When building aircraft which have found their way into the annals of a Canadian aviation, it can be down right frustrating finding the right kit to start from. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you happen to a strong nationalist) many of the planes used in Canada have come from either the US or Britain. Of these models there are normally several kits to choose from. But what about something home grown? The de Havilland Beaver, like its larger sibling the Twin Otter, is used around the world, but you don't see Tamiya or Revell AG making kits of the them. The same is true of our very air defence fighter, the CF-100 Canuck. Luckily, however, there is a home grown model company the makes Canadian subjects, Hobbycraft Canada.

Over the years Hobbycraft has been much maligned about its quality, much in the same way that Matchbox is. (By the way, I've Matchbox kits and I like them as well.) True, Hobbycraft kits tend to lack any interior details, the fit is not ideal, and the decals, well I think my two year old could draw better. But don't forget what they offer as well, things like recessed panel lines, fairly accurate shapes, a very affordable price, and most of all, a source of Canadian subjects. For all their short comings, Hobbycraft do offer a good little model; so what if, God forbid, you have to do some actual modeling to put it together. (By comparison, have you heard of anyone gushing over the Hasegawa 1/48 Skyhawk, not complaining about its quality in the same breath with how much they spent?) So it was armed with a 1/72 Hobbycraft CF-100 Mk.V Canuck that I headed to my work desk.

I first cracked the seal on this kit three years ago (more about that in a minute). On inspection it is quickly revealed that there is no cockpit detail to speak of, save for the ejection seats. So I added some side console panels, instrument panels, and adorned these with bits and pieces from my collection of spare decals. I then added further details to the seats themselves with bits of stretched sprue, copper wire, masking tape harnesses, and paint. (I did all this off the top of my head. It was only after I was finished that I realized I actually had a CF-100 book on my shelf that I could have looked at for reference!) The remainder of the kit went together as per the instructions. The fuselage is built in four sections; top and bottom forward halves, and left and right tail halves, with the usual care needed not the leave seam lines. When mating the forward and tail sections you will find a large fit difference as the mating surfaces a not the same size. This result in the liberal use filler to equalize the two pieces. Filler was also needed around the engine intakes and exhausts.

So far the kit was going together well with only small problem areas needing attention. It was now time to put the wings together. The wings are molded in four pieces and are basically butt joint to the fuselage (there is a small tab). There is a wing root fillet that is designed to fit into a recess at the bottom of the engine nacelles, which though not a perfect fit, does make mounting easy. My wings, however, had a rather serious problem; they were both warped. There was some much sag at the wing tips that it looked like the tip tanks might touch the ground (ok, I'm exaggerating a little, but is was still pretty bad). Solution, heat the plastic in hot water and bend them back to shape. This I did, and in the process ruined the wings. The hot water did in fact soften the plastic so I could bend them back to shape, but in bending the wings to shape with my fingers, I ended up putting large depressions in the soft plastic with my finger tips. So now I had straight wings that looked like they had been sat on by an elephant. In frustration I shelved the project, refusing to pay $15 just for a set of wings.

So now its 2½ years later and to my delight I find that Toys R Us is blowing out Hobbycraft kits. For the price they were charging, I figured that I could afford to spurge and buy, essentially, an other set of wings. But what do I find on the opening the box, you guessed it, warped wings! So warm up the pot again, but this time I used a counter top and a straight edge to fix the warp. With the wings fixed, I finished the aircraft, replacing the kit pitot tube with one made from a hypodermic needle and some sprue. It was now time for paint.

I choose to finish my Canuck in bare metal, my first such attempt at all metal finish (I had done partial metal finishes on things like airliners). Furthermore, I wanted to have different shades of metal on the plane. For an overall finish I used Flo-Quill bright silver as my starting paint. I cannot say too often how good this paint is to work with. And it is a paint, not a metalizer, so it is far more forgiving that metalizer, and far more durable, easily taking on masking tape. For the darker shades of the aft fuselage, wing tip extensions, and engine intakes and exhausts, I darkened the Flo-Quill with Model Master Metalizer burnt exhaust. The control surfaces received a lighter coating of MM non-buffing metalizer, while the wing tip missile pods were polished out with silver Rub 'N Buff. There are actually another two more shades of metal on the plane, Testors silver on the oleos and Poly S anodized aluminum on the wheel hubs. The anti-glare panel and radome are good old flat black, and the de-icer boots are Humbrol satin coal black (a rather nice shade of black unto itself).

As mentioned above, the decals left something to be desires. I wanted to use Arrow Graphics decals, but though they make a set of Canuck Mk.V markings in 1/48, they do not in 1/72. I was fortunate enough to acquire an Astra Model vacform CF-100, and from this I robbed squadron the decals, with the roundels and flags coming from a Can-Force decal sheet. By the way, if you have one of these kits, make sure you seal the decals because they are rather old and easily fall apart. I destroyed the tail markings on my example, but thanks to Bruce Mackie was able to get replacements. And make sure you put on the flags in the correct orientation; the Union Jack is supposed to face forward on both sides of the tail (boy I wish I had remembered I had that book sooner).

So three years after I bought it, I now have a CF-100 on the shelf. I am please with the way it turned out, especially the bare metal finish I was able to achieve. This is a nice little kit, regardless of what some nay-sayers may claim, and really the only game in town. With a little bit of modeling know, and that's really all I have, you can produce a pleasing aircraft that will fit well into anyone's collection.