The Little World

If you look closely at some of my RCAF aircraft, they look odd; there is no lightning flash down the sides and the the flag is wrong.

Wrong. The planes are pre-1965 with the old national flag on the tail. And if you look closely you’ll see that it flies with the Union Jack to the right on the starboard side of the tail. It depicts the old flag as it would have been on a flagpole streaming away from the windstream – as it would on a parade ground.

The newer red and white flag with bars and maple leaf is universal for either side. As far as the lightning stripes go, as soon as I can find a reliable source of them – commercial or home-made, everything will carry the newer livery.

The Albatross fleet lasted long into the newer era, and were repainted. One of the old ones crashed in this colour scheme but it wasn’t the fault of the painters.

The finish is Mr Color Super Metallic 208 – one of the best duraluminium paints there is, but you need to put it on over a white undercoat, and it improves if you spray thin coats using Rapid Thinner instead of Levelling Thinner. The Arctic red is best over white as well – this is an intermediate shade between the darker reds of the 50s and the flouro orange that it has become.

The kit has been quite well-moulded. No filler, and the obvious oversize elements involved in the working mechanisms are not too obtrusive. The wheels are staying down and the fuselage door is staying shut. The windows are blanked and glazed and the piece-work windscreen is a lot better than I hoped for. Even the home-made RESCUE sign went down with no problems.

I can see an RCAF display at one of the scale model exhibitions.