Happy thanksgiving! It's our first thanksgiving alone as empty nesters, without kids, for at least 25 years. Christine and Daniel are both busy with studies and work, while Nicholas is back east at school. It's strange with just the two of us.
After a month of nice weather, in briefly turned cold and wet. We got the first snow of the season last Wednesday night. At least Riley was happy, as he immediately started licking the fresh snow.
I have slowly been packing the yard up in prep for winter. Raking leaves has been the biggest job so far. The backyard has been raked twice over the last week, while the front has been raked once. A day later and you would be hard pressed to tell the back was raked. I spent a couple hours this afternoon putting all the yard furniture away, shutting of the water, emptying the fountains and tarping in the AC.
Marie and I celebrated our 32nd anniversary last Wednesday. It was a quiet affair, with only the two of us home. We had dinner at The Keg to celebrate.
Daniel went to Tesla, in California, last weekend with some of the UofA F1 team. Tesla was putting on a seminar for students and Daniel's F1 team attended to network and learn. I think it is safe to say that Daniel adapted quickly to the California lifestyle, based on the rollerblading along the beach video he sent us. He also saw where he will work next year.
Nicholas set up a session where his Syncrude mentor did a lunch and learn session for the Carleton Environmental Engineering students. The session went well and the prof was very pleased. The relationship with his mentor has paid of in an unexpected way, as the CEO of an Edmonton environmental consulting company reached out directly to Nicholas thru LinkedIn, indicating that he had heard that Nicholas was someone he "needed to watch.". Exciting for Nicholas!
Christine continues to work 18+ hour days. The effort is paying off as her first project mark, work that caused her much frustration, was an A-. As of Friday, an amazing 25 out of 90 students have dropped the program. It's clear others are finding the workload excessive.
CF-104 Starfighter
Haven't got around to taking finished pictures yet. Soon.
Lightning
Work resumed by sanding the previously applied primer with an 800 grit pad to remove blemishes and polish the surface before painting.
The kit includes three paint schemes; a metal finish with blue leading edges, fuselage spine and tail, a grey and green camouflage with orange dayglo flashes, and what I thought was a metal finish with red leading edges, fuselage spine and tail. I wasn't ready for another metal finish so soon after the Starfighte so was leaning towards the green and grey camouflage. That's when I noticed the decal sheet included low visibility red/blue roundles. I didn't recall low vis markings on any of the options, so went back to the instructions to find that the red version wasn't a metal finish but two tone grey. The combination of the bright red trim and low vis markings, an obvious contradiction of purpose, was just too much to pass up. So bright red trim it was.
The red was sprayed using an very old - must be at least 30 years since it was purchased - bottle of Model Master Guards Red. Two light coats were used to get good coverage.
The underside of the wings and stabilizers was a custom mixed light grey. Once dry, it was masked for another custom mixed grey applied to all upper surfaces and the fuselage.
The grey initially looked too dark but is looking better as the decals are applied.
Photo 1 - Red applied
Photo 2 - Red and underside grey masked
Photos 3&4 - Masking removed. Some touch up needed but overall good
Photo 5 - Upper decals complete.
Fokker Trimotor
The kit's previous owner had removed most of the parts from the sprues. Bigger pieces were stored loose in a large plastic bag, while smaller pieces were secured in a ziploc bag. Initial inspection suggested all the parts were present but I noticed during test fitting that the left side fuselage clear window insert was missing. A half hour and three tries were needed before a decent replacement was fabricated from a CD cover.
Kit detail is decent but the cockpit is rather sparse. The instrument panel, throttle quadrant, control wheels and rudder pedals are cast into the cockpit side of the firewall. A little paint brings out the detail but I am not sure it can be seen once in place. Four chairs, resembling overstuffed armchairs are provided; two for the cockpit and two for the cabin. Four figures are also provided, two amorphous sitting blobs for the cockpit, and two decently cast but terribly oversized standing figures for outside. The sitting pilots don't look any better after being painted, resembling melted blobs with paint. They also don't fit the provided chairs very well, and had to be placed too far back to allow their feet to clear the instrument panel.
Further test fitting of parts found some surprises. The biggest surprise was that the front cockpit window doesn't cover the front window opening. The three pane window casting fits the front but doesn't cover either side. Early Fokker aircraft have very distinct, unpainted shiny metal window frames, both on the cockpit and the fuselage windows. This makes them very visible in black and white pictures. Pictures show G-CASC as having the three panel front window but can't tell if there are windows along the sides. Looking at pictures of other examples doesn't provide any more detail. The area in question is dark and trends to be hidden behind the wing mounted engines. The shape of the fuselage behind the cockpit would make it very difficult to fit windows. After further investigation it appears that the side cockpit was open. That would be cold in a Canadian winter.
Otherwise test fit found that most mating surfaces were tight but will still need a lot of filler to get smooth surfaces. The initial plan was to build and paint the fuselage and wing separately to simplify final construction and painting.
The wing went together better than expected. Joints were generally good and tight. The ailerons fit poorly and needed a lot of sanding to fit. The wing was then primed to find flaws which it most certainly did. It also painfully highlights multiple scribing errors. CA glue was used as a quick way to fill the in the scribing errors, with the added benefit that it rescribes cleaning. Cleaning out the scribed lines was challenging with the most effective means found to be running the scribe back thru the lines. As might be expected, this resulted in the need for further repairs. A second prime was done in white to prepare for the final yellow colour.
The fuselage went together well but needed a lot of filler to deal with uneven joints and sink marks. Sanding the first layer of filler got most areas to an acceptable point but a second layer was still needed in some areas.
Photo 1&2 - Cockpit details
Photo 3 - Cockpit installed. New fuselage window installed too.
Photo 4 - A lot of clamps were needed while the glue dried
Photo 5 - First primer layer sanded and ready to be reprimed.
Photo 6 - First layer of filler sanded. Second layer applied to the nose and behind the wing area.
All the handling wasn't kind to the various joints. Tamiya Extra Thin glue is normally very aggressive but didn't have much affect on this plastic. Sanding, cleaning, and rescribing frequently overstressed the plastic, cracking the weak joints. Regluing was often followed with more sanding, cleaning, and repriming, which recreated the rescribing error loop. After many iterations it finally got to the point where it was ready for paint.
Photo 1 - Starting to look the part after two layers of yellow over a white primer
Photo 2 - Masked for the registration markings
Photo 3 - The finished markings. That worked nicely
My scratchbuilt port fuselage windously had no frames. An online review of drawings and photos wasn't helpful. No two planes seemed to show the same window/door arrangement. Different pictures of the same plane sometimes even seemed to show different window configurations. It appears that doors and windows were either custon matched to the airline, evolved during construction, were modified once in service, or some combination on the above. There didn't appear to be any standard layout or design. That's when it was noticed that G-CASC appeared to change the port side window layout at some point. Surveying the limited pictures, it appears the plane had a short row of windows and then a solid door. A later (?) picture clearly shows a longer row of windows, and a door with a window. The kit has the shorter starboard length of windows but no door, so a new door and window opening will be needed. The starboard side is harder to figure out, as there are no pictures of the this side of G-CASC. The kit has raised panel lines for a door in the middle of the long window row, but the most common arrangement appears to be a windowless door immediately aft the windows. So the port side needs a new door with a square window, aft of the short window row, while starboard side loses a window door but gains a new standalone door, without a window, immediately aft of the long window row.
As work began on the rudder and stabilizers, it became necessary to finally empty out the two bags of parts and match actual pieces against the instructions. This confirmed missing one vertical landing gear strut, one short engine V brace, and both diagonal braces for the underside of the horizontal stabilizers. The top bracket on one the the main gear legs is also broken and missing. Nothing horrendous but it will take some work to scratch build replacements. Time to get creative.
The fuselage was now primed in white, with the intent to mask off the markings and then spray a dark blue. The primer highlighted numerous repairs needed along the top and bottom fuselage seams, starting an annoying cycle of putty, sand, prime and repeat. Perhaps it was the very hard plastic but I could not achieve a smooth surface. Finally, after at least 6 cycles, it was ready for the dark blue.
I used Tamiya blue, starting another unexpected cycle of paint, sand, polish and repaint. The Tamiya blue simply wouldn't cover the white primer. After three layers of paint, it looked semi transparent. Giving up, I switched to a Model Master Acryl blue, another acrylic paint. it went on much darker, with better coverage, but surprisingly, attacked the underlying Tamiya blue paint as it dried, creating a fine pattern of cracks. The affected areas had to be sanded smooth, down to the white primer, and repainted. The Model Master blue didn't cover white primer any better than the Tamiya blue, leaving an unpleasant patchwork of lighter and darker blue over the fuselage. And that's when the paint cracking reappeared!
Fortunately the cracking was limited to the top and bottom of the fuselage, both totally smooth, flat areas. Both top and bottom were sanded down to primer, removing all traces of blue paint, reprimed and resprayed with the Tamiya blue. Five layers were needed to finally cover the white primer and get the desired colour depth.
At this point I will note that it is very important you do not drop your model. Attempting to insert a dowel into the fuselage nose, to act as a handle during painting, cracked the joints and the fuselage took a plunge to the floor. Both pilots and seats, as well as the rudder and stabilizers, went flying. Fortunately the damage was repaired in an hour or so, and fuselage painting was able to progress.
Removing the masks found the blue had bled under the masks in multiple locations. I half expected this as the plastic's rough texture made it difficult to seal the masks. Touch up by hand didn't work. It would be possible, but difficult, to place a mask and spray the letters white. It would be much easier to place the decals over the letters and that will be the path forward.
Some experimenting quickly determined plans B and C wouldn't work. Plan B was to use the Above & Below decals, which the masks were cut from. These decals proved slightly too big. Efforts to fudge the fit didn't work. Plan C was to cut lettering from white decal paper. These were cut using the same template as the masks, but surprisingly were also slightly too large. Again, efforts to fudge a better fit weren't successful. So on to plan D, where the white lettering on the fuselage and tail was repainted in blue and the Above & Below decals used directly. Six thin coats of Tamiya blue and the white lettering was obliterated.
THe Above & Below decals are wonderfully thin but stick immediately on plastic contact. The port side decals were wrangled into position with lots of water as lubricant. The starboard side registration letters stuck fast and no amount of water would budge them. They were finally forced into place but a portion of the G was damaged beyond repair. A small piece of white decal was cut and placed over the damaged area. It is noticeable from up close but will have to work.
The windshield was glued into place, followed by the wing, without problem.
The combined engine pods and landing gear were a challenge to install. The kit provided shallow indents in the parts to show where things went. These were deep enough to show location but not deep enough to provide a positive location for gluing. The various struts and braces weren't long enough to allow the indents to be drilled out. After much thought, and fear of the mess CA could make, it was decided to use canopy glue. This clear drying, flexible glue comes out of the bottle with enough stickiness to hold small parts together. The hope was the glue would hold the various bits long enough to get things aligned so they could be held in final position to dry. It mostly worked, but it was necessary to hold the parts together for about 10 minutes each time. The excess glue was then cleaned up with a wet Q-Tip. Out of an abundance of caution, each joint was reinforced with small drops of CA.
Photo 1- Starboard side before changes
Photo 2 - Starboard side with new door. Masks now on the windows to paint window frames
Photo 3 - Port side before
Photo 4 - Port side with new door and window
Photo 5 - Masked for the markings
Photo 6 - Serious bleed of blue under the masks
Photo 7 - Decals finally in place
Photo 8 - Wing in place
Photo 9 - Engine pod and landing gear in place
That gets the plane pretty close to finished. There are still a few small pieces to add, before things are cleaned up and a clear coat applied to seal the decals.
That's it for this blog. Stay safe everyone.
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