DesTROYers English Electric Canberra Mk20

[tor lives]

Great stuff Troy.....keep the good stuff coming!!!
I could be wrong but I am not sure that bottom shot is taken over Nam, as the aircraft on the left has what appears to be the cartographic survey mod, which, as I understand, didn't occur until 2 SQN returned from Vietnam.
TOR

[DesTROYer]

Right you are Tor, it is the Vietnam scheme though. I re-read the photos caption.

It's not fighting hard, but it is resisting.
First the easier and most rewarding tasks of the build. Thanks to Aardvark for his reference pics.

I started this morning scratch building up a new bomb rack. The resin one that came with the kit, just wasn't matching any of the bomb bay references I had seen and that annoyed me.




Then I fixed a gap between the nose glass and the fuselage... and noticed that by working with he model on its back, I had put the nose antenna and tube on the wrong sides. So fixed that too.



I then added the landing gear and bomb bay doors, and scratched up the lower UHF and VHF aerials.


Using a missile launch rail from the spares bin and some plasticard I set about making up the ADF sense antenna getting the location and dimensions right were difficult until i found these pics.





Until I was ready for the clear coat...



but when I put the clear coat on, I found that the olive drab I used still want dark enough. Most annoying. I let the clear dry and then hit it free hand with the trusty iwata airbrush and some tamiya olive drab.


Much better match. Third times a charm.

[hrtpaul]

Really looking great man

[DesTROYer]

Decals are applied. I should have them sealed by the weekend. There was a little bit of silvering under the big clear door decal, but after some work with a sharp blade, a pin and plenty of Micro Sol, 96% of it is now gone and the rest should go with the next coat of future. Final coat will be matt so it should look the part.

[Knotty]

Looking good Troy , always had a soft spot for the Canberra. As a kid I use to play around in the ones that were stored at Essendon every now and then . I have an undercarriage switch out of one and a landing light surround . Very sad when they cut them up

[tor lives]

Just lovin it Troy.....she really looks terrific!!
I am so pleased you put this kit to such good use and produced such outstanding results. If I still owned it, she would be sitting in the corner gathering dust for god knows how long, (and even if I ever did build it, I don't think I could have achieved the quality of build you have).
TOR

[DesTROYer]

Thanks Knotty and Ray.

Bombs are now attached, pin wash applied and matt coat on to seal them all.




Just need to attach the antenna wire and RBF tags, but they can wait for now as I still have a bit of handling to do before I'm done with it.



With that done, I got to work on scratch building up the frame for the sunshade. Using one of the up scaled paint charts I used to mask the camouflage, I took some measurements and sketched up the design using photos as a reference.










Still needs cleaning up and I need to add the two extra lower frame sections, but its starting to look the part. Not bad for a few hours work.
Actually, looking at these pictures, I've noticed that the four cross braces on the front and rear are orientated the wrong way. I'll fix that in the morning. My friend Jim Beam has just arrived and a movie about an angry tank, commanded by Brad pit is on TV.

I've got some styrene on order for the revetments and bomb trolley which should arrive next week.

[tor lives]

Continues to be an outstanding build, and the engineering that has gone into your canopy sunshade is nothing short of brilliant.
I have read somewhere that the sunshade do not do much to prevent the greenhouse-like heat build-up inside the aircraft.
TOR
PS: Here is a shot of a very young Air Force Cadet Corporal Ray Woodford, (taken about a thousand years ago....God, was I ever that young??), getting close and personal with a very serviceable A84-235

[DesTROYer]

LOL, I read they brought the temp down from hotter than hell, down to as hot as hell. You sweated so much your flight suit became saturated in sweat, which then froze at altitude... if they were lucky, because most bombing missions were below cloud level, which wasn't high enough to not still be stinking bloody hot.

Looking sharp, cadet.

[VH-WAL]

Hey Troy, did you have fun putting on the wheels?, The weighted wheels are a nice touch but what a pain in the arse to position the wheel with the flat spot in exactly the right place, fore and aft, left and right square with such a wobbly fit. I knew from the very beginning I should have pinned the axle or engineered the joint better but I was just too lazy and made problems for myself. Looking good, great sun shade!