The Little World

Wilfred ” Wop ” May apparently had the distinction of being the target that Baron von Richthofen was chasing when he was shot down. There is a perpetual controversy about who did that shooting, but I’ll bet Wilfred was glad of it anyway.

He went on to form a bush-flying company out of Edmonton that sent planes over the Canadian north in the 1920’s and 30’s. This Bellanca CH 300 was delivered on wheels but at various times sported skis or floats. And at some stages of the career it was Royal Mail of Canada plane – hence the GR and Canadian crest on the cabin side. It also help the Mounties with a man hunt in the bush.

I was at a debating point when it came to the orange colour for the main body of the aircraft. The instruction sheet did not quote anything I keep and various internet sources were showing different shades of red and red-orange for modern preserved aircraft. Historic pictures were inaccurate as to tone due to the nature of the films used at the time.

In the end I decided that modern orange-red would not have been available from the Bellanca factory – and the examples shown on the box art were not repaints. They were Hawaiian airlines or air racers but in any case the orange seemed pure and subdued… if that is a word that can be applied to orange.

The basic Mr Color orange it was – sprayed over a thin grey undercoat. I gave plenty of drying time between coats to prevent back-bleed. The engine cover was Stainless.

You cannot beat long, slow colour painting if the atmosphere is right. It took a full day to lay down the orange and wait – in the end I am very pleased. The application of the home-print decals over the gloss orange was a text book exercise and they have gone down under Tamiya semi-gloss to become perfect and invisible. The final stage was settling the plane on the skis using 5 minute epoxy as a cushion.

Note that for the reveal photos I’ve temporarily suspended a grey neutral backdrop. This is a Canadian bush plane in winter and white snow is the only natural base!

Now to run to earth several more bush planes – a Junkers 34 urgently required.