Hobbycraft Avro CF-100 Canuck 1/48

Started by Morne Meyer · 225 · 3 years ago
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    Morne Meyer said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Hi Tom. Thanks for the advice. I will have a look in my aftermarket stash of resin goodies for MB Mk. 2 seats. As you rightfully say, not much will be seen in the black painted cockpit with a closed canopy. Re-scribing is something I often shy away from. I usually fill deep panel lines with correction fluid and once dry, I wet sand away the excess. That usually leaves me with finer panel lines. Needless to say in some areas re-scribing will be the only solution.

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    Morne Meyer said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    The next part of my scratchbuilding journey takes me to the nosewheel bay. This area is devoid of any details. It contains lots of 'plumbing' and internal structure that need to be added. I will attempt to replicate as much of what is visible and what my scratchbuilding abilities allow me to do.

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Looking forward to your scratchbuild wheelbays. From the look of it your pictures are from a museum plane? I think - when you get that far - that the gloss off-white color may be the operational one, as the very white areas look like they are "aftermarket".

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    Morne Meyer said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Hi Erik. This is a CF-100 museum exhibit. Definitely retouched with some white paint. I assume the wheelbays were in a NMF. My reference photos show white gear doors on the front but NMF on the main undercarriage. Maybe someone has more information on this.

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    Morne Meyer said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    The nosewheel bay is too shallow on the Hobbycraft CF 100. I contemplated scratchbuilding a deeper wheelbay but this would interfere with the cockpit. Let's just say that's a can of worms I don't want to open.

    I decided to add as much details as possible. In the end it will look busy enough and is representative of what is visible on the real aircraft. The nosewheel door received Evergreen bits and pieces. The rear portion of the nosewheel door has a distinctive mechanism that I made from 10 pieces of Evergreen styrene. The shallow indentations on this rear door were made with a Dremel tool. Two pieces of metal plates were made from Pewter foil.

    The rear area of the front wheelbay is packed with wiring and structural details. To simulate this, I added 30 individual pieces of styrene to add some visual interest. The front portion of the wheelbay will also receive some attention.

    7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    That is some nice looking scratchbuilding you got going Morne. As you say it looks the part even though a bit shallow to start with.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    This is some spectacular scratchbuilding, Morne @mornem! The NLG bay looks A LOT closer to the real thing. I agree with your decision not to deepen the bay, as it looks totally convincing -and very busy!- now, without the need of cutting cockpit floors etc...
    Eagerly waiting for the next improvisations!

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    Morne Meyer said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Thank you Eric and Spiros for the kind comments. Next up I need to scratchbuild the two gear retraction struts for the nosewheel since this is not included in the kit.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Incredible results, Morne.
    This is state of the art scratchbuilding.

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    Morne Meyer said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Thanks John. It's a time consuming process that took about 9 hours for the front LGB and it's only halfway done. I am pleased with the results thus far.

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    Morne Meyer said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Scratchbuilding the two retraction struts for the nosewheel is progressing as planned. I used 4 pieces of Evergreen styrene, silver wire and Pewter foil to make one of the struts.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Very nice, Morne.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Canuck's NLG retraction struts are very prominent, your excellent rendition will definitely attract the viewer's eye there, Morne @mornem.
    Your scratchbuilt strut is simply superb!

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    Morne Meyer said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Thanks John and Spiros. Small improvements always adds to the element of realism and creates some visual interest. Time consuming but always a rewarding exercise.

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    Tom Cleaver said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Your effort is really paying off, Morne. The gear well details look great. This is going to be a much-better-than-it-should-have-been result here.