The Little World

All Good – after several false starts and a few execrable errors, the Cold Lake CT-116 is ready for the apron.

I patterned the build after an internet image of a 116 over the Alberta tundra. The in-flight shot was perfectly exposed and opened all the markings up beautifully. The model could be measured and the roundels and numbers scaled to the actual plastic. I’m delighted to be able to say that the new clear paper from Dr. Decal and Mr. Hyde in Sydney is working out very well indeed. The front AF/FA lettering is on this medium with a roundel printed on white paper to overlay it. There is no silvering ( on a silver model… ) under the clear film at all. Even the red ” Canada ” came out well.

A separate post detailed the experiments carried out for clear-coating home-made inkjet decals. Suffice it to say we can do this with readily available materials from the local hobby shops. One more worry put to rest.

The model is not a beauty. There are surface digs and errors galore – it will best be displayed at the back of the apron behind a better model of something else. But this was a real thing at a real place / time and that is what scores for me. One laudable thing – the geometry of the landing gear is such that the plane sits on the nose wheel with no lead weight at all.

For a toy fighter, it is surprisingly satisfying.