Revel T6G Texan - NOW as a Harvard IIB rather than a Harvard 4 (due to canopy alteration)

[lunarhighway]

Looks good so far! i have an older boxing of the same kit by revell. so i'll be watching this for inspiration. still it would be nice if someone would put out a new tool kit...

 

 

[Col.]

Plenty work masking that greenhouse of a canopy but will be worthwhile for the end result.

Edited January 11, 2020 by Col.

[Jon020]

Time for a minor update with masking complete and a little filling having been applied to the tailplane where the horizontal stab meets the fuselage.... and a little rivet lining went in too. The wing leading edge landing lights needed fitting and yes, their fit is rubbish. I glued them in nevertheless and then set about sanding them to shape. Starting with some 200 grade paper - then 400. Once the shape was ok, I set about refining the paper grade until they were being polished. So, I used 1000, then onto micromesh 3600, 6000 and then 12000... which seemed to work out ok. These too are masked now and as soon as the gale that's blowing outside eases (in a day or so) I'll take the opportunity to open the window and poke the spray booth hose out - and get some green on over the canopy and then some primer - and then we'll see how poor the finish and fit is.

Oh yes, the other item i added was the cabin exhaust heater outlet - that's visble in some photos I have - just aft of where the warm air enters. A hole drilled in the fuse with a short piece of plastic rod (that itself was drilled out) to represent the outlet will do at this scale.

Still lacking any decals so nothing on chosen aircraft. For decals, I continue to search, but there's little about so I might just have to make some up.

Landing light fitted and filed to shape:

Landing light - sanded by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

... and polished

 Landing light - polished by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Tailplane filler sanded and ready for paint - topside

Ready for paint - topside by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

and underneath

Ready for paint - underside by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

that exhaust port - and a stick to hold the model with whilst being painted

Ready for paint - note cabin head exhaust by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

 

Thanks for following and comments - as always

Jonathan

[Jon020]

A little more progress. I dropped the elevators a little (completely cut off with a sharp blade, nose profile filed/sanded and slight hollow filed out of stab trailing edge) and then glued back on slightly lowered... in the ground locked position. A stretched sprue piece added for an aerial on the spine and a couple of coats of Alclad II filler primer added and sanded down. 

Alclad II aluminium sprayed on to flying control surfaces, which were then masked (I also sprayed inside the wheel wells, the legs and tail wheel) oh, and the accessories compartment cover (no, I don't know why.... I had paint to use and practice). These are now all masked ready to apply a few coats of polished aluminium (Alclad II) to the rest. Authentic? Probably not, but it's a practice piece.

This evening I noticed that my model lacked a pitot probe... checked instructions but looks like one is fitted to the wing piece... but wasn't in mine... or it broke and I forgot. Decided that I couldn't leave one out as it's quite prominent on the starboard wing. New one made using 0.6mm brass wire and a piece of brass etch fret, soldered together and then cut and shaped with file and paper; 0.6mm hole drilled in leading edge and all glued in. A little primer over this will provide a base for the polished aluminium paint to go on the aircraft next.

Anyway.... that's all for now. 

Thanks for reading

Jonathan

[Jon020]

A little more progress. I dropped the elevators a little (completely cut off with a sharp blade, nose profile filed/sanded and slight hollow filed out of stab trailing edge) and then glued back on slightly lowered... in the ground locked position. A stretched sprue piece added for an aerial on the spine and a couple of coats of Alclad II filler primer added and sanded down. 

Alclad II aluminium sprayed on to flying control surfaces, which were then masked (I also sprayed inside the wheel wells, the legs and tail wheel) oh, and the accessories compartment cover (no, I don't know why.... I had paint to use and practice). These are now all masked ready to apply a few coats of polished aluminium (Alclad II) to the rest. Authentic? Probably not, but it's a practice piece.

This evening I noticed that my model lacked a pitot probe... checked instructions but looks like one is fitted to the wing piece... but wasn't in mine... or it broke and I forgot. Decided that I couldn't leave one out as it's quite prominent on the starboard wing. New one made using 0.6mm brass wire and a piece of brass etch fret, soldered together and then cut and shaped with file and paper; 0.6mm hole drilled in leading edge and all glued in. A little primer over this will provide a base for the polished aluminium paint to go on the aircraft next.

Anyway.... that's all for now. 

Thanks for reading

Jonathan

[Jon020]

I've completed the main body coat in polished aluminium. Used Alclad II paints for the first time; this project is really just a test piece and the results show up all the imperfections I've introduced (unfortunately) but as I said, it's a test piece. Several coats were given with a pair of my airbrushes ( I had to disassemble the air piston to clean it on my older one as air wasn't shutting off.... seems ok now) and the finish isn't perfect, but it'll suffice for now. Flying surfaces were previously painted aluminium then masked. All done ok. No problems with masking although I don't hold with spraying over a gloss primer... the top coat needs to key into something... so a slightly polished up primer filler sufficed. Plenty bod blemishes but I'm not looking to represent a new machine.

Whilst this is fully hardening, I set about some of the other bits... gear, wheels, prop, engine, etc... and here's my attempt at doing something with the kit engine, based on colour photos I have of a R1340 in a Harvard IIB.

The bolt head detail on the gearbox cover was simply the grey paint scrubbed with the tip of tweezers before fully dry, showing the Alclad underneath. Again... it'll do. I'll shade some bits further once all is dry. Colours are humbrol enamels.

Again...  Not perfect, but it'll do for now.

Cheers

Jonathan

 

[rob Lyttle]

3 hours ago, Jon020 said:

my model lacked a pitot probe... checked instructions but looks like one is fitted to the wing piece...

Yea, it's incorporated in the wing moulding, same style as the aerial. 

Pain in the neck when they do that! 

I (nearly always) cut them out of the edge of the piece in question..... often as not I'll be going to cover the thing in foil and sticky-out items are a no go for that. 

But I usually extract them anyway, and glue them in later. 

This is looking great and I'm loving the attention to detail. 

Paint job is ace. 

The whole bombs n guns "killing machine" thing is depressing isn't it? 

So much glorious civilian aircraft history and current activity to trawl 

[Jon020]

Progress has slowed a little due to other commitments, but I've chosen a subject at last using the freightdog weekend warriors set as seen here. It should give a reasonably pleasant scheme even if not one I've been involved with.

https://www.ultracast.ca/Freightdog-FSD48-002-Weekend-Warriors-1948-1953-p/fsd48_002.htm

Try engine has been tidied and test fitted in the cowl, along with the painted prop, just for now.

Plenty more to do, and masking for the anti glare panel and yellow bands to follow.

 

 

 

[Jon020]

A short update... Anti glare panel and walkways added... masked and sprayed humbrol Matt black (33). Unmasked and tidied and then scratched away a few areas on walkway (antislip panels) to represent wear.

A little aqua gloss has gone on now to seal everything and de-flatten the antiglare panel. Another coat of that to go and then I'll mask for the trainer yellow bands.

 

[Jon020]

Ok, a little artistic license with the band positions but it's part way between the freightdog illustration and G-CIUW in terms of thickness, and it covers the mess I made of the polished upper surface of the stbd wing... Masked with tamiya thin tape, flexible tape and post-it notes that I find useful for larger areas... especially with their sticky surface aiding adhesion.

Applied a Matt white base at first, as an undercoat over the metal finish, then trainer yellow... two thin coats. All humbrol enamels.

All demasked now and will need a tidy up in a day or so once paint hardened a little.

Then an aquagloss top coat to unify the finish and close-up the Matt yellow.

Some slight weathering and lining... and then some assembly, especially of the front end 

 

[Jon020]

Painting all done. A couple of coats of aqua gloss... because that's what you apply when after weathering with enamels (apparently) and it retained (most) of the aluminium sheen... I also applied some interior (ish) green to the wheel bays and the scoured this with a sharp tweezers point and fibre brush back to the aluminium finish.

Decals applied... a mix of the freightdog ones and the revel ones... the freightdog ones didn't like to flex, the tail fin flash didn't wrap around the leading edge and fractured..  so I cut them back with a blade. 

I demasked the canopy... and it was mostly ok... although I've yet to add klear to the glazing, and then a little weathering.

All bits were assembled and wheels flattened to let the 'plane sit better. Note the tail wheel isn't straight... it casters unless locked.

Shortly before finishing I managed to break the radio mast. I've now made a new one by shaping the end of a length of 1mm brass wire, and then cutting a narrower shaft (about 0.6mm dia) below this, by placing it in a minidrill and using several files to cut the material away. A 0.6mm hole was drilled in the upper fuselage.. and a test fit tried. This will be primed and painted silver, then popped in. I'll use humbrol silver as these were painted and not metal. But it'll do.

Another couple of shots. Nearly there.

 

And finally

 

The project was an experiment to see how the finishes work. Quite pleased with how it turned out.

[Jon020]

All finished. Will post some further photos when time permits. A bit of a dog to work this one, as you'll have seen, but at least I have a Harvard IIB now

Harvard IIB by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr

Thanks for reading, advising and following

Jonathan

[alt-92]

That is absolutely lovely. 
There's an AT-6A based at our nearby airfield,  always surprising to see how big the Harvard actually is compared to GA aircraft.

[Jon020]

1 hour ago, alt-92 said:

That is absolutely lovely. 
There's an AT-6A based at our nearby airfield,  always surprising to see how big the Harvard actually is compared to GA aircraft.

Thanks. We've quite a few Harvard aircraft operating in the UK, quite a number are IIBs but it's a real mix of T6D and C, G and Harvard 4s. The AT6A is quite an early one; the Harvard IIB is a licence built AT16 that's similar to a T6D, I think; I'd better check.

Yes, they are actually quite large compared to most GA.. the R1340 isnt the biggest is still quite a good dependable and powerful enough engine.

[Graham Boak]

The T-16 was the US designation for a Canadian-built example in US service.  They were licence-built T-6s with Canadian differences.

[Jon020]

3 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

The T-16 was the US designation for a Canadian-built example in US service.  They were licence-built T-6s with Canadian differences.

Thanks Graham, yes that's clearer; I have my notes at work; I'll check. From memory, contrary to what I recalled above, I understood that the Harvard IIB was license built AT6A (or was it a D) (by Noorduyn) and used by RAF etc as the Harvard IIB, so when imported into the US it was designated AT16. The US aircraft are under FAA TC (and aircraft spec A-2-575.

i really must check!

Not to be confused with the Harvard 2 and 4 made by Canadian Car and Foundry that are under TCCA TC and aircraft spec A-80.

... and thus the limitations applied to the aircraft tend to vary somewhat.

Simples.....

....not

cheers

Jonathan

[stevehnz]

Nice job on this Jon, it has come out really well & your thread is a great primer for anyone tackling one of these for the future. I've got it bookmarked.

Steve.

[Jon020]

Here's a couple of other images before I do a ready for inspection post

And

 

 

I think overall, it's turned out ok.

Cheers for sticking with me on this

Jonathan