August's Snowbird

[K5083]

I'll be building the 1/72 Hobbycraft Canadair CT-114 Tutor in the bright, cheery colors of the CAF/RCAF Snowbirds team.

A few notes about the Tutor, the Snowbirds and the kit.

The Canadair Tutor was a Canadian-designed and -built jet trainer that first flew in 1960 and served as a trainer until 2000. Of the 212 built, the only ones still flying with the RCAF are to support the Snowbirds or as research aircraft. A few have found their way to private owners.

The Snowbirds gradually evolved out of a base display team at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, starting in 1969 and ultimately filling the gap left by the Golden Hawks and Golden Centennaires. The name was chosen in 1971 through a popular contest at a time when Canadian singer Anne Murray's 1970 single, "Snowbird", was still high on the "easy listening" charts. Despite its origins in that bit of musical treacle, the name Snowbirds has served the team well for 43 years, as have the venerable CT-114s.

The Snowbirds paint scheme has remained fundamentally the same during that time but there have been several detail changes as suggested by these two photos which I took in 1982 and 2009.





Hobbycraft released its 1/72 Tutor kit in the late 1980s. Like many Hobbycraft releases of that time, it delighted Canadian modelers who had not had access to an injection molded kit of the Tutor up to that time. I have at least 4 or 5 of them.



The kit is Hobby-Boss-like in its simplicity, with a one-piece wing and one-piece tailplane. There is a basic cockpit almost completely devoid of detail. The wheel wells are boxed in but detail-free. There is a nice canopy that can be posed open if one is sufficiently pleased with the detail that one has added to the cockpit. Surface detail is recessed and reasonably fine but very sparse; not much more than control surface and dive brake outlines.

Hobbycraft was a great boon to Canadian cottage decal producers not only because it kitted long-awaited Canadian subjects, but because the decals it supplied with them were uniformly hopeless. I hope to be able to salvage the blue stripe and Snowbirds titles from the Hobbycraft sheet, but will be replacing the standard markings with other decals and paint.

August

[TobyC]

I met a girl from Moose Jaw once and she wasn't one
Moose that is not a tutor or though I did learn a few things
Nice choice of kit and I've never heard of it or the team before. As the saying goes the day you stop learning is the day you stop breathing

[philp]

Nice.

I got to see the Snowbirds perform several times at Big Sky Airshows when I lived in Montana. Definitely a lot different display then the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Very interesting ....

[K5083]

Nice choice of kit and I've never heard of it or the team before.

That's a pity, they do visit Europe every few years, try to check them out. On the other hand, if you've never heard the Snowbird pop song, that would be the silver lining on that cloud.

I got to see the Snowbirds perform several times at Big Sky Airshows when I lived in Montana. Definitely a lot different display then the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels.

It would look more familiar to our British friends. Very much a Euro style 9-trainer display, emphasis on formation balletics rather than boom-zoom.



August

[K5083]

My initial assessment of the kit as similar to a Hobby Boss was too kind. PM/Pioneer-2 would be a better comparison. The kit has plenty to satisfy the modeler who desires a challenge, making up in poor engineering, inaccuracy and lack of detail what it lacks in complexity.

The indicated position for the instrument panel would be too far for the poor 1/72 pilot even to read the gauges, let alone reach any switches. I had to make a new bulkhead to put it in its proper position just forward of the sticks. When the fuselage halves are together a hood will have to be added over the front part of the cockpit. I also widened the side panels and built up some structure at the rear of the cockpit. All of this is just a prelude to adding any detail.



While various bits of the cockpit structure were setting, I detailed the wheel wells. There is not much need for detail because Tutors park with their inner gear doors locked, leaving only the outer strut area exposed. The gear doors were fully as thick as the depth of the too-shallow wheel wells; I think if you build the plane gear-up, you're just supposed to cement the gear doors to the ceilings of the wells, which will leave them flush with the bottom wing surface. This wouldn't do so new gear doors were made and fitted.



I'll add bits to the cockpit over the week and close up the fuselage next weekend. Things should pick up speed after that.

August

[JohnRatzenberger]

More I look at it, the more I like the Snowbird scheme ...

[PaulBradley]

Nice!

I've also had the luck to see the Snowbirds in action a couple of times - very graceful, very impressive.

[K5083]

This project has been coming along.

The CT-114 cockpit has some areas covered by a quilted fabric material. I couldn't figure out what to use for this, until I was holiday shopping and spotted some gift wrapping ribbon with just the right texture. Here it is mounted in the cockpit. Also installed at this point were my new instrument panel backing, rebuilt rudder pedals, throttle sticks and some odds and ends.





The seats were basic, but recognizable in shape as far as they go. I had to build the ejection mechanism housing behind the seat backs.



Here they are painted up and with straps added. Snowbird Tutors have custom upholstery, red for the left seat and blue for the right.



Here's everything mounted in the joined fuselage with the new hood linking the front of the cockpit opening to the instrument panel.



I judge the cockpit good enough to leave the cockpit open, which is just as well, because the extra height I added to the seats likely wouldn't permit the overly thick canopy to close.



As simple as this kit is, adding the wings is just one more step. It fit well in the sense that there were no major gaps. But the bad news was that the pieces didn't meet at the same angle to form a smooth line from nose to tail, so some plates of styrene had to be added to the belly and the whole contour reshaped. At least there was no surface detail to remove.



Aiming for the model to be paint ready by next weekend.

August

[airjim]

Nice work on the cockpit.

Jim

[PaulBradley]

Very nice, August.

[Migrant]

I've seen the Snowbirds fly numerous times. Looks like you're doing them justice; great start August.

[K5083]

First coat of white paint revealed some surface flaws, here in the process of being addressed.



I also realized I'd neglected to build a housing for the Snowbird smoke system, so got that done as well.



Although there's still some time left, I can see by my schedule, the to-do list on this project and the fact that I don't want to rush it that it will not make the deadline.

See my workbench thread for the rest of the story!

August