Patrice, Ed, and Brian - gentlemen, thank you for your responses and will take in everything into consideration.
For marking sizes, I think it best I wait until the actual model kit is in my hands. This way I can take into account actual measurements, particularly if the model details are not perfectly scaled.
For the maple leaf, I agree it was yellow when painted by hand. From what I understand (or did I misunderstand?) that when these markings became available in water slide decal format, the leaf does not look plain yellow. From the site
https://captainstevens.com/military/mv/mvmarkings/
Provided is a post war example:
Followed by a set of wartime period:
To me, I see a difference between the two examples. Perhaps the WW2 version was not 'metallic gold', but a subdued yellow?
Interestingly, the
Canadiansoldiers web site in their Formations study page, there is no mention of yellow, but that gold was chosen for the maple leaf in May of 1940. Of course, when it came to painting, they made do with what they had.
regards,
Jack