Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

Good Evening, Bob.

We are just hunkering down here for a potential storm supposed to arrive sometime in the next few hours and last until Wednesday morning with up to 20 cms of snow and winds on the plus side of 70 kms. Still lots of holiday wine left, so we are good.

The paint I have found to be the closest match to the wartime ‘Gloss Navy Grey’ is an Armor Coat product from their rust paint series. It is called ‘Misty Grey’ with a nice high gloss finish. Their stock number is #47002RP522 and I can find it locally at either Canadian Tire or RONA.

It goes on with an almost orange peel look, which is a bit alarming the first time you see it and it stays a bit tacky to the touch for the first 24 hours at room temperature, but as it skins over, the oils off gas through it, the skin tightens and the orange peel look flattens out. After 48 hours, you end up with a slick, smooth finish and I always let the parts hard cure for two weeks before working with them. It is a very close match on its own to the original, but with a grey primer under it is pretty much spot on.

It appears that the majority of all the Canadian and American wartime wireless equipment, if not all of it, used a grey primer. I have only ever found red oxide under postwar overhauled equipment so far.

The go to primer for me is Rustoleum’s Tremclad ‘Grey’ #274103522, which I use on all the steel bits. Just prior to priming, I wipe the parts down with alcohol on a cloth.

For the cast zinc parts, there are two on the 19-Sets and three on the 52-Set, I use Tremclads ‘Galvanized Metal White’ #274101522. It actually dries a cream colour when applied.

I used to worry about the possible plating on a lot of the sheet steel components on the wireless equipment because the two common ones were zinc and cadmium. What I have discovered over time, however, is that the main reason the old wartime paints come off so easily is that the plating oxidizes and the original bond between the metal and primer fails, so once the paint is off, there is little, if any plating left to worry about. I think humidity plays a big part in that paint bond failure.

I have only ever used a quick acid etch as a final step before rinsing off parts before electroplating them, and for that I use Muriatic Acid cut 50/50 with water and dip the parts for only 20 to 30 seconds. So far so good with that approach.

Your comments about soldering brought back memories, Bob. In High School Metal Shop we used big heavy wood handled irons. They had solid copper heads about 1.25 inches square and when new, the heads were probably 6 inches long, cut to a pyramid point. They had twisted wrought iron shafts between the head and handle, about a foot long and at the front of each workbench was a cast iron, gas fired oven that would hold two such irons, a large can of flux and a horse hide towel. You started with two clean irons in the oven, when they came up to heat, you pulled one to work with, dipped the tip in the flux, which produced a big green flame and then proceeded to do your soldering work, usually with bar solder. When the iron started to cool, you wiped it on the towel and returned it to the oven and picked up the second iron ready to repeat the process and keep the workflow going. Our Electrical Shop had electric soldering irons almost as big and heavy as the manual ones in the metal shop! It still impressed me today, the quality of work craftsmen, and women, 70 plus years ago accomplished with that equipment.

Hope this helps, Bob. Stay warm!

David

[David Dunlop]

The two Clips and their SEMS Screws have now been cleaned and polished, and are ready to reinstall on the Vibratory Supply front panel when it is ready.

In the photo they look like there is a lot of surface rust still on them but that is just a reflection of the bench top colour being picked up by the camera.

If you are wondering about the different colours of tape holding the SEMS screws in place, the tan is for the top of the clip and the green for the bottom. I know it does not matter a fig with parts like this, it’s just the way I like to do this kind of stuff. It helps keep my brain cells firing correctly.

David

[David Dunlop]

Having had to get some of the pan head screws on the Vibratory Supply to work, as they should to tighten up the gaps in the chassis assembly, I needed to find some flat yellow enamel that was a good match to what had originally been factory applied to this hardware. Turns out Testors has a close match in their Flat Yellow (Stock # TES1169) Enamel.

On a whim the other day, I thought I would check out the Model Section of the local Michaels Store and as luck would have it, they had one ¼-ounce bottle in stock for $3.00. Feeling pretty chuffed about that, I headed to the cashier and was informed it was ‘Seniors Day’ and I got 20% off. Not bad for a whim trip.

I will touch the hardware up on the chassis that needs it this weekend and then do the hardware needed for reassembly of the front panel and related parts next weekend when the Gloss Navy Grey paint is fully cured. Last week the off gassing of oils from the paint was noticeable within 2 metres of the pieces. Today its less than a metre and should be completely gone by next weekend.

David

[David Dunlop]

Flat Yellow touchups to the Vibratory Supply Hardware have now been completed.

Compared to the original condition, as shown in the photo in Post #770, I am quite pleased with how well the factory original paint and the modern Testors product blend together.


David

[James D Teel II]

It's a very good match.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Funny you should mention Testor's yellow paint. I actually just today went to one of the few remaining hobby shops around here to buy exactly that. What with winter cold and covid I've resumed my life-long goal to reproduce the entire BCATP in 1/72 scale. The helpful clerk at the store told me Testor's is almost impossible to get, surmising because it's petroleum based. Well damn. No Testor's yellow and no matt khaki for the CMPs. Friggin' hell??!!!????

[David Dunlop]

Nice lineup on the ramp, Bruce.

I heard rumours a few years ago Testors was being, or had been, sold and the new owners wanted to go acrylic to be good corporate citizens but the plan back fired for some reason. There was a time their paints were hard to find but that seems to have passed. However, I do see a mix of stock on local shelves when I look closely at the way the labels are printed.

The big problem here is the old established model/hobby shops are rapidly disappearing. My ‘go to’ store for any large quantities of Testors these days is PM Hobbycraft in Calgary. They always seem to have stock, or restock very quickly, and they carry the Testors in several sizes. The 1/4 ounce jar is currently $3.99 Cdn as I recall.

Once you get your training fleet completed, Bruce, you will have to scale a replica BCATP airfield in your basement to display them.

David