April 2025

We are getting to know the emergency vets around us. It was Ember this time, bitten by another dog while we were out walking. She seemed okay at the time but we later realized that she had suffered a couple of puncture wounds to her right thigh. Treatment consisted of antibiotics, limited activity, and forced to wear a cone for two weeks. She has now recovered and is back to her normal self.

Daniel continued his business trip in Italy and Germany thru the first week of April. He had a five hour layover at Heathrow, so of course he had to take the metro into London for some sightseeing and a little English beer. Then he was off to Milan, where he seems to have spent all his spare moments touring the city and surrounding area, sampling the food and even trying red wine! After a couple days, he headed to Munich for more meetings, and more touring. He spent two days there, then took a train to Amsterdam for a day of sightseeing before he caught his flight back home to Austin. His pace makes my head spin!

Nicholas has a job! He will be joining Stantec in Waterloo as a Water Resources EIT. He will also be closer to Jill. I am so happy for him but will certainly miss him. He was spent the past couple weeks trying to figure out how to move his stuff, what to take, and how to pack it. He decided to drive his car, packed as full as possible. He plans to fly back for the Canada Day weekend to take any remaining stuff home as oversize luggage. I can't believe it is cheaper to carry stuff in hockey bags, paying the extra luggage fees, rather than ship it by truck or rent a U-Haul, but it is.

Christine has finished her winter term, second year. In her unusual fashion - multiple late nights, last minute model building with help from mom, dad and her brother, and lots of trips back and forth to campus. The end of year presentations went well and she has done really well on the marks she has gotten back. She is soon off to Zurich for a spring term, consisting of urban planning courses, bookended by two weeks touring Europe before and after courses. She now has just one more year to complete her degree.

Nicholas, Dave and I visited Supertrain, this year at he Olympic Oval. It was the first time I have been in at least 20 years. We saw lots of model trains and had a fantastic time. Afterwards, Nicholas and I spent a little time exploring the University campus. It has been almost 40 years since I graduated, and I recognized almost nothing.

We had Christine and Nicholas home for Easter. The weather didn't really cooperate but there was lots of good food, an easter egg scavenger hunt with clues, and fun had by all.

RCAF Boeing 707 Husky

Decalling of the engines took several hours, and was spread over three sessions to reduce monotony. With engine decals finished, the wing roundels and under fuselage registration decals were then added. These decals all suffered some printing issues, requiring careful touch up with paint and a brush.

With decals complete, the entire model was sprayed with Alclad Light Sheen clear. I wanted some surface reflection versus a either a gloss or a dead flat finish, and the light sheen works really well. The model was then left for a couple days for the clear to dry and fully harden. A light polishing helped ensure consistent shine over the entire model.

That left the landing gear to finish. Wheels and gear legs had been previously painted but not assembled. A black wash was applied to the wheels to highlight hub details, then the bits were assembled and added to the model.

With that, the model is finished. This was an enjoyable build, though the engines were a lot more effort than expected. The engines and pylons could have received more time and effort but I was starting to get frustrated with them and wanted to simply finish the model. I am happy with how it turned out. I will need to get some decent pictures when the weather improves.

Airfix 1/24 Spitfire

The cockpit module took me two weeks to complete. The kit detail is fantastic, and fit has been very good. Test fitting has been essential to prove the complex assemblies all fit together. This helped find a small tab on the inside, upper front of the fuselage halves that needed to be removed to improve fit. Some additional sanding was also done in an effort to improve fit of the firewall, and to reduce a small gap along the top of the front fuselage. Application of glue didn't eliminate the small gap so some filler was needed.

The wing turned out to be a model all by itself. I have built entire kits with fewer parts! All told, it took about 10 days to complete. Sadly, much of the detail won't be visible after the top wing halves are added, but I will know it is there!

The horizontal and vertical stabilizers were installed without problem. The control surfaces were all deflected slightly to add interest. This is the first kit I have built that includes moveable trim tabs, so these also were deflected slightly.

Photo 1 - Cockpit in progress

Photo 2 - Instrument panel in place

Photo 3 - Repaired the seat leather cushion

Photo 4 - First test fit

Photo 5 - Port side cockpit wall completed

Photo 6 - Cockpit module complete, installed into the fuselage, ready to close up.

Photo 7 - Fuselage together

Photo 8 - Wing internals complete

Photo 9 - Tail complete

The instructions suggest installing the bottom wing section first, followed by installation of the upper halves. Test fits found the rear of the bottom wing, often a problem area with Spitfire kits, fit without issues. The front of the bottom wing section seemed to fit well, but test fit of the upper wing sections found poor fit between the upper wing and fuselage. Closer examination suggested the bottom of the cockpit module was interfering with the wing fit, so substantial amounts of plastic were ground away from the underside of the cockpit and the bottom of the firewall. This helped close the gap, but a lot of clamps were needed to pull the bottom wing in tight. The glue was allowed to sit overnight to ensure everything was solidly in place.

Test fits of the upper wing sections still found fit issues. Both wings halves sat too low when compared to the fuselage. Styrene strip, added to the rear of the wing, raised the wing up and improved the joint. The starboard wing fit nicely along the wing to fuselage joint, but there was a noticeable gap on the port side. Styrene strip was added to the wing section, and then sanded flush, to eliminate the gap. A small amount of Mr. Surface was needed to smooth things out.

Looking like a Spitfire

The model has gotten very large and is becoming hard to handle. It seems to bang against almost everything on the desk. I am thinking it best to paint it now, before the engine is added, as it is already too big for my spray booth.

Dream Factory A-4M Skyhawk

This is the kit Daniel picked out when he was last home. It will be built as a Top Aces aggressor training aircraft, as flown by the Canadian company Top Aces.

The actual planes are painted in a complex splinter paint scheme. First order of business was to figure out a way to paint the model. A set of decals had been procured earlier from Above & Below Graphics, but they didn't include any suggestions for painting. Internet research found lots of pictures, and I even stumbled upon a masking set from DK Models. Happiness quickly turned to disappointment as I realized two problems. The first was that the mask set was $25 USD and would be another $25 USD to ship. That's a lot of money. The second issue was fatal, as the masks didn't seem to match the pictures I was finding. $75 for an incorrect mask set really was too much.

It took a bit but I eventually realized there were multiple versions of the splinter scheme. Planes based in Germany seemed to use a 2 or 3 tone grey scheme, while the planes based in Canada seemed to use a four colour blue, grey and white Arctic splinter scheme. It also looks like there is at least one variation of the Arctic splinter that used two blue tones. It dawned on me that the mask set might match one of these other splinter schemes, and a trip back to the DK Models site proved their mask matched the four colour scheme used on Canadian based planes. This can become plan B if attempts to create masks isn't successful. Happily, the Above and Below decals contain markings for all the variations found so far.

Here is the plane that will be modelled.

Top Aces A-4N Skyhawk

Construction has now started with painting of the various cockpit components. The seat has been put together and the rubber (!) seat belts have been installed. The rubber belts were a first for me, and proved to be a challenge to paint and install, but look okay once in place. Next blog update should show some real construction progress.

That's it for another month. Take care and stay safe!