ACpilot

HOBBY MASTER 1/200 AIRLINER SERIES
HL2016
Canadian Pacific Airlines
Canadair C-4-1 North Star CF-CPR
"Empress of Vancouver" 1949

October 2012 Release

Up on Hawkone's website:

Hobby Master 1/200 scale airliners series HL2016 Canadian Pacific Airlines Canadair C-4-1 North Star CF-CPR Empress of Vancouver1949

MUST LET WILLIAM KNOW THAT THESE WERE MERLIN POWERED!

Dan

ACpilot

I have let William at Hobby Master know about the requirement for Merlins and the fact that Canadian Pacific never referred to these aircraft as "North Stars" but rather as "Canadair Fours".

Dan

AIR FRANCE 340

Thank you Dan, I agree.

And this time no excuse for a wrong cheatline along the fuselage.
The aircraft is natural aluminium ...

By the way, very nice photo !

Jean Pierre.

dash7

I think, North Star in this drawing has correct Merlins..
http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/...-releases.html

Bealine

A very interesting development but they do have a habit of paying no bloody attention! If we do get Merlin's then an Argonaut to match their seven seas would be a dream.

Upkeep

Something tells me we'll be seeing that thing with radials yet.

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

AIR FRANCE 340

And I hope the radio compass antenna wil not be positionned at the extreme end of the nose cone as shown on the drawing.
At this place we usually find the ILS antenna.
Because of the scale, it's better to do nothing.

Jean Pierre.

ACpilot

I heard back from William - Not a tooling problem.

Dan



Hi Dan,
*
We have made the tooling of the new engine so it is a mistake of the graphic desgner which will be corrected.
*
Thank you.
William

AIR FRANCE 340

Thank you Dan, it's good to hear that, but when I asked William to correct the walkway on the wings of the AF Super Constellation I had no reply and they did nothing.

The same can be said about the spinners of the DC 7.

Jean Pierre.

Agent X20

We go on and on about the spinners and Connie nosewheel and nothing....

Interesting .. a CP Air DC4 wit radials.. never seen one of those...

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Agent X20

Upkeep

CPA had five DC-4's (and four C4-1's) but dumped them as soon as they could get DC-6's.

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

SirFreddie

If they ever have a mind to sort those comedy spinner's on that 7, they'd have a little masterpiece on their hands. It always seems to be they way in oriental production, they spoil for a ha'porth of tar.

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Sir Freddie

ACpilot

Revised artwork with Merlins added

Dan

ACpilot

Some suggested corrections sent to Hobby Master.

I just noticed the letter L in "Airlines" should not have a loop in it either.

Dan

Upkeep

The lowercase 'r' in "Airlines" also has thickness where it should be thin. As it sits, the script look rather weird overall, but that 'r' looks too much like a lowercase 'n'.

Frankly, the whole title script needs to be properly redrawn.

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

firefly

The letters C (top curl) and P (top loop) also are wrong, so with font Point and Slant. I agree the whole script font must be redrawn.

Upkeep

You are absolutely correct . . . and it should be completely redrawn . . . but how much do you want to bet it will get ignored?

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

firefly

Capt Dan is our only hope, I believe HM listens to him.

Upkeep

For those interested in this unique model, let's hope so, eh?

Meanwhile, I ran across a photo of a 1:400 AeroClassics CPA C4-1, and low and behold, what did I find? (It's a bit blurry) What appears like the very same artwork for the title. Hmmmmmmm . . . .



More CPA livery errors by simply upscaling erroneous 1:400 artwork? Let's hope a fix from William & Co. is in the offing.

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

ACpilot

We will see I suppose.

I have further asked William to have his Graphic artist do a complete "do over" on the titles.

Dan

ACpilot

Must have originated from an erroneous decal sheet. Not too noticeable in 1/400 but a much bigger deal in 1/200!

Although the only set I can find (below) appears to be correct (Vintage Flyer Decals).

Hopefully William will correct.

Dan

firefly

That would be awesome. Thanks!!

Upkeep

Yes, the Vintage Flyer ones are a fair bit closer, but not quite as faithful to your photo as they could be.

"Hope springs eternal."

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

ACpilot

Do tell!

I can't seem to see much difference between the two.

Dan

firefly

I agree with you Dan, that font on the decal is the right one. Of, course it needs the red outline for the proper letter spacing and the height dot of the letter 'i" should align as well. Thanks for your effort in communicating to HM the errors. I believe it will be an awesome release if all errors are sorted out.

AIR FRANCE 340

Christopher and Firefly : thank you for your efforts to have an accurate Canadair Fours, that reminds me something I did in the past.

Dan : PM sent.

Jean Pierre.

Upkeep

The 'r' and the 'n'. In the decal sheet, they both look the same. In your photo, they are distinctly different. The rest looks, as I said above, quite close. Close enough for William & Co. to use, anyhow. (I hope they spring for at least the 1:144 sheet and not try to do this from those small images on the VF site)

For the record, the red outline is on the decal sheet here, it is the second script with the white inside. Essentially, it is a two-part decal.

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

ACpilot

You've got good eyes there Upkeep!

I also think the decal sheet would be close enough to use.

It's the middle of the night right now in Hong Kong. We'll see if we get a response from William tomorrow.

Dan

gospodin

The titles have red outlines, too. But the drawings show them solid black.

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Steve







I've discovered what's wrong with my brain. On the left side there's nothing right, and on the right side there's nothing left.

ACpilot

Yes, see post #14 above.

Dan

ACpilot

O.K. Guys.

Here is some good news (We are being listened to).

I have heard back from William:


Hi Dan,

Thank you and I will ask our designer to check and correct.

Actually, I have the decal sheet and will pass it to him.

Best.
William



And Star then sent the revised 4 View Drawing which is below.

1). I have already pointed out that it should be EMPRESS OF VANCOUVER NOT EXPRESS OF VANCOUVER! (Acknowledged by William in a follow up response).

2). The titles have had the script revised with a red outline.

3). "CANADIAN PACIFIC" is printed under the Starboard wing.

4). Now in my response I have mentioned Upkeep's requirement for absolutely no white between the cheat lines . (Acknowledged by William in a follow up response).

5). I have also suggested that the De-Ice Boots are actually wider on the outboards compared to the inboard De-Ice Boots when look at the photo of the actual aircraft. (Acknowledged by William in a follow up response).


Anything else?

Dan

firefly

Good eye, spotting the "EXPRESS" error. Just a minor one, the cheatline that terminates into a line at the horizontal stab should be made a bit longer (comparing the drawing and the photo). Looking at the Port side elevation photo, the cheatline "line" terminates at the intersection point if you draw an imaginary vertical line from the letter "F" of the title "Four" on the vertical stab.
One last question, would the propeller dome shell shape be the same or similar as shown in the photo? Thanks for your effort, an EXCELLENT job!

AIR FRANCE 340

I don't know if they wish to go so far in the details, but I suggest to ignore the radio compass antenna (the loop) and the ILS antenna, on the nose, at this scale, they will be oversized.

So many people around the baby, the model looks to be promising ...

Jean Pierre.

Upkeep

Hopefully they will.

So far. I guess all we can do now is to see if William & Co. can turn insight into reality.

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

Upkeep

I'm sure you picked this up over at DAF, but:

• The de-icing boot on the outboard wings are in two parts in your reference photos. HM has done them in one.

• Is that the finished spaghetti script with the outline of red? I hope not. The whole affair looks pretty loose and free-form when compared to your photo reference here.

I've worked with typography for well over 30 years now and have a passion for it.

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

ACpilot

Latest corrections with an updated drawing.

Back to EMPRESS of Vancouver and the De-Ice Boots have been taken care of.

Upkeep, please notice the port side drawing showing two separate arrows indicating polished aluminum between the cheat lines!









Dan





Script Comparison. A definite improvement.

Upkeep

Let's hope HM follows your instructions. If not, we'll have another 'Trans-Canada Airlines' type model.

Spaghetti script still looks too much like real spaghetti compared to the decal sheet and your photo.

I guess at this point, all we can do is wait to see the final, yes?

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

ACpilot

My experience has been that if details are noted on the Four View Drawing it will happen. When the Pre Pros appear there may be a week available to point out any additional errors.

Like the great Philosopher/Pop Singer George Michael said "You Gotta have Faith!"

Dan

AIR FRANCE 340

Hello Dan.

I'm afraid that for the reasons you know I don't share this point of view.

So, I confirm that it is better to remove these antennae on the nose, see post 33.
Would you please forward this request to William ?

Thanks.

Jean Pierre.

Upkeep

Neither do I for the same reasons.

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

ACpilot

O.K. You doubting Thomas's.

I believe we will have success here. You guys were complaining that you weren't listened to. Now we have actual artwork reflecting our corrections.

The final product will tell the story - but none of you can complain that in this case we were not heard.

Dan

ACpilot

I asked William about either thinning down considerably the ILS Antenna (The Horns) or removing it completely.

Sounds like HM will consult their Distributor for a final decision.

Here was his reply.


Hi Dan,
*
Thank you for the suggestion.
*
As you may aware, making it thinner will make it much more vulnerable to damage. If we omit it all together some other collectors may query about this decision as well.
*
So we will make the decision on our side based on the distributor's opinion, etc.
*
Regards,
William


So we'll see what happens, but the ILS Antenna may not disappear depending on what their distributor's view is.

Dan

AIR FRANCE 340

Dan : PM sent.

Jean Pierre;

AIR FRANCE 340

What you call the horns is the VHF antenna, there is nothing we can do, making it thinner would make it more breakable.
So, we leave it as it is.

The two antennae that I suggest to ignore are :
1 The radio compass antenna, the loop, just below the nose, technically speaking, it is impossible to do that, in this scale.
2 The ILS antenna is the very small antenna on the nose cone, it is shown on the four view drawing.

Dan said that everything that is on the drawing will be on the model, I sincerely hope that these two details will be forgotten.

I do hope that the model will be fine, but I have very good reasons to be sceptical.
I need to be convinced.

Jean Pierre.

AIR FRANCE 340

One more thing.

I understand that the model will be polished aluminim.
On the DC 4 and I think it was the same on the Canadair Fours, the flying controls, ailerons, elevators and rudder were fabric covered.
These surfaces cannot be polished aluminium.

I think it would be a good idea to paint them in silver to make the difference.
Caution ! Flaps skin is aluminium.

Jean Pierre.

Agent X20

Personally the VHF antenna (horns / antlers) can go as they just look silly and overscale..

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Agent X20

AIR FRANCE 340

Dan, your picture is now available.

I wouldn't touch this VHF antenna and I confirm that I was not talking about it.
See post 44.

I apologize if my English is difficult to understand, it is true that my French is much better.
Or maybe, I shouldn't use technical English

Jean Pierre

Upkeep

Dan . . . this is HM we're talking about. Having the artwork is no guarantee that it will get correctly executed. I have been 'heard' before, with assurances the changes will happen, and still the final was wrong.

"Hope springs eternal."

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Refining a rather modest, yet elegant 1:200 Air France jet set.

Agent X20

@ Jean Pierre...

I asked AC Pilot on another forum that my preference was that there were no antennae at all, if all we can have are the oversized antlers that HM are so fond of....

Speaking to other members they have removed their antennae on their HM models and filled in the 'hole'... so I suggested that ACP created a poll...

Your English is fine..... Better than my Francais....

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Agent X20

AIR FRANCE 340

A poll would be a nice idea.

First Old Western Models had no antenna at all, they were introduced later on their DC 7 ...

Jean Pierre.