Avro Arrow - Canadian Novice Build

[Skyhawk]

Hello fellow modelers. I thought I would start a build thread for members who are (like me) relatively new to building paper models. Paper Modelers Forum is a great resource and I am amazed at the quality and craftsmanship presented.

My idea would be to pick a card model that is a free download. Members could download the model and build it along with me sharing the process, techniques and helpful advice to see what results we can achieve. I have build a few paper models and have learned a lot from this forum. As there are no clubs near where I live - and I have no mentor - I thought this would be a nice way to learn some new techniques and tricks for completing a model. Let's work together on the different processes to complete a model and see if we can produce a good result.

What model to pick?

This year will be the 65th year since the cancellation of the Avro Arrow. As a kid I always wanted to build a model Arrow. Plastic kits are hard to find these days and when found are cost prohibited. There are a few paper model kits for the Arrow and I thought it would be a good "Cold War" subject to try. I search the Forum and didn't find a build thread for this subject - so - it will be new to the forum.

History of the Arrow:

Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow - Wikipedia

From the downloads section of this forum I found:

The rear section of the Arrow
https://www.papermodelers.com/forum/...=searchresults

This rear section is for a free Avro Arrow model that can be found at:

AVRO ARROW paper model

I picked a free download model for the following reasons:
1) It's free
2) If we screw up a part - we can print it again
3) The model looks like it's not too complicated - good level of difficulty to try.
4) The scale looks to be around 1/50? so - It will be big - The Avro Arrow was big!
5) The construction guide says CONTEST VERSION - so there might be some modelers out there who have already built this model and can offer help

So Let's start. I hope members will follow along and offer help, suggestions and constructive support.

Off to print the model using the Xerox Laser copier at my place of work.

I will be using cardstock from Staples - 67 lb (176 g/m2) and 110 lb (199 g/m2) following the instructions in the guide.

[Rata]

Best of luck Peter.

You've made three good choices from the start: suitable thickness paper, laser print and lots of white areas on this plane to keep the need of edge painting to a minimum.

Garry

[yukonjohn]

Hi Skyhawk. Will watch your project with interest. The Arrow was a beautiful aircraft. Aaron Murphy also has some Arrow versions and well worth the price:
Avro CF-105 Arrow


Regards,
John

[MacSongLi]

Looking forward to following your build Peter.

Good luck.

Gary

[Butelczynski]

Good choice of model. Arrow was important and good looking plane. In Ontario we have full scale replica but I have no idea where is it now. I've seen it when it was built and it was huge aircraft. Much larger than I was expecting.

Partly due to size I would have scaled that model down to 1:72. For some reason free models seem to often benefit from scaling down. They fit together much better and level of detail makes for more attractive models but I guess beauty is in the eyes of beholder lol.

Btw Bruno also made free 1:300 model in S&P series. I would have posted it if I wasn't on phone

[billmcc]

I am a novice at building aircraft models, so I will be following this thread.

Good luck.

[scissorsandplanes]

one of the advantages of the chosen aircraft is its rather boxy appearance (except for the nose and engines of course). So building it with right angles could be a good start, while trying with somewhat rounded angles may be tried on a second attempt.
remember paper can be modeled into many shapes. just use scoring for neat bends or some long round objects (rods, knitting needles, markers,...) if you want to make the curves neat.

[Michael Mash]

Very interesting. Appeared to be way ahead of its time.
Will follow your progress.

[Skyhawk]

Snow and Freezing rain overnight in Deep River. Spring is slow to arrive this year.
Good day to start building a model ARROW.

Thanks to everyone who responded to the idea of this thread. From the start I am already looking at this project in a different light.

The paper model kits I have found for the Avro Arrow are as follows:
1) Bill Jones Free kit - aircraft 222 (never existed) in scale 1/50
2) Murphy's Models - 4 liveries in scale 1/60 - Thanks to yukonjohn for the link
3) Hobby Model Nr 63 - Aircraft 204 in scale 1/33

I will be building the free kit from Bill Jones, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 2004

If Bill is seeing this - thanks for the free download. The link to his build thread on "CardModels.com" does not work.

Thanks also goes out to forum member Kolighyt from Poland for providing the tail section parts that were not in Bill's download.

I am using inexpensive cardstock from STAPLES. I am lucky in that I am able to use a very good Xerox Laser printer from work.

I printed the Construction Guide and started reading.

12 pages of parts were printed on both 67 lb (176 g/m2) and 110 lb (199 g/m2) cardstock. Not sure about what thickness to use and cardstock is cheap. I will see how things go during the build.

The Avro Arrow was a big delta-wing interceptor - wing span 50 ft (15 m) length 77 ft 9 in (23.7 m)

So - at 1/50 scale the model will be over 18 in (47 cm) long with 12 in (30 cm) wing span.

Butelczynski - you have a valid point regarding size. I am going to stick to the 1/50 scale for this build - maybe tackle a 2nd build at the smaller scale? Let's see how this turns out.

billmcc - thanks for following along - my hope is that more novice modelers build this at the same time.

I started the day cleaning up my work area - it was needed.

I started by laminating page 8 to 3 sheets of cardstock to get the 1 mm thickness specified in the construction guide. It is not easy for me to get thick cardstock heavier than 110 lb. So - with the help of a 3M Super 77 and a brayer roller I will work with formers over 1 mm thick. I will be spending the rest of the day laminating parts pages 9 - 12 to the required thickness and letting the Super 77 dry overnight before I start cutting.

[Texman]

The link to the build thread at cardmodels.net does not work, because that site no longer exists.
It morphed into the current Papermodelers.com. Alot of us were members there as well.
Way back when!