1/48 BT-9 and Harvard Mk.I by Belcher Bits

[flarpen]

Belcher Bits is to release 1/48 scale Resin kits of the BT-9 (kit BK-8) and Harvard Mk.I (kit BK-9).

See add in latest issue of SAM (not yet up on his homepage)

http://www.belcherbits.com/index.htm

I've been told that he can start taking and shipping orders as soon as the IPMS/USA Nationals are over around Aug 12.

Like previous releases these will include a complete Ocidental Harvard kit with resin conversion bits.

With these new releases including complete new fuselage and wings there wont be much of the donor kit that will be used, so be prepared to fill out your spares box with a lot of Harvard bits.

[flarpen]

Michael Belcher of Belcher Bits is back with some resin conversions for the Occidental 1/48 T-6/SNJ kit to render the early Yale variants (fabric-covered fuselage trainer). He also has a new kits for the SNJ-1, NJ-1, and BT-9 trainers. These are nice kits that are nicely cast in resin and have great instructions.

http://www.cybermodeler.com/special/ipms2014.shtml

[85sqn]

Fantastic, look forward to a Harvard mk1!

[Mr B]

Nice

I would not mind a rerelease of their wonderful tutor in 1/48 too

Rgds

mr b

[flarpen]

Hi

I received the Belcher Bits BT-9 kit (BK-08) today, and this is what you get.

Boxart


You get a complete Occidental Harvard Mk.II kit (like their previous releases) with resin conversion parts for a BT-9 and decals for USAAF and a French NA-57


The resin bits in this release include an early short canvas covered fuselage, complete wings, fin and tail surfaces. For the BT-9 kit you have to saw off a bit of the forward fuselage and mount a new forward fuselage piece (this release share parts with the Harvard Mk.I (BK-09) release which differ at this area)
You also get engine and cowling parts (you can chose from 2 different style rear cowling parts) plus an exhaust pipe. For the landing gears you can chose either spated or unspated landing gears.


So you basically get an entire kit with the resin parts. You only need the interior, canopies, upper forward fuselage piece, propeller and landing gears (modified) from the donor kit.

The tail surfaces and to some extent the fuselage sides have quite heavy surface detail that need to be toned/sanded down a bit, especially the rib detail on the tail surfaces are very prominent.

To build a Swedish Sk 14 from this kit you need to source Swedish decals from elsewhere. And what else is missing is the for the type typical balloon tires/wheels that needs to be scratch built or sourced from other kits.

A quick check against drawings from the Triple Crown BT-9 book scaled up to 1/48 scale

The Special Hobby wirraway on top for comparison and the Belcher Bits kit below


Belcher Bits wings, the outer wing slat points needs to be sanded down

They line up pretty well with the drawings (not sure i got the scaling of the drawings 100% accurate), but it's close enough for me.

So now you can build a Sk 14 with out to much hassle, except for the wheels which i hope will be available soon enough.

And with some minor modifications a Sk 14N (N = nose wheel) can be made which was used to test out the landing gear configuration for the SAAB J 21

That would look nice besides the upcomong Pilot Replicas SAAB J 21A



/Johan