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CAC Dart Powered Mustang


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In 1969 a Sydney businessman, Hockey Treloar, purchased a CAC Mustang and had a Rolls-Royce Dart from a Viscount 800 fitted to it. Although the conversion was very professionally done, for various reasons it never flew, and was eventually re-converted and flies today as La Pistolera.

We at Red Roo have done a conversion for it, best described here - http://www.hyperscale.com/2012/reviews/kit...9reviewmd_1.htm - and one of us is building it 'out of the box'. My task was to do something a bit different with one. I considered something along the Piper Enforcer lines but maybe something a little more 'out there' is possible... I am making it up as I go.....

I think the most difficult part of the conversion is to remove the Academy wheel well and substitute the resin one. This is necessary to get a proper dihedral on the flat Academy wing. I carefully scored around the edge and more-or-less carefully butchered it off, thankfully not breaking the thin leading edge strip in front of the wheel well. The resin piece fitted nicely and was clamped and superglued in place.

1aP1060848.jpg

The outer wing sections were glued together, importantly, leaving the inner sections inboard of the guns free as they will be a poor fit to the fuselage without packers. This stuff is all explained in the instructions.

2aP1060849.jpg

While all that was drying I put the interior (standard Academy but using the Red Roo CAC seat that comes in the kit) into one of the fuselage halves, joined the two resin halves and attached the great big nose....

3aP1060859.jpg

Edited by Ed Russell
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Some very thin card is needed to cover the space where two parts have popped out of the wheel well - there are two pipes running through here and it's easy to just put the bits back in.

The engine cowling is quite a good fit to the fuselage halves. I actually joined the rear fuselage halves, leaving the forward halves free so they would slip over the cowling attachment plug easily then joined the whole thing up with cyano and clamped it.

There's a very small step to be filled with a little bit of Mr Surfacer on the upper rear part of the cowling and that's about it.

4aP1060860.jpg

I need to tidy up the wheel bay edges and insert a strip of card between front and rear edges of the wheel bay (bolt angle cover) and to touch up the radios which have got inadvertently weathered

5aP1060861.jpg

Then we can join the wing and fuselage. I will glue front and rear edges leaving the wing roots loose as they need spacers to overcome the Academy kit's inherent step there.- this is useful advice for anyone building the Academy kit as a conventional Mustang too.

Edited by Ed Russell
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The wing has been attached with cyano at the leading edge and clamped.

6aP1060862.jpg

7aP1060865.jpg

Then I can do final fine adjustment at the trailing edge before clamping and attaching it also. It only took a very small amount of sanding (under those clamps).

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Now there is a bit of clean-up to do, then on with the tailplanes, flaps, canopy etc.

I suppose a bit of research into what sort of "what-if" is in order also.....

.

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I'm watching this with interest Ed, I saw Marks write up on Hyperscale & was impressed & even though I have the Heritage kit for the Cavalier Dart Mustang, theres not reason why I can't have one of these too, is there? ;) As to a what if scheme, hows about an RAAF Dartstang in Korean War markings?

Steve.

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1. RAAF in Korea - maybe..... I have a similar, but not the same, thought.........

2. The Cavalier and Piper Mustangs are different to this one. The Heritage kit is 1/48 - we are thinking of bringing out a 1/48 Dart conversion, depending on whether anyone is interested.

Back to the build........

We have made the belly panel a little long to cater for individual variations but it's easy to trim

11P1060872.jpg

Unless you trim a little too much off then you are back to the filling we wanted to avoid

12P1060874.jpg

Anyway it's easily done with a few thin strips of plasticard

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Once I have cleaned that up it's time to fit replacement flaps using a 50 degree template. Part of the gawky charm of this aircraft is the way the flaps just about sit on the drop tanks, hence the down position.

10P1060877.jpg

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Watching with dangerously heightened anticipation! :thumbsup:

I am watching this with interest, I have made a few models of the Mustang in the past but of late I seem to have got the Mustang into my blood I am now even thinking about getting the Tamiya 1/32 or 1/48 version..... This from a 1/72 die hard, Strange how obsession can start :mental:

John

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You're not going to do a Lutfwaffe 46 Dart Mustang, are you?

Woo-hoo, that's too out there even for me... you have to have some sort of convincing story....

Maybe... sometime after the 1947 Armistice tensions between the Western Allies and post-Nazi Germany started to flare up again and due to the stand-down of many RAF units the RAAF was asked to help maintain patrols over the Armistice line. A disorientated pilot landed his new Dart Mustang in German territory and it was impounded. The Luftwaffe wanted to try it out and flew it had been fully repainted with the prescribed underside yellow bands..... nah, I'm not convinced.

I'm about to paint the Sea Grey uppers over the Sky undersurface and I have found a black 'Q' for the tail code......

Edited by Ed Russell
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I'm about to paint the Sea Grey uppers over the Sky undersurface and I have found a black 'Q' for the tail code......

Hmmmm, I'm thinking there'd be a hook involved in this somewhere too then? :unsure:

Steve.

Edited by stevehnz
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I think this colour is about right....

18P1060908.jpg

so we can peel off the masking, gloss it with Future (or nearest equivaent) and start to put some decals on....

19P1060911.jpg

The decals are a mixture of roundels and stencils from the spares box and Alps printed black lettering and numerals.

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Most of the decals now on so can start to add final details. Wheel doors hang down ar 20 degrees from the vertical so use an old credit card to make a 40o template.

P1060930.jpg

Some classy looking temporary supports for the tanks - like the wheel doors, best to drill and pin first. The tanks have to be kept clear of the flaps and wheel doors (but only just clear).

P1060931.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, it's finished...

IMG_0139.jpg

I got sidetracked on to other things for a bit but I have made an effort and done it. I was surprised at the gunk attached to the canopy in the photos and took it off to clean it but a lot of the marks are stress marks or imperfections only visible in photos.

P1070014.jpg

There is a RFI with more pictures here.....

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=234927148

Thanks for looking. Who is going to be next with a 1/72 one of these or first with the 1/48 (teasing, it's not released yet)

Edited by Ed Russell
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