foresterab

Will need to watch this one. That kit is on the wish list especially the later markings Was on a fire in 2011 where it was operating at but I was on the wrong end of the fire 200 plus km away to see it. Although the machine was scheduled to go to a museum in Florida apparently the sale fell through and it's still waiting at port Alberni British Columbia

I have a few of those manuals for automobile repairs...never knew they did aircraft too. Either way...great pickup. Looking forward to seeing the final product.

Well...somewhat quiet week. Went from water bombers flying around due to spring hazard to snow...and now back to grass hazard. Couple of false alarms which are always good and got to see bunch of deer and elk running around which always makes me happy. Primer went on during the week...followed by the exposure of what I didn't do right. This was primed again (no photo since well...it's boring). And then started on the paint scheme. Lesson #1 - drink coffee before sitting down and masking the entire airplane for the darkest color first. I basically did the colors in the wrong order so am struggling a bit with it but overall got most of the paint on. Work still goes on with trying to design some decals and markings. Although it's a What If build figured I should try to be somewhat realistic with colors and markings so have been messing around with artwork trying to see what I can do. If all goes well there will be homemade markings which will be interesting....but if successful then really useful for future builds. Anyways...paint touch-ups to go tonight before I can show more.

Going to have to follow this one Found a couple more pictures of the AJ-2's for you here: http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=40156&start=75 Page 6 and Page 9 have some photos of them. Cheers, foresterab

I've modified the doors so that I have a tank that sits low in the bomb bay and created basically a single tank effect instead of Martin's dual door system. To put it in perspective I've attached the following image that shows what I have a for a bomb bay door compared to kit half: Most lines have been marked using tape for a straight line and then scored to make the cut. Eyeballed shaving down additional bits and bobs from there to fit with using a piece of sandpaper on the table to get a straight final edge. Anyways...other half is away so besides dealing with chores got some modelling in. Might be the last bit for the next week depending upon fire conditions but its a) been dry been windy and c) no rain yet to get the grass and leaves to green-up. On call to respond to ??? next week so here's hoping it's quiet. Progress to date: The nose will need some more work...had it all together + putty + sanded....and then remembered about weights. Broke the nose cone off and superglued some fishing weights in there so hopefully it's not a tail sitter. Okay...so not everything here is glued on (tail assembly and engines) but had to see what it looked like. Next step to start priming things I guess. Cheers, foresterab

Looks at the stash with an AB-204/UH-1F kit in it... Thinks of how many 204/205/212 helicopters I fly in and see each summer...they are the second most common helicopter series used after the Eurocopter AS350 series... Sign me up for this if you're still taking people, foresterab Now to decide between a fire crew rappel machine, bucket support, or logistic load.... 

Well...off fire duty with only two call outs. Few more other calls but couldn't respond due to the fire we were on. Too early in the season for water bombers yet though... Anyways...gluing more parts together so I can close things up: You can see in the bomb bay the cross brace put in to put the tank replica on. Doors have been evened out and actually kinda sorta fit. In hind site I would have been better to cut the alternate kit piece designed for closed bays into the right shape instead of trying to shape and splice bits from the open doors but that's part of the learning experience. I don't have a razor saw but I guess a hack saw from the garage would have worked as well. Next step is to close it all up and get the canopy on so I can work on filling some more of the gaps/seams. The kit is actually really nice but because I'm doing a "what if" and need to close off and/or eliminate a lot of the detail fits there's more gaps than designed. Get the body smooth and then primer...

Well...both halves of the fuselage have been modified as so: I've still got some trimming to do to make sure this is a even line but happy with it as a starting point considering it's 3 bomb bay door pieces spliced together. The exterior of the remains have been formed into a new door as well the exterior of which is visible in the bottom of the photo complete with white filler putty to start smoothing it all out. And basically the reverse of the first photo. Edge needing trimming is more obvious here. Now for the fun of putty and sanding a few times. The bad news is I'm manned up on fire duty all weekend so won't be a) able to model much and won't be getting the chores done for SWMBO so might be a few more days until an update.

Okay...so after two nights of thinking about planes and markings I'm going to continue this as a "What If" build. When I think of how many post-ww2 planes were used for water bombers it is logical to think this would have been used as well if available. Most modern bombers are white with red trim or yellow with blue/black trim....trying to think of something different to go with it since I don't want to mix it up with actual company colours. Cheers while I ponder more, foresterab

Inserts several words and phrases learned on the fire line.... Dang nab it. Thank you for the photo comparison Jessica, definitely made it clear. Worst part is when I was there the Air Spray guys called them B-26's and the Buffalo Airways guys called them A-26's. Mystery revelled... Air Spray only had the Douglas model which would explain the nose. Guess I'm buying a new kit then because even the engines are different it appears.... So now that I've put my foot into it...a new kit will be here in 9-15 business days assuming Canada Post remembers where I live. This time with the proper B-26 model but good news...it's still an AirFix. Dogsbody, Airspray still had 4 planes left of which 3 had been sold to a Calgary based collector. Tanker 1 was going to remain as part of Air Spray and I've seen references that another airframe is at the Stan Reynolds Museum in Wetaskiwin, AB but unfortunately in the off normal access storage hanger. I'm now going to go bottle wine while pondering how I screwed this up.

Gingerbob, This is listed as a Martin B-26C on the Airfix box but I've also got references saying they were Douglas A-26's. From what I understand the airframes are almost identical and were basically stripped down of military considerations for weight to allow for better usage as water bombers. I've always known them as B-26's which is what most folks I know call them... My first exposure to these was working a fireline when the bird dog came in, blared the warning siren, and then 5 of them came in and dropped their loads. About 30 minutes later another guy came running through the woods telling us to get back as 3 bulldozers came through creating the cat guard/fire break needed for containment. Our job was done and we were back in camp on standby by supper...gotta love machinery in lieu of muscle sweat. Jessica, Most frames were yellow with black trim. There were some exceptions such as tanker 98 (Trail of '98) which was white with blue and they did have a hanger queen on the line Tanker 58 which was aluminum with blue (Fire Eater). I'll be going with the conventional markings and have ordered a decal set for Tanker 11 which was written off in crash in 2004 from Lone Star Models but hasn't arrived yet. I know the 1/48 Revell kit is for Dragon Lady (IIRC Tanker 20) and Leading Edge Decals did Tanker 98 years ago (but out of stock). Ulillean, This is what I get to see/work with. Tons of history and the more I learn about each provinces/territories history of fire fighting the longer the list of kits to build becomes . Unfortunately kit markings are the issue and I've figured out how to make my own sets yet.

Unfortunately each of the water bombers had to be converted for air tanker/water bombing operations. The retardant tank fits within the limits of the original bomb bay but the size and dimensions are noticeably different with a custom made tank constructed for each. This means that the following work needs to be done: 1) scratch build the retardant tank or at least a facsimile of it 2) modify the bomb bay doors to create a single door instead of the current pair per side. This also means splitting both doors to come up with a common seam and shortening up the bomb bay to match the retardant bay (basically length of the wing root only). The actual retardant bay. Red stuff is again old fire retardant caked on. And the start of the new tank... No plastic card available so it's made out of plastic scavenged from a box of cleaning supplies. Still trying to debate on how much detail vs. fat fingers to apply. Dimensions done by rule of thumb and Mk.1 eyeball so it's not quite up to engineering standards... And the start of modifying bomb bay doors. Plan is to get both sides of the plane formed up before breaking out the airbrush for interior colours on the side walls and priming the main body. Retardant tank will be painted and hopefully applied after main body colours are on.

EDIT Due to mixing this up with the Douglas B-26 which was the original intended build...but since the kit is half built going to continue it as "what if" Hello all, So this is actually the first Airfix kit I've tried to build. Basically picked it up due to the price in a very good model shop with the intention of building this as a water bomber used for forest fire fighting here in Canada. The majority of these airframes used were operated by a company called Air Spray located in Red Deer, Alberta and were used by both the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and most commonly, the Alberta Forest Service. Last flown operationally in 2006 these planes have been replaced by Air Tractor 802's and/or Electra L-188 tankers. No box shots since I started this about a month ago and well...forgot. Biggest delay on the construction though was colour conversion from the listed Humbrol colours to the Tamiya colours I can source locally with Humbrol 226 - Interior Green being the issue. As I understand it this was the color applied as a zinc chromate protective colour over the metal parts and unfortunately was not always consistently applied in both shade and location with some field expedient options applied. Initial attempts to mix the color as shown: This struck me as too green in color and while looking at various pictures sourced from google the colours inside the under carriage bays appears silver or grey. Luckily it was spring break, the in laws live somewhat close by the main hanger and Air Spray was willing to let me come visit Although only a few of the B-26's are left awaiting pick-up from the purchaser's I was able to figure out it's a yellow/green (zinc chromate) base layer but everything else had been painted aluminum or light grey over top as shown by the little bit of grey color applied above. Photo from within the front under carriage bay. The red is fire fighting retardant which somehow got in there. Most of the recent work was on the cockpit tub which...well it's pretty basic and doesn't really reflect the real thing. I wasn't able to get many good interior shots but the cock pits are pretty crowded with all the avionics/emergency supplies/radios/after market wiring so I took advantage of the fact each plane seems to be unique and came up with this: Sigh...looking at it zoomed in shows all the flaws of a not so steady hand and brush painting. But getting better at this...

So this is my completed DC-6 Water Bomber as flown by Conair located in Abbotsford, British Columbia, BC. These were very popular airframe but have since, for the most part, been retired from active service. Work in progress thread here:http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234973376-1144-minicraft-dc-6b-water-bomber/

So I realized today that I haven't actually put the last photos up. Bad bad me considering I haven't touched this since mid-January. Total cost on this kit was about $35 CDN + $10 US for additional replacement decals (thank you again Minicraft). Plus a new air compressor which only cost me $20 CDN + $70 Canadian Tire Money Fun little kit, goes together fairly well and I really like the 1/144 scale for the larger planes. But onto the next kit... An Airfix 1/72 scale B-26 Water bomber

Conair and Air Spray both have BA-146's in operations...but only in the USA contracts (not in Canada yet). Australian contracts are mostly "as needed" as I understand as opposed to permanent base contracts for the large bombers. Ag-cats and AT-802 Air tractors are a little different in part because they are so much cheaper per hour. There is only the one C-130 working at the moment full time worldwide firefighting that I know of which is operated by Coulson Group (better known for the Martin Mars). It's actually a C-130Q (ex-NASA frame) which is best matched with a C-130H model. There's a few more BA-146's coming online as well with Neptune Aviation interested. Appears to be the next successor to the DC-4/6 Convair 580 Electra L-188/P-3 crowd of planes.

I don't recall seeing the skyvan's when I was in Kathmandu and Pokara in 2001 but did recall seeing a few helicopters in national markings. At the time the Maoist uprising was going on and from what I understand the Air Force had picked up some additional machines to try to outflank the rebels seeing as most of their strong holds were areas of....limited....infrastructure. There was also some helicopters used for mountain rescue which were stripped down Russian models which were used to retrieve stranded climbers mostly around Mt. Everest. Did fly on a Twin Otter there but can't recall the plane markings but want to say it was a commercial outfit...they ran a shuttle service from Pokara to Kathmandu. Left the country early due to planned national strikes shutting everything down and arrived in Canada to find out the next morning the King, Queen and most of the royal family had been killed. There's a few Nepalese living locally so will try to contact them as well to see what they may have in regards to plane pictures.

Looking forward to the build at whatever pace works for you Very jealous you are so close to the museum as well especially after visiting it in the fall. Here's hoping you get to ride in the real thing

I know a couple of engineers who worked on the arrow. Very proud of the work the did and were/still in shock regarding the cancellation due to how much was done with how few resources. Grandparents used to live nears downs view and talked about the day after the project cancellation the local radio stations were all overpowered by us ones offering jobs adds. So many what ifs with the story of what might have been..... Looking forward to the build

Haven't found anything yet other than a terrorist attack upon jets in Edmonton in 1965 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_aircraft_bombing More random history nuggets discovered....

Nice build milktrip, saw some allouettes last summer doing herbicide aerial work. Unfortunately it looks like your helicopter wish list is like mine with all the model versions I see/get to fly in not available in kits. Keep up the whirly bird builds though...you're doing a bunch that I have on the mental list to build.

Oh nice Great job Paul J. That's the sort of model you want to show off on a fire base !

Hi Paul J, Soon'ish? So spent some time with decals again tonight....it was definitely the first set of decals being an issue. Thank you once again Minicraft for sending the replacements. I was going to cut out just the missing pieces and then I looked closer at the mess of splicing together the original decal....decided an overlay was the way to go. What a nice change...same technique and everything slid into place with minimal fuss. So between that and fixing the small issue on the other side decals are all on and drying. No photos however until I get the last coat of pledge/Klear on to seal everything down. For what it's worth I really recommend spending the time to find some Klear/Future/Pledge to use. It use as a paint finish layer and top coat over decals has allowed for much easier decal placement and I like to think a better overall product as I'm not near as worried about disturbing the acrylic based paint and/or decal after the build. Unfortunately no photos until the end of the week as I'm off on training with work to ironically enough learn about water bomber aircraft and helicopter management systems and support. foresterab

So checked the mail earlier this week and happy days are here again A brand new set of decals courtesy of Minicraft (and Paypal). I checked these out and they seem to be fresher (if that's the term) than the ones in the kit but am using the remaining kit decals first to allow for screw-ups. So carefully cut out the striping for the second side...put it in the water....and proceeded to watch the old decal slip into three pieces. It's an ebay kit purchase and although it was brand new in original packaging I'm guessing the decals got damaged somehow by age? conditions? Either way working on putting on the last of the decals from the original set and then will be adding in the missing pieces from the new set of decals as required.

Great look man. Nice and sharp lines and different than the norm