Okay guys, it’s rack your brains time again. I’ve been asked to build a Canberra in 1/72nd. Easy enough, I thought, but!. A search around found an old Airfix one at 30 English pounds or the Frog ( & it’s various remoulds) at about 10.
Price is important here, so I’ll probably go for the Frog. But, How accurate is it? what can be done to improve it? Does anyone know of any articles I can get to on the net? I’m sure someone out there can help.
Another question is, why has such an important aircraft been virtually ignored by the manufacturers? with so many different versions to build, I’d have thought it would be a natural for Hasegawa, for instance. And when did the Airfix cease production[?] Cheers, Pete
First of all, do you have to do an EE Canberra, or can it be a Martin B-57? Because there is an old, but not too old, Testors/Italeri B-57B kit that is beautiful in its black and red markings, or black and yellow is an option, or bare metal like the intruders that ran road recces in the early days of Vietnam. (One of which took off flying all over Southeast Asia after its crew ejected, and even evaded attempts to shoot it down. It finally went in somewhere over the South China Sea.) But, back to the subject, I saw recently that a 1/48 Canberra should be with us soon, and I have been waiting twenty years for it. I forget who’s doing it. Also, there was once an outstanding conversion, a resin/vacform/white metal kit to turn that Testors/Italeri B model into a RB-57F, one strange-looking bird if ever there was one. So now you have more than you asked for, or wanted.
I know Revell Germany was the last to reissue the Frog kit, I’ve heard they also reissued the Matchbox PR.9 kit as well.
I built the Matchbox kit when it was still Matchbox and while it will take work to put all the bells and whistles on or to bring it up to the current PR.9 development stage, the shapes are right and the overall appearance definitely captures the Canberra’s look.
Of course I realize that may not be of much use to you as I know the Frog and Matchbox kits represended two very different Canberra variants, but if you can use it, I’m happy to help.
Firstly, are you in the UK? If so, www.kingkit.co.uk have the Revell Canberra (no idea of this
kit’s quality) for £8.99, and the Novo one (same moulds as Frog) for £4.99.
(That is NOT an advert/plug for the site, I have nothing to do with them, but
I have found they are one of the best mail-order suppliers of secondhand kits in the UK)
Secondly, how much time do you have to build the kit? (from your post it sounds like you are building
it for someone else). If time is not an issue, I would recommend looking around the second-hand kit dealers
at model shows, collector’s fairs, etc. In the UK at least, you can often pick up the Airfix Canberra or the
Matchbox one (also a reasonable kit, but of a later variant of the aircraft, with the smaller offset canopy)
for under £10. Certainly you’ll be able to get it for a lot less than the £30 that Kingkit sell it for
(I assume that this must be a collectable early box art version, if not it is very overpriced!)
If you have a deadline to meet, I would suggest the Revell one (or the Airfix one if you can find a cheaper supplier)
I would avoid the Frog one if possible. Generally speaking, Frog models (and the Novo/Eastern Express reissues)
are very poor quality even compared to Airfix/Revell.
Frog/Novo do make kits for many, many unusual aircraft types which are otherwise unobtainable (except perhaps as
resin or vacforms) such as the Whitley, Miles Master and Magister, Martin Baltimore/Maryland, Bleriot XI, Skua,
Barracuda and many more. With work, these kits can build decent models, and I have many of them in my collection
(and quite a few unbuilt ones in my kit pile).
However, I would -NEVER- buy a Frog kit if another reasonably-priced injection-moulded kit of the same aircraft was available. They generally have minimal and heavily-moulded external detail and panel lines (raised of course), no
interiors other than the obligatory seat and pilot, inch-thick transparencies, and small detail parts are generally
crude and inaccurate in shape.
Can I suggest you try www.hannants.co.uk who have a good list of kits and after kit parts. You may (if you are in the UK) also like to try Plastic Past - Times in Bournemouth (01202746964) who have a vast selection of old kits which they frequently have labled at the original price (?) and so can be cheaper than most other shops. They do ship to USA for example - no email address however. Another good UK source of old kits is Kit Krazy at 0208 298 7177 Bexleyheath South London.
Hi Pete,
Still trying to find the reason for the inscrutable smile on the face of the Sphinx?
However back to the Canberra.
There are some Australian made kits made for this aircraft in both 1:144 and 1:72.
High Planes Models are the producers.
eBay in Oz carry quite a few Canberra kits at very reasonable prices and with the exchange rate in your favour are very much better than 30 odd quid.
Dai
if you can get hold of the italeri B57 this is also an option
Aeroclub now do a vacform/white metal Canberra B2 and B6 in 1/48 scale (and I believe a PR9 is coming). According to the raving review I read in a British mag it’s very good indeed. Not very cheap though at 84 euro’s from the Luchtvaart Hobbyshop, and 38 pounds from Areoclub direct.
Pete,
High Planes is Aus do manufacture a very nice 1/72 Canberra, here is a link to a review http://kits.kitreview.com/canberramk20reviewme_1.htm
You can pick this kit up at Hannants for about 30 pounds, but as Dai said you’d probably be better off getting it from someone in Aussie and paying the postage. Cost at this sit is $45AUS. http://www.hobbycentre.com.au/HIGMOD02.html
Cheers
Darren
Gentlemen, Thank you very much. As I said, price is an issue (for my customer) , but time isn’t, so I’ll probably get in touch with kingkit when I’m next at home in the UK (next Month) I’d forgotten about the old Matchbox kit, so I’ll try to get one of those too, I enjoy updating old kits, and hey, filler & wet’n’dry are cheap!
The Canberra I’m building is for a colleague who used to work on T-17’s (the one with the lumpy nose) so I’ll see if I can convert whatever I get.
Once again, many thanks.
Pete
You might like to try the other outlets for S/H kits - Kingkit can be a bit pricy on occasions - even Hannants sometimes have them.