It has been a rather quiet week. Christine and Daniel left on Monday, and all the kids are now back to school. The weather has definitely felt more fall like this week, with highs in the single digits, with just 2 degrees on Saturday. Marie and I spent much of the week getting the yard ready for winter. 8 bags of leaves and grass from the back yard, 3 from the front yard, and 6 bags of annuals. I was awfully tired of leaves by the end of Thursday. The long range forecast suggests we will get one more week of warmer weather, with several days forecast to hit 18, before the following week brings minus temperature and potential for snow. It will feel strange hanging Christmad lights and putting the winter tires on when it is +18. But better to do it now than wait a week when it could be -10.
Christine has finalized plans for her move. She will be able to start to move things into the new apartment next weekend. The earliest the movers can show up is several days later, on November 4. Her goal is to move enough stuff next weekend that she can live in the place, and wait for the movers to arrive later the following week with the rest of her stuff.
Nicholas is finally paying rent so the water problem is considered fixed. Daniel apparently made a bunch of new friends Saturday night, in a bar in Edmonton, when the Flames were winning. His texts were a little scrambled but it appears his new friends insisted on buying him beers. Christine is right - Daniel can make friends with anyone.
Last but certainly not least, my Dad was released from Rockyview on Friday afternoon. He has catheter, and is still using oxygen, but he is home. I spoke to him briefly on Friday evening, and he was very glad to be home. Marie and I will make arrangements to head down to Calgary in the next couple weeks to visit.
Halifax
Work has progressed nicely, with paint finally being sprayed. A pencil was first used to lay out the main colour areas before the RAF Dark Earth was applied. Hard edges were achieved using Tamiya vinyl tape, with hardware store masking tape filling in the spaces. RAF Dark Green was then applied to complete the top colours. Tamiya NATO black was used for the bottom areas.
The Halifax didn't have de-icing equipment but instead used Kil-frost paste on all leading edges. The paste was a combination of lanolin and adhesive, being dark or golden yellow when applied. The paste apparently worked, but was not well liked by the ground crews who had to apply it, and it seems that later marks of Halifax didn't use the paste. I couldn't find anything definitive as to whether Medicine Hat would have used it but it seems likely. Hindsight says that I should have sprayed the yellow first, before any other colours, then masked it. It is difficult to achieve decent coverage with yellow, and the leading edges proved a pain to mask.
Photo 1 - Dark Earth applied
Photo 2 - Masking complete to apply the Dark Green
Photo 3 - Dark Green applied
Photo 4 - Masking removed from the top surfaces
Photos 5&6 - NATO Black applied to the undersides and all masking removed
Photo 7 - A lot of masking needed to apply yellow to the leading edges.
Getting close to the finish line now. The yellow is the last major colour to be applied. Next up will be to mask and spray the roundels and fin flash, apply some weathering, then install landing gear, add the props and all the antenna, and finally add the remaining decals.
GT40
Painting the seats was a challenge. The gloss black was so shiny it made it hard to see where the silver had been applied. A sharpened toothpick was used to paint the silver buttons, allowing the silver paint to "flow" around the engraved buttons. A flatter toothpick was then used to paint the centers of the buttons black. Once done, a fine paintbrush was used to cleanup any over painted areas. It took two cycles of paint and cleanup to get the desired result.
Now for the seat belts. Meng provided photo etch metal for the buckles, and self-adhesive precut fabric strips for the belts. The belts are assembled by threading the fabric belt material thru the various photo etch buckles. There should be a special place in hell for the sadistic bastard that decided a very sticky, floppy fabric seatbelt needed to be threaded thru and then folded over the very tiny openings in photo etched seatbelt fittings.
Something didn't look right after the belts had been applied and the seats dry fit into the cockpit. It was finally realized that the installed seats sdt staggered rather than even. The seats had been carefully numbered on their backs to ensure they were installed in the right place. But it was incorrectly assumed that part number 1 would be the driver seat, and part number 2 would be the passenger seat. Logical, right? Nope, checking the instructions shows the opposite. The seats were duly removed, the fabric belts gently pulled off, and then reassembled on the correct seat. Things look much better now but it would have been simpler to have read the instructions first.
Decals are provided for the dashboard instruments. The raised instrument dial surrounds were carefully painted silver, ready to receive the decal dials. The decals were carefully applied to discover they are slightly larger than the dial opening, covering the carefully painted dial surrounds. The decals also have a black background, meaning they totally covered the carefully painted dial surrounds. Gentle application of decal solvent convinced almost all the decals to settle down inside the dial, leaving the silver surrounds visible. One decal refused to settle, needing repeated applications of decal solvent and pressure from a brush, to finally settle into the recessed dial. Something didn't look right when the completed dash was set aside to dry. You got it - the troublesome decal was no longer in its recessed dial. Ten minutes of careful searching of fingers, tools and the desk finally found it in the paint rag in my lap. Looking a little worse for wear, it was restored to its proper place, then sealed with a drop of Future.
Photo 1 - Second cleanup complete. Buttons are finished
Photo 2- Test fitting the seats and rear firewall.
Photo 3 - Engine compartment with rear firewall in place. Still need to add the rear window
Photo 4 - Seatbelts installed - on the wrong seat
Photo 5 - Dash complete. The wandering decal is third from the left
Photo 6 - On its wheels for the first time
Photos 7 & 8 - Interior complete except for doorknobs and the rear window
Photo 9 - Body ready for primer
The chassis and interior are now complete. Next up will be to prime and then paint the bady.
That's it for this week. Stay safe everyone.
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