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Hey all. I'm building this for a friend, who flew these big beasts for several years. Let's call him PEG (his nickname). He flew them mostly in Greenwood, Nova Scotia. When asking me to build it, he said something about making sure I didn't spend too much effort on the back end, where all the mission people sat... LOL. The flight deck and the outside were all he really cared about.

 

I'm using this kit as a basis:

EDMbNjG.jpg

 

These are the decals:

yy7KV3y.jpg

 

The cockpit is very basic, with decals for the instrument panels. I didn't do a careful job of painting, because the cockpit will be dark and hard to see inside. 

yD9Ef0t.jpg

 

The black on the upper panel is important, because the decal is transparent, so the fire handles, etc show up nicely with the black painted background. The main instrument panel is also transparent, so the plastic grey shows up behind it. I know that this instrument layout is not valid for the era where PEG flew these, but it will be almost impossible to see much once it's closed up.

iENnopg.jpg

 

The wings fit together very well. The kit was not warped, and only a few clamps were required to get it to close up nicely. I am currently finishing up a 1/32 CF-18, and it's amazing the contrast in complexity between the kits. This one is a nice break.

dneO5t4.jpg

 

I'm paying close attention to the instructions. Even though this is a special boxing, there is still some information about differences between CP-140 and German Navy and USN P-3C. Here, I poked a couple holes at the left side of the part (aft), and will fill in some of the little holes in the shaded area you see on the instructions.

OGliMKz.jpg

 

The parts had a bit of flash on them, so I'm being very careful in looking at the pictures when trimming, so I don't inadvertently remove important things. These are the engine nacelles.

WdV6KM2.jpg

 

Dry fitting of the main fuselage into the wings. I still have to see how well the cockpit fits inside before gluing all of this together. What's nice is the separate nose cone, which allows the addition of sufficient weight to avoid tail-sitting well after most of it has been glued together. I'll be able to tape the nose cone in place and see how it sits, without having to guess on the exact amount. The kit says so many grams, but I have no weigh scale, and I am using lead fishing weights that are in ounces... I HATE the Imperial weight measurement system! Sure I could convert, but I prefer to test it physically. The model comes with a little stand to prop up the tail, but I find that unrealistic and silly looking.

EiivpoY.jpg

 

Thanks for stopping by. More soon.

ALF

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Another build for me to watch closely! I'll be doing an Aurora soon too. I have some extra resin parts that cover the areas for the guys in back, as well as a better torpedo bay and flap set.

 

Do you intend to scribe panel lines or stick with the raised ones?

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12 hours ago, Specter1075 said:

Do you intend to scribe panel lines or stick with the raised ones?

Why would you ever scribe lines on a Aurora? Look at the real aircraft and you will see that all the panel lines are filled (corrosion protection) so scribing would just be wrong even though I've seen guys "brag" about doing so. Leave the kit the way it is........They also wash down the aircraft after each flight through a shower at the end of the runway so don't do it too dirty either....

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I Have built a few P-3 kits recently (5 in fact with another 2 in various stages of construction) and with a CP-140 to come soon so I am watching with interest.

 

Just watch the fit of the assembled nacelles to the wings, the back of the nacelles tend to pinch in when glued together and there is always some putty required around the join to make things flush.

 

I also add some weight in behind the cockpit just in case and fit the radome later and add any extra weight if required.

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On 6/5/2019 at 3:58 PM, Slartibartfast said:

28.35 grams per ounce.  Keep it simple and use 28.

I'm well aware of the conversion factors. Unfortunately, some of the weights are not labelled and I'm just guessing at how many ounces, and sometimes I have found the kit instructions can be a bit light on the required weight. I have installed a rock with CA glue in behind the flight deck, and will fill the nose with enough to do the job.

m5M4w60.jpg

 

On 6/5/2019 at 6:36 PM, RCAFFAN said:

Why would you ever scribe lines on a Aurora? Look at the real aircraft and you will see that all the panel lines are filled (corrosion protection) so scribing would just be wrong even though I've seen guys "brag" about doing so. Leave the kit the way it is........They also wash down the aircraft after each flight through a shower at the end of the runway so don't do it too dirty either....

The lines are so subtle on the Aurora (real thing) and on this kit that I was not going to worry about them. Rescribing is not on my list of fun things to do, and I am in this hobby for fun, period. Even that old Monogram Voodoo kit, with its huge raised panel lines, is not something that would incite me to rescribe.

 

On 6/5/2019 at 9:18 PM, Trojan Thunder said:

I Have built a few P-3 kits recently (5 in fact with another 2 in various stages of construction) and with a CP-140 to come soon so I am watching with interest.

 

Just watch the fit of the assembled nacelles to the wings, the back of the nacelles tend to pinch in when glued together and there is always some putty required around the join to make things flush.

 

I also add some weight in behind the cockpit just in case and fit the radome later and add any extra weight if required.

Took your advice of the extra behind-cockpit weight, as you saw in the picture at the beginning of this post.

Looks like there may be a minor pinch-in here and there, but not too major.

9omhh1F.jpg

 

bjIIjWC.jpg

 

2me858z.jpg

 

The next decision is what to do with the boarding door and ladder. I'm inclined just to close it off (fewer things to break over the years, and when it's not on MY shelf, the poor client sometimes has a hard time fixing stuff like this that is fragile and prone to breakage). I'll send PEG a query by FB about this.

4Wz4Ls9.jpg

 

Luckily, the interior is not a problem if the door is left open, but then again it would look weird as just a blank black wall inside. And NO, I am NOT scratch-building an interior!!! 😛

Here the fuselage has been glued together and held with masking tape. Saw the movie Skyscraper with the Rock the other day, and loved his line: 'If it's not working out, you're not using enough tape.'

XiY5qkP.jpg

 

Thanks for the comments and advice, guys!

ALF

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On 6/11/2019 at 7:20 AM, AX 365 said:

I guess watching The Rock in Skyscraper gave you the idea for the nose weight?

 

Nice work and subject matter pal.

 

Mike

Thanks, Mike. Love The Rock! Even for him, though, that movie was a bit over the top.

 

Got the call from PEG about the door; closed it is. Phew. Much less fragile. Setting this aside for a couple days while I finish off the other build I'm doing, a big CF-18 for a guy in Cold Lake. 

ALF

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  • 1 month later...

At long last, some progress again. Not wanting to repeat the near-disaster of the 'Gimli Glider', I decided to use good old trial and error to ensure enough weight was used. I filled up the nose cone with fishing weights, and tried it using the fingers in the wheel wells technique. Close, but not sure it will quite be enough.

QYPW4Ha.jpg

 

This is the amount I could get in there without causing fit problems.

FIRtZkP.jpg

 

In the ongoing 'better safe than sorry' approcah, I decided to add more lead into the nose area, just aft of the flight deck. Before I glued the fuselage halves together, I made sure that this would be possible. Drop 'em in, glob a bunch of CA glue, and we're done.

mXts6mZ.jpg

 

Wingtips went on fairly well, with a minor burr to file down, and a bit of filler required. Of note, this is the AIMP version of the wingtip; they are now quite different. I had a chance to walk around the one at the Bagotville airshow recently; I just hope CSIS hasn't opened a file on me after they saw me take copious photos. I can't use it as a direct example, because it is the latest version of Aurora that visited here last month.

 

Original wingtip

wrwg1Vh.jpg

 

Wing chopped, with original wingtip on the cutting mat.

76CMfQC.jpg

 

New version

kuTtuIs.jpg

 

A less blurry shot of the new wingtip glued in place. Fairly good fit if chopped along the existing line in the kit's wingtip.

Ul1DBVF.jpg

 

Here it is, sitting on its feet. Good balance. Before any smoothing of joints or addition of filler. The kit fits quite nicely for such a large aircraft in this scale.

j9JHVDc.jpg

 

ALF

 

Edited by ALF18
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Filler time. Not NEARLY as much fun as Miller time, and WAY less fun than Labatt's time!

ZvRgssA.jpg

 

A few coats of this required, to fill in the pylon grooves. The real thing, with no pylons installed, is super smooth.

3C7lA3A.jpg

 

Fairly clear from this photo, but up close the pylon mounts are almost invisible (just locating circles).

1z2HYYp.jpg

 

The new-style wingtips, which are quite different from the ones the kit includes as add-ons. Apparently, they lowered the indicated airspeed limit at lower altitudes to 300 kts when installing these wingtips because of flutter concerns, but never fully tested them to see if it was a legitimate concern. This I gleaned from a nice chat with an Aussie Exchange pilot on the squadron in Greenwood.

TtfNcfp.jpg

 

ALF

 

 

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Time to assemble the props. They come in full-coarse pitch, and there is NO way I will change that.

m1WrmiV.jpg

 

Lots of work done after that. Assembled all 4 props, and painted the black and light grey. From the pictures, it is fairly close to the underside light grey (which also happens to be the colour of Tamiya light grey primer you see here, close to FS 36375 Light Ghost Grey, the same colour as the underside of the CF-18).

wdYfgY6.jpg

 

I hand-painted the prop blades using Model Master Acryl, FS 36375, which is a tiny bit darker than the primer colour. According to the kit instructions, the blades are 70% the underside grey, 30% black, mixed. Close enough, especially in the light of these pictures. 

NXvNlbT.jpg

 

HdcJbP1.jpg

 

Thanks for stopping by. Next, masking for the upper medium grey (again, same as the CF-18, FS 35237). I'll use Model Master Acry.

ALF

 

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Nice to see some progress, I must start my CP-140 soon.

 

I always thought the blades were a natural aluminium and the inner section was a slightly different finish due to a manufacturing process. I have always painted Orion props some sort of aulminium/metalic finish. Thought your pictures do show they match the underside grey.

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23 hours ago, Trojan Thunder said:

Nice to see some progress, I must start my CP-140 soon.

 

I always thought the blades were a natural aluminium and the inner section was a slightly different finish due to a manufacturing process. I have always painted Orion props some sort of aulminium/metalic finish. Thought your pictures do show they match the underside grey.

I agree that they should (logically) be natural aluminum, and the Herc's props (similar engines) are certainly that colour. Both the kit instructions and my photos belie that, though. 

Here are two more close-ups I took. On the head-on partial view, where the prop logos are faded, it almost seems like the natural metal is peeking through in little speckles, and that there is indeed a light grey paint applied. Not sure. Unfortunately, my client, an Aurora pilot who just retired, is currently on the beach in New Jersey, and won't be home for a while, so I can't ask his opinion. Does anyone know for sure?

HxGwmOF.jpg

 

Here, with some natural metal showing on the intake above the prop hub, you can see the contrast with the seeming light grey blades.

Une2t9r.jpg

 

I also noticed that the red and white bands at the tips are severely weathered, on the front faces, and are almost pristine on the rear faces of the props. I just might dry-brush some light grey paint over top of the decals to mimic this effect.

1z2HYYp.jpg

 

ALF

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On 7/17/2019 at 8:12 PM, Trojan Thunder said:

Nice to see some progress, I must start my CP-140 soon.

 

I always thought the blades were a natural aluminium and the inner section was a slightly different finish due to a manufacturing process. I have always painted Orion props some sort of aulminium/metalic finish. Thought your pictures do show they match the underside grey.

Guess what, we're both (sort of) right. 

 

Through the magic of Facebook, I manged to get the full story from a guy who works in the shop that refurbishes the Aurora props. He tells me that they are indeed natural metal, but that they are never polished, so they take on a dull grey colour that looks a bit like paint. I decided to paint mine Tamiya dull aluminum. They look more natural now. Pictures soon, after I've applied decals, etc to the props.

ALF

 

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2 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

I would not trust that the intake shroud and prop are the same type of alumin(i)um.  And the blades might be kinda dull from oxidation?

As I just posted, you're right about that. The intake shroud is apparently stainless steel. The blades are in fact oxidized.

ALF

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On 7/17/2019 at 7:41 PM, ALF18 said:

This I gleaned from a nice chat with an Aussie Exchange pilot on the squadron in Greenwood.

 

And a few things about spiders and snakes too!

 

Progress is looking good chum.

 

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been doing some painting. Here is the masking of the camouflage, using flexible medical tape. Patented method... (well, actually freely shared by AX_365). I love that tape for masking.

uf8P2GJ.jpg

 

Based on the discussion about the colour of the props, I did a repaint of the blades using Tamiya Flat aluminum.

sNB82Cx.jpg

 

More soon. Finishing up another model right now (CF-18 in 1/32 scale).

ALF

 

 

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Nice work so far! 

 

Bagotville Airshow! That was a good show. Yes, the pods on the wingtips for the Block III Auroras have been tested and verified again recently,  so 300 KTS IAS is the limit. The pods shown in the kit look strikingly similar to the Block II CP-140, which if your friend had retired about 4 years ago would likely have finished on. 

 

If there is anything else you'd like for detail info let me know. Unknowingly we may have chatted at that very same airshow, which was an absolute blast; you all treated us very, very well. 

 

Cheers,
Mark.

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Looks like great progress. Not sure how accurate you want to be but I did see you fill in the sonar bouy tubes as instructed. Did you know that  one of the tubes on the starboard side is larger? The outside line for the markings bulges around that bigger one.

Edited by skyhawk174
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  • 1 month later...
On 8/3/2019 at 1:18 PM, Aurora Mark said:

Nice work so far! 

 

Bagotville Airshow! That was a good show. Yes, the pods on the wingtips for the Block III Auroras have been tested and verified again recently,  so 300 KTS IAS is the limit. The pods shown in the kit look strikingly similar to the Block II CP-140, which if your friend had retired about 4 years ago would likely have finished on. 

 

If there is anything else you'd like for detail info let me know. Unknowingly we may have chatted at that very same airshow, which was an absolute blast; you all treated us very, very well. 

 

Cheers,
Mark.

Thanks, Mark. Sorry for being silent for so long; life has been VERY busy in the last several weeks. Definitely my buddy flew the Block II Aurora, and he was happy with that variant. You were there in Bagotville? Nice. Glad you enjoyed yourself. For me, airshows are not the same as a member of the unwashed masses (general public) as they were when a participant! During the show, I bent the ear of your Aussie exchange pilot. Learned quite a bit about the aircraft from that.

Here is what the aircraft looks like with the wingtips installed, and most of the overall painting done.

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="Klb9vdO"><a href="//imgur.com/Klb9vdO"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

 

 

On 8/4/2019 at 10:32 PM, skyhawk174 said:

Looks like great progress. Not sure how accurate you want to be but I did see you fill in the sonar bouy tubes as instructed. Did you know that  one of the tubes on the starboard side is larger? The outside line for the markings bulges around that bigger one.

I am striving for some accuracy, but not going nuts. My friend is upgrading from a display model which is smaller and has very little detail; he's happy with this so far. The decals do actually bulge a bit on the underside, as you can see here.

https://imgur.com/ViEwvJM

 

Here it is with gloss coat applied, most decals in place, and without transparencies.

https://imgur.com/Nn6fmvM

 

The props were fun (well, at least as fun as any non-jet can be... lol). The front faces are weathered, while the rear faces are almost pristine, as per the one I saw in Bagotville recently.

https://imgur.com/NfI7oFH

 

This beauty is done. Some pics in the shop, and others outside today in the crisp fall weather.

https://imgur.com/qxVAGBs

 

https://imgur.com/P3DBiIC

 

https://imgur.com/vJMWWFm

 

https://imgur.com/dZ8jkQ7

 

I didn't add the large antennae aerials; I find those can droop over time, and they are the first things to break off.

 

It's been a fun build. Thanks to all who commented and contributed to my knowledge of this significant Canadian aircraft.

ALF

 

Edited by ALF18
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