Comparison of Hobbycraft’s 1/48 CF-105 Arrow Releases

So I had this request to compare the retooled CF-105 with Hobbycraft’s original release.

First Thoughts

Hobbycraft entered the modeling scene in the mid-80s with a number of recastings of Aurora kits, for which the 1/72 and 1/48 CF-105 kits were a couple. In Avro’s heyday, their marketing included plastic model kits, which appear to be based upon initial concept drawings of the Arrow. I suspect Aurora was the manufacturer of these Avro kits and that these initial releases from Hobbycraft were recasting of these kits. For the most part, the 1/48 kit is a scaled up version of the 1/72 kit. I purchased both Hobbycraft kits when they first came on the market.

I wanted to super detail the 1/48 kit but did not have enough reference material to start. Then the detail sets from North Star Editions and Mastercrafters came on the market, which I quickly scooped up. Unfortunately, these were both designed for Hobbycraft’s retooled release of the CF-105. There appeared to be too much conversion to the original kits that warranted the purchase of the retooled kit. In the following, I outline the differences between the two kits.

The Arrow kit is very basic kit in any rendering. Typical of most twin engine jet fighters, the fuselage consists of forward and aft sections. The forward section contains the cockpit and forward landing gear. The aft section is comprised of the aft fuselage, wings, vertical fin, intakes and exhaust. In the retooled kit, Hobbycraft attempts to improve a number of details such as the cockpit, landing gear and exhaust. The retooled kit also allows for optional positioning of the air-brakes. Further, the retooled kit has more accurate details and more refined engraved panel lines than the original release. Missing from the retooled kit are the crappy pilots and the inaccurate external stores.

Fuselage

The nose section encloses the cockpit and nose gear, both of which will be discussed further down. Other than these two sub-assemblies, the retooled nose is basically similar to the original kit. The aft fuselage consists of two long pieces, intakes and exhaust sections. Both kits have a horrible joint line that will require special care. Note that in the pictures, the white pieces are from the original release and the grey from are the retooled kit.

As can be seen, the exhaust section is much improved, reflecting more ofthe prototype aircraft. There is also an attempt to replicate the afterburner section but it is very simplistic. The intake section of the two 1/48 kits are very similar except that the retooled kit has more accurate panel lines.

Wings

Besides the more refined engraved panel lines, the only difference between the two releases are the main landing gear bays.

Cockpit

One of the big improvements of the retooled release is the cockpit. The original kit consisted of a floor, two seats, a joystick and an instrument panel. The seats are closer to 1/32 scale maybe larger. The retooled cockpit consists of a basic structure enclosing the forward and aft cockpits with decal instrument panels. Each seat each consists four pieces but also appeared too large for this scale. The cockpit appears to be fairly close to reference pictures and drawings of the Arrow cockpit and with aftermarket Mk 5 Martin Baker seats would look quite good, particularly through a closed canopy.

Landing Gear

The last area of improvement of the retooled kit is the landing gear.

The only improvements of the main gear are more accurate wheels and the placement of the gear in the wing bays. The struts still look clunky when compared to photos of the Arrow and more so when compared with Mastercrafters’ detail set. That said, with a bit of attention to detail, the main gear could turn out very nice.

The retooled nose gear is a definite improvement over the original release. First, the strut has the distinctive Y shape as the Arrow and consists of 6 pieces allowing for more accurate detailingCF105 Wing Top Compare. Second, the wheels are more accurate and finely detailed. Next, the bay doors are more accurately detailed and have the notch in the correct side. Last, although not show, Hobbycraft provides a gear bay that is made up of ribbing on the inside of the nose halves and on the bottom of the cockpit floor. Again, with a bit more attention to detail, the nose gear will look quite nice.

Of course, despite my hinting at attention detail, I will be tossing these out in favour of the Mastercrafters offering.