CL-44 nearing completion; starting the Northstar
CL-44
I continue to make slow progress on the CL-44. It feels like 2 steps forward and 1 step back - generally because of my mistakes. Thru the course of the week I have fixed the primer, applied and repaired the gloss black base, and sprayed the first layer of the natural metal finish.
I have lost track of the number of primer layers applied. The wing to fuselage join was good on the top, but the bottom was full of fuzz and static had created a rough, fuzzy effect. This was sanded out and primer successfully reapplied. To my complete frustration, it was here where I broke off the starboard horizontal stabilizer. Choice words used, the stabilizer was repaired and reprimed.
Everyone says that a natural metal finish exaggerates every flaw, and my experience supports this. I have tended to use Tamiya bare metal silver, a lacquer paint decanted from a spray can, because it is so forgiving. It doesn’t need a gloss black base, sprays beautifully, and is more forgiving of less than stellar surface prep. That probably should have been the best choice here but I wanted to try Alclad. Alclad does show every little flaw and difference in surface texture, and it absolutely demands a uniformly smooth surface texture. I had enough primer on the plane now to have a smooth surface, but it needed to be more uniform.
I have had a lot of success using Alclad grey microfiller and primer. It creates a smooth, even finish that is tough, easy to sand, and generally pretty forgiving. Though the final primer layer seemed smooth, I knew that it needed to be even smoother to accept the gloss black. Out came the sanding sticks, starting with 1500 grit, and working up to 6000 grit. That completed, I pulled out the Tamiya coarse polish, and went over the entire plane until I had an near mirror finish.
Normally, I would wipe down the airframe with a paper towel, dampened with alcohol, to remove fuzz and any remaining sanding debris. I didn’t want to risk the alcohol affecting the polished primer, so I used water instead to clean everything up. I would regret this decision later!
I haven’t had much success with Alclad gloss black base. It sprays well but takes forever to dry. I use Tamiya gloss black instead, thinning with about 60% Mr Levelling Thinner to paint. This is a very thin mixture, and needs care to build up slowly in several layers, but gives a beautiful, glossy finish. I sprayed the black, and was initially very happy as I got the glossy finish. Then little fisheyes started to appear in the paint. The only thing I could think of was that the polish hadn’t been removed fully, causing the tiny fisheyes. As I sat contemplating the next step, the toothpick support in the nose gave way, and the plane slowly fell down onto my cutting mat - wet paint and all. Not much I could do but let the paint dry, sand it out, and recoat. After sanding thru 1500, 3000, 4000 and 600 grit, I wiped down the plane with a water dampened paper towel and resprayed. This time the black came out beautifully and looked fantastic.
Alclad needs to be built up in thin coats, requiring 2 - 3 thin layers to look right. I applied the first layer, went back and did a second layer, and then sprayed the tail. The metal finish turned out really well, is much shinier than anything I have been able to achieve before. I can see a couple stray bits of fuzz on the forward fuselage, but the rest looks fantastic. It looks like an additional layer would be beneficial, as the plane looks a little too dark. I will gently sand out the fuzz and then apply a second layer. The end is in sight!
Picture captions.
The photos below have captions that become visible when you double click on the picture. I noticed that it didn’t work in the last post so I will repeat the captions here.
photo 1 - the wing to fuselage joint looks pretty good.
photo 2 - fuzz and hair. I have been getting a strange “hairy” texture in some of the primer, visible to the left side of the picture between the fuselage and engine as a darker grey area. I wonder If this may be static but otherwise I don’t why this is happening. I have learned you stop spraying at this point as any additional paint caused the surface to get even worse, and it is very difficult to sand out.
photo 3 - the fuzz has been sanded out and resprayed. All looks good this time except for the crack in the fuselage seam that appeared as I was sanding!
photos 4 thru 6 - the primer has been sanded and polished.
photo 7 - first black gloss layer, complete with hair, fuzz and fisheyes.
photo 8 - the black has been sanded down with 3200, 4000 and 6000 grit sandpaper.
photo 9 - the gloss black reapplied and ready for the metal finish.
photos 10 & 11 - Alclad airframe aluminum applied. Looks great except for some fuse directly behind the cockpit.
Welsh Models Canadair Northstar
As noted in a post some time back, the next kit will be a Welsh Models Northstar.
The Canadair North Star is a 1940s Canadian development, for Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA), of the Douglas DC-4.[1] Instead of radial piston engines used by the Douglas design, Canadair used Rolls-Royce MerlinV12 engines to achieve a higher cruising speed of 325 mph (523 km/h)[2] compared with the 227 mph (365 km/h) of the standard DC-4. Requested by TCA in 1944, the prototype flew on 15 July 1946. The type was used by various airlines and by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). It proved to be reliable but noisy when in service through the 1950s and into the 1960s. Some examples continued to fly into the 1970s, converted to cargo aircraft.[3] (from Wikipedia. Full article can be found here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_North_Star)
I got the Welsh Models kit from Mom and Dad for Christmas several years ago. The kit is primarily resin, with beautifully cast parts and fine details. The kit includes metal propellors, landing gear and wheels, cast in a soft metal. The engines show the cross over exhaust, where the inboard exhaust was rerouted to the outboard side, as a way to quieten the noisy Merlin engines. I have another Welsh kit in my stash, a fully vacuum form version, that I intended to do as a RCAF Northstar. I wanted to do this one in Canadian Pacific Airlines, but the crossover exhaust limits paint scheme options to Trans Canada Airlines and BOAC. I found a set of TCA decals from .
Here are the kit parts before starting. I look forward to getting this going in the next week.
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