"Pinocchio" The Prone Pilot Canberra

Gondor · November 29, 2021, 01:39:07 PM

After seeing Kit's Prone Pilot Hunter and coming up with a few ideas I have decided that I really had to go for the Prone Pilot Canberra.

The basic idea is the same as what happened with the Meteor, bolt a prone Pilot position onto the nose of an aircraft, then test it. Along the same lines as the Meteor, the crew of the Canberra will be present although the composition will be changed slightly to reflect the test nature of the aircraft.

The nose will look a little like this

Not the greatest of pictures but you get the idea.

Gondor

Tophe · November 29, 2021, 09:47:41 PM

Quote from: Gondor on November 29, 2021, 01:39:07 PM
Not the greatest of pictures but you get the idea.

I got it.

Please go on and make it actually.

Gondor · December 12, 2021, 05:07:10 AM

A small amount of work has been done. Having received an S&M Models Canberra B.6 recently and having purchased a set of resin undercarriage bays that will fit that, the kits bays have been declared obsolete and transferred to the old Airfix kit which is being used for this build.

These may not look fantastic but are a vast improvement over what is supplied in the kit, which is nothing.....

Gondor

Gondor · December 23, 2021, 05:45:58 AM

So although no physical work has been carried out, the back story is starting to come together as well as the operator. Considering the new title I should maybe have changed the aircraft to a Mosquito? Regardless I can now add another whiff element to the build

Gondor

Gondor · December 29, 2021, 11:08:49 AM

So while waiting for some paint to dry on another project I decided to start some serious work on this one.

As I recently bought some Resikit Canberra undercarriage bays with the intent of using them for this build, then winning an S&M Canberra B.6 on a well known auction site, for which the Resikit bays were designed for caused me to alter my plans. The resin undercarriage bays got white metal undercarriage and all the undercarriage parts from the S&M kit were transferred to the old Airfix B(I)6 kit which I am using for this build which is lacking much detail if any in this area, see below.

A little trimming was required

and some more will be needed

but the work will allow all the detail of the S&M undercarriage bays to be available to view rather than just an empty area which I was going to detail myself when I got around to building this kit, this way is better though.

Gondor

Gondor · December 31, 2021, 05:14:17 AM

Grinding and cutting have taken place. I also had to take out the bomb bay so that I could get better access to the nose wheel bay area.

The area of the Airfix wing root that needed cut out so that the S&M undercarriage bays could fit have been removed as you can see above. I'm rather chuffed that I managed to remove both in one piece with just the circular saw in my mini drill and a little persuasion with my fingers!

The side walls of the fuselage around the lip of the undercarriage bays have also been reduced in thickness as well so now its a case of cleaning up and fitting everything together.

Gondor

Gondor · December 31, 2021, 05:44:55 AM

I love it when a plan comes together like this one is

The front of the airframe is to the left of the above picture. I had to cut away a little more of the Airfix wing root on the right side of the undercarriage box on fuselage halfs but it fits

For some silly reason I am very very happy about this.

The edge of the undercarriage box is exactly where the lip was in the Airfix wing root so everything matches up!.

Gondor

Gondor · December 31, 2021, 08:53:33 AM

Another little update. This time the exhausts which are provided as if some kind of cover has been put into the exhausts, but then the box has the date of 1975 on it which is some Forty Six years ago!

The blanks were removed and some plastic tube fitted

I then found out that the upper part of the wing didn't have any recess for the tube so out with the mini drill again....

with the result looking a little like this. Don't worry about gaps and lumps as nothing is glued here

The end of the tube inside the wing will get a planking plate added to it once the inside of the tube has been painted.

The front's of the engines have previously been painted, so far all I have done is remove the more forward of the two mounting rings that the bullet and compressor face were to be sandwiched between. The expectations of the modelling comunity and the capabilities of the modelling industry were certainly different way back then.

Gondor

Gondor · December 31, 2021, 01:12:53 PM

Been trying to match parts of the S&M kit with the Airfix kit when I suddenly realised that the ejector seats for the Airfix kit had been efectivly binned years ago because they were so poor. Oh well, nothing else for it than to use the eats from the S&M kit and order new seats for that kit!

Gondor

Scotaidh · January 01, 2022, 01:47:04 AM

I tend to like old kits, some of which have no blanking plates - so you can see through the aircraft - or I've drilled them out, much as you've done.

I like to plug the holes with foam - from packing, or even from an old pillow. If the foam isn't black, I paint it. It gives the eye a textured surface which makes it much harder to 'distance'. And, it's easy to install - just poke it into place with ... a pencil, paintbrush handle, what-ever.

Not everyone likes this idea, but it works for me.