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Dual Wirraway build - Movie star and post-war trainer


Derek_B

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Time for me to get working on the (sadly flawed) 1/48 Special Hobby Wirraway kit. I have about six of these in my stash (how??), and I'm going to build two at once...

 

One will be built as A20-719 / VH-WRX representing its movie star role as a US Navy Douglas Dauntless in the 1998 Terrence Malick movie "The Thin Red Line". This version will have a few modifications, some to make it more like a Wirraway and some to make it less like a Wirraway! There are very few photographs of the aircraft in this guise, but here's a sketch of what the movie star looked like:

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The second will be built as A20-547 as it appeared post-war at Base Squadron Point Cook, flown by pilots from 1FTS. This is a build for a friend, who owns (and is restoring) the remains of the real aircraft. This one will be built OOB (apart from the post-war modifications), so I can give a comparison to the more detailed build of 719. Here is what this second model will look like (apart from the serial number being different):

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I happen to have two different boxings of this kit, but the contents are the same...

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First step in construction is to build the fuselage frame and fit out the cockpit. Clearly the floor detail in the Special Hobby kit doesn't match the reality of a Wirraway...

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So for the extra-detailed build for A20-719 I cut the foot-troughs into sections of the correct length and will use the aft-most troughs (turned upside-down) to duplicate the foot-plates either side of the aft seat...

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Edited by Derek_B
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This Special Hobby kit has zero detail on the inside walls of the fuselage, so after cleaning off the ejector pin marks, I marked out the location of the stringers for the fabric-covered fuselage side panels. Using a simple Lego jig to hold one side of the fuselage level, and a stand to support a pencil at the correct heights I was able to transfer the stringer locations on the outside of the fuselage to the inside...

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And here are the two fuselage sides with their stringer locations marked out...

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Here are the fuselage sides for A20-719 with the stringer detail completed on the insides of the fabric side panels. The stringers are Evergreen 0.25 x 0.50mm strip (0.010 x 0.020"). The port side includes frames for the fire extinguisher and an access panel for the main hydraulic pump and valve assembly. Also on the port side at the aft end is an access door, which is metal-covered so there are no stringers there. There are also some vertical formers to be added, but I need to do a little more research to get the correct location for these...

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After cutting up the foot-troughs into sections for A20-719, its time to re-assemble these in the correct positions, and add the missing framework tube details. Some extra tubes will be added to form the support frame for the rear seat. These tubes will sit underneath the foot-plates at the rear.

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Special Hobby added a few extra tubes to the Wirraway framework in their rendition. On part C15 the rear cross-tube needs to be removed, as this tube does not exist on the real aircraft. The rear instrument panel is attached to the two aft tubes of the "X", not to the tube suggested in the model...

 

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Edited by Derek_B
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1 hour ago, Kahunaminor said:

Derek,

Thank you for commencing this build and providing such detailed explanations. It will greatly assist this of us that also have this in the stash for “one day”!

 

Regards,

Kent

 

You're very welcome Kent! I'm sadly disappointed with this kit, but I have lots of them in the stash and hopefully I'll be able to educate anyone interested in what to avoid and how to get the best out of the kit...

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Here is the modified cockpit "floor" structure, compared with the out-of-box version (already assembled into the framework for the A20-434 build) and also compared with the Monogram 1979 AT-6 tool. That early tool was closer to reality than the SH version! It also shows how closely related the Wirraway is to its "descendant" the AT-6...

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And before I add too much more detail to these framework structures, here is a comparison of the OOB version to my corrected version. The fuselage of the Special Hobby Wirraway is too fat, and the frame is also too fat, so my corrected frame is 1.5mm narrower...

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This movie star Wirraway needs some US Navy stars, so after a lot of hunting around for stars in the correct diameter, I settled on this decal set from HGW. It's actually for a Pacific based P-47, but this set should give me fuselage and wing roundels matched to my needs for a pretend Dauntless. This will be my first experience with the HGW wet-transfer system, but a quick view of their YouTube tutorial makes it look fairly simple...

51652186059_50ef3f63a4_c.jpg

Edited by Derek_B
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Following with great interest Derek!  Thanks for the specifics on the corrections required!   

 

Oh, and great to see Lego fulfilling yet another modelling purpose!

Edited by ianwau
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On 10/30/2021 at 12:16 AM, Derek_B said:

One will be built as A20-719 / VH-WRX representing its movie star role (...) There are very few photographs of the aircraft in this guise

Had you seen this one, Derek? It might be worth tracking Craig down to see if he has any others from this shoot.

Thin Red Line VH-WRX and VH-TXN

 

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Thanks Zac! I had not seen that shot before (I'll need to check my back-copies of CWD)! I'll see if I can get in touch with Mr. J and see if he's happy to share some pictures.

 

Now I'll need to add a third model to this build - a Harvard as a Dauntless imposter!

 

I love how the props people did "weathering" of this "full-size model" to make it look beaten-up! It's interesting that some of the wear & tear (particularly around the front of the cowl and next to the cockpit glazing) is actually the temporary paint wearing off.

Edited by Derek_B
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  • Derek_B changed the title to Dual Wirraway build - Movie star and post-war trainer
  • 2 weeks later...

Since both of these models feature the "Wirraway Order 108" air cleaner (the large bulbous air cleaner fitted to the lower cowl after March 1943), and the Special Hobby 1/48 kit only includes the earlier style of air cleaner, I'm drafting this up in CAD so I can get it 3D printed. The CAD model shown below is actually drafted at 1/32 scale so I can get some made at 1/32 and 1/48 scale at the same time. It's a hellishly complex shape to model, but I'm slowly getting to a shape that looks right and matches my measurements...

 

The Special Hobby 1/72 scale kit includes this "Order 108" air cleaner (as does the MPM 1/72 kit), but it is not shaped very accurately, so I'll probably get some printed at 1/72 scale as well...

 

51697121271_c132b56e3a_c.jpg

Edited by Derek_B
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On 22/11/2021 at 22:51, gingerbob said:

Ooh, can you make a couple o' extras in 48th for me?

 

Hi Bob, most likely yes. I get my 3D stuff printed by Shapeways, so if the intakes come out half decent, I may put them in a Shapeways store... we'll see...

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  • 1 month later...

Work continues steadily on A20-547, our post-war trainer Wirraway. 

 

Below you can see some small progress on detailing the cockpits and the fuselage frame. This particular model will be mostly out-of-the-box, with only a few small additions to dress it up.

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The seats are ready to have the harnesses installed. This mostly involved opening up the slots in the middle of the seat-backs for the lower section of the shoulder harnesses. The resin seats in the SH kit are nicely detailed, but they are too deep (not a big issue for this build) and they are missing the channels on the sides where the lap-belts are anchored, so I added those from some 0.5mm styrene sheet. In most photos of Wirraways you'll see that the rear seat sits lower than the forward seat, so I've mounted the rear seat (on the right) lower on its rails.

 

The front instrument panel is straight from the SH kit. It is over-size by about 25%, but I'm not going to correct that for this build. I checked if 547 had the standard rear instrument panel or the large triangular panel. This was tricky without any photographs of the exact plane. So I cross-referenced the photos of Wirraways with the large instrument panel with RAAF service cards and it appears that all the Wirraways with large rear instrument panels underwent "major servicing" at CAC between 1950 and 1953 (124 of them). It turns out that 547 was among this group of aircraft, so the rear panel from the kit will have to be replaced with a larger triangular panel. 

 

The "control shelf" on the port side of the fuselage frame was glued lower than indicated on the instructions, as the instructed position is too high.

 

More to follow...

 

 

Edited by Derek_B
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Post-War, all Wirraways were wired to allow under-wing guns to be used for training purposes. So for A20-547 I've purchased a set of the wonderful Gas Patch Browning .303 guns. These will be mounted on their sides on a special bracket. More details coming...

 

In this photo the barrel is shown reversed... lucky I haven't glued anything yet!

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First step in replicating the large rear instrument panel for A20-547... find the relevant CAC drawing and get the dimensions into CAD at the right scale. Then I could cut out a front face and drill the holes...

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Here's where we are eventually heading (rear instrument panel of A20-10):

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And there are a mess of connections on the rear of this larger instrument panel, tucked in behind the front seat. The silver conduits are electrical connections and the black hoses are pressures or vacuums. The black disc is the undercarriage warning buzzer (goes off if your speed is too low and the undercarriage is not down) (A20-651):

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Edited by Derek_B
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Great attention to detail Derek (as always!).  Despite the kit shortfalls - wish there were a few more of these 1:48 Wirraways in the hobby shops!  

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For the rear panel I decided to try using instrument faces punched out of a decal. So a Revell/Monogram T-6 donated several of its instrument dials with the assistance of a 1.5mm punch. Cutting the dials worked fine (a good test of one's eyesight) but sadly the decals disintegrated when they were placed in water.

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Second attempt... punch the dials from an Eduard PE set for the Occidental T-6G. Here are the dials punched and ready to be wrangled into place...

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Success! These dials were considerably more robust, and here they are glued in place with some Deluxe Materials "Glue 'n Glaze" glue. A coat of clear gloss and the front panel will be glued in place.

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They're not exactly the right dials, but they look the part, so don't tell anyone!

 

I've also invested in a set of Airscale 1/48 RAF cockpit decals, so this will be a little easier next time...

Edited by Derek_B
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Now I've added the instrument bodies to the rear of the instrument panel (cut from 1.5mm and 2.5mm diameter styrene rod), plus the support brackets and three junction boxes (black). First step in the wiring process is to drill holes in the instrument bodies (0.3mm drill) and insert some wire leads.

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Then the wires were bent and trimmed to terminate at the two outer junction boxes (the central junction box is for the wires for the panel lighting, not instruments).

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Next is a coat of black paint, then adding the silver-coloured lighting cable conduits, then install in the frame.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Work is continuing on the cockpit of the post-war A20-547. The photo below shows a few areas of activity:

  • The large rear instrument panel has been installed, in the space under the roll-over truss. It's not very obvious in the photo below, but I'll add some better shots once all the internals are done. 
  • Electrical panels (right side) and the control shelf (left side) have been installed.
  • Parts of the frame and the seats have received a wash, which is intended to look like red dust once it has been mostly cleaned off and toned down
  • Sutton harnesses are going in
  • P8 compasses are under construction. The two compass mounts are ready to be installed, although the floor mount for the front compass (black) needs some silver paint before it is glued in place in front of the joystick. The rear compass mount fits up under the rear instrument panel. This rear compass mount is included in the PE from the kit, but it is not mentioned anywhere in the instructions.
  • Joysticks are painted and ready to be installed. I think they are too long and will need to be trimmed to length, will judge that once the seats are in place.

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