Wayne Foster spent much of his life chasing the horizon as a fighter pilot, but he could be facing his toughest battle yet: parting with the warbird he built by hand.

At 88, Foster is selling one of his planes: a smaller-scale replica of a P-40 Warhawk with the Royal Air Force's 1940 Desert colours of the 112 Squadron. The asking price is $45,000.

"It's like losing an old friend," he said, sitting in front of the plane stored inside a Quonset hut in Indus, Alta., a hamlet southeast of Calgary.

Foster, who joined the Canadian Forces in 1956, served in the navy, spent three years in France and worked at an electronic warfare unit in Montreal for another four years.

It was in the navy that he earned his nickname, Butch.

"I got the name Butch from Butcher, from dogfighting, I guess," Fost

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