Photos and descriptions of finished models 
built by customers using CanMilAir Decals. 

(See the bottom of the page for submission guidelines)

This Boeing 707 "Husky" was built by Phillip Steele from Kentville, Nova Scotia and represents their initial scheme worn during the early 1970's. The four aircraft were purchased to replace the Yukon in the strategic transport role.

"This CC 137 model is built from the 1:144 Minicraft kit 14450. Painting was accomplished using two different mixes of chrome silver, one for the aluminum painted areas, and one for the natural metal areas. CanMilAir sets 157,158 & 159 were used to finish it. The engine air doors are 4x4 mm die-cut aircraft grey decals. This detail was missing in the kit and proved too difficult to scribe in. Many thanks to all the photo contributors here!"

Awesome build, Phillip!

"I have recently finished my model of the CC-150 Polaris and have attached some photos of it. The decals themselves went on very well, the only one that I had real difficulty with was the front windscreen, but I managed to rescue that. The information about the side window placement was very valuable, but I had to study it for a while before I got the hang of it. The main problem that I had was that although you give some very good photos of the aircraft, there is no general paint or placement guide for the model. I had a big problem trying to sort out where the demarcation line went around the nose area. For future reference the grey on the top of the wings and tailplanes is called "Coroguard" and this is actually available as a decal sheet. I got mine from Airline Hobby Supplies and was quite reasonably priced and has 3 sheets in the pack. They also come with the walkways printed on them. The model used was the Revell kit, painted with Humbrol paints. The refueling pods were borrowed from an Airfix VC-10 tanker kit, which I know are not quite the correct pods, but in this scale who is to tell."

Well done, Mark! And I will see what I can do about a placement diagram.

"I have been wanting to start and complete this project since I first set eyes on her in Comox. A TREMENDOUS thanks to Bill for putting together this set of Hawk One decals which I had first contacted Bill about back in February of this year. During my summer trip out to Vancouver Island I had visited the museum in Comox and saw the Voodoo gate guard with it's eye catching paint scheme. At first Bill's reply wasn't hopeful, but he pulled thru with great persistence to make it possible for me [and others] to have this bird in their collection.

This is a 48th scale Monogram kit [Century Series] #85-5843 of a F-101 Voodoo purchased off Ebay and this baby is a nicely detailed  kit without having to add any aftermarket details. Now of course there were a few modifications to do. [I want to also thank Lou Vautour for helping me with some of the details. It's great to have someone taking time out of their life to help a fellow modeller. Many thanks to you Lou.] I started filing off the running lights, modifying the air intake slot [just left of nose gear] and a few other minor details. 

The instructions call for assembly of the fuselage, then inserting the nose gear, cockpit and armament bay, but this would not work dry fitting, so these were glued to right side of fuselage, then I added lead weight to the nose [which I thought I would need but didn't]. 

When it came to paint the bird I first applied Grey primer, puttied, filed, sanded, washed and then re-primed with flat white. For the blue coat I used a mix of 45% Model Master 2764 Grabber Blue with 55% Model Master Flat White which turned out to be the color I found that worked. When this was dry I masked and on went the Model Master Flat Black. I removed the masks and let it completely dry, then applied a light coat of Tremclad Satin Clear finish. 

Two days later it was time for Bill's decals to go on [no problems here]. I even used some extra red strip decal from the sheet  for wrapping around the nose tip. I then thought this bird needed the talon and claw decals added to the main wheel doors which came with the kit, [and yes I know that this wasn't on the real bird, but it adds to it a bit more for me]. 

I finally finished with 3 coats of Future airbrushed with a few sprays of Windex between coats.

Thanks again Bill for your decals and thanks to you Lou for the info."

I really think you nailed that particular shade of Blue, an outstanding job, Jeff!! 

These three photos show the latest 1:144 scale creations by Sean Adel from Calgary, Alberta. Above is his Revell Germany CF-18 Hornet in the 2007 demo scheme using CanMilAir decal set # 269.

Shown below is the same Revell Germany 2007 Demo Hornet sitting next to a 1997 Maple Flag 441 Sqn Aggressor Hornet using a Dragon kit and CanMilAir set #239. The differences in proportion between the two 1:144 Hornet kits is quite evident.

Below are two Trumpeter 1:144 F-86 Sabres. On the left is a 1963 Golden Hawks Sabre Mk. 5 using CanMilAir set #194 and on the right is a 421 Sqn Sabre circa 1953 using CanMilAir set #190.

Great work Sean!!!

From Robert Johnson from Wilmot Station, Nova Scotia, comes this incredible 1:18 scale Royal Canadian Navy Grumman Avenger AS-3, circa 1953. Robert used the 1:18 scale 21st Century Toys TBM Avenger. He then modified it to an AS-3 and used a custom order CanMilAir decal set to finish it. The original artwork for Robert's decal set was slightly modified, added to, and subsequently released as set #242.

The aft section required a great deal of modification to remove the .50 cal ball turret and replace it with the scratch-built glass house and the instruments for the Observers Mate. 

The smaller contrasting aircraft is a 1:72 scale Witty Wings diecast Hawker Sea Fury. 

Bravo Zulu, Robert!!

The Gallery's first RCAF Hawker Typhoon comes from Sebastien Rocque of Longueuil, Quebec. Sebastien was instrumental in the creation of all four of my Typhoon sets as he would patiently explain the subtle differences in aircraft and unit markings. As well, each brochure that I send out with 438, 439 & 440 Sqn Typhoon decals has two full-colour 4-view drawings created by Sebastien illustrating both aircraft on the decal sheet! 
  
Sebastien's comments:

"The kit was a Hasegawa 1/48 Typhoon Mk.Ib Bubble Top, kit number 9060. I used Ultracast Tempest tailplanes. The build is typical Hasegawa, all is greatly detailed. Only hiccup was the fuselage sidewalls that Hasegawa uses to give us the Car Door and Bubble Top versions from the same basic mold. This was the subject of many reviews of the kit which I had read prior to building it. It was nothing major, it just lets you practice using putty and a scriber. 
 
As RCAF Typhoons didn't carry rockets, I threw away the kit's rocket sprue, and managed to find what parts were bomb racks (they are marked as parts 'not for use' in the instructions). The bombs themselves are from a Tamiya Mosquito NF Mk.XIII kit.
 
Painting was done with Tamiya Acrylics, XF-53 for the underside, XF-54 and XF-61 for the upper surfaces. The invasion stripes were masked and painted, as was the tail band and the yellow wing leading edges.
 
Weathering was achieved by thinning flat black in the airbrush, and doing some rapid airflow streaking, and exhaust stains. The panel lines were coloured with a black Pilot Pen with a fine tip, then a wet q-tip and tissue was used to get more streaking and an overall dirty look.
 
Decaling was done with CanMilAir set #280, representing Norman E. Dawber's machine with RCAF 438 Squadron."

Interestingly, it was exactly eight weeks between the day Sebastien approached me to create some Typhoon sets and he the finished decals arrived in his mailbox! And then just four days later, he sent me the finished photos and the above description! 

Great work Seb!! And a big 'thank you' for your help!!

Emil ("Elmo") Varosi from Guelph, Ontario, sent in this photo of a 1:144 scale CafeReo Area 88 CF-18 Hornet in 1991 Tiger Meet markings using CanMilAir #271 and 272.  Emil provided background material and inspiration for these markings depicting the 439 Sqn Tiger Meet aircraft from 1991. So when the artwork was complete, I sent him an Area 88 Hornet to use as a test and a set of the decals in 1:144 and 1:72 scale to confirm the general fit of the decals. Before the re-paint, Emil back-dated the model from a "C" version to an "A". The base it is sitting on is a 4" x 6" picture frame.

Here is the result of the second trial Tiger Hornet build, built and decaled by Shawn "Phantom" Weiler of Kitchener, Ontario, using a 1:72 scale Hasegawa Hornet. 

It is recommended that the nose and spine decals each be cut in half lengthwise and applied as separate left/right pieces. Also, the main body decals can be cut out and applied one stripe at a time to simplify the alignment. 

Thanks to Shawn and Emil for being the "guinea pigs" for this set!!

"This is definitely not a "shake and bake kit" as it does have some fit problems, but being an avid CF model builder, I have waited decades for any type of kit for this amazing aircraft to come onto the market. 

The landing gear gave me the most problems as the placement the kit gives for the main gear is too far aft. So using photo references, I placed the gear in the correct position. 

To be blunt - the decals supplied in this kit "suck", so I used an aftermarket set from CanMilAir. I had previously used his decals on my 1:144 Challenger kit and they were quite nice. 

Even though it is overall yellow, there is still a lot of masking to do on this scheme and it can be tricky working in this small scale. The red band around the rear fuselage was painted on and then I applied the black trim decals around the perimeter . . . very time consuming. I elected to mask and paint the upper walkway because while the kit does come with a set of walkway decals - they are done in black, and these Buff's use grey walkways. The decals from CanMilAir were 'bang on' and look good on this little kit. 

Buffalo 115462 now shows no squadron markings at all. It seems most CF aircraft, such as Aurora, Cormorant, CC-177 etc., are going through a phase of removing all squadron markings. 

Not to complain, but it would sure be nice to do a Buffalo in a larger scale! However, I am quite happy with the finished model and the decals from CanMilAir are a must. "

Stunning job, Derek!!

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