The Little World

Limited as I am to only a half-dozen photos of the actual plane I’m modelling – CF-TDI – I am having to squeeze the last drops of information from each image. The heading one is the chief image I use, as it was evidently taken with Kodachrome in the late 40’s or early 50’s and has preserved much of the chromatic information. Not perfectly, mind – the image you see underwent a number of scrubbing operations to relieve it of unwanted tints or saturation, based upon what the original Kodachrome A used to do.

That’s Fred Mannix in the light suit at the right of the picture – son of the founder of the company, father of the two chaps who now own it. A kind man.

I’m calling the colour of the plane light grey and the colour of the speed lines and lettering red oxide. It was one of the standard company colours for vehicles and earthmovers.

I don’t know if CF-TDI was purchased from Trans Canada Airlines or from Canadian Pacific Airlines – they both flew the type in the 40’s. In the case of CPA they took delivery of a number of these planes directly from the US suppliers painted in US Army colours of olive drab on the uppers and neutral gray on the underside – with characteristic wavy demarcation line. I wonder if the CPA speed lines and logo was in white or light khaki?

In any case, this is the first trial for another lacquer paint – in this case a Tamiya LS 34 light grey. It was put on over the Mr. Hobby white surfacer 1000 – this seems an excellent undercoat and you can spray it quite thinly. The LS 34 went on very well, even though the shop conditions were tending to cool off a bit. I am looking forward to more of these colours from this firm – at present their range is fairly limited and reflects mostly Japanese prototype colours. They know their home market, of course, but there are a lot more builders out here who need other tints. And not just for robots, please.

Note that I have learned to stuff the windows and wheel wells with foam bits cut from a makeup sponge.