Airfix 1/48 TSR2

[Dave W]

I've made quite a bit of progress over the last few days.Finished applying the PE to the cockpits,built up the undercarriage bays and glued the fuselage halves together. The kit is quite cleverly designed with various fuselage inserts which will cut down the amount of seam sanding required.Ive started to paint the CMK resin ejection seats.The seat belts are not moulded very well.Which is disappointing as I bought them because the kit supplied seats don't have any belts on them.The 'Quickboost' seat I have bought for my Lightning is much better and was cheaper.

[The Migrant]

That's looking excellent Dave, I really like what you've done in the wheel wells and the cockpit looks nifty too.

[Guest]

This is good regarding this aircraft:

Si

It looks a lot like the Canadian "Avro-Arrow"... (also a victim of power politics).

[yak face]

Nice progress Dave , its a very cleverly designed kit isnt it, not many seams to clean up . The U/C bays look great too , cheers tony

[flyjoe180]

Super work Dave.

[Dave W]

Some of the fuselage joins have needed a bit of filler.Sanded those down and rescribed some of the detail.Pretty sure this model isn't a tail sitter.But I've filled the nose cone and space fwd of the instrument panel with lead just in case.Airfix give the option of open bomb doors and airbrakes.But I decided to glue these all in the closed positions.Theres a choice of a rather toy like bomb or auxiliary fuel tanks for the bomb bay.I fitted the tanks and closed the doors.The tail cone area needs to be painted a metallic colour.So I will leave the tailplanes off to make masking easier.

[papa 695]

Looking very nice Dave It makes me want to start mine

[Guest]

I've got a couple of these in the stash so very interesting to see it going together. Thanks for the thread Dave, very interesting and informative. I like the wheel well weathering as well, not easy to get white looking realistic.

[Dave W]

I've got a couple of these in the stash so very interesting to see it going together. Thanks for the thread Dave, very interesting and informative. I like the wheel well weathering as well, not easy to get white looking realistic.

All I did in the undercarriage bays was spray them gloss white then use Florymodels dark dirt and mud washes.Ive then removed as much as I could.But I think I might have overdone the wash as the aircraft was a prototype and probably didn't get this dirty.Never mind,it's highlighted the detail,which is what I wanted.

[Guest]

Nice Dave. The Great British if only. If only the politicians had kept their nose out.

A bloke told me recently that one of the factors (including cost) that killed TSR2 was because, being so very advanced, the Soviets threatened to retaliate by escalating the cold war if it went into service. Any truth in that?

[Guest]

Wow! 1:48th, that's gonna be impressive, and it's coming along well so far Dave.

I just watched that you-tube video that Si posted up, the bit where he says "he engaged only 1 of the 2 afterburners but left behind the Lightning chase plane that had both afterburners lit", Blimey! that thing must've had some performance capability, such a waste to have it cancelled..

[Dave W]

Wow! 1:48th, that's gonna be impressive, and it's coming along well so far Dave.I just watched that you-tube video that Si posted up, the bit where he says "he engaged only 1 of the 2 afterburners but left behind the Lightning chase plane that had both afterburners lit", Blimey! that thing must've had some performance capability, such a waste to have it cancelled..

It's certainly a big model Andy.its 21 inches/530mm long.

[Guest]

I am not sure about the TSR2 (although I am willing to bet it was for similar reasons), but the Avro-Arrow project was cancelled for a host of factors, both economical and political. In the case of the Arrow, Ostensibly the costs had started to mount, problems with the radar/sensor suite needed improving and then suddenly, the ICBM was deployed, thus at a stroke, rendering all supersonic bomber interceptors obsolete. There are some 'back room stories' which also suggest that real reason for the cancellation was then PM Diefenbaker was bowing to pressure from the Americans to scrap everything, (He and Kennedy never liked each other) because they wanted to be the first on the continent with a supersonic fighter/interceptor and were still having engine troubles, while our design was already bettering Mach 2.

[flyjoe180]

Nice work Dave.

[Dave W]

I've done a bit more filling and sanding tonight.Sprayed the wheel hubs and inside the undercarriage doors gloss white.Then I test fitted the canopy sections.They are very thick but a good fit.Apart from the windscreen that is.The glare shield above and in front of the instrument panel sits too high.So I'm going to have to remove it and the instrument panel and make some adjustments.Another problem I have is painting the canopy.I vaguely remember when I was doing an airframe fitters course at RAF Halton in 1976 they had a TSR2 canopy in the work shops.An instructor explained this canopy had a very thin translucent layer of gold leaf between the Perspex layers.Airfix instructions say to paint the canopies with clear orange.Ive tried this with some Tamiya clear orange on a spare canopy and I'm not sure if I like it or not.