Happy birthday Mom! I hope you have a great day.
It has been a couple of weeks since the last blog post. The warmer weather seems to have brought more outside activity and more chores, resulting in less time at the workbench.
A one day trip to Calgary took place last weekend to support the boys on their third 100k step challenge. With 2 of the 3 participants in Calgary this year, it was decided to hold the walk down south, with fundraising to support the Calgary branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association. They started at the ungodly hour of 2:30 am, and finished about 9 pm, walking about 82km in total. Starting near Stampede Park, they headed north to the Bow, west to the Louise Bridge, crossed the river and followed the south bank of the Bow down to the east end of Fish Creek, taking the trails west thru Fish Creek and around the west end of the Weaselhead, and finally around the north shore of the Glenmore Reservoir and across Glenmore Dam. They arrived at the Glenmore track around 7:30 pm, at about 90k steps, and walked around the track for the final 10k steps.
The forecast that day was for cloud and rain thru most of the day, with the rain becoming heavy late in the afternoon. Fortunately the weatherman was wrong, and they only had some light rain in the morning, before the sun came out in the afternoon. The wind came up and the clouds came in as they arrived at Glenmore Park, but the rain held off until after they were done. They appear to have fallen a little short of their fundraising goal but still raised $2700. All three walkers were very tired and very sore a the end. Planned celebration with a cold beer and juicy burger were replaced by reality, with all three simply wanting to crawl into bed. I am so proud of the boys for doing this to raise funds for such a worthy cause.
Here is a video as they wrapped up the day's walk.
Photo 1 - Still smiling, after 5 hours, at the Southland Dog Park - about 7:30 am
Photo 2 - met up with Grandmaman at the east end of Fish Creek - about 10:30 am
Photo 3 - Lunch in Fish Creek - about 11:30 am
Photos 4 & 5 - met up with Grandma and Grandpa at the west end of Fish Creek - about 2:30 pm
Photo 6 - Arriving at Glenmore Athletic Park - About 7 pm
Photo 7 - Kerin McLean stopped by to wish the boys well
Photos 8, 9 & 10 - finished about 9:30 pm
Our kitchen table is over 20 years old, and the finish has been showing its age. The wood is otherwise in good shape, so we decided to refinish the table.
I was nervous that the original varnish would be difficult to remove, but it came off surprisingly easily. Marie wanted a grey, translucent finish for the top, with the apron and legs in white. She visited the ladies at the paint store and brought back a light grey acrylic semi transparent deck stain for the top, and a white acrylic enamel for the rest.
The paint ladies instructions were to apply the deck stain and then quickly wipe it off. Simply put, semi-transparent acrylic deck stains don't wipe. They dry very quickly, soaking into the open pore oak, and smearing terribly when you try and wipe them. It was very quickly apparent that wiping wasn't going to work and the top was instead simply painted. Unfortunately, Marie didn't like the resulting colour/finish. A second trip to the paint store ladies came back with a Miniwax transparent stain, meaning the table top would have to be stripped of the deck stain.
If you are ever looking for a strong, durable deck stain I can make a recommendation. After 24 hours the stain was near bullet proof, and refused to sand out. The paint was still slightly soft, and just formed little balls that destroyed sandpaper when sanded. It was decided to let the stain dry a couple more days to see if that would improve sanding. If that doesn't work, it will be necessary to break out the scraper and try that. In the mean time, attention shifted to the apron and the legs, with a coat of primer and the first coat of acrylic enamel going on smoothly.
Photo 1 - the sanded table top
Photo 2 - the now unwanted deck stain
Photo 3 - primer and first coat of white applied
No one has seen our bear for a week. Fish and Wildlife set out a trap, and it seems to have scared him off.
Daniel paid a surprise visit this week. He was working out of Fort Hills the past week, scanning pump discharge piping. One of our neighbours works at Fort Hills, and drives back and forth each day. Daniel was able to get a ride so we were able to share dinner Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The neighbour heads out at 4, so home cooked meals meant Daniel had a really, really early start to the day.
DC-6
Attention was mainly focused on the wonky windows at the rear of the fuselage. The windows were sunk, and didn't look right. An attempt was made to build up the windows using Krystal Klear so they were flush with the fuselage. It partially worked, but the Krystal Klear also lifted the transparent decal over the windows, causing the window to look cloudy.
The broken nose gear has now been repaired and the main landing gear installed. With the engines off, the plane just sits on its nose gear. Holes have also been drilled for the three antenna masts and antenna wires. Getting the gear on will allow application of a final clear coat to protect the decals. After that, it is just the installation of the remaining bits and pieces.
Photo 1 - gear installed
Photo 2 - sitting on its gear for the first time
Photo 3 - the cloudy rear windows.
Bell X-1
Landing gear doors were installed without issues. The three pitot tubes were a different story. The plastic parts were beautifully thin, but were each attached by two sprue gates. At some point, two of the pitots caught in the sprues and bent. Trying to straighten them, remove them from the sprue gates, and clean up the attachment points was too much for the weakened plastic, and both broke. Rather than try to glue the little bits back together, new ones were fabricated using brass tubing. And with that, the build was complete.
Enterprise refit
The last blog ended with a white primer coat covered in fuzz, looking like it had been dragged over a carpet. The fuzz was duly sanded out, frustratingly repeated on the 2nd white cost, before finally getting a smooth layer on the third try.
The "Violet Flair Tint" coloured pearl paint is very thick and needs a lot of shaking to mix. Some experimentation found a good paint to thinner ratio for spraying, and it went on in nice, thin coats. The violet/purple is just visible in the right light and looks pretty good. As you can see in the video clip below, it creates a prefect shinmer effect as light moves across the surface.
It is interesting that the instructions recommend painting colour highlights in a model that is otherwise covered in decals. Why wouldn't these also be done as decals?
All the recommended paints are listed using Model Master enamels. I have a nice collection of these enamels but no Duck Egg Blue, which was mixed up from Flanker Light Blue and Topside Blue.
The top of the saucer is covered in 12 pie-shaped decals. The kit decals are nice, strong and look good when in place. They stick immediately, needing a lot of water to move them into position. Strangely, any attempt to move them into position is stubbornly resisted, but any effort to squeeze out air bubbles and excess water causes the decals to slide all over the place. They then stick stubbornly again, needing more water to be relocated back to the correct place. It took almost 2 hours to finally get all 12 of the top saucer decals in place.
The decals are very resistant to all my decal solvents, including the original formula Solvaset. Slicing the decals along the "panel lines" helped, but 4 or 5 decal solvent applications, aided by a toothpick, proved necessary to push the "softened" decal into the grooves.
Here's what the saucer looks like now. The pearl effect is visible around the edges of the lighting. There are still about 25 decals for details and lettering/markings to apply. After some thought, I think I will apply these, and then spray a clear coat to protect the decals, before flipping the saucer over and doing the same thing on the bottom.
And that's if for this week. Stay safe everyone.
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