Canadair CL-215 Scooper

The Canadair CL-215 “Scooper,” was the result of a collaboration between Canadair and the Quebec Government Air Service, as a response to the devastating forest fires that plagued the region. It’s first flight took place in 1967, and by 1969, the French civil protection agency had already placed a substantial order, marking the beginning of the CL-215’s global career. Since then, it has become synonymous with firefighting efforts worldwide. Its unique ability to scoop water directly from lakes, rivers, or reservoirs and rapidly deploy it on fires has made it an indispensable asset for countries facing wildfire threats.

The CL-215 It is equipped with two large (1400 lt) water tanks. They are positioned directly on it’s centre of gravity, so filling and emptying them has no effect on the flight characteristics of the aircraft. The bottoms of the tanks open hydraulically allowing for rapid discharge of the water over the fire. Water is drawn in the tanks by two scoops while the aircraft moves along the surface of water.

The CL-215 has been used in numerous countries around the globe. In Europe it was used by Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Croatia and Yugoslavia. Although many operators have replaced it by the new turboprop version (CL-415), it remains in use in Greece, Italy and Spain.

The model

As implied by the site’s title, I like to build 1/48 scale models. This time I made another exception, as this is the only kit of the CL-215 in any scale (and in any case, a 1/48 kit would be too big for my display cabinet).

This kit was first introduced by Heller in 1980. Over the years it has been re-issued several times with different decals. On 1998, Heller even released the CL-415 version based on the same kit. The CL-415 has also been re-issued by Revell and Italeri under licence.

The current kit is a 2021 re-issue with decal for Canadian, French, Spanish and Greek airframes. Being a 1980 mould means that the details (panel lines, rivets) are all raised. The fit is also problematic in some areas. Finally, the main cabin floor is warped. This appears to be a common problem with this kit as I read several reviews citing the same.

The kit includes decals for a Hellenic Air Force CL-215 but on top of that I purchased a decal set by LM Decals in order to build a special anniversary scheme, applied on airframe 1060 on November 2018, portraying the god “Hephaestus” while taming fire.

Building the kit

I started the construction by trying to straighten the main cabin floor. I used a hair dryer to warm it up and make it a bit pliable enough to fit correctly inside the fuselage.

The interior was painted, using GSI Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 – Grey, AMMO By Mig Zinc Chromate Yellow (A.MIG-0221) and Tamiya NATO Black (XF-69). I did not pay much attention to the detail because in the end, the main cabin is not visible through the 6 tiny windows of the fuselage. As for the cockpit, not much is visible there either but I did add seatbelts using tiny strips of Tamiya masking tape.

Before I closed-up the fuselage, I added around 35 gr of lead fishing weights under the nose, to prevent the model sitting on its tail.

The kit required some effort to come together, showing it’s age. The two fuselage halves, the fuselage-wing joint, the engine nacelles, all required a lot of filling and sanding. Instead of putty, I used CA glue to fill the gaps as it dries faster and it does not shrink after a while. A lot of the raised rivets were lost during the sanding. I replaced them with engraved rivets. On close inspection you can probably see the difference but it was better than nothing.

Painting the kit

Some time ago, I learned a nice trick for applying yellow or orange colour: Using an undercoat of pink colour, makes the colour “pop” and creates a perfect finish, using only a couple of paint layers.

I used this trick before, when painting propeller tips and even on my orange Lockheed T-33A, two years ago.

The model was sprayed all over with GSI Mr. Surfacer 1500 – White, mixed with a couple of drops of GSI Mr. Hobby Red (H3) to make it pink. It was thinned with GSI Mr. Leveling Thinner (as were all the paints used, except for the Zinc Chromate Yellow, where I used AMMO’s acrylic thinner).

Then, the whole model was sprayed with Tamiya Flat Yellow (XF-3). After careful masking with (a lot of) Tamiya masking tape, the red areas were sprayed, using Tamiya Red (X-7).

Next, the engine nacelles, the anti-glare section in front of the xoxkpit and the walkways on top were masked-off and sprayed with Tamiya NATO Black (XF-69). Finally, the undercarriage bays and gear were sprayed with GSI Mr. Color Super Super Iron II (SM203).

Before applying the decals, I sprayed the whole model with a nice layer of Tamiya Clear (X-22). The decals were applied, using Microscale MicroSet and MicroSol. I used the kit decals except for the serial number and the artwork on the back left of the fuselage. For those, I used decals from the LM Decals set. The decals were sealed with another layer of Tamiya Clear (X-22).

Regarding the weathering, as most of the panel lines and rivets were raised, I could not do the normal panel-lining. So I took an alternate route, using a clay wash.

For this to “stick” on the airframe, I started with spraying everything with VMS Varnish HD SATIN (AX15S). This allowed the wash to stick better on the surface of the model. I proceeded with covering the whole model with Flory models Wash – Grey (FMW007). On the engine nacelles, I used Flory models Wash – Brown (FMW004) and Flory models Wash – Light (FMW003).

After letting the wash dry for a while, I used a large portion of a roll kitchen paper, as well as a lot of q-tips, slightly moist, to remove most of the wash. This left the model looking weathered.

The final step was adding the antennas. In order to represent the cables, I used Uschi van der Rosten Elastic Rigging – Fine (UvdR-3F).