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In 1967 Canada
would celebrate her 100th birthday as a nation and to help bring the
country together, the Royal Canadian Air Force was tasked with forming
an air demonstration team under Lt.Col O.B.Philp. The team was to
utilize the Canadaire CT-114 Tutor. To model the Golden
Centennaires aircraft, I used the 1:48 scale Hobbycraft kit of the Tutor
and a resin detail set mastered by Wayne Hui. The kit itself
needed quite a bit of refining and detailing to finish it properly and
the incredible resin accessories helped immensely. Anyone who has
flown the Tutor will recognize the cockpit goodies. |
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seats and centre consol are beautifully detailed requiring only some
careful painting. The sidewalls are very nicely detailed and they fit
very well. A bit of the rear top section of the fuselage had to be
ground out with the trusty Dremel tool so that the rear bulkhead would
fit properly. |
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The instrument
panel was finished using Mike Grant's instrument decals and a second
gear handle was added for right seat piloting. There are a couple
of instruments missing but Wayne Hui could only get so much detail in
the tiny panel |
| The rear of the
cockpit cutout was routed out to take the hinges which had to be carved
from plastic sheet. These channels were located using the rear
bulkhead detail as a reference. |
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The canopy
was finished using small bits of plastic to make the map light and
mirrors which are missing here. |
| The Tutor was
painted using Sheffield Pale Gold craft paint which matches the
original, and Model Master Insignia Blue enamel. The decals are
from Mike Belcher's Tutor sheet which also includes the later Snowbird
markings. The Golden Centennaires only lasted for one year but it was
their sparkling performances that finally led to the formation of the
"Snowbirds" Air Demonstration Team in 1971, again under the direction of
Col. O.B.Philp with Maj Glen Younghusband as the first leader.
The Team was later granted full squadron status and became 431 Air
Demonstration Squadron.
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