Jump to content

Royal Australian Navy Wirraway


abat

Recommended Posts

I’ve not built a kit or posted to the forum for quite a while now, having been pre-occupied by work, study and associated activities. I decided to make amends over Christmas holidays and made a start on the latest of my Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm collection.

 

This time it’s a post-war Wirraway, most likely A20-168 (972) from HMAS Albatross as depicted in these Red Roo decals. There’s only a few photos I can find of RAN Wirraways online and markings and paint schemes are all different and ambiguous as to whether yellow training stripes on the rear fuselage and top wings were carried over from RAAF service, or over-painted with aluminium paint. 

i-CCfrbpm-M.jpg

 

I’m using the Special Hobby 1/72 First Blood over Rabaul kit. It’s been going together quite well, albeit with the usual checking and fettling in order to get the parts to fit nicely. 

 

i-GvqzcJq-L.jpg

 

I noted conflicting references about the cockpit interior colour and decided to go with a metal finish, rather than interior green. 

 

All pictures I see of Wirraways on the ground show the elevators slightly dropped so I cut these in order to give depict this in the build. Otherwise, it’s pretty much out of the box. 

 

i-Thp5Zsg-L.jpg

 

The wing roots needed a fair bit of filling with plastic strip and putty and a moderate degree of fettling to sit properly around the wheel wells, and there was a bit of work tidying up the landing light recesses, but it’s looking very much like a Wirraway.

 

i-75t5Dm3-L.jpg

 

i-B84j2Sz-L.jpg

 

One issue I’m yet to resolve is mounting the engine cowling as it appears to have nothing to physically connect it to the fuselage. Perhaps the trick is to mount it first to the engine and then mount the engine onto the fuselage. No pressure yet as that and the engine will go on after I’ve painted the fuselage and wings. 

  • Like 15
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As usual, it pays to check references and photos before reaching for the knife and glue bottle. I discovered this afternoon that I’d fitted the wrong panel behind the engine cowl and so I cut and leveraged off the one I’d already glued and replaced it with the one below. I don’t believe that the guns were fitted but the two prominent bulges appear in photos forward of the cockpit. 

 

i-xVV99hd-L.jpg

 

As for the cowling itself, I need the one with the additional starboard air intake. This is a finely moulded resin piece in the SH kit, but very difficult to remove as the pour block is moulded against the intake. Of course I damaged the inlet in the process of sawing it off! 

 

i-LpGrwXd-L.jpg

 

I’ve therefore resorted to fashioning one in the additional plastic cowl that’s provided for other versions. I’ll fit some vanes and see how it looks. As a last resort I could request a replacement from Special Hobby but that may take months to arrive.  I also confirmed the correct air cleaner under the cowling is the one shown below. 

 

i-pPX2CWh-L.jpg

 

Off to make some dinner so that’s all for today. 

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Courageous said:

Looking great, even with the little mishaps.

Crack on dear sir.

 

Stuart

Thank you Stuart. Only minor mishaps so far!

10 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

This looks very interesting. The kit looks good, as does your handiwork ;)

 

Martin

Thanks Martin, there is very nice detail and it fits together pretty well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m happy with the new intake and have attached the air cleaner. The cowl will be attached to the main body by the air cleaner which is rather precarious but functional. There’s lots of fettling and filling needed to get the cowl to line up correctly. 

 

i-mnXChXj-L.jpg

 

Once that’s done I’ll touch up the cockpit, attach and mask the canopy, Install and mask the landing lights and lenses, mask the engine and exhausts and give it all an undercoat. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A bit more progress. The engine is mounted and the cowl is on, attached to the fuselage by the air cleaner. I’ve brush painted some silver around the more inaccessible bits that might not receive spray from the main paint coat. Obviously the exhausts will need re-painting once the main coat goes on. I fashioned some crude landing lights from plastic discs, Aluminium foil and a drop of micro Krystal clear for a lens and glued on the covers. These will need touching up and masking when set. 

 

i-dsGJFzv-L.jpg

 

Masking the canopy proved an interesting experience. I used a Montex mask (which I’ve used many times in other builds) and everything looked good until I re-positioned a panel and noticed the mask adhesive was not releasing cleanly from the canopy plastic. Sure enough after removing a few other panels the canopy was a mess of sticky adhesive. The photo below gives an idea of what I was left with. I’ve never experienced this with Montex before so I’m at a loss for what went wrong. 

 

i-t8BGPcL-L.jpg

 

I tested a few cleaning agents on a spare canopy (detergent, Windex, etc) but finally settled on a shot of WD-40. I rinsed and re-masked the canopy by cutting Tamiya tape to size. This will be tidied up a little when the canopy is set. 

 

The rear canopy is next, and the undercarriage legs etc, and then an undercoat. I’ll need to paint early in the day as it’s pretty hot over here at present. 

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heading for 40C (104F) at home today so I touched up the undercoat and got the top coat on this morning before it got too hot. I used AS12 Tamiya Bare metal silver from the can. Nice and simple. 

 

i-DXjtkzh-L.jpg

 

i-rTvVrCr-L.jpg

  • Like 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Magua87 said:

Beautiful work. It's always so satisfying when you get that first layer of paint down.

Thanks, yes it takes so long to get there but it’s worth it in the end!

1 hour ago, Ed Russell said:

That is looking very nice!

Thanks Ed. It’s scrubbed up quite well. 

17 minutes ago, CJP said:

Looking good abat - using WD40 is a new one for me and filed away for future use

CJP

Thanks CJP, i wonder if there’s nothing you can’t do with that stuff! it removed the goo without fogging the plastic. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve just popped in in time!

 

It was 40° here in Canberra too, on Friday.

Far too hot for this old Brit 🥵 !

Cooler this evening.

 

I didn’t know that the Wirraway had served with the Australian Fleet Air Arm. I really must visit the FAA museum on the SE NSW coast at some point; extend my knowledge.

 

I have another boxing of this kit; I’m very interested to see how it went together.

Thanks for the tips on the wing roots and how to secure the cowling. It all helps 👍 

Its looking good; looking forward to the canopy framing reveal :bounce: !

Best regards 

TonyT

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

I’ve just popped in in time!

 

It was 40° here in Canberra too, on Friday.

Far too hot for this old Brit 🥵 !

Cooler this evening.

 

I didn’t know that the Wirraway had served with the Australian Fleet Air Arm. I really must visit the FAA museum on the SE NSW coast at some point; extend my knowledge.

 

I have another boxing of this kit; I’m very interested to see how it went together.

Thanks for the tips on the wing roots and how to secure the cowling. It all helps 👍 

Its looking good; looking forward to the canopy framing reveal :bounce: !

Best regards 

TonyT

Thanks Tony, the kit does go together quite well, the cowling attachment being the main puzzle to solve. The buckmasterfamily web page diagrams really help, especially with the cockpit framing. 

 

I need to paint the canopy framing black before the reveal and also add a few yellow stripes underwing. 

 

The Nowra Museum is brilliant, although they may not have a Wirraway on display. Been a while since I last visited. 

 

Oh, and I’m in Canberra this weekend too visiting my son and it was certainly 40C on Saturday! What a small world. 

4 hours ago, thorfinn said:

Love the 'Boring Old Silver' on the decal sheet!:D

 

Really a lovely build you've got going on here. Will follow along with interest!

 

Cheers

Thanks, There’s been a few hiccups but I’m getting there. The silver does look great doesn’t it, especially with some yellow stripes and contrasting black framing. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Masked and sprayed the underwing training stripes today. Tomorrow I may get to the black canopy framing and walkways.

 

I’ve also been tinkering with a Fairey Firefly AS5 build that stalled last year. That’s now under-coated and almost ready for a coat of Sky. All good signs that my modelling mojo is returning!

 

i-pjMwfQT-L.jpg

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I’ve put on a gloss coat, Tamiya X-22 Clear and touched up the masking. I normally struggle with gloss coats but this time it worked pretty well. Two light mist coats followed by a wet coat with the airbrush pretty close to the surface. Probably just a confidence thing and my airbrushing confidence is (hopefully) getting better. 

 

i-ZVL64mJ-L.jpg

 

The NAVY decals were really fragile with bits of black rubbing off very easily when trimming and positioning so I needed to do a few minor repairs. I also cut these into blocks of letters to avoid big expanses if clear decal over prominent features. Otherwise they were great. I’ll put the red dots on the roundels tomorrow once the  base decals have settled in with the Microsol. 

 

Next will I’ll be painting the exhausts, weathering, gutting the undercarriage and a satin finish too coat. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...