1/48 Dynavector BAC TSR2

by Colin Whitehouse

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Another classic kit from Dynavector, this time the TSR2. I have seen the 2 surviving TSR2's at Cosford and Duxford in the UK but it wasn't until I had it on the work bench that I realized how big this plane is.  I have photographed the model next to a Phantom to give an idea of size. 
The kit fuselage comes in 4 quarters, the front section split vertically and the rear horizontally. Each section is the length of an average 1/48 kit.

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Construction basically followed the instructions in the kit and the excellent review by Ted Taylor, with a couple of exceptions. Firstly the rear fuselage was reinforced around the weapons bay by gluing some plastruct box section over the inside of the weapons bay doors. This keeps them nice and flat and provides and anchor for the cross beams to keep the width correct. Because the finished model is so heavy I anchored the supports for the undercarriage bays here as well. Secondly I dispensed with the kit exhaust nozzles and replaced them with electrical conduit. I have done this on a few kit now and the TSR2 was fitted with 20mm OD. Available at electrical stores for $2 per meter, its cheap and easy to work. This allows you to have a jet pipe with no internal seams to worry about and also allows them to be fitted after the fuselage has been joined, thus also allowing the join for the fuselage halves to be made and sanded to a crisp edge which would not be possible with the pipes in. The conduit was sharpened to give it a thin edge and looks the part (photo 3). Photo 9 shows the structure in the
rear fuselage as describes above and also the frame to allow the insertion of the jet pipes later. One of the pipes is resting in place.  Ted noted that the kit is weak in the front corners of the rear fuselage so I filled these with PVA glue to prevent me from sanding through them later. As it turned out not much sanding was required but I think the extra strength is good on a model this size.

Photo 9 also shows the front fuselage assembled as per the instructions. (see bottom of article)   I added some more detail to the cockpits which was lucky as the canopies are crystal clear and the interior can be seen, even the rear cockpit despite the small windows. The rear fuselage was taped to a piece of 2x1 timber and the front offered up until perfect alignment was achieved and then they were glued together. The main joint was laminated at the rear of the intakes and came out very strong. An excellent piece of kit engineering. For the undercarriages I glued the legs to the fuselage before fitting the bogies and adding brake lines. Thus ensuring the 6 wheels are all on the ground.

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The finished model was painted with Humbrol 130 white as recommended by Ted with under and over shading to give depth. The tail and underwing areas are Alclad II Steel and Aluminum respectively. A wash of Raw umber was added after the final cost of Kleer (Future) to pick out the detail.

One of the hardest things about this kit was photographing it. White is very hard to photograph and it took a lot of fiddling with both camera and software to get some detail to show up. Also the plane is so huge I couldn't get it onto my usual background hence the close cropping and no profile view!

Colin

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Photo 9

 

Photos and text © by Colin Whitehouse