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Scratch Built Fleet Canuck


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The wing cores have been fine sanded and the aileron cutouts have been boxed using .015" plastic. The skins for the top and bottom surfaces have been scribed with a ballpoint pen to give the effect of raised wing ribs. The skins are .010" sheet Evergreen plastic.

The bottom skins have an "L" shaped reinforcement at the trailing edge to help with the alignment of the skins.

Barney

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Edited by Barneydhc82
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  • 4 weeks later...

I know that it has been a very slow build but here we go again. I've been refinishing the interior of the 1:1 Grumman AA1A and organizing a re-build of the bathroom and I've not had a lot of time to devote to the Canuck.

The wings required a bit of head-scratching but I was able to jig them and insert brass tube and steel wires to provide for the 2 degrees dihedral. Th wings were routed out then the brass inserted into them wrapped in a wad of Milliput which was pressed into place, the wings put in place in the fuselage and the whole thing jigged until the Milliput set up.

The cowling plug is roughed out and in the process of final finish to vac-form the cowling using .040" plastis sheet.

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Edited by Barneydhc82
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Great work Barney. Sir Harry Woodman would be proud. You can use some thin CA to "harden" the balsa wingtips. It'll finish and paint just like plastic after. This is really shaping up nicely.

Cheers

Mike

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Thanks Mike. I'll be using the same method on this one that I used on the Alley Cat...Super 77 contact cement then apply the skin which hangs over the tip, then use a small hair dryer to soften the plastic skin while I roll it over the tip. I'll then run a bead of liquid cement around the plastic rod imbedded in the tip. This worked very well with the compound curves on the Cat's tip

I've hardened the leading edges with Tamiya White Putty and once the skins are on I'll complete the leading edge with more putty feathered into the plastic.

HMMMMM...sounds like something I caught from you my friend! :rolleyes:

Barney

Edited by Barneydhc82
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  • 2 weeks later...

The Wings are now finished and ready to assemble to the fuselage. I finished the leading edges with thin super glue then masked the tips, aileron cut-out and leading edges before spraying with Super 77 Contact Cement...one surface at a time starting with the bottom side of the wing. The skins were also masked where they would come in contact with the plastic inserts at the tip and aileron.

Once the contact cement becomes tacky, remove all masking tape then carefully apply the bottom skin, pressing into place and trim away the excess plastic at the tip and aileron cut-out. Now spray the top side of both the core and skin and then remove the masking tape. Align the trailing edges with the bottom using the embossed wing ribs as a reference then apply the top skin working from the trailing edge forward. The skins by the way were cut short from the leading edge by 1/4". And again trim away the excess!

At this point use liquid cement to glue the skins at the tip bow and aileron cut-out and the trailing edge.

Now run a bead of thin super glue along the forward edge of the skin. When dry, sand to a taper then fill with Tamiya Putty and sand some more.

And there endeth the lesson

Barney...with fingers sticking to the keyboard.

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Edited by Barneydhc82
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Working on the ailerons and getting very frustrated with the tiny pieces of .030" Half-round strips to simulate the stiffeners on the Canuck controls. These are stamped sheet aluminum in 1:1 but fiddling with these pieces of plastic is :rofl:

One down and one to go

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Hinges next

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Ready for priming

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Strips need trimming and sanding

Barney

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  • 3 weeks later...

At last a bit of progress. I've finished refurbishing the interior of the 1:1 Alley Cat and managed to get something done on the Canuck. The windshield has now been fitted and secured using clear epoxy, a product used by jewellers. The wings now fit properly but as can be seen the lift struts on the right side need some tweeking. The small jury struts will be fitted after the model is finally painted and assembled.

The jury struts will slip into plastic tubes inserted into the wing cores and when everything is aligned will be glued in place.

Barney

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:D, Gorgeous Barney, just gorgeous. Aircraft of this era and earlier are my favourites. I hope you'll be able to recover the missing pics to show us your progress so far. For an "old fart" like me, although you have about 20 years odd on me your work is excellent.

:thumbsup:,

Ross.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Getting Close...but still plenty to do yet. The paints were Humbrol Acrylic Trainer Yellow, Model Master GM Engine Blue(which is close to the Consolidated Blue used on the 1:1 Canucks) and Polly Scale Clear Gloss.

I still have to add the doors, side windows, tail brace wires and carve a wooden propeller. The civil registeration letters will be home grown on the Epson 680 printer.

Barney

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The lift/drag struts still need some tweeking but that is a small job.

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Edited by Barneydhc82
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  • 2 weeks later...

Slow progress but the small pieces have been a bit of a drag. I've added a prop mounting flange and will carve a Sensenich wood prop later. The doors have a liner using aluminum foil scribed with a pen to simulate the quilted liner on the 1:1 a/c. I've added the steps using .032" steel wire bent and inserted into small holes in the fuselage. The gas cap is a .040" disc with a tiny hole in the centre for the wire fuel 'bobber" guage.

Barney

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've finally printed the registration letters but they are not a match for the blue on the fuselage and being a bit translucent, I have had to do a double layer. I was able to print the red maple leaf logo used by Fleet Aircraft but the thing does not show very well.

The struts are still needing some tweeking but hopefully I can finish thenm next week. The Sensenich prop was carved from two laminations of a coffee stir stick.

More later

Barney

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Finished at last! Fifty eight years ago tomorrow I soloed CF-EAO for the first time after only 6 hours of dual...life was simple in those days! The Fleet logo on the tail was made on the inkjet printer and applied over a bit of white paint..and it is only 1/4" high!

Barney

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Thanks for the comments. It was gratifying to see the end of this project because of the history that I have with EAO.

A nd for that lurker Gary P, I can blame it all on your father...I spent many hours with him in EAO and as a kid he was my hero

Barney

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OM: Thanks very much for the comments. The Canuck was not a great success but about 210 were built and there are still 77 airworthy examples in operation including one each in Britain, Argentina and New Zealand. And I've had the pleasure of flying 39 different Canucks!

Barney

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