L.079 T-6G Texan - Scrappy LSK Harvard - Done!

[alt-92]

Next on the table:

L.079 T-6G Texan.

This is the armed version normally, but I got lucky this week and managed to obtain a conversion kit from Kiwi Models at half price.

In the box: White plastic 

No canopy or decals. 

 

 

That's where the conversion kit comes in.

Minus:
Not the best moulding, but it will be handy to use as a template for the kit parts.

Plus: 

two vacform canopies for the Harvard IIB model, with the extension behind the glasswork to fit the fuselage that came with it.

And white-metal extended exhaust. 

 

As for decals:

The Dutch LSK (LuchtStrijdKrachten - before the renaming to KLu/Koninklijke Luchtmacht )  used a number of hand-me-down and second-hand aircraft in the late 1940s/early 1950s, one of these being some surplus RCAF Harvards. This one is going to be a slight challenge

 

 

Bumps and lumps for the G model under the wings for rockets needed to go.

 

 

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Great to see a conversion of this kit being done on here, and the Dutch colour scheme looks great apart from my nemesis  YELLOW !

 

Best of luck, the Vacform canopies look really good.

 

Cheers Pat 

[alt-92]

No way back now!

 

 

Cut off the rear deck of the Heller fuselage. Which is warped, so hopefully the internals and added bulkhead and judicious use of clamps, tape and invoking the ancient spirits will help.

The vacform canopy looks to be a good fit (it's loosely put on top here).

All the tiny bits are detached and primed black, and the first interior coats applied. 
Need to drill out the exhaust, before adding a splash of metals. 

preview with lower wing:

 

 

[alt-92]

Extra time  bonus.

The barebones cockpit built up. The rear bulkhead in the standard kit has an upper deck that is too short for the longer canopy of the IIB.

I'll extend that further rearwards.

 

 

Engine and cowling fit. There's a slight seam that will receive a drip of Surfacer 500 to build up.

Exhaust ring drilled out, and I may use the white metal from the conversion kit as a template to make one out of spare sprue drilled out properly..  

 

 

[alt-92]

The problem with this kit is that the fuselage halves are slightly warped. 

Nevertheless, judicious employment of clamps, tape, elastic bands and hand-holding has resulted in an acceptable fit. 

That was also the moment I decided to stick the wings on, and that showed a good starboard wing root but a trench on the port wing - no doubt a result of the warping.

A strip of evergreen, some shaving and sanding & again aforementioned clamps, tape and hand-holding later:

 

No shim

 

Yes shim:

 

Head-on - yes that tail is a bit crooked. That will take some gentle persuasion (a.k.a. bending).

 

[JeroenS]

You're really having to work this one, but you seem to have this under control!

[Johnson]

All looking very good, a brave conversion!

 

We get the real thing flying over when the weather is good. Painted in post WW2 Luftwaffe colours, all yellow. Has me rushing outside with binos and camera!

 

Cheers,

[alt-92]

We have AT-6A c/n 78-6922 here at EHHV, 4 miles from my home.

 

Formerly known as PH-NKD, used(?) to be owned by a local airminded businessman who used it to do skywriting.

 

Now registered as N13FY after a falling out with the Dutch CAA - I'll leave it to the imagination what the code letters stand for

 

 

There's a 1/48 Monogram AT-6 in the stash, that's earmarked for the skywriting build.

 

[alt-92]

Vacform canopy stuck on with Extra Thin, and hand masking by cutting out panes of tamiya tape:

 

I've touched up the gaps where necessary with masking fluid - including the curves at the rear. 

Plenty of sanding & blending in, aided by a bit of Surfacer 500. 
Black base coat for the framing added, and grey primer to help with the blending of the rear part.

 

Currently scrounging around to find some thin plastic sheet to cover the landing lights in the wings

 

 

 

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Looking great @alt-92

I wonder if Heller  / humbrol went through a period of warped kits ?

I have an Arado 196 in which the fuselage is all over the place. Having said that now I come to think of it I have an airfix Stirling with very similar issues !

Cheers Pat 

[alt-92]

Found some thin transparent plastic sheet - actually more like the wrap you get around large candles from a certain furniture giant with blue/yellow logo.

Superglued that over the landing light cavities and masking fluid over that.

On with the camo (VMA 71.323 Dark Earth & XF-81 Dark Green).

 

 

Sprayed the underside and tail with whatever last dregs from VMA white & Sky Blue I had. 
Then on with the Trainer Yellow, some spots need a bit of touch-up still.

 

 

It ain't perfect, but it's fun and a hobby. 

C'mon Airfix, give us a real Mk.IIB Harvard.  You know you want to

 

 

 

[TimJ]

Looking good. Yellow always goes on better when it's sprayed. 

[fightersweep]

Looking great! Love the striking colour scheme and great to see a Havard IIb.

 

I've got a few Heller T-6s in the stash. The fuselages are fine, but the wings are a different story. All three have a really bad case of anhedral.

[alt-92]

😱 

Decals are shattering somewhat, I've managed to get most of it together, but the fuselage roundels need some careful mending.

And the flags on the tail I need to cobble together from other parts.

Bummer.

Underside's ok:

 

But these are more worrisome..

 

It's going to be close...

 

[Johnson]

Looks Very good.

 

2 hours ago, alt-92 said:

It's going to be close...

 

Nearly there! You have till 23.59, loads of time!  (he said having got his Heller's done).

[alt-92]

Yeah yeah

meanwhile, in the dungeon of doom...

 

I've lost the metal exhaust bit when applying a wash - pinged off somewhere, if I find it I'll put it back on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[stevehnz]

I apologise for not having viewed this thread before now, that is a beaut job on this, & what a cool scheme. I'm pleased you had less trouble that I had with my one. The Heller kits are not a bad kits, but neither are they especially good kits. Location is often where they touch & I can't help but think the designers got to a "that'll do" stage with them. In this respect the Academy kits should be better.

Steve.

[Graham Boak]

With the exception of the fiddly cowling, I found no trouble at all with the Heller T-6, which came out when Heller were at the top of their game and probably the best 1/72 kits around - certainly on average and by numbers, at least for single-engined types.  There were a small handful of first class Japanese kits and those lovely Airfix Spitfire Mk.I and Mosquito.  This was the time of their "black box period" although some of these kits actually predated this and were available in their yellow boxes.  Middle/late 70s?

[alt-92]

Before the black boxes even @Graham Boak  the original box from 1978 is in the top post  

 

[Graham Boak]

Yes, I had that one too (still have one unmade), but some of the earlier kits from their yellow box period fell below what became their standard.  The lovely Gladiator was from the yellow box period too, but so was their Spitfire 1, 109E, Stuka, P-40E, and the first 109K...  And for a while in the UK there were black boxings of the K that still included the earlier tooling - beware of ones with a visible swastika!

[fightersweep]

15 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

With the exception of the fiddly cowling, I found no trouble at all with the Heller T-6, which came out when Heller were at the top of their game and probably the best 1/72 kits around - certainly on average and by numbers, at least for single-engined types. 

 

Have to agree with you there Graham. Also agree about the fiddly cowlings. One thing I found during the GB was that Heller seemed to like fiddly cowlings. I'm still building Heller despite the GB finishing. Until then, it had been a long, long time since I had built a Heller kit, and it was nice to re-discover just how good they were on the whole. I've got a sizable enough stash and enough interesting subjects to keep me going for a long time yet.

 

@alt-92 Beautiful Harvard you have there. A great result, especially with that yellow. I've avoided building stuff just because of yellow colour schemes, but you nailed this one.