Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I wish continued happiness, success and good health for everyone.

It was wonderful to have the kids home for Christmas. With so many options and demands on their time, it is very pleasant that they still chose to come home and spend time with their parents. Christmas was intentionally low key, with jigsaw puzzles, card and video games, playing with the dogs, and watching hockey taking priority. New Year's was equally low key. The kids wanted to go out later in the evening, and heading to a local nightspot to meet up with friends and ring in the new year.

This will be remembered as the Christmas of travel challenges. Extreme cold in Alberta, along with heavy snow in Vancouver and Ontario, disrupted travel across Canada and the US, and for a while it seemed hit or miss that the kids would make it home. Eventually, all three made it home in time for Christmas, but it was an adventure to say the least.

Christine's travel plans were to fly Ottawa to Calgary, and then Calgary to Fort McMurray. Her Ottawa flight was delayed 6 hours, meaning she missed her connection in Calgary. She arrived in Calgary in the middle of the night, and her new flight to McMurray was cancelled while she was in line to check in. Cancellation meant a new line, where she stood for 4 hours to get rebooked. Westjet staff were telling her they had no flights until the next day, before she was given they option of a 10:30 pm flight to Edmonton and then perhaps a connection to McMurray the next morning. Finally she was assigned the last seat on the 11 pm flight out, and a quick call to the Park Inn got her a room for a few hours sleep. When she returned to the airport, her flight was already delayed, and saw further delays thru the evening. The scheduled 11 pm departure slipped to after 1 am when it took an hour for ground crews to arrive to load baggage, and then another hour was spent waiting for deicing. She finally arrived in McMurray at 2:30 am, and it was almost 4 am before my head hit the pillow.

We had intended to then drive down to Calgary, picking Daniel up in Edmonton, and Nicholas in Calgary, then visiting our parents for a couple days. Our departure to Calgary was delayed a day because Christine got home so late. It looked like it might get delayed even longer when the Suburban wouldn't start. Boosting had no effect, but 6 hours on a battery charger was enough to get it going. Multiple error messages and idiot lights remained after it started, but all self cancelled over the next day. Wednesday morning, with the temperature at -35C and a wind chill greater than -40C, Christine and I headed to Edmonton to pick up Daniel, and then onward to Calgary to meet Nicholas

Nicholas' Ottawa to Calgary flight was supposed to arrive Thursday morning at 9 am. A day before flying he got notified that his plane was already 4 hours late. He wasn't even on board when we learned that the equivalent flight the next day was already cancelled. Thankfully, he finally left Ottawa almost 6 hour late. The delay meant a change in our Calgary plans, visiting Grandmaman in the morning, and Grandpa and Grandma later in the afternoon. Calgary was bitterly cold, dropping to -34C the night before he arrived. Nicholas hit a speed bump when airport security wouldn't let him board with his skates. His blades are removable, and were quickly deposited in the garbage, allowing him to board.

Thursday night, in Calgary the day before we were to drive home, Marie texted that someone on our street was looking for a ride to McMurray for grandparents trapped at the Calgary airport. It looked like we had some extra passengers for the ride home but it turned out they had already found a ride. We left Calgary on Friday morning, at 6 am, trying to beat a heavy snow fall warning in McMurray for later in the day. Just south of Ponoka, another text from Marie said that a quilting friend was asking for help to get her daughter home from Calgary, as her daughter's Calgary to McMurray flight had been cancelled and they couldn't find any other way for her to get home. A quick discussion with the kids and we made the decision to turn around. As we headed south, the kids learned of a friend trapped in Calgary after their flight was cancelled, and we had another passenger. A half hour later and they learned of another friend trapped after missing their bus home to McMurray, and our passenger list grew to three. Two hours later, we pulled into Calgary amidst heavy snow, with three passengers and their luggage to take home to McMurray. Somehow we got all the new luggage packed in, crammed into every nook and cranny. While loading up, the snow had changed from light to heavy, and as we got back on Deerfoot, the snow really began to fall. Visibility went down to near zero as we left the north end of the city. We were only doing 40 kph, with visibility near zero, as we came into Airdrie, and I was thinking it was time to pull over and wait it out. We decided to keep going, crawling along Highway 2 at 30 kph, trying to see the car in front of us. The snow began to let up near Crossfield, but the winds took over and we had blowing snow for the rest of the the trip. After 13 hours driving, we pulled into the driveway. Three very happy families were waiting to greet us, reunited with their kids for Christmas.

We had a wonderful Christmas, with lots of fun, games and great food. The kids gave me a keyboard for my iPad, and I got an Eduard MiG-21MF kit from my friend Dave, which will need to be pushed up to the top of the build list. I am thinking a Cold War build, with a CF-104 and the MiG-21.

Lancaster

Not a lot of time spent modelling over Christmas, and surprsingly little to show for what time I did spend. I started to deviate from the instructions, worried about potential fit issues on the engines if I was to follow the suggested sequence. The engines consisted each of three pieces, split vertically into two parts, with a separate piece for the front radiator and prop hub. The instructions would have you join the two vertical halves, install on the wing, mount the landing gear, and then install the front radiator and propellor shaft. I was nervous about fit, and could foresee potential disaster from sanding after all the other bits and pieces had been added. Dry fitting confirmed the front radiator sections needed sanding, so I chose to add them prior to gluing the nacelles to the wing. This worked well but meant the prop hub had to be glued in place, eliminating the option of a rotating prop. Similarly, the engine to wing covers were supposed to be added after the props were mounted. The installed props would create a very constrained area that would be difficult to work in without damaging the prop blades.

Unfortunately, not following the engine construction instructions caused two problems. The first was found shortly after the engine to wing top covers were installed, when I realized that the main gear legs were supposed to be inserted from above, through the hole now filled by the engine to wing covers. Some careful dry fitting confirmed that the gear legs could be inserted from the bottom with the careful application of a small amount of force.

The second mistake was more challenging. The forward engine firewall was supposed to have been installed into slots in the engine nacelle walls, also from above. The slots are clearly shown in Photo 2, while the firewalls, still safely attached to the spruce, are shown in Photo 4. Gluing the nacelles to the wing meant the slots from above were completely closed. Trial and error confirmed the firewall could be inserted from below, but it refused to slide into the appropriate slots. Some careful sanding of the firewall sides, the application of a great deal of force, and some colourful language and the firewalls were finally in position - Photo 5. The white marks visible on the firewall and nacelle sidewalls hint at the amount of force required.

With the wings and engines installed, it was time to close up and prepare for painting. The horizontal stabilizers and rudders were left off to simplify painting, as were the bomb bay and landing gear doors. It was decided to leave the various turrets off until after painting and decalling was complete to reduce the chance of breaking the delicate guns. The canopy and bombadier's clear nose were installed carefully with white glue, using the glue to close up a couple of small gaps. I had bought a set of Eduard pre cut masks and quickly became very glad I had. Masking the clear nose took an hour with the masks, and another hour to do the canopy. With that, the plane is ready for primer.

Photo 1 - Engine construction showing the front radiator after sanding.

Photo 2 - Engines in place

Photo 3 - Engine to wing covers didn't fit very well and needed filler.

Photo 4 - Those were supposed to be installed already!

Photo 5 - Installed the hard way.

Photos 6&7 - Thank goodness for pre cut masks!

Anson

The Anson has basically sat. I did a little detail painting but spent most of my time on the kit looking for sealbelt details. The kit doesn't include any seatbelts, and I haven't been able to find any good pictures. The pilot's seat may have only had a lap belt, though some pictures suggest shoulder harnesses may have been used on some aircraft. The copilot's seat, as well as the various crew positions, appear to have only had lap belts. My stash doesn't include any good representations of 1/48 lap belts, but the 3D belt decals that looked oversized on the Lancaster seemed like they might be more suitable on the Anson. Looks or some pictures next week.

Photo 1 - Detail painting started

And that's if for another week and year!. Daniel will be heading back to Edmonton around January 4th. Nicholas leaves for Toronto on the 5th, visiting his girlfriend and family for a couple days before he and Jill head back to Ottawa. Christine's schedule allows her to stay the longest, so she will stay until the 12th.

Happy new year everyone! Take care and stay safe.