Clearwater Models: January 2016

Sunday 10 January 2016

GERMAN DRB CLASS 41 2-8-2 STEAM LOCOMOTIVE (ESCI)

This is the ESCI 1/87 HO scale kit of the German 2-8-2 steam locomotive built from 1936 until 1971, but a handful survived in service until as late as 1986. The Germans built 366 units. The engines weighed 102 tonnes and could go 90 km/h with freight or passengers. Mine is done in pre-war colours and gently weathered. The kit comes with several small clear glass lenses for the lights both front and rear. I bought the kit at a hobby store in Minneapolis USA, and have given the model to my dear friend Sandy in NFLD.

German 2-8-2 steam locomotive

being judged at the Montreal MIMM contest in 2014

TCA VISCOUNT (Glencoe)

This is the awful 1/96 scale model by Glencoe of the Vickers Viscount in Trans Canada Airlines (1955-1964) colours from the early 1960s. All the windows were puttied over and replaced with black decals, as was the windscreen. The body was sanded smooth to remove the heavy panel lines. The aircraft was painted with Alclad aluminium, and the decals applied using a lot of decal setting solution, especially in the nose region for the compound curve. It has won an award for airliners, beating an identical kit.

Vickers Viscount - Trans Canada Airlines

A real one...

Vickers Viscount - Trans Canada Airlines

TCA at the Ajax contest in 2014

T. MURRAY CLEARWATER

This is a photo of T. Murray Clearwater (1936-1987). He was a founding member of the IPMS Winnipeg chapter (International Plastic Modellers Society) in 1968 . In the photo he can be seen restoring a TCA Constellation for a summer aviation show at the Western Canada Aviation Museum (WCAM) in about 1986. He was also a founding member of WCAM in 1973, now called the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. He started model building as a small boy; working on balsa flying models and cutting up the tablecloth in his mother's kitchen. He moved on to drafting plans for steam locomotives, and worked more than 30 years for CNR as a carman and safety inspector. He built mainly plastic and resin models of bush planes and other Canadian civil aircraft.

I thank him for what I know about building plastic models.

T. Murray Clearwater (c. 1986)

RED ARMY BA-10 ARMOURED CAR (Zvezda)

This gun kills nazi scum.

This is the somewhat rough but wonderfully detailed 1/35 scale model from Zvezda of the BA-10 armoured car (brone-automobile). Over 3300 were built in the three years preceding the Great Patriotic War. At the beginning of the war they were effective against lightly-armoured German tanks. Tracks (carried by each unit over the rear fenders) could be placed over the read wheel set to produce a snow mobile version. The undercarriage was built and finished separately from the body. Chassis and body were airgun spray painted with Tamiya hull red, then the chassis was heavily weathered and darkened and greyed. The body was spray painted with a dark green (Tamiya spray can), then the slogans were hand painted onto the turret in white (for country). Then the body was gently misted twice with a Tamiya spray can of white primer. This gave it the worn camouflage look and allowed a hint of the whie slogan to show through. The the whole thing was assembled and the entire body rubbed with powders (slate grey and soot black) to darken and bring out details. Rust was applied gently. I added clear glass headlamps as the kit had green plastic lamps. The main gun barrel was drilling out a bit. There is graffiti on the door reading 'For the Leningrad Front' in cyrillic. The final model represents a unit on the Leningrad front in the winter of 1942-1943. I received the kit from Moscow by post on Christmas eve; opened it on Christmas; and had the whole thing finished and ready to compete in two weeks. It won a joint first place award at IPMS Ottawa in January 2016 when it tied with the wonderful work done by Mike Roy.

BA-10 armoured car

Third place winner in the Armoured vehicle (WWII) category at CAPCON 2017 on 30 September 2017.

Saturday 9 January 2016

RAAF UH-1 HUEY HELICOPTER (Italeri)

This is a 1:72 scale Italeri model of an Australian air force UH-1 Huey helicopter from 9 Sqdn, Williamstown, Australia, as it appeared around 1970. The tail is too heavy so there is a penny taped to the underside of the white roof. The white roof is removable. Glass was coated with future floor wax. There is no weathering at all. I bought the kit for $2 at at the Great Glebe Garage sale in 2014.

RAAF UH-1 Huey helicopter

NONA-S 2S9 SELF-PROPELLED GUN (Alanger)

This is a 1/35 scale model from Alanger of Russia of the current NONA-S 2S9 airborne self-propelled gun. The weapon has been used against the populations of Afghanistan (1982-1989), and Chechnya (1999-2000), and is probably being used against Ukraine. It is a current Russian Army weapon. The back of the turret opens so that shells can be fed in from a truck parked back to back with the gun carrier. NONA stands for New Ordnance of Ground Artillery (in cyrillic). I bought it for $2 at a silent auction at the 2015 CAPCON model contest in Ottawa.

NONA-S 2S9

Third place winner in the TRIATHLON category at CAPCON 2017 on 30 September 2017. (with a ship and a train)

CHINA 1867 FORT SHAN-KAI-KUAN CANNON (Pocher Torino)

This is an old Pocher Torino of Italy model of a "Chinese Cannon of the Forts of Shan-Kai-Kuan" field gun. (Art. C/05). The Chinese characters on the gun say "Made on the first day of the second moon of the fifth year of Emperor Tong-Tsci" meaning 1867. The cannon was captured by Italian sailors invading of China in 1901. It is make of metal and wood, and (strangely) plastic wheels. It goes together easily in two hours. The only annoying part is driving what seems like a thousand nails into the plastic wheels. The kit is now rare and I bought it still sealed in the original box for $45 at a flea market. The box still has the sticker from Hobby House of Ottawa pre-dating 1971.