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Wolfpack/Italeri 1/72 Boeing T-45C Goshawk Trainer


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This is my build of the Wolfpack/Italeri 1/72 Boeing (formerly McDonnell-Douglas) T-45C Goshawk. It is basically the Italeri kit with some photoetch for the cockpit, canopy mask and very complete and detailed decals added. For an Italeri kit the fit was very decent, but the problem is that Italeri modeled the prototype, not the production aircraft and there are several differenced between them. I basically followed the Paul Boyer October 2009 article to make the corrections which are

  • I square off the wing tips
  • Straighten the leading edge. I did not use his method of pouring super glue on the leading edge to straighten it. Instead I traced the curved kit leading edge onto an .040 styrene strip, cut along the line and glued that to the wing leading edge. I then used super glue to fill any gaps and round it off. I made no attempt to scribe in the slats since I have proved to myself my total inability to scribe a straight line, even with a straight edge.
  • Square off the horizontal stabilizer. Both Paul and I missed that they should also each be lengthened by ~.030
  • I did thought lengthen the vertical fin by .080 which Paul missed
  • Added a ventral fin. Interestingly Wolfpack shows this fin in their drawing and even included decals for it.

All of these were pretty easy to do. The Wolfpack decals were excellent, and they had one for every conceivable stencil. I did the white with the Tamiya Fine white primer and the orange with Humbrol #18. 

 

So here it is

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Continuing my current trainer theme next up will the RVHP TC-12 Huron. This will be my first RVHP complete kit.

 

Enjoy

 

 

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Very nice indeed :like:. The extra work you have put into the build has produced a little gem. I was lucky enough to get to work on these a few years back in Kingsville, Texas. As a result of the visit I've got a couple of kits of the gate guards in my stash to make.

Pete

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3 hours ago, Pete in a shed said:

Very nice indeed :like:. The extra work you have put into the build has produced a little gem.

It's a cool looking 'plane especially with the white and orange color scheme 

 

Thanks

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26 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Nice build, the changes you've made improve it no end. :)

And they are not really difficult. I am just surprised that Sword hasn't come out with an improved version.

 

Thanks

Howard

 

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Very nice T-45C! The changes you made have gone a long way to get the Italeri/Wolfpack kit much closer to the real article, unlike what comes in the box. Boyer didn't go quite far enough in correcting his build, as IIRC, the T-45C also had a deeper, bulged  lower nose to enclose the twin wheel nose gear as well as a bulged lower inner wing to cater to the larger wheels and tires fitted to the C-model, I have a detailed how-to that was in one of the modeling websites a  by a modeler who undertook all of the corrections, but it looked like so much work and was beyond my skills that I put my Italeri  and Wolfpack kits back on the shelf in the forlorn hope that a more accurate kit would be released. I was so disappointed in the Wolfpack release when I opened the box and discovered it was  was just the Italeri kit that I already had with nicer decals!

Mike

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17 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

I have a detailed how-to that was in one of the modeling websites a  by a modeler who undertook all of the corrections, but it looked like so much work and was beyond my skills that I put my Italeri  and Wolfpack kits back on the shelf in the forlorn hope that a more accurate kit would be released

Probably well beyond my skills too.

17 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

I was so disappointed in the Wolfpack release when I opened the box and discovered it was  was just the Italeri kit that I already had with nicer decals!

It looks like Wolfpack at least planned to make the upgrades. All the decal layout drawings show the squared off wing and tail tips, the straight leading edge and the ventral fin. And they even had decals for the fin. For some reason they never followed through. 

 

Thanks

 

Howard

 

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