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Hi all! The third and final part of my Sarfice trio of aircraft is finally done and rolled out – North American AT-6D “C” joins my AD-4N “TR-KMP” and Fouga Magister “TR-KFJ” in celebration of the flying career of Jacques Borne. Those of you who have seen my previous RFIs on these will know the background and so I won’t bore you with that here. 😉. I intend to mount these three on a presentation board in the future. Globally the last military operator to put the Harvard in to service, the GAP operated a fleet of six AT-6D/Harvards for many years. They arrived in Libreville in this dark blue paint scheme and then, over a number of years, they progressed through natural metal to a sand camouflage scheme. These were ex-SAAF. The construction number of this machine was 88-14876 which, I believe, was registered “TR-KFC” in Gabonese service. She was formerly 41-33904, EX931 (RAF – received?) and “7491” (SAAF), being delivered to the GAP on 15th December 1970. The fleet was retired in the 1980s. The base kit needed to be converted from T-6G configuration. The means by which I did this was to adopt a Yale canopy (thanks @Graham Boak for the steer) and upper rear fuselage. It almost fits! 😉 She also needed a blanked off single machine gun housing on the upper nose, which also had a groove running forward along the top of the cowling. The other major difference was the two Browning MGs in the wings. The fitment of these MGs meant the scribing of the access panels on the upper wings. I also added a few lumps and bumps here and there that were features of South African T-6s and removed the Rudder nav lights. Each of the Gabonese Harvards seemed to have different antenna fits. “C” had a simple pole to the rear of the canopy. They were pretty scruffy. You can see from the few available images that the blue came away readily. I’ve therefore used a fair bit of “modeller’s licence” to get dirt and scratches on her. For all of this work I was robustly supported by Wez @Wez, Geoff Timms at The Harvard Club of South Africa and Fred Borne. What did I do/use? Well: 1. Kit – Academy/Squadron T-6G Texan (Double Set) 1/72 and RS Models NA-64 Yale (92208) 1/72. I used the Yale cockpit and rear fuselage fairing. 2. Aftermarket – 0.5mm brass rod, Master Browning .30 calibre Machine guns (M1919), aerial from our kitchen broom! I planned to use Radial Engines and Wheels P&W R-1340 (72001) but despite a lot of scraping and sanding I couldn’t get it to fit in the Academy cowling. I also intended to use the Pavla cockpit set (72021) but in the end I used only the seats. I also intended to use the CMK Harvard conversion set but I have an aversion to vac form canopies and, in any case, it split on me! The exhaust in the set was not what I needed either. 3. Decals – Arctic Decals drawn and printed, Techmod white “C” in USAF Amarillo font. 4. Paints – Colourcoats USN Glossy Sea Blue (Post war) ACUS36) plus numerous Humbrols for various small parts 5. Weathering and washes – Flory Sand and Tamiya Weathering Powders. Prismacolor silver pencil I hope you like her as much as I do 😊 Martin
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