Winter has definitely come. The snow from the last two storms has stayed, and there is more snow in the forecast next week. Hit -20C on night this week.
Time at the modelling bench is balanced with dogsitting - read “pee watch”. On the weekend, that means I watch for 4 hours while Marie sews, then we swap and I get to head to the bench. Luna has learned to ring a bell when she wants out. She has also learned she gets a treat when she comes back in. Didn’t take her long to figure out how to make that work to her advantage. Now she only gets a treat if she pees when she goes out. It didn’t take her long to figure that out either, so each trip out consistently results in a pee. She has an amazingly large bladder for a 16 week old dog, and processes urine at an amazing rate. Cold weather has shortened the desire to go outside, but every 20 minutes she wants out, produces an amazingly large pee, and comes back in for a treat. Miss the bell ringing and you have a three Bounty sheet puddle.
A220
Last week had 3 hours of masking to get the red and black areas done on the Buffalo. This week saw another 3 hours of masking for the A220. The leading edge of the wings and horizontal stabilizers are silver, while the tail, engine bodies, and underside of the fuselage are black. This all looks deceptively simple, but it ends up with pretty much the entire airplane covered in tape.
A couple of pictures with the leading edges painted silver, but the black areas still to go.
A little bit of planning meant it was a quick masking job to cover up the silver and then spray the black.
Two shots showing all colours sprayed and the masking removed. It took three cycles of mask/paint to get the results above - the main black layer and then two rounds of touch ups. My initial attempt to mask the cockpit raccoon eyes and the belly was done using thin strips, cut from Tamiya tape, to outline the colour separation. This has worked in the past, but no so much this time. Even with edges carefully burnished down, I ended up with jagged edges. It was mainly around the cockpit windows, and at each circular end. I decided to remark the windshield, and both ends of the belly with Tamiya vinyl tape, which worked really well. The result was a nice smooth line. I was happy with the cockpit and front area, but the black just didn’t look right. After careful observation, I decided that the rear wasn’t symmetrical. A little bit of experimenting showed that a 13 mm circle of tape, applied over the black area, would do the trick. Half an hour later, after several light coats of white, the mask was removed and it looked good. After some minor touch up on the engine bodies, and on the fuselage just ahead of the wing, painting was done. I will let things sit for a day to harden before starting the decals.
Buffalo
With painting done, it was time to start the decals. As mentioned in an earlier post, Amodel got the maple leaves wrong in the roundels and flag on the tail. They used what looked more like silver maple vs the modern leaf now used. The decal stockpile came to the rescue with appropriate roundels, but I couldn’t find a replacement flag. Making it harder was the fact the RCAF outlines the flag on many airplanes, creating a thin silver or white outline around the flag. I found some letraset flags that were the right size, but they didn’t have the outline. The kit flag had the thin white border, meaning I could use the kit decal if I replace the actual leaf. I placed the kit decals on the tail and allowed them to dry. Then I carefully cut out the Letraset leaves, and gently place them over the incorrect kit decal leaves. This all sounded pretty straightforward, and it actually was. Fifteen minutes of careful cutting and placing, and the corrected flags were in place. The finished flag is shown on the left below, while the strange kit version is on the right.
I had tried unsuccessfully to use the kit clear windows along the cabin sides. They were simply too large, and I spent a frustrated evening trying to install them, sand them, or make the window openings larger. I finally gave up, and decided to use Krystal Klear. It took a couple layers to get the windows flush but it worked. With windows in, I nervously applied the lightning stripe decals. Krystal Klear is water based, and it will soften when water is reapplied. The lightning stripe decals along each side consisted of three parts. Each part had three coloured areas, separated by three clear areas that were supposed to go over the window. At first I thought it best if I cut the clear areas out so they didn’t rest over the Krystal Klear windows. After some thought, I decided it would be better to leave the decals intact. I was pretty sure that simply placing the decal on the fuselage would result in the Klear windows getting wet. Leaving the clear sections in place should make it faster and easier to place the decal pieces versus trying to line up 3 separate, and small, sections of decals. Fingers crossed, I nervously placed the first decal, and the Klear windows immediately turned cloudy. I managed to get the decal placed and straight before the Klear liquified and mixed with the decal or worse, it came out of the window, leaving an open space under the decal. The decision to leave the decals intact proved to be the correct one, and after much effort, all six pieces were installed. The remaining decals went smoothly, though I did come back to discover one of the very tiny “Canadian Forces“ decals, located in the red stripe, had twisted. A few drops of water and some poking with paint brush bristles softened it up enough to allow it to be straightened. Here are some pictures of the Buffalo with cockpit windows unmased, and almost all the decals on.
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