It has been a busy, eventful few weeks since the last blog update. About the only quiet time we had was easter.
W e had the final meeting with our Fort McMurray realtor the third week of March. After much discussion, we have decided to list April 4th rather than March 21st. We got nervous about the hot Calgary real estate market and decided to put off listing until after we made a trip south, on March 22nd, to look for a house.
Daniel received his iron ring March 23. Marie and I drove down and were able to present him with his ring, and Nicholas was able to attend as a guest. We had a celebratory lunch with both boys after the ceremony. So proud of Daniel and his accomplishments!
We continued on to Calgary after the iron ring ceremony, and the next few days became a blur of houses. We looked at 12 on the Sunday and another 12 on the Monday. It soon became apparent that there weren't any bungalows available that met our musts. It was also apparent that houses that looked fantastic in the realtor photos often didn't look as good in real life. After what felt like the hundredth house, our realtor declared "we weren't city people". It became apparent very quickly that we weren't looking for the cookie cutter 2100 sq ft house on a 5500 sq ft lot that seems to dominate Calgary listings. Shifting our wants, and our perspective, resulted in a couple of possible matches, which lead to our making an offer. Multiple back and forths resulted in a deal, and suddenly we had a house! The new to us house is 10 years old, located in Watermark, a Rockyview subdivision on the immediate northwest side of Calgary. Possession is June 28th.
Back home, it was time to focus on selling our existing home. A steady stream of assessors, cleaners, inspectors and tradesmen passed through over the next two weeks. Even more decluttering and packing, repairs and fixing, took place. Finally ready, the house was listed April 4.
Easter was a quiet affair, probably a good thing given all that was going on. Nicholas went east to see Jill, while Daniel and Christine stayed put to focus on school.
Our realtor wanted us out of the house for showings on the April 6 weekend. That worked for us as we had timed it to match a trip to Edmonton for the UofA EV Formula 1 car reveal. Daniel is a co-lead project manager on the car and we were eager to see what had taken over all his free time. Christine came up from Calgary, to surprise her brother, and met us on Friday night. The reveal was at the Edmonton Porsche dealer on Saturday, and was a smashing success. Turnout was well beyond expectations, with several hundred people and several media crews attending. Daniel did multiple interviews before he was finally able to get free for a few minutes to say hello. The car was truly amazing, especially when you understand it was designed and constructed by engineering students, working around their studies, from scratch, in only 10 months. The car will be entered in the SAE U24 Formula 1 Event in Michigan in late June, one of the largest engineering student competitions in the world. Good luck to Daniel and the team!
Our McMurray house had two showing scheduled on the Saturday, a "home run" in the current McMurray market according to our realtor. The second showing wasn't interested but the first showing resulted in an offer. After some negotiation, we had an offer with virtually no conditions, that meet our target price, and date. Our house was sold!
Now it really is time to getting packing.
Noorduyn Norseman
I am starting to lose track of the number of times I have tried to repair ghost seams on the top of the fuselage and over the front windshield. 4 or 5? Nope, another repair makes it at least 6, but they are finally gone.
The decal sheet registration letters are on continuous carrier film, with high risk for decal silvering. It was decided to make masks and paint the letters instead. Masks were made for both the upper and lower wing surfaces by tracing the decal sheet. The underwing vents and strut attachment locations made the underside more challenging to mask, proving necessary to cut the masks in several places and then seal things back up with tape. The final result was worth it.
The decals themselves went on without any issues. A continuous decal was provided for the red cowl band. I wasn't sure how it would work, as flat decals rarely go around circular objects without creasing or cracking, but these went on smoothly. A little Micro Sol and everything settled out nicely. The decal didn't extend to the front of the cowl, greatly simplifying installation, but it meant the gap at the front had to be painted. Model Master Guards Red was a perfect match and you can't tell the decal from the paint.
Photo 1 - Another repair of the persistent ghost seams
Photos 2&3 - Registration letters masked and sprayed. Very pleased with that.
Photo 4 - Decals complete
Photo 5 - A small disaster
Photo 6 - Repair completed
A small disaster occurred as the masking was removed from the upper fuselage window. The tape removal left a rough paint edge around the window. I attempted to smooth it using a 4000 grit sanding pad. Instead of smoothing it out, the pad peeled the clear coat up. I had used the AK satin clear coat, which had given me problems before, and it peeled away from the fuselage like one of those cosmetic face masks you see in the movies. The clear coat was actually elastic, and stretched when it was pulled. I eventually ended up having to remove all of it between the front windshield and the top window. By chance, I discovered that water would soften the clear coat, and a wet finger could smooth the edge. But now I know that the AK clears can't be sanded and can't be used with oil paint washes. I don't think they will make the trip to Calgary when we move.
Worth that, it was time for finally assembly. The wing braces proved much more difficult to install than expected. They were terribly finicky, delicate, and refused to sit in place. CA and too much patience for them into place.
Now for the hard part - installing and rigging the floats.
Ukrainian MiG 29 Fulcrum
Paint touch ups were needed in several spots to cover up decal faults and builder errors. It proved difficult to get decent colour matches, but eventually something close enough was achieved. The touch ups were gently sanded with a 4000 grit cloth to smooth them out and help blend them in better. A gloss coat was them applied to seal the decals and prepare the plane for weathering.
Oil paints were used to weather the airframe. The desire was to add some wear to indicate use, but not look like it was a veteran of a 1000 days war. A dark brown oil paint wash, using highly thinned "Starship Filth" was applied first, covering the entire airframe to create a sense of dirt and grime. This was allowed to dry for an hour and then gently wiped off. A very thin wash of Payne's Grey was then used to highlight panels, also being wiped off after an hour. Burnt Sienna was then selectively used to represent oil streaks and leaks. The plane was allowed to sit for a couple days to allow any residual oil paint to dry before a final matt clear coat was applied. The matt cost had the decided effect of knocking back any shine, but it also muted much of the weathering. It was decided to leave things as they now were, rather than try to reweather over the matt.
Final bits and pieces, such as the pitot and gear doors, could now be installed, and with that, the model was finished. The matt really helped blend in the decal touchups, and unify the appearance. That really changed my satisfaction on the appearance, and I am happy with the end result.
PWA Beaver
The kit's fuselage is cast in clear plastic. It eliminates the need to install windows but makes painting the interior more complicated. The fuselage was scanned to create interior and exterior masks, importing the pictures into the Silhouette cutter software. The window outlines were then traced, then exported to the Cameo cutter. A couple of trial and errors sessions were needed to adjust things before getting decent fitting masks.
Other than the control panel, I didn't find many pictures of the interior and cabin areas. What I could find suggested interior colours weren't standardized, or were universally changed by owners. I decided to go with a light grey upper fuselage to represent the quilted padding seen in some pictures. The lower walls were painted silver to represent either bare fuselage walls or aluminum plate added to protect the fuselage from loaded cargo.
The clear plastic fuselage makes it hard to see the joints so it is difficult to tell if the seams have been properly filed. An early coat of primer helped, quickly identifying needed repairs
Photo 1 - Fuselage joined and seams filed and sanded, ready for primer.
Photo 2 - Primer sanded and ready for colour coats
Photo 3 - Dry fit of all the flying surfaces
The wing to fuselage fit is good enough to try painting the wings and fuselage separately. The Whiskey Jack decals are printed on a solid carpet film without and protective coating. These can be challenging to coat, cut the carrier film close to the colour separation, and then apply. My experimence with this type of decal has generally been good but decal silvering had been a problem. Given that, I think I will try to paint the red tail bands and the blue fuselage strip, even though the decal sheet provides appropriate decals. They should be fairly straightforward to mask and paint of the wings and stabilizers are left off until after.
And that's it for another blog. Lot's to do now the house has sold, with plenty of packing, cleaning, and trips to the dump coming up. The next two months are going to go by quickly.
Take care and stay safe everyone.
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