NWT Canadair CL.215

Getting the fun stuff out of the way first. Filling in the ejector pin marks on the interior. I'm using Gunze Mr. Dissolved Putty on each mark. 

This is becoming my go to tool for working in tight spaces. It's a DSPIAE rotary tool with a sanding arbor with a 320 grit sanding pad. It doesn't spin nearly as fast as a Dremel or similar so you don't have to worry about melting the plastic. Really works well. 

I started applying some of the PE to the cockpit interior. I also noticed that my sheet of PE appears to have been over etched. If you look at the rudder pedals (part no 14) and compare it to the diagram in the next photo, you'll notice that the tabs that are supposed to be folded and glued to the floor are missing. You can also see in the upper right that the screen is missing from part 21. There are a few other parts that are missing some material but I haven't seen anything yet that I won't be able to deal with. 

Layout of the PE sheet 

Side console PE applied along with the rudder pedals. 

You are supposed to remove the molded in pedals and then fold over some tabs on the PE pedals to glue them in place. Because of the missing tabs on my sheet, I elected to just glue them directly to the molded in pedals.  

I'm not usually one to get wrapped up in rivet counting, but occasionally I enjoy adding a little detail to my builds. I noticed that the strake on the forward fuselage of the kit looked a little small and the holes weren't there. I think we can fix this with minimal effort. Not my photo by the way. Original photo was found here: nabe3saviation.web.fc2.com/waCL215.html 

Compare the kit part with the previous photo. I penciled in where I thought the hole for the tie down cleat should go. You can also see where the kit has a small indentation which I'm assuming is their representation of this detail. 

Transferred to the other fuselage half to try and maintain symmetry. 

Quick work with a file and knife blade. I also flattened the edge of the strake to give a good gluing surface for the next step. 

I added a piece of 0.040 x 0.040" styrene strip to the edges of the strake with some Tamiya Extra Thin. 

The end result trimmed and sanded to shape. I also added the small hole just aft of the tie down location and filled in the kit indentation with some putty. The PE sheet comes with some tie downs which I'll add a little later. Not too bad for about an hour's worth of work. 

Another easy to add detail on the floats. I drilled out the tie-down holes on the back of each float. 

I decided to tackle this inlet screen next. On the kit it is ok, but some PE should look much better. 

As I mentioned previously, my PE sheet seems to have been overetched a bit. One of the unfortunate casualties are part 21, which is the screen we need for this inlet. The frame survived, but the mesh in the middle is completely gone except for right at the edge.  

Here are the insides of the frame cleaned up with files and small sanding sticks. 

Test fit into position. I had to scrape the bottom of the opening on the plastic a little to get it to fit nicely, but it wasn't too bad. 

And now we make swiss cheese to open up the window. 

Back with the files and sanding sticks and now it is looking like something. 

To replace the mesh, I'll be using this PE sheet from Eduard that I just got in the mail yesterday. 

That should do the trick nicely. I marked the PE with a fine point marker. 

My weapon of choice for cutting PE. They sliced through this sheet like butter. 

PE mesh test fit into place. 

And glued in with the frame on top. 

Before and after. Much, much better. 

And of course we now have to deal with the unintended consequences...doh! 

A few scraps of styrene strip 

Pre-bent a little and then glued in place with Tamiya Extra Thin. 

That should work. 

After an overnight cure, back out with the files and sanding sticks to smooth everything out. 

Much better! Slowly but surely we are getting there. 

Another casualty of the over etched PE are the various levers for the throttle quadrant. There is supposed to be a small dot on either side of the lever that get folded up to make the handles. I ended up cutting off the remaining dots and building them up with CA. 

Installed in the throttle quadrant. You'll notice that one is not like the others... Carpet monster claimed one so I substituted with some 0.008" wire. 

Replacement screens for an intake on the leading edge of the wing. I'm assuming it's for an oil cooler? 

Installed in the wing. 

Another nice upgrade over the kit. 

So one of the minor fit issues with this kit is that the lower wing halves are both warped slightly. This is one, and the other is pretty much the same. With such a high aspect ratio wing, I was really worried about it coming out straight and not drooping over time. 

So I decided to fit it with a spar. Initially, I had thought of square brass tubing to help with twisting, but I couldn't find any without mail ordering some. I was looking through my stock of R/C airplane stuff and I found a piece of Carbon Fiber kit tubing that fits perfectly. Plus it is nice and lightweight and very rigid so I don't have to worry about bending it. 

Procedure for cutting CF tubing is to wrap a piece of tape around the tube at the cut location to help keep the tube from cracking or splintering. 

I then cut it with a very fine toothed razer saw and then give the cut end a quick sanding. If this was going in an R/C airplane, I would also soak the ends in thin CA just in case there were any cracks in the tube. I don't plan on pulling any massive G's with this one though, so I'm sure it will be ok. 🙂 

Here is the CF tube cut to length laying next to some of the wing assembly. 

The CF tube will need to go through the center section, so I marked the bottom of the wing panel as well as the location of the tube on the side of the plastic. This was then cut out with a grinding bit in a rotary tool. 

And here we are checking alignment with the upper wing halves. 

The CF tube was tacked in place on the center section with some medium CA. The lower wing halves were glued to the center section with Tamiya Extra Thin and then the CF tube was glued to the lower wing halves with 30 min epoxy. Clothes pins act as clamps to keep things straight and not twisted.