The Little World

I just barely squeaked into respectability – this column was typed on the 31st of December at about a quarter to midnight. The respectable part was actually starting a kit within the year of buying it. A slow builder, not a hoarder…

The Lockheed Lodestar leapt at me from the shelves of Metro Hobbies and triggered a flood of memories – Mannix Ltd in Canada, the pilot, Hal Keefe, flying in the winter in freezing cold, being rugged up and going to sleep on a bench set between two seats… You see this was the company airplane of the construction firm my father worked for and I was frequently a passenger in it back and forth across Canada.

So were a lot of my dad’s friends and also my uncle Louie – and he was a very bad flyer, though not an unhappy one. This bit of gossip has come out of a company reminiscence produced by the Mannix family, and I do not doubt it. You see, this model kit is up close and personal.

I have few reference photos of the aircraft – CF-TDI – to hand but at least one of them was taken on a clear day with Kodachrome back in the 50’s and shows the true aircraft livery. The company changed it several times, but I will pick the one I best remember…and I’ll keep prowling the internet to see if I can find more.

The kit features more parts than are required for the military version depicted – fortunately they are civilian seats, and I’ve got a clear picture of the Lodestar interior with the president of the company – Fred Mannix in one of the seats – so we know it is the real deal. I am afraid I’ll have to look at a survey of other preserved Lodestars to pick interior colours.

It is not going to be a quick build – like the 4-day fighter planes. It is a personal goal to supply a childhood memory.

Note: They seem to have taken a great deal of pride and care with CF-TDI. It is recorded in the company book as serving from WW2 to 1963  – in the Mannix years flown by Hal Keefe with no injuries or deaths. He racked up a Lockheed record of longest service with one airliner.

Later livery – and they modestly wiped off the company name.