1/144 Airbus A220

On vacation! Unfortunately, not in Kelowna like we had planned. Just too much disruption and risk with covid 19. Worse, Marie got sick on what would have been the day before we would have left. She took the self assessment, failed, and called AHS. That resulted in an appointment for a COVID test. Next day, on the day we would have been heading to Kelowna, she was on her way to Athabasca for a test. So the kids are working, I’m doing chores, and Marie is sleeping.

the weather hasn’t been that great so I got some time at the bench. The A220 fuselage is all butt joints- there are no locating locating tabs at all. I tried making tabs by gluing short pieces of plastic to one of the fuselage sides. It didn’t work as the inner curvature was too great and the tabs wouldn’t sit flat. A test fit showed the joint would be tight, so out came the Tamiya Extra Thin Quick cement. Working from the tail, in short lengths, I glued the fuselage together. The top of the fuselage was good, with only a little sanding needed, but the bottom heeded a bit of filler. Five pennies were epoxied into the nose for weight, and it was on to the wing.

The wing proved a challenge for several reasons. The instructions are a little vague where things go, and there were no locating tabs to help. The sprue gates are really thick, fortunately all on the inside surfaces, but require a lot of sanding. The wing sections are very Thin and flexible, making it hard them hard to sand.

The wing is broke pen down into a full span bottom section and two top sections. The join seems simple at first, but nothing seemed to line up. The wheel bay sides seemed to interfere with the top wing, causing a step. Carefup sanding reduced the step, and had the additional benefit of correcting the step along the front of the wing. Sanding of the bottom section training edges seemed to help, and I got something I could live with. Until I looked at pictures. I initially took the join along the rear of the wing to be along the edge of a flap, but it doesn’t match the engraved lines or pictures. I think I am going to have to try and fill the resulting line. Time to go look at more pictures before committing to glue.

Google is my friend. I found a picture of an A220 with flaps deployed. On the outer wing, the joint lines up with the front of the ailerons. But on the inner wing, no line is visible. There is clearly a change in section, as shown by the different shadow, but no line apparent. So looks like the filler will be needed. I had planned to attach the wing sections after joining the lower wing to the fuselage. I think it will be easier to glue the wing halves together first and fill this joint in, and the glue everything to the fuselage

After a lot of dry fitting, it seemed like the strange step was the result of a too thick top wing, or a too thin transition on the bottom of the wing. I tried to thin the trailing edge but the wing was too flexible and difficult to sand evenly. I got something that seemed workable and decided it was time for glue.

The wing halves are glued together. The strange step isn’t as bad towards the outer portion of the wing. Some Mr Surfacer in the joint should make it less obvious.

Interestingly, the vertical stabilizer has the same step. It seems like a strange way to make a joint, and I can’t see any advantage to a more traditional joint at the trailing edge. At least the horizontal stab will be easier to fix.

The horizontal stabilizers are moulded in one piece so there no is strange stepped joint on them.

Now a horrendous discovery! I can‘t find the clear sprue! Worse, I can’t recall seeing it. I go back to the pictures I took of the spruces, before starting work, and there is no clear sprue in the picture. I normally take the clear spruce out, dip it in Future, and set it aside. I don’t remember dipping this one, and the place I would put it is empty. Worse, I had done a couple projects for Christine and Marie over the last couple days, and have moved a lot of stuff around. If I dI’d get a clear spruce, it could be anywhere in the shop. Looks like some time on my hands and knees searching.

An hour spent searching was unsuccessful. An email was sent to Eastern Express in the hopes a replacement could be obtained.

As I sat looking at the canopy void, it dawned on me that the area was a smooth transition. There were no complex shapes or creases or changes. The area was a smooth transition in all directions. That meant it would be relatively simple to fill the opening with putty and sand it smooth. It seemed like a reasonable path forward and with that it was time for bed.

Have you ever had that “a-ha” moment just as you are falling asleep? That moment when you sit straight up and you absolutely know the answer? Well, it happened, and I just knew the canopy part was in the garbage. And I laid back down and went to sleep.

i woke next morning and checked email. I was really hoping for a response from Eastern Express, given they are based on Russia, but no luck. So it was time to check my epiphany and see if the part was indeed in the garbage. Did I mentioned that I had cleaned my shop the day before. Unfortunately, I had, and the garbage was almost full. A 120L trash bag full. I gently began to dig down, looking for a plastic bag. Ten minutes in, and guest what I found! I had mistakenly thrown the plastic bag out without removing the clear parts! What a relief!

Strange seams on the underside of the wing and rudder now blended in.