1/72 Italeri B-57G

Gallery Article by Gavin Parnaby on Jan 24 2012

 

1.Components

  • Italeri/Testors 1:72 B-57G Canberra kit

  • Cobra Resins 1:72 B-57B/E detail set

  • Aeroclub Models 1:72 Escapac ejection seats

  • Eduard 1:72 B-57B Canberra detail set

  • Pavla Models gear bay set

  • Spectre Resins M36 bombs

  • Xtradecal decal sheet X72103

2.Cockpit Section
Starting with the crew seats, as always, I came across one not commonly heralded inaccuracy in the kit. The kit has pretty good representations of the surprisingly uncomfortable-looking AMI ejection seats, which were correct for the B model the kit was derived from. However, the G, along with the even more extensively modified F, was fitted with the very different Escapac ejection seat ubiquitous amongst US aircraft of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The variant in question was the IC-6, according to the following site: http://www.ejectionsite.com/escapacfr.htm. I used the Aeroclub EJ012 seats. Although supplies of these are now becoming scarce, Truedetails may offer an alternative. At any rate, the hobby is unlikely to suffer such a widely-used seat to be unrepresented for long. The seats come with etch brass sides and frames, and I added the face curtain handles from the remnants of an etch brass PP Aeroparts set). Belts were adapted from the Eduard B-57B detail set. Although the kit instructions suggest that the seats, along with the rest of the interior, be painted in FS16440, this seemed too light to me and I used Humbrol 127. The cushions were painted in a mix of Humbrol 102 and 106, with the straps being painted in Humbrol 146, a medium blue-grey. Some images of the B-57 installation can be found at: 
www.seatejectcolor.com/seat/sedili/ditte/escapac/images/c6.htm

I replaced the kit bathtub with that from Cobra Resins’ B-57B/E set, which includes slightly more detailed pedals and full sidewall and console detail, along with the back of the aft instrument panel. The latter will require extensive modification to be at all representative of the G, with its advanced sensors and weapon guidance systems. I adopted the top of the joystick from the Airfix B.(I).8 kit and scraped off the cast dials, replacing them with screens and other displays made from scrap plastic. The base of the joystick was made from scrap plastic and rod, the conical section being sanded to shape on the end of the rod. The Eduard detail set supplied two throttle handles (the set thoughtfully includes two spares).

The pilot’s instrument panel will need some modification, but not as much. This was accomplished in the same way. The set follows the kit methodology of attaching the instrument panel directly to the fuselage half, rather than to the bathtub. 

Once the cockpit section was safely installed and the fuselage halves married up, I added the two instruments atop the coaming, from the Eduard set, with the back barrels made from plastic rod. The gunsight (still apparently present on the B-57G, despite its lack of guns or rockets) was made from scrap plastic. Once this was complete and painted, the windscreen was attached with Humbrol Clearfix.

The canopy was detailed with the Eduard sills and mirrors and the interior framing painted. The flash curtain seen on some B-57s doesn’t seem to be included on the B-57G, although I could be wrong. The windscreen was detailed with a small piece at the apex, before being painted. After the construction was complete the canopy was temporarily glued into closed position with PVA. The separate and well-detailed actuator ram, a sizeable piece of equipment, was separately painted in 127 and the oleo in silver. Later, I found a picture of a B-57G cockpit without this item, but without knowing what it was it’s hard to be sure what’s accurate.

Once the model was attached to the base, the ejection seats were dropped in, the navigator’s seat being slightly offset from that of the pilot. The canopy was then attached, the ram being first bonded to the canopy using Clearfix, the assembly then being attached to the model with viscous cyanoacylate at the foot of the ram and Clearfix at the aft end of the canopy. 

3.Fuselage
The celebrated rotary bomb door is included in the kit in open and closed positions. The Eduard set has a well fitting detail plate which I attached to the interior once the kit racks had been chiselled away. The set also includes nine replacement rack sets, but I only needed four. The disposition of the bombs, towards the outer corners of the door, was obtained from a picture of an B-57E executing a wingover towards the target.

The colour of the bomb bay was rather difficult to ascertain. Apparently it was in zinc chromate, but the shade of this primer is not a trivial question, as explained by Martin Waligorski:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/01/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us.htm

I began with a mixture of Humbrol 81 and 75, adding more and more 81 through a series of highlights. Although the result was a little ‘streaky’, the extensive extra detail provided by the Eduard set was brought out nicely. The cable was picked out in black. 

Once the bay door was dry, the M36s were attached to the racks by five-minute epoxy. A few last-minute touchups and the door was set aside. It was eventually attached to the fuselage on completion of painting. The fit was tight, but it went in without needing sanding down – just.

The panel lines on the fuselage halves seem to check out well with the Squadron Signal drawings, although the Warpaint plans indicate the same layout as the B-57B aft of the nose section. This is difficult to confirm from photographs, although I elected to go with Perry Manley’s drawings, from what I could see. It certainly seems as if the G model involved major structural alterations. I suppose there ought to have been, given the cost of the program. 

The fuselage halves fit very well, although one needs to ensure that the replacement bathtub has been adequately sanded. Only notional filler was needed. I adopted the Pavla Models nose gear bay, although it was difficult to be entirely sure that it was suitable for the B-57, given the perennial paucity of photographs. Once this assembly was complete I turned my attention to the B-57G’s famous nose. This comes in two halves, which seem to be just fine in outline, and fit perfectly. A piece of clear plastic covers the space where the laser designator, FLIR, and LLTV are housed. No detail is provided for these, and views of the aircraft show a plain white background behind the glass, as if a protective blind was fitted. In order not to have to look at the nose, I painted the back face of the window flat white. I then glued it onto the nose of the fuselage, only moderate filler being necessary to make good the joint, mostly around the sensor jowls. 

The airbrakes are admirable in their simplicity, featuring only a single actuator ram. The kit allows these to be modelled open, with crisply moulded panels. I painted the interior in Humbrol 81 Zinc Chromate Yellow, shading with a darker green, and picking out the oleos in silver. 

The aerial fit used on the B-57G is a matter of some conjecture, despite the type’s small numbers and brief career. The single thing that can be stated with certainty is that there were a lot of them! I employed the kit aerials as provided, apart from the large dorsal blade aerial, which was replaced by a part from the Eduard set. The ventral blade aerial forward of the gear bay was represented by a part from this set too. There were a number of remaining aerials which I added from scrap plastic. The kit intake forward of the port airbrake was replaced by an item from the Eduard set, and the dorsal and ventral formation lights added from clear sprue sanded to fit and polished. 

The metal parts were bonded with cyanoacrylate, assisted by accelerator, whilst the plastic parts were bonded with liquid polystyrene cement. Some slight filling was required around the base of the large airdata probe. 

Once the flaps were completed, the airbrakes were glued into place. To ensure that both the doors and the rams were set at the correct angle, high-viscosity cyanoacrylate rather than epoxy was used. 

The final work on the fuselage was the attachment of the HF aerial. This was made from freshly stretched sprue, painted with Humbrol 33 Matt Black. Accelerator was used to bond it to the post at its forward end, the joint being reinforced as far as possible with extra cyanoacrylate. This step was left until absolutely the last minute on account of its particular fragility.

4.Empennage
The fin is moulded integrally with the fuselage, and appears to be quite accurate. The tailplanes, however, seem to be rather too pointed, and they were carefully sanded down as a result. Once this was completed, they were glued to the fuselage, and the joint filled, to the extent that it needed filling. The panel lines appeared to be reasonably accurate, but a few were lost near the root, and needed to be rescribed. 

The fin required the addition of two rectangular blade aerials towards the tip, perpendicular to the surface. These were made from scrap plastic. A hole was drilled in the tip leading edge for the later addition of the HF aerial. Four static discharge wicks were fitted to the tip, spaced roughly equidistantly from leading to trailing edge. Fine fuse wire was used for these, glued with medium viscosity cyanoacrylate into small slots cut with a keyhole saw. Milliput was used to make good the surface. Three wicks were added to the outer trailing edge of each tailplane in a similar manner, inboard of the tip.

 

Click on images below to see larger images

5.Wings
The wings are conventionally moulded in two halves, with the vast bulk of the engine nacelles. The panel lines seem accurate enough, as far as I could determine, with just a couple more needing to be added. The kit flaps are moulded into the lower wing halves, and are to be cut out if they are to be opened. As I was to replace them with the Eduard items, which offer no extra detail, just the crisp resolution of etched metal, I put them in the spares box. The ribs on the upper surfaces appear to be correct in number and are reasonably well defined. The landing light on the port wing needed to be opened out, and the wheel well detail removed, as I was to fit the Pavla gear bays, but otherwise the assembly was as instructed. The Pavla gear bays fitted readily enough once the plug had been removed, and were bonded in place with medium viscosity cyanoacrylate. 

The instructions indicate that the muzzle apertures in the separate leading edge gun panels were to be opened out. This would appear to be incorrect, as the guns were removed on the B-57G, in order to keep the CG within limits. So I glued them untouched into the leading edge, where a little moderate filling and sanding blended them in perfectly. What should be opened out, however, are the inner pair of pylon mounting holes on each wing.

The tailpipes were completed by the addition of an outer nozzle ring. I had no tailpipe interior detail, so I left them blank. The depth is barely adequate for this. At the opposite end of the nacelle, the turbine blade face, with a pair of quite strongly curved vanes, attaches directly and cleanly to the forward end of the body. Only the starboard one of these appears to be accurate, carrying away the starter cartridge exhaust gases so that they are not ingested by the engine. Scrap plastic was used to add the remaining six vanes within the intake, which are quite straight and set further back from the starter cartridge exhaust duct. Over the top of this arrangement, the nacelle is completed by a well moulded ring that matches up with only light filling necessary. 

The flaps themselves were replaced, as mentioned above, with the items from the Eduard set, although these needed to be modified with the addition of the strips of upper trailing edge and the blanking off of the sides. The interiors were painted in 81, and the upper trailing edges painted with Humbrol 118 Tan, 117 Forest Green and 116 Dark Green as appropriate. 

There are no tabs, the wings simply slotting into mounting troughs on the fuselage, which makes for a particularly strong bond, resistant to distortion and helping to avoid inadvertent misalignment. Perfunctory filling was needed to make the joint good. 

The kit pylons are reasonably well moulded, with only a few sink marks, simply filled in. The fit was good enough, with only a small degree of filling required. Separate sway braces are included, but I elected to use the Eduard replacements, which slotted fairly readily into the pylons. Fine plastic rod was used to detail the suspension lugs after they had been bent to approximately fit the LGBs. 

The two underwing pitots included in the kit are crisply moulded and quite serviceable. These fitted to the slots between the gear bays and engine nacelles readily enough. The separate wingtip light housings required only minimal sanding to blend with the wingtip contours. These were bonded to the wing after the housing had been painted. The construction was finished with three static discharge wicks added to the outer aileron trailing edge, outboard of the trim tab, in the same manner as the tailplanes.

The flaps were epoxied into place once the undercarriage was completed. Some retouching of the upper trailing edges was required once they were cured in place, to match the dorsal paint scheme as it eventually appeared.

6.Stores
The standard armament for the B-57G was four M-35/6 cluster bombs in the bomb bay, with four 500lb GBU-12 LGBs on the underwing pylons. The 9 1920s-type 500lb bombs supplied in the kit are inappropriate for the B-57G. 

I was on the point of giving up and using four Hasegawa M117s (an alternative for the interior warload, used when supplies of the dreaded ‘Funny Bomb’ had run out), when I came across Spectre Resins’ items. These had only just been released when I bought mine, although someone else has surely beaten me to their completion by now. They are crisply molded, although the thin hinge line proves a bit much for the resin to capture in places. As the bomb bodies are pure cylinders, it is a bit hard to find the junction between them and the resin tab when preparing them, and some gouges were unfortunately made. A similar sequence of events occurred when separating the conical afterbodies. The fins are crisply moulded and admirably thin, significantly thinner than the guidance slots on the afterbodies. I used quite some filler when assembling these.

The kit LGBs seem perfectly reasonable, so I retained them. Both sets of bombs were painted in Humbrol 155, with the few markings picked out in Humbrol 24. The tips of the seeker heads on the LGBs were painted in Humbrol 71. I later, once the Osprey book on the Vietnam history of the Canberra had appeared, went back to the ‘funny bombs’ and added the red band forward of the yellow – denoting the dual character of these unique and formidable weapons.

The tip tanks were assembled with minimal filling, and with the front cap lines engraved. There seems to be some uncertainty as to whether the navigation lights were carried. I elected to include them, adding the lights and cable runs from rod and scrap. 

The LGBs were attached to the pylons using epoxy. Once this was cured, the sway braces were bent around them and glued in place using cyanoacrylate. The tanks were also fitted using epoxy. 

7.Undercarriage
The kit undercarriage is reasonably complete, and accurate, with the exception of the main gear leg torque links. Entirely absent in the kit, these were obtained from the Eduard detail set. With the addition of hose lines from fuse wire, the legs were suitable for painting. The overall finish seems to be aluminium, with the upper brackets in chromate green – wheel bays seem to wear the darker hue. The hoses were picked out in black, and the oleos in silver. Finally, all were washed with a slightly thinned mix of Citadel black and Devlan Mud ink. The peripheral actuators were painted in a similar manner. 

The wheels were sanded to a flat base, with the tyre bulge being modelled in Milliput. The wheels were painted in aluminium, with Xtracolour Tyre Black for the tyres. Once dry, they were washed in the same manner as the gear legs.

The nose gear bay, which is of perfectly usable quality, was replaced by the Pavla Models item, offering a little more detail. This was a somewhat speculative action, however, given the paucity of information on the gear bays for any flavour of Canberra and that it was originally intended for the Airfix Mk.8. I did the same with the main gear bays, sawing off the kit items, which are moulded as one with the lower wing halves and sanding to suit - little of the latter was eventually required. I painted the gear bays in a similar manner to the gear legs, but adding a drybrush with a higher mix of Humbrol 81 to bring out the detail.

When it came to attaching the legs, the main gear legs attached well enough, although extensive epoxy was needed to ensure the strongest possible joint. The Pavla replacement doors on the main gear bays simply dropped into place, but those on the nose bay needed some trimming on the fly. The middle main gear bay doors attach directly to the undercarriage legs, and this was done with epoxy. The wheels were attached once the legs had cured, but it might in retrospect have been better to attach them to the legs before they were attached. The hubs on both the main and nose wheels needed drilling out before they could be attached.

8.Painting
The overall scheme was the classic USAF SEA night camouflage scheme of FS32019 Tan, 34079 Green and 34102 Dark Green over Black, the only scheme ever worn by the B-57G. I began with a coat of Hycote grey primer on the upper surfaces, which I have previously found to perform much better than the Halfords version, with the black variety below. I plugged the engine intakes and exhausts, and gear bays, with Blutack and masked off the flap and airbrake areas with masking tape, with the transparencies covered with Humbrol Maskol prior to painting. In retrospect it would have been better to temporarily glue the airbrakes into place and thus avoid difficulties with matching the demarcation lines. The bomb bay area was masked off with lengths of tape. I temporarily glued the canopy in place with PVA – I would come to regret attaching the sills before doing this, as they tore off when the canopy was removed at the completion of painting.

Once the primer was complete, I brushed flat black paint along the hinge lines, prior to spraying the upper surfaces with Humbrol 118, topped off with Xtracolour FS32019. The demarcation of the panel lines didn’t really take, as they were raised, but it worked reasonably well in the control surface joints. I then added the FS34079, masking off the FS32019 areas with tape, trimmed to shape and the edges lined with Blutack to obtain the correct degree of feathering at the edge. The base coat for this was Humbrol 117, followed by Xtracolour. I repeated the performance with Humbrol 116 and Xtracolour FS34102. The exact details of the scheme are difficult to ascertain – the particular aircraft I was modelling was the only one for which I could find photographs of each side and I still struggled to decide on the exact disposition of the three upper surface shades (the two greens look almost identical in many of the 40 year old images and the patterns vary widely in detail, even among the small and short-lived fleet. Check photographic references. Eventually I arrived at a workable option derived from careful inspection of photographs, the official template and guesswork. 

With the upper surface complete, I masked off the remaining areas and applied the black, using Humbrol 85 Satin Black, as there were virtually no decals to be applied on the undersurfaces. The demarcation line on the fuselage and nacelles was again a matter in which it was impossible to be certain from a few 40 year old photographs, but I hope I found the most probable answer. 

Once the sprayed paintwork was dry, I removed the masking and tidied up the areas requiring attention with brushwork. The masking tape had performed well overall, with only a few ‘lips’ at colour boundaries, the worst of which were cut back with a scalpel. Some blemishes due to paint consistency issues had cropped up, particularly on the underside, which was unfortunate, as I still struggle to achieve the same shade when brush painting as when spraying the various colours. This was aggravated by consistency issues when spraying the 85. Agglomerations of excess paint were dealt with by very delicate applications of paint stripper. Care was taken to avoid excessive paint buildup, due to the number of junctions between flying surfaces, fuselage, nacelles, and pylons.

With the decals finished, I applied an extra glossy coat with Johnson’s Pledge, as directed by Phil Flory of ProModeller. I restricted myself to one to avoid any problems with seepage. 

Tank filler cap markings on the upper fuselage and engine nacelles were added by hand, the lines being traced in Humbrol 19. Some additional placards in the bomb bay region were added, being represented by red and white rectangles.

Picking out the details was generally dominated by the aerials. Most of these on the aft ventral fuselage were painted white, as were the blades on the fin sides. The dorsal aerials were painted black, as were those forward of the bomb bay. A thin red vertical line was added to each of the pair on the aft ventral fuselage. The white portion of the canopy spine appears to be only present on Stateside aircraft, as does the white fairing immediately aft of the sensor jowls. I could be wrong about this, however. The radome was painted with Humbrol 21 Gloss Black in order to differentiate it from the rest of the undersurfaces.

Once the gloss coat had dried for a day or two, I proceeded to apply the Pro Modeller weathering wash. I used the general Dark Dirt, which gave a result that was probably a little excessive, but it is once more hard to be sure – the aircraft were kept very well at McDill, but flying at low level in bad weather would have begun to take its toll. 
Afterwards I applied two coats of Xtracolour acrylic matt varnish, which was remarkably trouble-free in application.

Finally, I picked out the metallic details and the lights. The dorsal and ventral beacons were painted in Tamiya Clear Red, whilst the tip tank navigation lights were painted in silver topped with Tamiya Clear Red/Green. The static discharge wicks were painted in Humbrol 56 Aluminium, as was the tip of the nose probe. The aft end of the engine nacelles were painted in Xtracolour Duralumin. Note that this region was substantially shorter in chord than earlier B-57s. The underwing pitots were painted in Humbrol 201 Metallic Black, whilst the sway braces were painted in Humbrol 56, the bolts being picked out in Humbrol 53 Gun Metal.

A last touch of weathering was added in the stagnation regions of the wings, tip tanks and engine nacelles. Again, no such was seen in Florida, but an admittedly blurred photo of a B-57G leaving Thailand seems to show some chipping around the inner wings and engine nacelles (where the stagnation velocity would have been highest). So I applied a small amount with a Pentel silver pen and an old brush dipped in Humbrol 11 to soften the strokes.

9.Markings
The decals were from the Xtracolour sheet, augmented by those of the kit. There are few, the largest by far being the tailcodes. I began with these and moved forward along the upper fuselage. Once these were dry I applied the white line markings to the tip tanks and the underwing national insignia. The only two photos I have found of the B-57G from beneath are of indifferent quality, but do appear to show stars and bars beneath the starboard wing, in contrast to both the kit and the Xtracolour set. The latter conveniently included a full set of such, so I was able to add the extra one from the kit.

I underestimated how matte the surface was and as a result experienced some difficulty with the adhesion of the decals to the black paintwork. Generous application of Super Sol alleviated the problem enough to be going on with.

Note that there is no unit insignia. As far as I can tell, these were only worn by Stateside machines, whether at McDill or with the ANG.

10.Base
I had an ancient wooden pie base in store, so I decided to employ that. To make it more presentable, I painted it in stained polyurethane varnish. I decorated it by making a high-quality (on a photo standard printer using photo paper) print of the unofficial B-57G badge from p128 of Mikesh’s Martin B-57 Canberra: The Complete Record, enlarged enough to almost cover the flat top.

The print was carefully cut out, then glued on with PVA. Once this had set the remnants of two pots of Humbrol 35 were applied to seal it in. All was done by brush, leading to a rather rugose finish.

The attachment of the model to the base was carried out by ‘spotting’ the attachment points with the wires in the wheels being dipped in Humbrol 19. Oversized holes were drilled to ease the attachment which went reasonably, apart from the partial buckling of the nose gear leg, which led to a slightly distorted sit angle.

11.Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the varied and considerable assistance given me in this project by: Lt. Col. Marquis Witt, USAF (Ret’d) of the B-57 website, John Sheehan, Dave and Julie Boulton, and Mark Bilas of Spectre Resins. This build has been much the easier and more successful to their varied and enthusiastic assistance.

12.References

  • 1. English Electric Canberra & Martin B-57, B. Jones, Crowood Aviation Series, The Crowood Press, 1999.English Electric Canberra, K. Delve, P. Green & J. Clemons, Midland Counties Publications, 1992.

  • 2. Martin B-57 Canberra: The Complete Record, R. C. Mikesh, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1994 (also the shortened version: B-57 Canberra At War 194-1972, Ian Allan Ltd.,1980)

  • 3. Martin B-57 Canberra, K. Darling, Warpaint Series No.45

  • 4. B-57 Canberra In Action, J. Mesko, P. Manley & D. Greer, Squadron Signal Aircraft in Action Series 77, Squadron Signal Publications 1986.

  • 5. B-57 Canberra Units of the Vietnam War, T. E. Bell, Osprey Combat Aircraft 85, 2011.

  • 6. Scale Aircaft Modelling Vol.11 No.5, p196-212, February 1989.

Internet resources:

Gavin Parnaby

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Photos and text © by Gavin Parnaby