North American B45A Tornado

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vacant
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North American B45A Tornado

Post by vacant »

This is a Gerald Elliott 1/72 vacform kit of this early Cold War bomber and clandestine operations aircraft. A small number were used by the RAF for flights over the USSR, flying out of RAF Sculthorpe in East Anglia. This was called Operation Jiu Jitsu. They managed to get away with it, but only just. The RAF flew a later version that was adapted for reconnaissance missions.

The kit is probably a former Contrail kit. Although it comes with some cast metal parts, the vacform parts are crude in the extreme. Any surface detail that was on the original Contrail moulding had been lost. I scribed the lines as best I could, though it's not something I have ever done well. There were no decals so these had to be made with some pieces coming from the spares box.

The aircraft has been available as an injection kit from Mach 2 and more recently by Valom.

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Gregers
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by Gregers »

That's a stunning build. Very well done sir.

All the best.

Greg
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iggie
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by iggie »

That's really very very nice indeed!
Best wishes

Jim
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gnomemeansgnome
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by gnomemeansgnome »

Nice!
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Barry
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by Barry »

Excellent! My era, but I haven't built one yet. It's listed on Scalemates as a Gerald Elliot new tool 198?.
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vacant
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by vacant »

I have just checked in my 1986 edition of 'Vacuum-Formed kits' by John Burns - I don't see the B45 listed as a Contrail kit. So perhaps it was a Gerald Elliott original.
dollar19
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by dollar19 »

Very very nice. Beautiful presentation as well.
ShaunW
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by ShaunW »

Nicely done, Vacant and an interesting bit of history regarding the type's use by the RAF - I shall make a point of looking up the said operation.
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PTB11
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by PTB11 »

Thats a real stunner. Lovely work indeed.
Regards, Paddy.

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skypirate
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by skypirate »

A much-overlooked aircraft of historical cold-war significance.
Great to see it modelled!

Cheers,

David
celt
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by celt »

Another vacform triumph,vacant.
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Clashcityrocker
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by Clashcityrocker »

Very nicely done. First time I've seen one modelled.

Nigel
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by Lone Modeller »

Both the aircraft and the kit are new to me - nothing unusual there then! Another of your excellent builds - you seem to be able to take any old lump of plastic, including bits which are incomplete, and make something really worthwhile from it. Marvellous!
gbrwn56
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Re: North American B45A Tornado

Post by gbrwn56 »

Thats a stunner, thanks for sharing.
George B.
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