Hobbycraft 1/48 CF-205 Arrow, by Spiros Pendedekas

The origins of the Arrow can be traced back In the post-Second World War period, when Canada, like many other western countries, seeked their long range interceptor to counteract the Soviet long range nuclear bomber threat. Upon realizing that the delays in developing of the CF-100 Canuck (which was Avro Canada’s first attempt to fulfill the above requirement) might consequently affect its envisaged supersonic successor, the RCAF wasted no time and submitted a requirements report to Avro Canada as early as March 1952, half a year earlier than the Canuck entered service, calling for an advanced, all-weather, supersonic, missile armed long range interceptor.

The aggressive requirements and tight time frame brought intensive discussions between Avro and the RCAF, finally resulting in Specification AIR 7-3 which called for a twin-engine, two-crew supersonic aircraft with a range of 300 and 200 nm for low and high speed missions respectively, attaining a Mach 1.5 cruising speed at 70,000 ft and sustaining 2g turns with no loss of speed or altitude at Mach 1.5 and 50,000 ft. The specification additionally required five minutes from starting the aircraft's engines to reaching 50,000 ft and Mach 1.5 and also less than 10 minutes turn-around time on the ground, while being capable of operating from a 6,000 ft runway

To meet the strict time frame set by the RCAF, Avro took a high-risk approach by skipping the traditional hand-built prototype phase and building the plane directly from the production line. This risk was further augmented by the fact that leading edge (and, to a degree, unproven) technology would vastly be utilized at all basic aspects of the design.

The big plane would feature a shoulder mounted delta wing, with a basic fly-by-wire system employed to assist the pilot tackling the charismatic but idiosyncratic delta wing. Power would be supplied by two Orenda Iroquois engines, which were then in development stage.

RL-201, the first Arrow (Mk.1), was rolled out to the public on 4 October 1957, which was the same day Sputnik I was launched. The plane started flight tests on 25 March 1958 and the fact that the radical design quickly demonstrated excellent handling and overall performance, reaching, among others, Mach 1.9 in level flight with surprisingly few and not difficult to tackle bugs, can be credited to Avro engineers.

Another four Mk.1s were completed, RL-202, RL-203, RL-204 and RL-205. When the lighter and more powerful Orenda Iroquois engine became available, RL-206, the first Iroquois powered Arrow (Mk.2), was by early 1959 ready for taxi tests in preparation for flight and acceptance tests by RCAF pilots.

All the same, on 20 February 1959, Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker halted the development of both the Arrow and its Iroquois engines, even before the scheduled project review to evaluate the program could be held. Two months later the assembly line, tooling, plans, existing airframes and engines were ordered to be destroyed. This cancellation effectively put Avro out of business, with its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered.

The cancellation of the Arrow not only raised considerable political controversy at the time, but also still remains a topic for debate among historians and industry pundits. On the one hand, the plane was supremely designed for its intended purpose and the preproduction machines performed miraculously for such an advanced design. By all means, the Arrow would have been a magnificent aircraft if produced. On the one hand, the project was too costly (though a number of historians state that cost estimations were unrealistically inflated), too aggressive and highly specialized, so when the threat that the Arrow was supposed to counteract changed (from invading nuclear bombers to ICBMs) the big, expensive plane had a hard time justifying its cost effectivity, if not its necessity in general.

As for the conspiracy theories surrounding the immediate destruction of all planes, tools and plans, a more modest approach might lead to a plausible conclusion that it was a move to ensure that the leading edge technology embodied in the Arrow program would not fall into enemy hands. Legend has it that an intact Arrow has been flown and stored “somewhere”.

THE KIT

Hobbycraft surprised the modeling world when it came with a 1/48 Avro Arrow as “early” as in 1987. Though a “modern” tooling and reasonably accurate in external details, the kit suffered from oversimplifications at key areas, such as the cockpit, landing gear, intakes and exhausts. Hobbycraft retooled the kit in 2003, addressing to a degree a number of the above discrepancies.

The specific kit is the initial 1987 release. It was discovered at around 2005 in a small toy shop in Thessaloniki Greek city, together with the company’s 1/48 Avro CF-100 Canuck, offered at really low prices (presumably the shop owner did not know that, even by then, those models had become collectors’ items. Needless to say I bought them both (and skipped buying the other 1/48 Canuck and 1/72 Arrow that the shop had, a lifetime regret…).

This Arrow kit came in a big and quite sturdy top opening box, depicting RL-201, the first prototype, dramatically flying in stormy skies. Upon opening the box, to my surprise, I was greeted with a mere 50 white styrene parts, arranged in 4 separately bagged sprues, with the two big fuselage halves bagged together. Molding is crisp, while panel lines are recessed and tad more pronounced than they should be..

Cockpit is sparse, including only two crude seats, a stick and two pilot figures. While the rear crew area will hardly be visible through the small window, the front one’s sparsity will be evident even through the closed canopy, so, unless you use the pilot figures, you must somehow beef up the area. The other main key area of the landing gear is also simplistically done, with the parts looking plain (towards toy-ish detail wise and the bays featuring insufficient depth, something also true for the shallow intakes and simplified exhausts. Ordnance includes an external tank and 8 average looking missiles.

The one piece canopy is well molded and clear. Instructions are sufficient, coming in the form of a b/w pamphlet, where the simple construction is spread in 9 clear and concise steps, with color callouts given at some, but not all areas. One basic white scheme is provided in three variations, in full white and in two styles of day-glo orange applied on the fin, wingtips and nose, so all five prototypes can be built. The decal sheet is well printed, but wording on some stencilling was incomprehensible.

Instructions want you to first assemble the simplistic cockpit and trap it between the nose halves, together with 30 to 50 grams of weight in the front, to avoid tail sitting. The nose gear is then to be assembled and attached (I would prefer attaching it on final stages), followed by the 2-piece main fuselage. The wings are then assembled and glued on, followed by the 2-piece intakes, the top spine, the 2-piece fin, the aft engine cover panel and the exhausts. The landing gear can then be assembled and attached, followed by the drop tank, the missiles and the canopy, ending a very simple, straightforward build (which can be explained by the equal simplicity of the model).

CONSTRUCTION

I started by attaching the two seats and the pilot’s stick on the cockpit floor and trapped it between the nose halves. Some 50 grams of fishing weights were secured in the front, to avoid tail sitting. Basic cockpit color, including the stick body and seat framing was a medium gray, while the seats had red head cushions, green lower cushions and received seat belts made from masking tape. An acetate piece represented a simplistic HUD.

The two very long fuselage halves were then joined and attached to the front part, followed by the 2-piece intakes, the 2-piece wigs, the dorsal spine with the 2-piece fin on top of it, the rear top engine cover panel and the dual exhaust piece. The drop tank was assembled at this time, as well.

As surprising as it might sound, this concluded basic assembly, which was reminiscent of a simple 1/72 kit. Fit, while not bad, required small amounts of filler at quite a few joints. After some rounds of filling and sanding, I mounted and masked the canopy and took the big bird to the paint shop!

COLORS & MARKINGS

Deciding to go for the initial RL201 prototype, I gave the complete model a coat of Hu22 Gloss White, including the gear doors and drop tank. The front anti glare area and a couple of panels underneath were painted black, the spine’s front part was painted “steel”, while the nose cone, the intakes area, the fin top fairing and the spine’s aft section were painted Hu123 Extra Dark Sea Gray. The nozzles’ external and the adjacent central heat resistant area were painted Testors Burned Metal, while the nozzles’ shallow innards were painted black, to add a sense of depth.

Onto decaling, where I used the kit decals to represent RL-201, which was the first prototype. Decals, including the complex shaped wing walk lines, behaved nicely, easily detaching from their backing sheet and nicely adhering to the gloss white surface. Apart from some mislettering in a couple of stencils, everything else was good with the decals, with a coat of Future sealing them.

FINAL CONSTRUCTION

The long landing gear was assembled and attached in position, with the bird securely standing on its feet. As mentioned above, the landing gear is extremely simplified, with the wheel wells being totally flat and featuring no depth. To partially hide this flatness, I attached the main doors “closed”, while in pics they are shown “open”. for the rest, I left everything “as is”. All landing gear parts, including bays and door innards were painted Tamiya X-11 Silver and tires were painted black. The wheels were tad filed to look weighted. The drop tank was attached at this time, as well.

Since this bird was kept in pristine condition, apart from a black wash to accentuate the nice engraved details, no other weathering was applied, with a final satin coat giving the bird its final hue.

The canopy had its well defined frames hand painted and attached in position, with fit being sufficient. The long pitot was painted gunmetal and attached. The two fin-located probe tips were replaced with pieces of stretched sprue to look more scale. Finally, blobs of red and green clear paint represented the wingtip lights, before calling the Arrow done!

CONCLUSIONS

If you want a 1/48 Avro Arrow, this is it, with its 1/72 version being the only other choice (together with an even more obscure 1983 Astra resin offering). The kit has only been reissued two times, in 1999 and in 2003, the latter featuring improved molds with better details. Not sure if Academy (which seems to have gotten hold of Hobbycraft’s molds) will ever reissue it, this kit is a pure collector’s item as of 2024, so, if you are lucky to find one, you will have to pay a quite a hefty amount of money.

Hobbycraft's 1/48 Arrow is a very interesting case (with the same applying to its very similarly engineered 1/72 version). On the one hand, the kit is simplified especially at the key areas of cockpit, landing gear, intakes and exhausts. On the other hand, it looks accurate, molding is crisp and features engraved panel lines, parts count is surprisingly low (explained by the aforementioned simplified engineering and lack of detail) with construction being a breeze.

True, Hobbycraft has to be credited for coming up with a “modern” mold of an iconic yet esoteric subject in 1/48 (and in 1/72, as well) as “early” as in 1987, but, conversely, it would’n hurt to offer more detail at key areas. That said, the model can either be built effortlessly out of the box, or beefed up with extra work and/or some aftermarket stuff. Either case, the final result will be quite imposing and “different”, just make sure that you have some free shelf space, as the completed model is quite sizable.

Happy Modeling!

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KIT #:	HC 1651
PRICE:	$35 when new
DECALS:	Five options
REVIEWER:	Spiros Pendedekas
NOTES: