1/72 scale Canadair CT-114 Tutor (bottom)

Here is a profile-scale model I made of a Canadair CT-114 Tutor painted as a member of the CAF Snowbirds precision aerobatic team. I chose this subject in tribute to all the wonderful Canadian model builders I keep in touch with.

I cut the parts from thin plywood, then glued them together and filled the grain. After coats of primer and then white paint, I was left with a blank canvas of an airplane. This was back in January 2008.

I finally decided that rather than try to paint all the color stripes and then glue on small pieces of paper with the roundels, flags, and logos ("paper decals"), I'd cheat a bit and use really large paper decals.

I printed the covering in 12 sections and carefully pasted them on. Then I mixed paint to match the colors as best I could and painted the edges of the plywood to match. This gives a "wrap-around" appearance and really helps make the model look realistic. You can see here that the white diamonds on the bottom line up if you look from the right angle.

Total time was 6 hours, including computer time drawing the decals.