1/72 Airfix Canberra TT18 Target Tug

by Stuart Porteous

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This is the Airfix Canberra B(I)6, converted to a TT18 target tug. As far as the conversion is concerned this is a nice easy one - it consists of swapping the Airfix nose transparency for the correctly shaped Aeroclub one, and painting yellow and black stripes on the underside. The first part of the conversion took about half an hour, the second part took two weeks, most of which was taken up measuring and marking out the stripes, and trying to get them all parallel.

The kit itself was fairly straightforward and fits reasonably well considering its age. However, the nose transparency starts too far back and has a thick frame around it. It was fitted as per the instructions, then filled and sanded smooth. The correct amount to cut off was ascertained by placing the Aeroclub transparency over it, drawing round it, then taking off the tip with a razor saw.

All the panel lines were sanded smooth and rescribed. I can never get the hang of the Dymotape thing for curved surfaces so I made myself a template from a piece of brass strip curved to the same radius as the fuselage, and used that as a straightedge.  Extra detail was added to the main wheelwells to represent the prominent spars and ribs which run across the top, and as much lead as possible was crammed into the front wheelwell, the navigator's station and under the cockpit floor. This thing is very tail heavy.  

Paints are all Humbrol, and decals are from the Modeldecal range, slightly modified to depict a 100 Sqn aircraft based at RAF Wyton in the 1970s. It’s not quite finished, I still need to scratch build a couple of Rushton target winches to go under the wings.   

Stuart

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Photos and text © by Stuart Porteous