Airfix 1/72 Canberra PR.9

[eng]

Evening all,

I'm usually crap at building stuff from start to finish and I'm sure there's loads of started "Work in progress" threads on here and not many "Ready for inspection", but it's rare for me to buy a kit and start it straight away but this one has been an exception. Usually I drool over the box contents for a few weeks until the next tasty release comes out then it's relegated to the "loft stash", but I do like this and after removing the fuselage halfs from the sprues the other night, I caved and got wired in last night. Will build it from the box but might use my Xtrakit PR.9 decals on this build, and the Airfix decals for the 39 Sqn camo machine on the Xtrakit model.

Oh and I'll see if I can find an "adult pilot" for this rather than the Airfix 12 year old!!!!

My biggest (and only!) gripe about the kit would be the spue gates, they seem to be really wide where they meet the kit part and some are very thick as well, the nosewheels are particularly bad as are the ones in the recess for the ailerons. Here's a few pics of construction so far -

One wee alteration to the kit parts was that I found a gap between the inbd end of the wheel well and the inbd end of the wing when they were offered up to each other, I spent a wee bit of time sanding and shaping the end of the wheel well to get a flush fit. (The dark mark on the top left of the pic below is the recess inside the wing to be cut-out if the pylons are to be used, don't know whether or not to fit these yet and want to be able to find the right spot later so marked it with a black permanent pen!)

Just off to get some colour round that cockpit now and get the fuselage together............

All comments welcome, good and bad!

Rgds,

Eng

Edited August 30, 2009 by eng

[AnonymousDFB1]

Watching with interest Eng

[thx6667]

I have a skim a bit off the side of the instrument panel to get the forward fuselage halves to click, the only filler thus far was on one of the rear engine parts which had a slight gap and step, the other fit perfectly.

[Robin]

Hi Eng

Just a little bit more advanced than you with my PR9, I noticed the gap at the inboard end of the u/c bay, but I left it, as it should be covered by the u/c door. Agree with the gates, a couple of them are in very difficult places on the wings. One thing that you will have to watch is the amount of weight you put in the nose, I think that I cracked it by using small amounts of lead shot wrapped in paper thin sheets of blu-tack pushed in every small hole in the cockpit and over the nosewheel u/c bay, I will leave the nose-cone off until I have the a/c on its wheels, just in case it decided to sit on its bum. All in all, the kit is a very nice build, and the decals look ok, still got to decide whick finish it will be. There is a very nice detailed build of the 1/48th PR9 on the IPMS(UK) site which irons out a lot of wrinkles.

Robin.

[brooksy]

Good luck with your build Eng. I also have a PR.9 in my loft stash so I shall watch your progress with interest. Looking good so far mate.

Andy

[eng]

Totally unheard of for me but here's a wee update already!! This is a real beaut from Airfix, top marks so far the fit is beautiful.

Got some very dark grey round the cockpit and a quick dry brush with a lighter grey. I'll pick out a few details with a spot of white and colour, but by the time I get a pilot in there you're not going to see much anyway. I didn't bother with the seat in the nose as 1) you can't see it, 2) I wanted to get this build going, and 3) I might need the space for noseweight.

After the cockpit was painted I dithered a bit as to how best to line it all up, especially the upper cockpit insert, as I closed the fuselage. In the end I put the cockpit section in loose and glued the upper and lower nose sections together and taped them for a bit. Once this was dry I offered in the upper section of fuselage and once it was sitting flush I carefully got the cockpit to sit on the 3 locating pins on the upper section and ran liquid cement round the whole lot. It seemed to work well and I only had to adjust the narrow side of the upper piece once to get a good smooth fit. The rest of the fuselage was then glued and the whole lot left for a while, it lined up perfectly. I never bothered with the tiny nose windows, I'll use Kristal Klear for these and I left out the rudder pedals. The column will go in after the pilot.

The nose wheel well was thinned a touch on the fwd and aft faces as it was a bit tight trying to get it in behind the cockpit and the aft locating lugs but other than that went in with no trouble and sits nicely round all 4 edges of the cut-out. There appears to be 2 rather hefty ejector pin marks in the nose bay, but once all the gears on and the doors these won't be seen.

The wing to fuselage joint is amazing and gave me no bother at all, it'll need the tiniest smear of filler round one leading edge. The main gear bays I've noticed also have 3 prominent ejector pin marks and again I'm reluctant to start messing with these this time round (maybe on my next build!! Oh yes there will be another Airfix Canberra for me)

The belly section will be left off until I can load her up with weight above the nose wheel well as well as the nose cone. Watch the stab's, on my kit the top and bottom half together is ever so slightly thicker than the fuselage attachment point, maybe thin both halves before joining slightly and dry fit first. I've tried to get mine on so the slight step is on the top where I thought it would be easier to smooth out a bit.

Well thats all for just now, not bad considering I was only going to paint the cockpit!! It looks gorgeous so far and I can't wait to get some paint on this, unfortunately I can see a very busy week at work stopping my progress. Hopefully get a bit more done tomorrow night though.

All comments etc, welcome,

Rgds,

Eng

P.S I really love the new Airfix boxes! How much sturdier are they, not to mention eye-catching.

[Old VG 33]

Hi

This is a very interesting subject and I should go to my local hobby shop and get one.

Patrick

[AnonymousDFB1]

Looks like she is going together nicely Eng

[thx6667]

Eng, what are you going to do with the engine intakes? As the fit is panel tight I was thinking of painting them and the fans separately, then assemble after main painting done.

[Jabba]

Hi

This is a very interesting subject and I should go to my local hobby shop and get one.

Patrick

I'm looking for 2.

The model seems to be building quite nicely.

[eng]

Jabba - Get out there and get a couple! You won't be disappointed.

Was planning to get a bit more done tonight but it's my birthday (34 years young!), and I'm 2/3rds of the way through a bottle of Ernest and Julio Gallo White Zinfandel and hooked on the final episodes of "The Mentalist"!!!

Progress adjourned for this evening, but thank's to all for comments and interest, will maybe do a bit if I get in from work on time tomorrow night!

Rgds,

Eng

[Jabba]

Jabba - Get out there and get a couple! You won't be disappointed.

Rgds,

Eng

Hopefully at the Avon show at Yate on Sunday.

[eng]

Evening all a quick update, done a bit more tonight and now have all the flying controls and engine nozzles fitted.

The rudder is still off as it's too thick! It sticks out proud either side of the fin, and will need careful thinning to correct this, a dry fit could have avoided the problem as I could have thinned the 2 halves before gluing together but hindsight is a wonderful thing.....

I think I mentioned the same is true of the 2 halves of each horizontal stab, they could have done with a wee bit of thinning as well but aren't as bad as the rudder.

The "bullet" fairing on the fin was no bother to fit and will just require a wee swipe of tippex to fair it in, I used the colour paint guide as reference for its correct location. The elevators went on nicely with no great hassle and I have positioned them faired as I'll have a pilot in the cockpit "ready to go".

The engine nozzle sections were easier than I though and I've fitted then so that the upper surfaces and trailing edge sections are almost flawlessly smooth and faired, and the filling is done on the underside. The gap on the underside is even and is not stepped so should be quick and easy to fill.

Remember those pesky sprue gates right on the wing trailing edge where the ailerons go? Well they bit back tonight and I ended up doing quite alot of delicate fettling to get the ailerons to sit right but without destroying the line of the trailing edge. They're not perfect but I'm pretty happy how they look just now. Take your time cleaning this section up as it's fiddly to get into the wee aileron alcove.

Here's where I've left it tonight, steel shot and PVA!! 1st load in aft of the cockpit and also in the nose cone and belly section (make sure and keep any weight in the belly section fwd of the gears!!) This will be a progressive task to allow the PVA to set a bit at a time.

She's coming on, but due to work ( ), will probably not progress much this week other than adding more weight. Hopefully Sat/Sun will allow me to get some primer on her. I'm absolutely loving this, I nearly fell off my seat when I offered up the nose cone expecting a mis-match or step and found it to be a perfect fit!! I'm going to paint the fan section and intake separately then fit them together and finally add to the wing as the intake section seems to be another stunningly good fit - Nice one Airfix!

Question for the experts though - Airfix have the outer section of the wing (outbd of the ailerons) moulded slightly thicker than the section at the end of the aileron, i.e there's a step up in thickness at the end of the aileron across the whole chord of the wing upper and lower halves. It's like a mod'ed wing tip of thicker section. Is this a true characteristic of the PR.9 or do I need to get the sandpaper out?

Hope you like, all comments good and bad welcome,

Rgds,

Eng

[Old VG 33]

Hi

Very nice so far.

I usually glue weight with cyano. It's quicker.

Patrick

[Robert]

Hi,

Can you tell me where you got the steel shot from.

Cheers

Robert

[AnonymousDFB1]

Looking good Eng, love your detailed updates.

[eng]

Thank's for your support Mish, I'm normally really slow at building stuff so this is a bit of a novelty for me!

Robert - the steel shot is second hand from my wife who uses it in a tumble polisher for polishing the silver jewellery she makes. After a while she noticed it had started causing discolouration on her silver so was about to throw it out but I stepped in!! She gets it from jewellery suppliers such as http://www.cooksongold.com/ or http://www.palmermetals.co.uk/ look for polishing mediums. Lead shot from fishing tackle shops is just as good, or crushed up airgun pellets.

Cheers for now, next update prob be Sat.

Eng

[eng]

Hi,

Just thought I'd share a few more "in-progress" snaps. My weekend has turned out to be Sun/Mon, and due to work I've not really touched her this past week, other than to chuck in plenty weight!!

Here goes then - tonight I have pretty much completed the fuselage by fitting the nose and belly section (both weighted),

Just to prove to myself she wont be a tail-sitter! If you fill the nose cone as I did, you will need to trim back the nose floor section as it protruded into the nosecone.

I also tackled that overly thick rudder tonight and after a hefty dose of the sanding stick on both sides, followed by a gentle re-scribe of the panel lines it was glued in slightly offset to add a bit of interest. Next time round I'd definetly thin the rudder halves before gluing together.

The belly section fits well although I had a small gap at the aft end, but a piece of 10 thou plasticard was forced into the gap and profiled. The only odd thing about the belly section is that on my kit with the fwd and aft ends aligned, both sides of the belly section overlapped the fuselage in the area under the wing by a couple of thou, and at the fwd end of the fuselage cut-out its almost as if the thickness of the plastic has increased during moulding and gives a slighty bulbed area that overlaps the belly section. None of these points cause any problem and 10 mins with the sanding stick and a final polish with a scrap of worn wet 'n' dry sorted it out to give a really neatly fitting belly section,

The small gaps I was left with from the fit of the exhaust nozzles after aligning the trailing edges were easily dealt with, again by jamming (and they were tight, so a good idea of how small the gaps actually are), a couple of scraps of 10 thou plasticard in and then profiling and a quick swipe with some wet 'n' dry,

Finally I assembled the main wheels, and legs and doors. The fit of the legs into the wing section are really tight which bodes well for alignment and security.

All being well, I'll hopefully get a coat of primer on tomorrow and start the painting stages.

Thank's for all your comments and questions so far,

Rgds,

Eng

Edited August 30, 2009 by eng

[Jabba]

Looking very good indeed.

[AnonymousDFB1]

Nice work Eng, looks like we're both at the same stage.

[eng]

Primers on! Will get some pic's up later, no doubt there will be a few bits of cleaning up to do tonight!

Mish - Where's your pic's? Is yours a PR.9 or the B.(i)8?

Rgds,

Eng

[AnonymousDFB1]

It's a PR.9 Eng and its in the Canberra GB HERE

Just about to go and prime mine.

[eng]

Halfords grey plastic primer on the fuselage and some white on the gear legs and doors, and the flap insides.

Rather pleased to find very little requires cleaning up, more due to Airfix's good efforts than my modelling skills I have to add,

Off to try and get the cockpit complete and canopy on, and the few imperfections cleaned up.

Rgds,

Eng

[AnonymousDFB1]

Looking good Eng

[atdb27]

Hi Eng,

Looks nice for sure.

However looking at some of your pics this son of it's 1/48 Daddy has inherited some of its miss givings.

Eng outlets are handed but should both be on the stbd side.

Coal hole vision/light ports are again too high!

No actuator housing for the rudder.

Might be others but I dont have a son to compare with the father!

Adrian