Classic Airframes 1/48 B-57B By Mike Whye

Background

If there’s one plane I have really liked over the years for its lines, it’s the Canberra/B-57 aircraft. Until about 20 years ago, I didn’t realize that there were more than the bubble-type canopy version used by both Britain’s Royal Air Force and the U.S. Air Force and the tandem seat B-57. Then I learned about the those with the offset teardrop canopy, the target tow and all those others. I was beginning to wonder if there were as many variations of the Canberras and B-57s and their paint schemes as there were Me-109s. I know, not really, but I was impressed with this aircraft that was modeled only in 1/72 scale for decades….and one that I dreamed about being made in 1/48. In fact, I dropped a couple letters to Monogram stating that it would be a good aircraft to model but got the same reply to both of my letters: we’ll look at your suggestion.

Well, I was really pumped when I read that Classic Airframes was coming out with variants of the Canberra and, just recently, the B-57B in 1/48 scale. I must admit the price tag caused me to hold back some (yes, I’m a cheapskate) but finally, calculating the money I’ve saved by buying some kits at bargain prices over the years and earning some more bucks by selling some things on eBay, I had the right to lay out $60 for the B-57B and that‘s what I did the other day.

When CA’s B-57B, kit # 4130, arrived on my doorstep a few days later courtesy of Sprue Brothers, I was one happy camper. And upon having gone through the goodies in the box, I’m still camping happy.

I have to say that looking at this model took me back to an air show in 1965 at Westover AFB near Chicopee, Massachusetts where my father was stationed at the time. A neighbor of mine and the father of one of my friends, Colonel Minor (yes, I can imagine the jokes he endured as Major Minor earlier in his career), was the launch officer for the 99th Bomb Wing that day as the show was winding down. That meant he was in charge of sending off the visiting aircraft.

As it happened, just as I was bicycling away from the display area, Colonel Minor saw me and asked if I wanted to ride along in the staff car while he did his launch duties. Well, I had to let my Mom know what was happening and he said no big deal….he lifted his car phone….quite the rarity in 1965, dialed my home, talked to my Mom and got the okay for me to hang out with him. Talk about having a blast. We watched the visiting RAF Vulcan take off as we sat alongside the runway. We sat near the far end of the runway as an F-101 pilot kicked in his afterburners, scaring up every insect in the grass bordering the runway. We later sat next to the runway again as a B-58 Hustler shot off the concrete with its four afterburners shooting flame and ripping the air apart as it flashed by us. A 14-year-kid never had a better seat at an air show than I had that day.

And then, back in the display area, there was the two-seat, twin-engine B-57B, a derivative of the Canberra developed in England. As the pilots settled into the cockpit, Colonel Minor stopped his staff car near the plane’s left wingtip. The canopy went down and then, BAM! Black smoke erupted from one of the engine housings and I was ready to run for my life, scared to death that the plane was on fire. Colonel Minor was laughing. Don’t worry, it’s just the cartridge system starting the engines, he said. I can still feel my heart palpating anytime I replay that scene in my mind.

Over the years I’ve loved many aircraft but there was something about the B-57 that always caught my eyes. Perhaps it’s what some called the “backward” wings (they really weren’t). Perhaps it was the soft lines, nothing like the rapier-sharp configurations of the F-106 and the British Lightning nor the heaviness of the Phantom II’s. Well, whatever it is, I still like the Canberra in almost any configuration and damn if Jules Bringuier at Classic Airframes isn’t going to make some money off of me.

The Kit

All right…cut to the chase, I can hear you saying. Upon opening the box, I saw a plastic bag containing quite a bit of finely-crafted blue-gray styrene plastic in the form of the kit’s major components--such as the pieces for the fuselage, wings, horizontal stabilizers--and two sprues. One sprue is mostly pieces for the underwing ordnance; as for the bomb bay, it‘s closed. The other sprue has the wingtip fuel tanks, landing gear struts and doors and wheel well doors; a few pieces on this sprue are for the Canberras and are not needed for the B-57. All of the recessed scribing is fine and the panel lines are thin which is really nice. I saw a few scratches on one of the forward fuselage pieces but they can be polished away with little hassle.

By the way, each side of the fuselage has two pieces….a nose section and the rest of the fuselage. Obviously this arrangement accommodates the noses of the different Canberra/B-57 variants made by Classic Airframes.

Inside the large bag containing the kit’s parts were two smaller, resealable bags. One had the clear plastic parts--basically the windscreen and canopy which were as clear as clear can be. It also held small lenses and navigation lights.

The other bag had the resin pieces that are very detailed: wheel wells, cockpit tub, ejection seats, tailpipes, turbine fans, instrument panels, side instrument panels, wheels and the coming for the front instrument panel. Only a couple things disappointed me. I noticed the ejection seats’ handles are so finely made that one had broken off in transit so I’ll have to use a thin piece of stretched sprue to replace that. Also, there’s a small casting block of resin with four items on it that are not seen anywhere in the instructions; one of those pieces was broken off the casting block but since they’re not seen in the instructions, I’m hoping the broken piece isn’t needed anywhere in this kit. Finally, resin piece R18 was missing; that’s the strut that holds the canopy open if you want it displayed that way. I figure I can use some more stretched sprue.

I noticed the wings are butt-joined to the fuselage but CA has this covered by supplying two spars that pass through the fuselage and into each wing. Nice touch there, CA! No such luck with the horizontal stabilizers though.

The instructions are simple, easy to follow and don’t leave much room for guessing about what goes where. The only thing I’m not looking forward to is calculating how much weight is necessary to balance this bird on its nose gear (Terry Dean! Do you hear that??? There‘s a market for some more of your weights!).

And wow, three sheets of decals allow you to create one of four B-57s:

• a black-bellied B-57B that served with the 13th TBS, 35TFW in 1966; its topside colors were the tri-color scheme common to USAF tactical aircraft operating in Vietnam
• a light gray EB-57B that flew with the Air National Guard in 1978 and sported day-glo orange paint on its nose, vertical stabilizer and wing tips
• an all-black B-57B that served with the 487thBS, 345th BW in 1957
• a natural metal B-57B that served with the 501st BG, 345 BW at Langley AFB around 1954

While two decals sheets handle the four options, a third sheet holds the wing walks you‘ll need for all but the Vietnam-camouflaged B-57B which had no wing walks.

From what I see in the box, unless you want some particular after-market decals representing certain aircraft, everything you‘re going to need to make a great 1/48 scale B-57B is in this kit.

Conclusion

The kit has a MSRP of $69 although some stores are selling it for around $60. Because this is a limited run kit, buy it as soon as possible if you want one because once they‘re gone, you might find them only in the auction market.