Revell 1/81 British Canberra Bomber

            The history of the English Electric Canberra is quite well known. Proposed in 1944 and first flying in 1949, it would go on to have one of the longest service histories of any jet aircraft. An essentially simple looking twin engine design with wing mounted Rolls Royce Avon engines, it was fast for its day and exhibited good handling characteristics. It also had great design growth potential, with numerous iterations appearing over the years, including the Martin B-57 produced in the United States. There would also be dedicated reconnaissance, training, and research variants produced over the years.

            British produced aircraft alone would see service with more than a dozen air forces worldwide. First going into combat during the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Canberra would fly above war torn skies for decades to come. This would include the India-Pakistan conflicts, where both B-57’s (Pakistan) and Canberras (India) would see action. Both versions of the aircraft also served in Vietnam, with Canberra B.2 flying missions with the R.A.A.F. Argentina would employ them in the Falklands, and they would see action in numerous border clashes and internal struggles in both Africa and South America.

            Indian Canberras would be the last in service, retiring in 2007. However British PR.9 recon Canberras would fly above the skies of Afghanistan until being retired the year before. These were the last to fly in a combat zone.

            Over its lifetime more than 900 Canberras were built, serving for fifty-six years in a wide variety of roles. An additional 403 B-57’s were produced in the United States. Three WB-57F’s are retained and operated by N.A.S.A., the last of the line still in the air.  All in all, a remarkable service record for this remarkable aircraft.

            So, there is probably almost nobody reading this who has not seen or just as likely built the Revell B-57 Canberra kit at one point or another. I got my first one at G.C. Murphy at Parkway Place shopping center in Huntsville, Alabama around 1974. I was not quite eight and I think that I paid $1.00 for it.

            This was the boxing from their Strategic Air Power series, featuring a B-57 in South East Asia camo flying over a bridge in Vietnam on the box cover. This was my first introduction to the Canberra in any form, having not yet even seen one in a book. Over the years, I have built this kit at least a dozen times in various paint schemes and markings for the B-57. However, until two years ago, I was completely unaware that there had ever been a Revell release as a British Canberra.

            I saw one commanding a very high price, quite literally under glass in a display case on a vendor table at a model show in 2023. Until then, I had never even heard mention of a British Canberra by Revell, other than more recent offerings derived from former Matchbox molds. Naturally, I assumed it was derived from their B-57 mold, though I did not get to take a look to confirm this.

            Around Thanksgiving this past year, I had been working on a 1/48 Classic Airframes Canberra B.2 that I had acquired from someone. This kit had been started and I needed to undo some of the work in order to finish it the way that I wanted. That is a whole other nightmare… er.. I mean story.

            I needed a replacement for the forward landing gear bay. I found a resin aftermarket piece on e-Bay and also, by happenstance, a Revell Canberra. It was priced much lower than the previous one that I had seen and I managed to acquire it for $12, plus shipping. I wanted it simply for the novelty of it. While missing a couple of things, it was mostly complete.

The kit is in the standard 1/72-ish Revell oblong, top opening box. This one has nice cover art featuring a British Canberra flying over Gibraltar. I must admit to having a fondness for the box art of most kits from the Golden Age of modeling. While it often took genuine artistic license, even to the point of surreal looking skies, it is eye catching, striking, and aesthetically appealing.

            Upon opening the box, one has a mostly familiar sight if one has ever looked at a Revell B-57. The kit is essentially the same, with the exceptions of a different fuselage and the appropriate clear canopy and nose pieces. This particular kit was one of Revell’s infamous “Whip Fly It” editions, also including a plastic handle, clay to be added to the forward fuselage, and a plastic whistle in three parts to fit under the fuselage, presumably for a “jet engine” sound while slinging it through the air.

            “Whip Fly It” was a thing of the past by the time I built my first models, and I never saw one until I was in my thirties, and they began popping up as collector’s pieces. It was a novel concept to make the model into even more of a toy. It probably also helped sell more models, as I suspect that these very often “crashed and burned,” so to speak. This kit is one of the few that I have seen with all of the parts present for this feature.

            The model is clearly intended to depict a Canberra B.2. In that respect, it is somewhat more accurate than the B-57 as the Canberra did not have fuselage mounted speed brakes that are conspicuously absent from all the B-57 editions. The total parts count is around fifty-five, including the “Whip-Fly It” components.

            While as noted, the Canberra did not have fuselage mounted speed brakes, there were wing mounted brakes which are not indicated either, though it is far less noticeable. There is a single Revell style, “Space Jockey” pilot figure, as I call them, with no other interior components. This is fairly typical of Revell kits of this period, though.

            The wing components are identical to those of the Revell Canberra kit. This is true right down to the underwing stores. This includes the rockets found in the B-57 kit as well as the U.S.A.F. style napalm tanks that I am fairly certain no Canberra ever carried. (My example only had one half of one napalm tank, though all rockets and wingtip fuel tanks were present). The wing landing gear bays have no boxing, just as on the B-57 and all components of the landing gear are the same.

            The instructions are a single sheet printed front and back and are typical of those for Revell kits of this period. Interestingly, it notes to add streamers to the back of the engines, presumably to look like some sort of afterburner flare that a Canberra with healthy engines would never produce. The last portion is dedicated to preparing the kit for “flight” and includes instructions for calculating the scale speed of the model.

            There are decals for a single British Aircraft provided. Unfortunately, the decal sheet for mine was missing, so I could not assess how they had aged. Some of these older, thicker decals hold up surprisingly well. Around 2006 I used a set from a Frog Bearcat on a bagged Monogram F8F that I wanted to depict in French markings and was pleasantly surprised by how well they worked, being at least three decades old at the time.

            The instructions list the kit as being 1/80.8 scale, generically 1/81. This is, unsurprisingly, the same scale for the B-57 kit. Clearly this was Revell getting as much mileage out of the basic mold as they could by offering it in a different version. The results are not bad for the period and the kit is comparable to their other offerings at the time.

Conclusions:

            Having owned and built just about every Revell aircraft kit offered from their beginning until the late 1970’s at one point or another, I am baffled by how this kit managed to fly under my radar for so long. More interesting to me is why this incarnation of the mold does not seem to have seen the light of day in around sixty years, while the B-57 has been produced as recently as 2011. Scalemates shows two releases for it in 1961 and 1963. That is somewhat odd for Revell, though there are other examples of such unicorn kits over the years, such as their X-17 research rocket. (Still haven’t forgiven myself for passing one of those up about twenty-five years ago.)

It makes me wonder just how many were lost to Whip-Fly. Still, I have seen plenty of other Revell kits offered with this gimmick. Curious, though. I just checked e-Bay and saw another listed at $95. That would seem to lend some credence to its rarity, though just how rare a bird it is, I am still not certain. Strange, that having been in the hobby since 1971 (yes, I was four years old with a 1/72 Airfix Bf.109) and rather keen on Revell kits at times, the only three that I have ever encountered have been within the past two years. Where were they hiding for the other sixty?

            I would be tempted to have fun with this one just because I have never seen one built. However, it is such a nice example of the model. With nearly everything present, even the clay and twine, it is practically a time capsule from 1962. It will probably just remain an interesting curio in my unbuilt stash.

            As for the Canberra B.2, there are definitely superior kits out the. Airfix has long produced one in 1/72 and AMP Models now has offered one as well. In larger, 1/48 scale there have been kits from Classic Airframes and Airfix. All offer superior detail and are in “standard” scales. This leaves the Revell kit an interesting curiosity and collector’s piece.

References:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-h157-129-british-canberra-bomber-whip-fly--191706

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Canberra.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-57_Canberra

English Electric Canberra by Bruce Barrymore Halfpenny, Pen and Sword Books, 2005

Christopher Campbell

January 2024