1/72 L-19 RCAC

[ALF18]

Hey folks. This is a kit I've had lying around for quite some time, and when I saw Phantom take it on, I knew this was the time. I will be looking at his build thread a bit for hints.

An oldie of a kit. Here is what I am modelling:

 

It's the only picture I have of it. I took this pic in about 1973, when I was 14, at CFB Baden-Soellingen, West Germany. This is at the flying club. The aircraft belonged to the Royal Canadian Air Cadets (RCAC), but did not carry RCAC markings like the ones in Canada. It had the registration SLN-01 (Soellingen 01), which was a home-made registration from the base. At the time, none of us civilians (or military) had civilian licences. I was gliding down at Lahr (70 km down the Autobahn as the L-19 flies) most weekends. This aircraft was operated by the Air Cadet squadron, 800 Black Forest, which had a Baden and Lahr Flight. My Dad (an active CF-104 pilot at the time) was also the Cadet Squadron Commanding Officer, and he would fly the L-19 down to Lahr to conduct famil rides with the cadets there. Of course, he needed somebody to act as a dispatcher on the ground in Lahr, and to safely guide the cadets into and out of the L-19's back seat while we swapped riders. Who better than his son to do that? 

I would get in the back for the 20-minute flight to Lahr, strap each of the 5 or 6 riders in as their turns came up, then fly back to Baden. Dad allowed me to do all of the flying there and back; it was a great way to learn a bit about powered aircraft flying. No instruments in the back, though; I had to look over his shoulder for the altitude and airspeed. This little kit has been crying out to me to build it for quite some time. I have no decals for the markings, though, so not sure how to do them. Anyone have suggestions? Pieces of tape painted black and cut into SLN-01? Masking the tiny area? Black Sharpie?

 

Progress soon. Here are the kit pics, including the decals, which I don't intend to use (except maybe for some of the stencils).

 

 

Look at all the flash on this!! I'm not expecting this one to be an easy assembly.

 

ALF

[AX 365]

You're gonna earn your pay on this one buddy.

[Grandboof]

Looks like you will have your work cut out on this Good Luck 

Martin H

[phantom]

Not easy. Most parts do not fit into the next. The clear stuff apart from the windscreen is awful...........enjoy!

[ALF18]

On 15/08/2017 at 8:56 PM, AX 365 said:

You're gonna earn your pay on this one buddy.

Yeah - especially because I'm being paid the equivalent of "retired guy" rates on this one! 

 

On 16/08/2017 at 3:22 AM, Grandboof said:

Looks like you will have your work cut out on this Good Luck 

Martin H

Thanks, Martin. Not an easy one for sure.

On 16/08/2017 at 5:37 AM, phantom said:

Not easy. Most parts do not fit into the next. The clear stuff apart from the windscreen is awful...........enjoy!

The flash is awful. The part fit is very bad. Not much good to be said about this kit. It may actually turn me off doing a limited-production kit like the 1/72 Challenger and CRJ that I am planning for this GB. May have to do something easier in between first.

 

I left the inside of the cockpit the sprue grey, and painted some black, green, and silver to make it look somewhat realistic.

 

Some things are neatly done, like the tube connecting the two control columns. Flimsy plastic; I ended up snapping off the rear control stick as I cut it off the sprue, and had to glue it back in place. I also realized that there was in fact an instrument panel in the back, which is impossible to glue in place before you get the wing installed.

 

There is going to be a big requirement for putty on this one.

 

I got lazy on this. Painted the skin with a brush, using a couple coats of Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver. It fits with the matte and somewhat uneven finish that the real thing had, and it means I don't have to mask the transparencies.

 

The rear instrument panel. One of those little arms (the crooked one) fits into the side wall, and the straight one plugs into the roof. I left it out for now.

 

Fuselage together. Legs glued on, but the locating pins were too large, and I had to chop them and CA glue the wheel struts in place.

As Phantom said, the transparencies do not fit very well. Dry-fit, trim flash, try again, hack some more plastic off, and say "good enough" at some point.

 

More soon.

ALF

[ALF18]

Short note. I left the engine out, based on Phantom's comment that it didn't fit well, nor did it really show. I glued the exhaust stacks to the side walls of the cowling (interior), and they fall roughly into the right place out the bottom. Not terribly visible.

ALF

[Grandboof]

Looks great Keep going 

Martin H

[martin_sam_2000]

Looking good.

Sean

[ALF18]

7 hours ago, martin_sam_2000 said:

Looking good.

Sean

Thanks Sean

On 30/08/2017 at 3:02 AM, Grandboof said:

Looks great Keep going 

Martin H

Thanks for the encouragement. You know how a poor kit can suck the enjoyment out of the hobby?, Well, this one is a bit that way. I have decided not to sweat the small stuff as a result.

 

For the tail area, I had to chop off the locating pin on the tailwheel strut. Squared it off, and used CA glue.

 

I mentioned the locating holes for the gear struts were not well made. I chopped off the locating pins, and used CA glue. Two glue bottles held the struts at about the right angle while they set.

 

Most of the structure complete, minus the transparencies.

 

First coat of X-11 brush-painted.

 

 

 

Cute little bird. More soon.

ALF

[phantom]

Looking much better then mine did at this stage. So far your glass is fitting MUCH better then mine

[ALF18]

On 31/08/2017 at 8:12 PM, phantom said:

Looking much better then mine did at this stage. So far your glass is fitting MUCH better then mine

Shawn, it is a terrible kit - wait til you see the next pics. Yours is pretty good as well, for such a badly fitting piece of plastic.

 

Some more painting progress, with a brush. Some areas are going to need some scraping to fix up the plastic crud extruding.

 

 

For the SLN-01 on the tail, I decided to try chopping out the tiny letters on a prescription label.

 

Seemed like a brilliant idea - until after I coated it with Future, the letters faded away, leaving little bits of sticky paper in its wake.

 

  

 

ALF

[ALF18]

I gave up on the letters and numbers. I scraped off the offending bits of sticky prescription label, then drew them on in permanent marker. Here is a picture taken from the "recommended viewing distance" for this nearly-finished model:

 

I installed the door closed (almost, but the real thing didn't close that well anyway), and the window open, like in my only picture of the real thing.

 

Antenna installed. Done.

 

Here it sits with same-scale CF-5s and a T-38. Not the best job, but a little keep-sake anyway.

 

Thanks for following along.

ALF

[Grandboof]

Well done Looks great Like the companions too 

Martin H

[ALF18]

Thanks Martin. Stop the presses on this one! As I was leafing through my decal stash (looking for Snowbird decals for Colin K), I stumbled on a set of Canmilair decals I had bought a couple years ago, for this very aircraft! I will update soon as I get rid of my home-made markings and correct them with proper decals.

More to come!

ALF

[ALF18]

The suspense is over. Here is why I said "stop the presses." Look what I found when going through my stash of decals!

 

Canmilair to the rescue. This is the exact aircraft. I recall that a couple years ago, a good friend of mine (a fellow instructor on the Challenger 604, who was an ex Air Cadet and pilot with Air BC) had collaborated with Bill at Canmilair to create several decal sheets for RCAC L-19s. My friend (Murray) had called me, I had sent him the picture at the beginning of this thread, and Murray dug up the pic on the decal sheet. My memory had played tricks on me; it was not SLN 01, but SLN 800 (800 Black Forest Squadron was our Cadet squadron in Germany).

 

 

Here is the instruction sheet. More red to be painted on. When I was there, it was SLN 800. A year or so before I left, Transport Canada got involved with the licensing and registration of the private aircraft on the military bases in Europe. Prior to that none of us had licences (I flew gliders with a locally-made glider pilot licence, which was exchanged for a Transport Canada licence in about 1975).

 

Bill's decals are very accurate, and thin and shatter-proof. One thing to be aware of is that the carrier film covers the entire cardboard, and it is necessary to trim around each decal closely before soaking in water. Here you can see I chopped the paper around the flag (larger size), and then sliced just through the decal film close around the flag itself. After soaking, I removed the transparent excess film around the flag, then I was able to hold the cardboard and apply the decal like a normal one.

 

In progress

 

 

And now, for the second and FINAL time, it is done. Thanks again for following along and encouraging me through this challenging build.

 

 

 

ALF

[phantom]

Much nicer with full markings!

[ALF18]

7 minutes ago, phantom said:

Much nicer with full markings!

Does make a nice difference, doesn't it?

ALF

[martin_sam_2000]

Turned out Great!!!

 

 Sean

 

 

[Trojan Thunder]

Nice to see you found the decals ALF. looks the part now 

[ALF18]

41 minutes ago, Trojan Thunder said:

Nice to see you found the decals ALF. looks the part now 

Thanks, Ray. I feel like such a scatter-brain forgetting I had them. Luckily, Colin K had made a plea for another set, so I went through all of mine and made the happy discovery.

ALF

[Trojan Thunder]

3 hours ago, ALF18 said:

Thanks, Ray. I feel like such a scatter-brain forgetting I had them. Luckily, Colin K had made a plea for another set, so I went through all of mine and made the happy discovery.

ALF

 

Never fear, I am the same with my stash. I keeping finding all sorts of stuff I had forgotten about in my aftermarket containers and decal binders.

 

 

[AX 365]

Nice work with the recovery sir.  Nice keepsake.