galgos

Thank you Orion - model making, painting and photography are three of my favourite pastimes, so this brings them all together! I'm very pleased that you appreciate them. Max

Thank you Ivan, that’s been my aim from the outset. I’m glad you like it.

You’re writing from your point of view, so am I. 1/72 is an unacceptable scale to me.

Let’s just call it “artistic licence” shall we? Thank you for your comment about the prop, hard call about best representation but I think it’s the best for me.

Me too! I’d been used to flying Tiger Moths and the sensitive touch needed to fly them, but my immediate impression of the Harvard was how chunky and agricultural it was, especially with the huge rudder pedals. A pretty stable platform to fly, though with the very restricted view from the rear cockpit when taxiing and taking off, it must have been a risky business at times being an instructor!

Thank you Mattie, yes Kittyhawk not HK, I always get those wrong! Yes I used the Alleycat canopy but not without issue if it’s to be posed open like mine. The thickness of the resin means they do not sit happily on top of each other, so I used the middle section of the three as the aft section and made a blank frame on my Silhouette cutter, which I then painted and fixed inside the “slid back” section, I’ll post a picture later to illustrate. The kit’s tail wheel set up is horribly wrong so I made one from scratch.

1/48 just about acceptable, 1/72 definitely isn’t but the proper scale is 1/32! Try Revell’s Bf109 as a starter, certainly not perfect but an easy fun build. Max

Thanks G'Bob and F-32. The Harvards were real work horses, flown on a daily basis at Cranborne. Careful study of Harvard pictures suggests them being reasonably clean, but then Harvards are innately dirty aeroplanes anyway!

Thanks for your kind comments chaps, very much appreciated. There is a little history with this aeroplane since my father flew her on many occasions. She features in a couple of extraordinary colour photographs taken in 1944 leading a “balbo” of Harvards. In her all yellow livery she’s clearly an earlier Mk II in the AJ serial number range, later ones were natural metal finish with broad yellow wing bands and serialled EX.

Thanks Joachim, there's no pleasing some people!!!

My completed Harvard, originally started as part of the Trainer GB earlier this year. Kit is the HK T-6 1/32nd scale, modified to reflect the RAF version: Max

Thank you for your concern, I'm absolutely fine but quite honestly had the feeling I was wasting my time with this GB. Max

Progress on this build on Britmodeller is discontinued.

The pilot's IP finished and fitted to the front coaming. The white plastic lump is there as additional support for the radio aerial; it's tall and has little to securely anchor it to the top panel, so I'll be drilling the mast and adding a length of brass wire which will then go through the "box" Max

The centre wing assembly fits beautifully with the fuselage section: (the cowling is merely resting in place) Time to think about the IPs, again as supplied they are wrong for a WW2 RAF Harvard, so new ones have to be built: Still work in progress but coming along OK: