Navy Bird Posted January 9 Posted January 9 Last year's big build was the monster all-white Handley Page Victor. Not having learned that lesson I figured it would be great to start this year with another big white bird. A quick trip to the secret locker of stash and I pulled out a kit that I bought back in 2012 - the 1:72 Avro CF-105 Arrow from Hobbycraft Canada. Now, this is the third generation of tooling they produced, and the most accurate in size and shape of the three. It has some issues but nothing like their first two attempts. (They should have just LIDAR scanned the remaining Arrow that is hidden in Dan Akroyd's barn.) A nice build review by David Winter is still available here and he does a nice job of comparing the new kit to drawings and pointing out some boo-boos. So what have we got here? First, the rather uninteresting box: If I were selling this kit I might have put my company name on the box top. Just saying. It is in the fine print on the box end in tiny type, but who reads that? The box is one of those end-opening jobs, but it's made of industrial strength corrugated cardboard. Revell, please take notice. Inside the "black box" is a bunch of styrene moulded in white - which means it won't photograph that well. I've set my exposures darker than I would normal shoot and maybe that will prevent everything from washing out. The first sprue contains the wings, where we encounter a boo-boo. The blisters for the ailerons (moulded on top of the wing in the first kit) are not aligned with the panel line. We'll see what we can do about that. The panel lines themselves, are engraved and reasonable for this scale. I tried to get a close-up here, not sure if it worked: The next sprue has the upper and lower parts for the main fuselage, split horizontally: This is a big improvement over the previous kits which had an area-ruling error in the fuselage shape near the intakes. Next up is the forward fuselage, split vertically. This is a big improvement as the nose gear well is better represented. Note also the vertical fin. The next sprue has some very nice improvements in the tail cone and exhaust area. However, even though the nose gear strut is much nicer than the earlier kits, the main gear struts have one of those "I can't believe I did that" moments. The struts and their linkages should be mirror images of each other, yet they are exactly the same. Oops. Pretty sure we can fix this. Next up are two shots of the canopy - I really wish this wasn't moulded in one piece. The clam-shell main canopy is a very unique feature of the Arrow, and it will be difficult to cut up this one-piece part to replicate that, and I was unable to find a vacuform replacement, although I could probably make one. Let me noodle on that for a while. Of course, it wouldn't be a Navy Bird build without some resin - Mastercasters helped out with some ejection seats and "corrected" intakes. I'm not sure what was corrected, but I'll do a comparison when we get to that part of the build. I'm not actually sure if the intakes are for this third-generation tooling, or one of the others. I just saw it and bought it. Let's see, what's left? Right, stickers. I did some research, and the kit decal sheet (left) has a few issues. I bought a replacement sheet from Arrow Graphics (right), and I think that might be worse: Both sheets have problems with the ensign and the fonts. David Winter produced the best available sheet in 1:72 scale and that was my next cash disbursement. My understanding is that this sheet is for this specific kit. Lastly, here is a quick shot of the instructions, made by the same CAD hack technician who did the box top. Hey, at least they're in colour. So this is the next project, unless I get bogged down and do some other kit as a side project. I managed to find a website that had oodles of detail photos of the CF-105 replica that was built - I have no idea how accurate that is, but combined with shots of the prototype Arrows it should give me some ideas for further detailing. In the meantime, I'm getting older and flabbier. Cheers, Bill PS. Not too many parts, so it shouldn't take a year like the Victor. 11 months maybe, but not a year. 25 1
Billos Posted January 9 Posted January 9 4 minutes ago, Navy Bird said: They should have just LIDAR scanned the remaining Arrow that is hidden in Dan Akroyd's barn. If Only! Despite rumours of Arrow parts hidden in various Avro Engineers' basements, here's the only remaining part of a real Arrow in the Ottawa Air Museum. @Navy Bird Where did you get your kit? I'm desperately searching for an Arrow Kit. 6
David H Posted January 9 Posted January 9 I look forward to this installment. I just finished reading David Winter's review over on ARC. With regards to the actuator fairings- Can they be carefully sawed off with a JLC razor saw, joined together and then re-installed?? -d-
Tomcat101 Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Interesting thread. I built what I suspect was the first generation kit in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It was terrible. That said I'd l love a crack at building another one. Best of luck. 1
Ad-4N Posted January 10 Posted January 10 I had no idea they had three generations of this kit. I am sure I have the first issue of this kit and it was the first Hobby Craft model I bought.
marvinneko Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Items in Ottawa. Wings in the reserve hangar. "Progress is fine, but it's gone on for too long" http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2018/02/avro-arrow-remains.html 9 1
Scooby Posted January 10 Posted January 10 I love the Arrow, looking forward to the build. My dad was on the RCAF liaison team for the Arrow. He played on the Avro soccer team with many of the programs test pilots and engineers, including Jan Żurakowski, whom he became close friends with. 3
silverfox63 Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Hi Bill. New @Navy Bird build; check. Not a common aircraft; check. Difficult to photograph white plastic; check. Resin parts; check. Aftermarket decals; check Me following this build; checkaroonie. Cheers, Chris. 2
Rabbit Leader Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Funnily enough I’ve just bought one of these elusive kits, however it’s the first generation model and full of (unknown to me) errors that will probably see me annoyed once I find them out? It was a cheapish buy compared to what I’ve seen online but I snapped it up as they are very rare in my part of the world. I look forward to seeing how you get on with this one Bill, no doubt it’ll look absolutely splendid once finished. Cheers and all the best.. Dave 1
Wlad Posted January 10 Posted January 10 I bought the first generation of the kit when it came out, and it’s disappointing. I also have the Astra vacuform in my stash, and it has finer details. Cool to see this build.
Hamden Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Another @Navy Bird adventure I'm in! Beer and popcorn ordered please carry on in your own time Bill, looking forward to seeing this come together Roger
81-er Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Another interesting subject choice, Bill. At least being moulded in white means you won't have to paint it James 2
Screech Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Well if anyone can build a beautiful rendition of the "Arrow" I know Navy Bird can and will do a great job of it! 👍 Spoiler 👍
Navy Bird Posted January 10 Author Posted January 10 On 09/01/2025 at 17:59, Billos said: @Navy Bird Where did you get your kit? I'm desperately searching for an Arrow Kit. Well, let me dust off the cobwebs of my brain. Result? I don't recall, but it was back when it first came out in 2012. Whomever I bought it from was sufficiently advanced in retail technology to have an inventory control barcode on the price sticker. I paid $29.99 for it, which could be US or CAD dollars. On 09/01/2025 at 18:51, David H said: With regards to the actuator fairings- Can they be carefully sawed off with a JLC razor saw, joined together and then re-installed?? That was my thought as well. I'll give it a try. What's the worst that could happen? A few stitches maybe. 🩹 On 09/01/2025 at 22:41, marvinneko said: Items in Ottawa. Wings in the reserve hangar. Don't forget a windscreen at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum: Plus, although the listing has ended, there was an ejection seat on eBay recently. I think you can still see the listing here if you scroll down. If we keep searching hard enough, maybe we'll have enough bits to put one back together. On 09/01/2025 at 22:45, Scooby said: My dad was on the RCAF liaison team for the Arrow. He played on the Avro soccer team with many of the programs test pilots and engineers, including Jan Żurakowski, whom he became close friends with. Very nice. If you have any stories from your dad I'd love to hear them. On 09/01/2025 at 22:57, silverfox63 said: New @Navy Bird build; check. Not a common aircraft; check. Difficult to photograph white plastic; check. Resin parts; check. Aftermarket decals; check Me following this build; checkaroonie. That's a lot of checks. On 09/01/2025 at 23:00, Rabbit Leader said: Funnily enough I’ve just bought one of these elusive kits, however it’s the first generation model and full of (unknown to me) errors that will probably see me annoyed once I find them out? You won't want to read the build report on ARC then. On 10/01/2025 at 00:37, Wlad said: I bought the first generation of the kit when it came out, and it’s disappointing. I also have the Astra vacuform in my stash, and it has finer details. Cool to see this build. How is the Astra kit? I've not heard too much about it. I don't suppose it came with two copies of a vacuform canopy did it? On 10/01/2025 at 04:03, 81-er said: Another interesting subject choice, Bill. At least being moulded in white means you won't have to paint it Ha! Speaking of paint, at some point I'll need to decide which of the prototype schemes to model. I like the ones with the day-glo orange areas, so maybe 203 or 205. ***** OK, I need to start somewhere, so it might as well be the cockpit. I have a few B&W photos and it appears to be a light to medium grey colour, and that is the way most modellers have depicted it. Here is the only colour photo I've found, but it doesn't show much. I hesitate to show this pic, as it's one of the airframes undergoing disassembly after the project was cancelled. How the heck are you supposed to get in and out of this baby? I'll leave today with a few photos of the roll-out. Looks like a men-only affair. Cheers, Bill 18
David H Posted January 10 Posted January 10 I too have wondered how you climb into this thing, in a hurry. 1
81-er Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Would you climb into it, or would you have to slide down a chute hidden behind a picture, Thunderbirds style? James 1 1
scautomoton Posted January 10 Posted January 10 34 minutes ago, 81-er said: Would you climb into it, or would you have to slide down a chute hidden behind a picture, Thunderbirds style? James Are you even a real fighter pilot if you don't? So I have a second gen, and an Astra vacform. I intend to kit bash the two into something reasonable in, oh, about ten years or so. Unless Zsolt gets his 3d printed kits available in 1/72 before hand. Then I'll buy one of them and flog the old stuff. Good luck on this one Bill, I'll be following so I can learn what mistakes not to make! 2
Robin-42 Posted January 10 Posted January 10 (edited) I have the Astra vacuform and the first and second gen Hobbycraft kits. The Astra is a very good vacuform with excellent panel lines, but being a vacuform, the details are up to you for the most part. It is likely the most accurate outline-wise, but the experts will no doubt turn up. The second gen fixed some of the errors of the first, the most glaring being the aileron blisters relocated to the bottom of the wing-I just double checked my kit. The Astra kit furnishes some flat clear acetate for the canopies-no shortcut to an open canopy there! Edited January 11 by Robin-42 2
Trumpton_Orbital Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Hi Bill, I'm new(ish) here, any objections if I pull up a chair for this build? The CF-105 looks like a real brute of 'plane!! 1
stever219 Posted January 10 Posted January 10 3 hours ago, Navy Bird said: Ha! Speaking of paint, at some point I'll need to decide which of the prototype schemes to model. I like the ones with the day-glo red areas, so maybe 203 or 205. There are a number of images of the prototypes lined up outside the assembly hangar in various stages of destruction, at least 4 of which have orange fins. I'm not sure but I think one of the jets might be "RL 207", but the resolution on my phone screen is rubbish, and she didn't have the orange fin. 1
Navy Bird Posted January 10 Author Posted January 10 3 hours ago, David H said: I too have wondered how you climb into this thing, in a hurry. I found some pictures in a book (remember those?) showing the crew doing some ingress/egress testing. In one, it looks like the guy has his feet on the side consoles. I hope the switches weren't active! 3 hours ago, scautomoton said: Good luck on this one Bill, I'll be following so I can learn what mistakes not to make! I'll be sure to make some mistakes for you then. 2 hours ago, Robin-42 said: The Asta kit furnishes some flat clear acetate for the canopies-no shortcut to an open canopy there! Bummer. I could probably fake the windscreen that way - the panes certainly look flat. Does Astra provide the clam-shell frames separate from the acetate? I would think they would have to. 1 hour ago, Trumpton_Orbital said: Hi Bill, I'm new(ish) here, any objections if I pull up a chair for this build? The CF-105 looks like a real brute of 'plane!! Welcome aboard! All we ask is a donation of Doom Bar for the unfortunate soul attempting to build this kit. ***** The cockpit tub, bulkhead, and side consoles are separate bits, and in the finest Special Hobby-like tradition it's up to you to figure out how it all goes together. I think I figured it out and applied some glue. I hope it's right! BTW, this kit has quite a few sinkholes and a whole heck of a lot of ejector pin marks. The latter seem to be strategically placed where 1) you can see them, and 2) it's virtually impossible to fill and sand them. Bad, bad engineer. I think what I'll do is cut pieces of plastic paper (0.005" styrene) and just cover each one up that way. Worth a try. Cheers, Bill 7
Navy Bird Posted January 10 Author Posted January 10 14 minutes ago, stever219 said: There are a number of images of the prototypes lined up outside the assembly hangar in various stages of destruction, at least 4 of which have orange fins. I'm not sure but I think one of the jets might be "RL 207", but the resolution on my phone screen is rubbish, and she didn't have the orange fin. I think 207 would have been one of the Mark II variants which were under construction. I have stickers for 201 through 205 and I'll probably go with 203 or 205 as they have the red tail. Gotta break up all that white. Like this: Cheers, Bill 12 1
Rabbit Leader Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Does anyone know of any decent 1/72 plans for this subject? Cheers.. Dave
scautomoton Posted January 11 Posted January 11 So I've just pulled my kit out and I lied, its a Victoria Products kit. 1 hour ago, Rabbit Leader said: Does anyone know of any decent 1/72 plans for this subject? You are in luck, this Victoria kit has some decent looking 1/72 drawings, they're A3 ( or something similar but slightly longer) so I'll have to scan them in two go's, but expect a PM 1
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