Joe's 1/72 Matchbox English Electric Canberra PR.9

[flyjoe180]

Okay, so I'm having a frenzy at the bench and I dug this ancient and rather sad-looking box. Should be a good contender for a spy in the sky theme, so I'm in. I'm going to build this wheels-up on the provided stand. I acquired this for a few dollars! The decals are old but in reasonable condition, I'll coat them with a varnish just in case. The canopy has an ejection mark on it, so I'll need to sand and buff/polish that out. Apart from that it's vintage Matchbox (now re-boxed by Revell I think).





I absolutely love the art work on these old kits. Matchbox of this vintage provided lots of images around their boxings:

[flyjoe180]

No point in hanging around yet again. I've made a start on the cockpit, not sure how much of the navigator one will actually be able to see once the fuselage is zipped up, but I'll stick him in anyway to stay true to the kit. The age of this particular mould:





The cockpit bits and pieces are drying, so while that was occu rring it was off to the wings and engines, a very basic affair. I have also sanded the stand parts smooth.





Got to love those Matchbox coloured parts

[flyjoe180]

I'm going for the silver scheme, wheels up, something like this:

[Guest]

Going to be a difficult one to put together judging by it's age, but a nice subject to tackle

[flyjoe180]

Going to be a difficult one to put together judging by it's age, but a nice subject to tackle

It goes together like ABC, the trick is the finesse at the end. I've plenty of experience with putty and sandpaper, I enjoy the construction of these old kits. Might treat myself to a nice Tamiya, Academy, or Hasegawa build after the current three oldies are finished

[dave]

Looking forward to this one, I remember these old matchbox kits from my childhood in the 70's.

[Snowman]

I've got a 1/48 Airfix version awaiting my attention.


I'll be watching.

[papa 695]

Now that is an old kit Joe, I like the colour scheme your going for and a great start.

[Guest]

It's nice to see these old kits being built Joe.


Looking forward to it.

[flyjoe180]

Thanks for the comments. The fuselage required a fair amount of work on the seams, care being taken to preserve the delicate raised detail. The beige thing at the top right of the photo is the lower fuselage panel, opened up and reinforced with thick plastic card for the stand on which this will sit. Experimenting with the stand top showed the lug that would hold it was not stable, so I reinforced it.





And then the tail planes and main wing components were mated to the sanded fuselage. This presents hours of sanding and filling work.





This picture gives you some idea of the amount of filling and sanding that went on:

[flyjoe180]

And then it was time to fill in the large gaps left by the tail planes and wings, I will sand these tomorrow.





The canopy had an injection mark on the inside of the main bubble area. Sanded this with progressively smoother grades of paper and cloth, and used a plastic polish to restore the shine. It still needs a bit more rubbing, and the ejector mark is still there, but nothing like what it was. I should have taken a before picture.

[dave]

Progress looking good on this.

[Guest]

some real nice work mate, I would never bear a raised panel line kit. 


The preservation of those lines must be a real pain.

[papa 695]

Wow was that a full tube of filler when you started Joe ? Great work though.

[Dave W]

Aah, REAL modelling!. Loads of filler on that one Joe. I built this one in my youth. I remember it needed a few fishing weights in the nose so it wouldn't tail sit. Look forward to seeing more.