Which 1/72 Wirraway suits converting to Harvard Mk.I?

[MigModeller]

Hi all!

This excellent site had a thread devoted to converting the Wirraway  to Harvard Mk. 1 in 2012:

 

Since then Special Hobby have introduced in 1/72 scale, two Wirraways:

 

 Special Hpbby 1/72 CA-3/5 Wirraway - First Blood over Rabaul

 

 Special Hobby 1/72 CAC CA-9 Wirraway

 

What's the difference?  Which shall I chose for converting?

 

Incidentally, I think I can get away with a Harvard Mk.1 canopy  from:

 

 Special Hobby 1/72 BT-9/NJ-1 US Trainer Plane.

 

Thanks in advance  for any help

 

M.M.

 

 

 

Edited July 1, 2018 by MigModeller

[stevehnz]

Have a look on here, I'm not seeing much if any difference in the kit parts, they both seem to use the same plastic & PUR bits, but a bit of time spent perusing both kits might give you a clue.

Steve.

[Graham Boak]

Earlier MPM-family Wirraways were distinctly podgy, so that may be something worth watching out for.  For that reason I prefer the Highplanes kit. 

[MigModeller]

What's the best way to obtain High Planes in the UK?

Freightdog Models is listed as their importer but they don't appear to stock any

 

[stevehnz]

Try here, their postage is pretty reasonable too, in this direction anyway. There is another version too, postwar,  but I'd guess same plastic

Steve.

[Michael louey]

Hi M M,

 

The MPM kit mentioned by Graham and the Special Hobby kit you mentioned aren't the same mould. Special Hobby created a new mould for their kit and it has no relationship to the MPM kit. The High Planes kit is better than the MPM kit for accuracy but will be a lot harder to build than the latest Special Hobby kit. As far as I can tell the 2 Special Hobby boxings are the same plastic with different decals and the "Rabaul" boxing has an extra resin part to do a "once off" single seater conversion of the Wirraway which will not be relevant to you.

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[MigModeller]

Thanks Graham, Steve and Michael.

One of my gripes with modern kits is the omission of fuselarge locating pins!  So ease of construction is important to me.

[gingerbob]

If you haven't discovered liquid cement (Tamiya Extra Thin, etc) then you should!  I don't consider locating pins, at least for something like fuselage halves, at all important.  I just get an area in alignment, brush on the cement, wait a little, then move along to the next section. 

[Graham Boak]

5 hours ago, Michael louey said:

 

The MPM kit mentioned by Graham and the Special Hobby kit you mentioned aren't the same mould. Special Hobby created a new mould for their kit and it has no relationship to the MPM kit. The High Planes kit is better than the MPM kit for accuracy but will be a lot harder to build than the latest Special Hobby kit. As far as I can tell the 2 Special Hobby boxings are the same plastic with different decals and the "Rabaul" boxing has an extra resin part to do a "once off" single seater conversion of the Wirraway which will not be relevant to you.

 

MPM/Special Hobby are just different names used by the same company and so problems found on earlier issues may well be expected to carry forward to the most recent tooling.  I hadn't seen the latest one: having burnt my fingers twice on their successive Wirraways I wasn't prepared to try again.

 

I would also disagree that the High Planes kit is particularly difficult.  I would agree that some of them are, but the Wirraway is one of their better ones from that point of view.  Yes it needs a bit of sanding on mating surfaces such as the wings, but then so do the majority of short run kits out of Czech.  And the fit of interior structures such as wheel wells and cockpit tubs is notoriously poor.

 

Each to their own, but  I find that locating pins tended to fix in place any errors made by the toolmaker, making the hiding of join lines more difficult.  On a small aircraft such as this there should be no problems, and even Bob's advice (good as it is for larger subjects) isn't really required as normal glues are perfectly workable.  Yes, it is best to make sure the fit is good by first sanding each side on a flat piece of wet-and-dry (other methods are available) to check, but it often helps to so that on kits with locating pins.  OK, maybe slightly modify the method if you want to keep the pins.

 

 

[MigModeller]

The only supplier of the High Planes Wirraway is in Singapore and at the moment they are taking their summer holiday.  I'll e-mail them soon.

Thanks for the tips.  There was a time when the Japanese plastic and the polystyrene cement did not bond well.  The parting fuselarge halves has  haunted me ever since.

[Rabbit Leader]

Thinking out aloud, would a Wirraway kit be the best starting point to making a Harvard Mk.1? I must admit that I’m not researching this deeply enough but how would the Azur/Special Hobby BT-9 kit of some 10-15 years ago compare as a better starting point? I think the rear sloping canopy is what you need as the Wirraway has the straight edge similar to most other T-6 kits. 

 

Anyway - just adding my thoughts but also my frustration that we dont have a ready made series of early Harvards to build OOB. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[MigModeller]

Correct!  By combining the two, a very good Harvard Mk1 can be acheived.  The left-overs will make a fantasy what-if Russian trainer for fun.

I've yet to work out who donates the wings and find photos of P5823.

Edited July 2, 2018 by MigModeller

[Ed Russell]

The 2010 SH Wirraway is a new tooling compared to the 1996 SH version. Without going and looking at them I would guess the later one is better. It did have some local input.

HPM is a Singapore based company - it's essentially a one man show so you have to expect he is allowed holidays occasionally.

I have never had any problems bonding SH or more recent HPM kits with conventional plastic cement.

[Michael louey]

Just for a bit more info -

 

The original MPM kit was reputed to have the issue of the fuselage having a constant taper from nose to tail, whereas the cockpit area of the real plane has parallel sides which is present in the High Planes kit and I believe in the new Special Hobby kit. Just to see what you'll be getting, our club had a CAC display and had more Wirraways than you can shake a stick at. Here's a full display link:

 

http://s15.zetaboards.com/72nd_Aircraft/topic/10537018/1/#new

 

And here's a look at each Wirraway kit -

 

Original MPM Wirraway

 

 

High Planes

 

New Special Hobby kit "Rabual"

 

And with the single seat modification.

Edited July 3, 2018 by Michael louey

[Graham Boak]

10 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Thinking out aloud, would a Wirraway kit be the best starting point to making a Harvard Mk.1? I must admit that I’m not researching this deeply enough but how would the Azur/Special Hobby BT-9 kit of some 10-15 years ago compare as a better starting point? I think the rear sloping canopy is what you need as the Wirraway has the straight edge similar to most other T-6 kits. 

 

 

The Wirraway is the best starting point, because the two are basically the same.  Just change the prop and the canopy.  Add slats if they are on the aircraft of your choice.  (I don't know but suspect that the dome over the front of the engine may differ slightly, if that matters to you.)

 

Yes you can get a Harvard Mk.I from the Azur NA.57 kit (if you can find one without a yellowed canopy) but you have to fit a new nose and a new centre-section - NOT just slot on an entire wing from a T-6.   IIRC, the BT-9 variant of the Azur from Special Hobby has the correct rear canopy but the wrong windscreen - The BT-9 had the flatter panels of the earlier style.  OK for a BT-9 - but wrong for a Harvard Mk.I.  Variations within the NA 16 family are legion.

 

It would be a lot of work, and an interesting conversion, but why bother when there are Wirraways around and so many interesting options for the small-engine family anyway?

 

(As an aside: in the Special Hobby kit the BT-9 version is fine but the NJ-1 should have the bigger engine of the T-6 family and hence a modified nose.  Like I said, legion.  Which is partly what makes them such fascinating modelling subjects.)