Almost done August 15 2021

The Olympics are done for another year. I always say I won’t spend hours watching. But every time they come around, I get into the events and the TV is on constantly. After 2 weeks of watching TV every night, it’s time to get back to some modelling.

CL-44

The CL-44 continues to challenge my modelling skills. The decals were on and it should have been a quick effort to the finish line. This kit, and my clumsiness, had other ideas.

The tales of woe started with the landing gear. Again. Installing the gear proved an adventure. The main gear were supposed to slot into holes In the gear bay floor, but the gear legs were grossly oversized and there was no way they would fit. Judicious sanding on the top of each gear leg was needed, and soon both main gear were press fit into their appropriate holes. The nose gear was another thing, consisting of three separate pieces that had to slot into three different holes. More sanding got the nose gear leg into the appropriate hole, but the retraction/leg supports refused to cooperate. After a great deal of fiddling, all three parts were in place. That was when I noticed the fine superglue threads across my beautiful metal paint finish! Nothing to do but gently sand the threads down and repaint.

With the paint restored, it was back to the gear. I had previously broke one of the main gear bogies between the front and rear wheelsets. The bogie was determined to remain separate, despite several efforts to glue it back together. Several attempts later and it was successfully back in place.

While futzing with the landing gear, I realized that my proudly installed main cargo door decal was crumpled. It seems that my ham handed handling was too much for the adhesive, and it separated from the fuselage. After appropriate words, the decal was back in place and Micro Sol applied in an effort to remove the wrinkles. Micro Sol is supposed to be the gentlest decal solvent, but it was too much for my printed decal. The bottom edge of the passenger door, inside the cargo door, disintegrated. Fortunately, I printed extras, and one of the spares was soon in place.

Setting the plane down, I realized that it didn’t sit level. The port wing was noticeably higher than the starboard. No problem, as the gear legs were press fit. Just pull them out and make the adjustment. Except the port main gear refused to come out. Gentle wiggling back and forth had no effect. After several attempts it finally came free. I trimmed the gear by about 1 mm, the estimated amount required, added glue, and went to reinstall it. Except it was way, way, way too short. Like 5 mm too short. There was no way that I had removed that much, and I was flummoxed. As I set the plane gently down, I heard the distinct sound of a plastic part rattling inside. I picked the plane up, turned it over, and realized that the gear bay floor had separated and was now rattling around. The same gear bay that had almost half a bottle of CA to reinforce it so there was never any chance that it would come free. Some feeble efforts to restore the gear bay were unsuccessful. Now what. Flipping the plane over, I realized that the reason it took me so long to figure out the bay floor was missing was that I could still see the socket in the wheel well. Or so I thought. What I could see was actually an absurdly oversized ejector pin mark. Well, it was in the right place, so it was going to become the new gear socket. I added about 8 mm to the gear leg using a wood cocktail stick, and stuck it into the hole. A couple attempts later and the lengthened gear leg was installed. The wings sat level, but the nose was slightly high. Time to leave well enough alone.

All the rough handling wasn’t kind to my cargo door decal, and it needed to be helped back into to place. No Micro Sol this time, as I had learned my lesson, and the decal was gently persuaded back into position. It was becoming obvious that I needed to get some clear coat on to protect the decals. I loaded the airbrush and started to spray when I realized the port wing was covered in fine spider cracks. (Picture 1). Not much I could do but spray the rest of the plane and let it dry. I let the clear coat sit for a couple days to fully cure before examining the paint. The cracking looked like a reaction between the Tamiya gloss black undercoat and the Alclad lacquer metal finish. Not much else to do but gently sand it down and repaint. The advantage of using Alclad, applied in a very, very thin layer, is that it can be wet sanded within a couple of minutes. So it was paint, wait, wet sand, and then respray while the airbrush was still loaded with paint. It took 3 cycles but I was successful in repairing the paint. (Picture 2). The ugly part about a paint reaction is that it likely isn’t constrained to a single location. Sure enough, there were several fine cracks along the port fuselage. (Picture 3). Look closely to the left of the “F”, or just to the left of the “T” and you can see them. I wasn’t confident that the fuselage decals would put up with the likely abuse from sanding and painting so I decided to let well enough alone.

Fine cracking across the port wing

The wing repaired after sanding and repainting

More cracking was found along the port side fuselage

It was about now that I realized that part of my windscreen decal was missing. Apparently in all the handling, the middle pane of the starboard side decided to call it quits. A very fine brush and some grey paint was thankfully able to restore the missing decal.

Naturally enough, this was when the gear bogie decided that it had had enough and broke again. The loose piece took off, requiring 20 minutes crawling around on the floor to find. I have decided I need to add a brass wire reinforcing strip along the bottom. And that’s were the CL-44 currently sits. It still need another shot of clear coat as I am not confident that the decals are adequately protected. And then I will fix the broken gear bogie, and attached the props so I can call this one done!

Northstar

Thankfully, I had the Northstar as a diversion from the CL-44. Or so I thought. I had moved the various Northstar pieces off my desk to an adjacent area while working on the CL-44. Imagine my surprise when I returned to the Northstar to realize that I was missing a stabilizer! After hunting around on the floor, under the table saw, and much sweeping, I came to the painful realization that it must have fallen, either in my recycling box or the parts box. The parts box is about 24”x 18”x 6” high, and absolutely stuffed full of kit remnants left from previous builds. I have had to sort thru this box a couple times and it isn’t fun. The recycling box didn’t look any easier. It is bigger, and stuffed full of a year’s worth of various bits of paper, plastic and what not, waiting to go up to the main recycling bin. At least a year’s worth of recycling. I decided to start on the recycling box, emptying it out one item at a time. Half an hour later, I was at the bottom of the box, and no stabilizer. I put the box on the ground, turned to close the recycling bin lids, picked up the box and there was the stabilizer, lying on the box bottom.

The vertical and horizontal stabilizers are butt joints, so I decided to pin them for added strength. Holes were drilled in each piece and a short length of brass wire inserted before applying CA and joining the parts. The joints were pretty good but all needed filler. The pictures below show the parts attached, and the first application of filler complete. I was sure I had a picture of the primed joints but I am not able to find it.

The fuselage and wings have now been primed to find the flaws - both casting and those of my own creation. Some extra work is needed but things are progressing nicely.