue of this large resin part requiring a couple of mm of plastic stock to avoid gaps showing at the bomb bay front and rear areas. However, I noticed that the forward bulkhead of the resin part differed in shape from the kit part and stuck out of the main gear bays front edge, here are the two central parts aligned showing the difference in shape between the Airfix white part and the CMK resin part on the right. The improvement in detail is instantly visible but the difference in the front panel shape does not appear to be too significant, but on inserting the resin bomb bay/ main gear bay part into the fuselage, the larger front panel size sticks out through the front of the main gear bays and pushes the belly panel out of line. In this position, the resin part is hard against the rear support bracket. After trimming the resin part to fit inside the fuselage , I gave it a quick coat of white primer, the belly panel needed some fettling to improve its fit and I had to remove about 1mm from either side of the forward part that covers the gap between the bomb bay and nose wheel bay, on the inside there were some ejector pin raised marks to cut away, this made the forward fuselage align better. The gap caused by resin shrinkage is now all at the rear of the bomb bay One step forward and two steps backwards. Any comments or questions are always welcome. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackroadkill Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 Looking good, Bob - the graft's paying off nicely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-er Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 Even with the gap that's still a huge improvement over the kit offering! James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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