DesTROYers English Electric Canberra Mk20

[DesTROYer]

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!

Wally, honestly they are the one thing I'm not happy with on this model. I can not get the wheels to sit straight. I drilled and filed out the hub deeper to get a better joint, but they still won't stand straight. The flat spot wasn't too bad to locate, but having them be straight is a bitch.

[DesTROYer]

I gave it a little test fit this morning (something I should have done last night) and found another error I should have picked up on earlier. The nose of the Canberra gets narrower towards the front obviously. Something I forgot last night. lol


So using my hobby knife with a sharp blade, I set about modifying the frame. Also decided to replace the crude curved sections with some sprue bent to shape.


Still needs cleaning up, but it now fits much, much better.

[tor lives]

Thought this shot may be of some interest to you Troy...given your current scratch build project.

TOR

[hrtpaul]

Note the "TAA" signage above the nose gear

[tor lives]

Yeah.......not sure what the "TAA" titles are all about, (if ya built a model of this, would it qualify for the "Airliner" category at Model Expo??? )
Troy, it would appear that there may be several different variations of the Canberra canopy sunshade. If you look at the one on the aircraft in the background it appears to be different in design to the others in the foreground.
TOR

[DesTROYer]

Thanks Ray. That's a great picture and tells me there is a peak on the front. Still don't know what the purpose of the lower swing bars are on the sides though.
I have seen about three different designs so far, all from different era's of service. I'm sticking with the one I know was on 231 as I have a photo of it on it. I started making up the V2 on Sunday until I ran out of rod and had to put it on hold. It already looks much neater and more to the right size.

[hrtpaul]

Do you mean the U shaped bars attached to the lower almost horizontal side bar? If so, I'd reckon that was used for lifting the shade on and off the aircraft by 2 blokes. It's the right height as you can see by the bloke on the other side of the nose of 233. That's my best guess

[DesTROYer]

Yeah, thanks Paul. I thought either that or so they could extend the shades down. But your idea makes more sense.

[DesTROYer]

The TAA signage could be for the Air race from London to Oz two or three aircraft took place in.

[tor lives]

Yeah....I thought that may be may be the case also, but this photo appears to have been taken fairly late in the RAAF Canberra's career by virtue of "233" having the cat survey mod. Not sure weather the Canberra fleet would have been air racing this late in their career.....but I could be wrong. It could just be a "zap" as TAA and Ansett used to routinely use Amberley as a base for circuit training, (in fact TAA wrote off a Fokker F-27 there in a landing accident while training). I really would be interested to know the story of the TAA markings though.
TOR