1/48 HobbyCraft CF-105 Avro Arrow

Gallery Article by Pete Malaguti on Sept 15 2009

 

This kit has a poor reputation. And as this is my first aircraft kit, I was curious to see if it had earned its reputation. And I can say, objectively, that ... YES it has! 

This was a bear of a kit. Along the fuselage, the gap was 3 mm. And almost nothing fit well. Lots of patching and filling and sanding with this kit.

But, it was still a lot of fun! It's a good thing I've begun to love scratchbuilding. So, I decided to show it with the cockpit and clamshell canopy open ... and NorthStar had one ... I also added some detail to them. I scratchbuilt an Iroquois engine from references I had. And built the weapons bay where the removable palette was located. In addition, I built both Main Landing Gear from aluminum tube and styrene ... detailed the Nose Landing Gear adding the drag strut and placing the door on the correct side. The ladder and dollys for the engine and the palette, were also built from styrene sheet using references. The nose radar, which was based on the type used on the F4 Phantom, was also built from scratch.

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I've been interested in this aircraft for 30 years. It was designed and built in Canada, and was the most advanced interceptor in the world in 1959. And-d-d the Canadian government decided to, not only cancel it in 1959, but destroy and cut up the five flying aircraft. It breaks my heart to this day. It was, and is, a very controversial action.

 

Arrow Graphics provided the excellent and accurate decals. I weathered this Arrow with a thinned oil wash, after a coat or two of Future and then used pastels for the final touches. 

It won a 3rd place at the recent IPMS National show in August 2009.

Thanx very much Steve, for continuing to offer us an opportunity to show our models and providing a very professional site for us!

Pete Malaguti

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Photos and text © by Pete Malaguti