A CI (Hobbycraft) Avro Canada CF-100 Mk 4, in 440 sqn 1 Air Division colours

[stevehnz]

A place holder for now with a photo of box & sprues. The Above & Below decals showed up today, the blue in the roundels seems somewhat pale, hoping a clear coat might darken them a bit, otherwise I'll be looking for a plan B perhaps, still a ways to go before I get to that.Those are the kit decals on show, the colour looks good, but they're slightly out pf register & the small ones appear slightly oval, maybe not an option, we'll see.

Steve.

[Robin-42]

You made me pull out my CDN roundel stash. None agree on the blue, or the red for that matter! It’s hard to show with an iPad photo, but the CanMilAir are definitely light. To my uncalibrated and uneducated eye, the Canuck decals are closest together with the ManTic. Aviaeology are too bright a blue. The kit ones aren’t horrible except for the register issue and they lack the finer details. The old Astra colours are ok, but out of register. The four in the middle are ancient Can Force decals, almost black!

 

 

[stevehnz]

Thanks for showing those Robin, I reckon your kit decals, lower left, are probably slightly in better register than mine though not much in it. I'll probably see what the Canmilair ones look like on & then see if I feel the need to change them, there is always fading to take into account I guess.

Steve.

[Andwil]

19 hours ago, stevehnz said:

there is always fading to take into account I guess.

Remember that while fading will lighten the colour it wont brighten it, those Canmilair roundels look quite bright to me.

 

AW

[stevehnz]

2 hours ago, Andwil said:

Remember that while fading will lighten the colour it wont brighten it, those Canmilair roundels look quite bright to me.

 

AW

I think you're right. I had another look at the kit decals & they're not as bad as I thought so maybe able to replace the CMA roundels with the kit ones, The worst out of register aspect is the decal colour to the decal film, I reckon I can fix that with some liquid decals film, time will tell I guess.

Steve.

[stevehnz]

I pulled this out last night & began snipping & gluing random stuff because it was fun, then I came to the thought of the flaps & the hassles Dennis @Corsairfoxfouruncle has found with not being able to cut out the centre section flap away with his fuselage closed up & I stopped my fun & got serious, did I really want to be bothered but now know that once I've thought it I can't unthink it & so headed upstairs to do some research. Apart from a hoard of photos with Cf-100s having dropped flaps, all three of them, I found a very useful thread from ages ago on ARC which gave me some inspiration & this afternoon I attacked the lower fuselage half with a very fine saw & scalpel. It was surprisingly quick & just as quickly I was building in the inside of the recess the centre flap will fit into, not that it ever will now which is just as well as it probably wouldn't fit very well but hopefully, that small fact won't be obvious.  I also fitted the engine fronts up with some de-icer spinners,  still a lot of trimming to be done on all the additions. 

Steve.

[PattheCat]

Another Canuck! Oh joy!

Well thought for the centre flaps. It sure shall appear more realistic and strenghten her "sturdy" looks.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Yours looks great by the way, I knew about the center section mods and completely dropped the ball. My problem was that I forgot about them until after the fuselage was closed up and there is really nothing to do after that.

[stevehnz]

1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Yours looks great by the way, I knew about the center section mods and completely dropped the ball. My problem was that I forgot about them until after the fuselage was closed up and there is really nothing to do after that.

I can sure see that Dennis. I managed to get mine out fairly cleanly but only by operating from both sides. It would be difficult to do it after closing up without making a mess.

Steve.

[stevehnz]

Hooo Boy, been a while, hasn't it, lost my mojo for a while, retirement came & is needing a bit more adjustment than I'd realised, a recurring cough that has last close to two months now has not been conducive to doing anything much, but at least after the 4th visit to the sawbones, I've been referred for a chest x-ray & had bloods taken. He did muse out loud about emphysema which didn't cheer me a heap. I've had plans for this retirement.

Anyway, the last couple of days I suddenly found myself modelling again, cough still here but what the heck. This was lastnight, as of tonight I've got the fuselage together, rear bit on tomorrow I hope & I'm still hopeful of getting it done.

 

The bits behind the intakes are the left over from some new intake centre bodies, I thought the kit ones were too short. The white tubes are recyclable straw bits just to give the tail pipes some depth, again the kit bits didn't thrill me, too skinny by half & looking at photos of the real deals, they have big dark holes surrounds by thin metal shells, I'll try to replicate this too. The little mummy looking thing is some lead shot wrapped in white tak, hopefully enough to prevent tail sitting.

Steve.

[PattheCat]

Why are tailpipes always too short and 1st stage compressors mostly looking like stuck ventilators??? Just kidding 😁

Your additions will for sure give a more realistic look to the beast.

Well done.

 

I hope your health will improve soonest. Crossing fingers. Take care of yourself.

Cheers.

 

Pat 

[Robin-42]

I cut the tailpipes off and replaced them with brass tube on my last CF100 effort.

[stevehnz]

1 hour ago, Robin-42 said:

I cut the tailpipes off and replaced them with brass tube on my last CF100 effort.

That would have been a better idea 'cept that I didn't have any brass tube so this will hopefully suffice.

Steve.

[Grandboof]

Great to see you back at this once again . Hope your health improves soon . Congratulations on retirement .You're it does take some adjusting . Upside more bench time 

Martin H

[zebra]

Congrats on your retirement and sorry to hear about the health problems - I hope it clears up soon. Good to see the Canuck is moving along, it'll be great to have another CF-100 in the gallery.

[stevehnz]

More progress tonight, the fuselage pretty much buttoned up & ready to go after a pretty heavy duty filing, rubbing & polishing session, several small bits of dissolved putty to allow to harden over night & then some panels lines to restore & I'll call it done. Be time to give it some wings then.

Steve.

[stevehnz]

Onwards & upwards, at least its got wings now so the latter doesn't sound quite so silly, I've splashed some black paint around in those areas that need it, cockpit, intake scoops & tail pipes. The flaps are on & hanging, there is more work to do with the main undercarriage, no actuators to be seen or centre bulkhead in the main gear well, what were Hobbycraft thinking of? I'm not going silly on it, I don't have time but some things deserve at least a nod to realism. Bit of luck I'll get some paint on it tomorrow,

Steve.

[Robin-42]

Hobbycraft copied Astra’s  vacuform without doing any research whatsoever, the gear wells are the same as the vacuform ones, which were as good as you could get with a vacuform. It’s good they copied it in that at least it is spot on shape-wise. 

[stevehnz]

I'm adopting the attitude that this is an "Is what it is" kit & at best it'll be an arms length result but will look enough like a Canadian clunk to keep me happy.

Steve.

[Grandboof]

Better than no clunk at all  . Looking good though Steve .

Martin H

[stevehnz]

First paint on in the last 24 hours, last night was painting the de-icing boots on the fin & horizontal flying surfaces, tonight I masked those & gave the underside a coat of Humbrol 166 Light Aircraft Grey. OK, I know it is supposed to be something like Medium Sea Grey but I've yet to see a colour photo of one of these that looks as dark as that to my eye so I think the LAG will look about right.

You might notice that the centre section dive brake/flap has been positioned as well, quite pleased how this came out, though it could have been better, the problem with making it up as I go, also a centre division put into the main wheel bay which helps the look a bit too.

Steve.

[stevehnz]

Moving right along now, some grey & green has appeared.

Steve.

[Robin-42]

Race you to the finish line! Remind me not to build models with a deadline again! My Avenger is just going to make it. Your photo also demonstrates why I never worry about detailing the cockpit of a Clunk too much. Black on black with black accents!

[81-er]

It's looking good, Steve. I'm definitely going to have to add a Clunk to the stash

 

James

[stevehnz]

The bulk of the painting is now done other than a few very small touch ups. I took the masking off later this evening & was quite chuffed at how well it behaved. No lifting or peeling to mention. Coupla days I reckon.

 

Steve.