# Hobbycraft Avro Arrow 1/72



## f1steph (Jan 9, 2003)

Got the 1/48 version. I 've heard that it was big but I bought it anyways, it's a 1/48 plane after all!!! Gee, I freaked out when I opened the box. Big is not the word, huge is the word. Anyhow, my question is anybody out there have the 1/72 version? I'd like to know how big it is. 

Thanks

Steph


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## Brent Gair (Jun 26, 1999)

Well, it's simple arithmetic. We know that the real Arrow was 80' 10" long and had a 50' wingspan. So in 1/72 scale that would equal...? (c'mon. this is easy)

I've got the 1/72 Arrow. And I've got the first issue of the 1/48 Arrow. Some of you guys with old collections of FineScale Modeler can see a pic of my 1/48 Arrow in the May 1994 Reader Gallery.

The 1/72 scale Arrow isn't very good. Not the 1/48 arrow is great...but it's better. The 1/72 scale kit contains some absolutely bizarre errors such as the blisters on the aileron hinge line...a very obvious feature on the bottom of the wing which Hobbycraft molded on the TOP of the wing. The 1/48 version got it right. But Hobbycraft molded a non-existant step into the top of the engine intake on both versions. This error is a direct copy of the glaring error on the original Aurora kit. If they had looked at ONE photo, rather than just copying the Aurora kit, they would have noticed the problem. Why they corrected the wing but not the intake when they upscaled the kit is a mystery.


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## f1steph (Jan 9, 2003)

I knew the size of the real Arrow but never had the idea of doing the math (that's my sci-fi old reflex, we rarely know the ''virtual'' numbers of the space ships). So the 1/72 should be close to 13.3'' long, and 8.3'' wingspan. Well that's better for me due to my limited display space. There's somebody in England that sells a correction kit for the 1/48 and 1/72. The kit for the 1/48 is WAYYYY to expensive for me (150$) but the 1/72 is much more affortable (around 40$). Got the idea to built one of these after seeing the '97 CBC movie. I'm reading right now the book ''Shutting down the national dream''. Interresting.................


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## Brent Gair (Jun 26, 1999)

That CBC movie was shot entirely in my neighbourhood. Not just my town...literally my neighbourhood. Their is a scene where a female engineer is having car trouble. Her car was in my MOTHER'S parking spot at the Pace Aviation building. The roll out of the full size Arrow mock up was two blocks from my house (I was there for that scene).

In fact, there were some very surreal sights associated with the full size mockup. It was kept in the Manitoba Government Air Service hangar which had the old style glass (full window) walls. I remember walkin by there very late at night, glancing inside and seeing the Arrow sitting inside and looking everybit like it was ready to fly.

SHUTTING DOWN THE NATIONAL DREAM is a very good book. But if you want more about the actual airplane itself, find a copy of "ARROW" by the Boston Mills Press. It's still available at major books stores. It's full of photos, drawings and technical specifications.

It's sometimes forgotten that the Arrow was IN PRODUCTION when cancelled. This was not the normal "cancelled at prototype" situation.

5 Arrow 1 aircraft had already flown and were accepted by the RCAF.

5 of the definitive Iroquois powered Arrow 2 were out of jig and in final assembly, 3 of them more than 80% complete.

Major components for 29 Arrow 2 planes were complete (79% of total parts for the first run of 15 planes and 55% of the total parts for the second batch of 14 planes). They were coming out of jig into final assembly at the rate of one per month.


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## f1steph (Jan 9, 2003)

The movie was supposed to be filmed in Ontario, in Toronto's Downsview Air Force Base. But that changed after Mike Harris's government froze funding to the Ontario film Development. So they had to find money elsewhere, finally found some in Manitoba. So they moved everything there. 
As for the full scale replica, the movie producers found a guy (thu the Arrowhead site) that was building one for the past 6 years in is garage and backyard. What a fluke!!! The guy lived near Edmonton. So they leased the replica , finished it for him and returned it to him after the filming. It was said that the framework (pipe metal and wood) was so heavy that the wings sagged. But they fixed that with digital effects. 
The more and more I learn about the story of this plane, the more I feel that it was a total screw up. Especially when the Diefenbaker's government ordered that EVERYTHING had to be destroy, burned, cut in pieces. And do you know where most of the planes went? In the Ontario lake. http://www.cbc.ca/story/news/?/news/1999/06/21/arrow990621

While writing ''Shutting down the national dream'', Stewart asked several times to ask questions to Diefenbaker, eveytime he refused. That's what I call cover up. And after AV Roe closed down, most of the engineers (35) when to Nasa to start working on the moon project, and some when working on the Concorde. Sad sad sad isn't it!!! I don't know if the real truth will ever be public but we are still talking about it almost 50 years after the termination of the project. In Ottawa's Canada Aviation Museum, you can see an Iroquois engine and a nose section there. I promise myself that I will go there one day........... even if the wife's doesn't care less for planes.....

So Brent, do you think that if would be easy to fix the 1/72 version errors?


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## Brent Gair (Jun 26, 1999)

The problems with the 1/72 are relatively minor...but probably not easy to fix. The blisters on the hinge line are the worst problem. You can sand the wing flat but you'd have to manufacture blisters for the bottom. The steps at the top of engine intakes could be filled. The canopy is a bit "off"

It's been 19 years since I built the 1/72 scale model! I may have been one of the first guys to get one. They were brand new and I was in the hobbyshop when the first box of kits was opened. I've still got it. It's rather yellowed and has a thick coat of dust on it but it seems intact. I'll try and take a picture of it.


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## f1steph (Jan 9, 2003)

Dust on a model box???? I've never seen that in my life!!!!! 
Well a buddy of mine (an Air Canada avionics) has a copy of the book "ARROW" by the Boston Mills Press''. What a fluke!!! I'll get it tommorow. I should also get a 1/72 Arrow sometime next week so I'll be able to see exactly the main errors on that kit that you're talking about. 
BTW, the TCA Lockheed 10A Electra is in YUL (Montreal) all week long. It was parked inside Air Canada MTCC hangar probably waiting to be part of the Mont-Joly air show. What a time warp this plane is......


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## Dave Hussey (Nov 20, 1998)

I've got a built up 1/72 scale Arrow at home too. Its at least 16 years old and it may be from the first run of the kit. I just can't remember exactly when I built it.

The Arrow was a beautiful and awesome airplane; its demise was a real trajedy for Canadian industry.

Huzz


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## f1steph (Jan 9, 2003)

I don't know if the 1/72 got retooled like the 1/48 did? Yes it was a nice HUGE plane. Last week I got myself the ''Arrow from Boston Mills Press'' like you suggested Brent. A real masterpiece. Fantastic info, pictures, specs, you name it. Can even see the schematics of the cockpit layout. I finished reading ''Shutting down.....''. I started another one '' The Avro Arrow story: The revolutionary airplane and it's couragous test pilots''. I'd like to get ''Requiem for a giant'' that talks about a probable conspiracy to kill the project. 

Hey guys, did you also built the CF-100 Mk4 or 5? I'd like to get that one also. Same as the Jetliner but since it never went into production, I can't find any available kit of it. Any idea what plane I could get that looks a lot like it, and install jet engines on it.... That would make a nice Avro collection, with the AvroCar in there also....


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## Brent Gair (Jun 26, 1999)

Well, this is another story but I don't buy into any conspiracy theories. Actually, I rarely buy into conspiracy theories about anything (people seem to get angry when I tell them that I have no doubt that JFK was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone).

Anyway, I'm not aware that the 1/72 scale Arrow was ever retooled. I have to qualify that by saying the 1/72 scale kit is very old (it came out in the summer of '87) so, if it was retooled very early on, I probably wouldn't have heard about it. That time period predates the internet as we know it so news travelled slowly.

I did build the 1/72 CF-100 but it's lost to posterity along with most of those other models I built...where the heck did they dissappear to? I really wish I had the 1/48 scale CF-100. Is that still made? I haven't seen one for awhile.

I have a partially built Jetliner model I've been doing from scratch. I started it years ago and got sidetracked (yeah, like that never happens!). I have to do some work to bring it "up to code". My scratchbulding skills have improved and it makes my old Jetliner look rather sub-par. Somebody makes (or made) a commercially available display model. If you go to the Modeling Forum and search for my thread about the Spindrift/Seaview display stand (from a few weeks ago), you will find a photo of models in a display case at the Western Canada Aviation Museum. If you look at the models, you'll see a nice Jetliner. Don't know who made it or where it came from. I've got the absolutely superb book by Jim Floyd called THE AVRO CANADA C102 JETLINER. What a great publication. I think it may be out of print.

As for modify an exising model to the Jetliner...that would be damn tough. One problem is that the the planes shaped like the Jetliner are also very rare so they aren't easily found as models. It is said that the Avro Tudor is the plane that closest resembles the Jetliner. But good luck trying to find a Tudor kit. The DC-4 isn't TOO far off but DC-4 kits aren't exactly common either.


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## WarpCore Breach (Apr 27, 2005)

Brent, the 1/48 CF-100 is no longer being made. I was lucky when I found one last year. It's not likely you'll find one on the shelf (and you've probably scoured every store in Winnipeg as it is) so you'll have to either try swap tables or look online. But like just about any other model, they will turn up from time to time.


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## f1steph (Jan 9, 2003)

Hey WarpCore Breach (gee what a nickname, kinda scary!!!), did you built it? That's why it doesn't show up on the Hobbycraft site? We can find some on EVIL Bay!!!!! If I'm right, the 1/48 version should be around 13.5'' long X 14.25'' wingspan. Darn, another big one. 
FYI, I've just found out (better late then never!!!) that Avro test pilot Don Rogers died July 16 2006. As for the great Janusz ''Zura'' Zurakowski, he died February 9 2004. 2 test pilots that were very important in Avro's history.....


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