T-6G2 1/32eme EALA 13/72

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Hello! 

For my second appearance on this sympathetic forum, a little drift from my theme (USAF Jets, 1/72): The Kitty Hawk T-6G2. 

Why this kit? simply because I had a "shock" during one of my travel back in France to see in a model shop this kit with the illustration of my dad aircraft flew in the 50's. So I decided obviously to buy the box and build the model for him.

Back in history, my dad flew the T-6G2 during the Algerian war at "EALA 13/72". During this period, it was common for metropolitan fighter pilots to re-enforce close air support units in Algeria for a short term. So my dad, coming from EC 1/5 "Vendee" did a tour at EALA 13/72 where he flew T-6G2 114-440 WI and he was shot down by rebel ground fire: a single "golden BB" hit one of the two propeller blades, seizing the whole engine. He capsized during the belly landing but escaped with minor bruises.

Building this model was a long journey because I wanted to make it "first class" for him. After opening the box, the kit seemed awesome but a closer examination revealed that it is far from being flawless. I did a lot of work to correct all the mistakes, especially in the wheel wells (wrong shape) and L/G, the rear portion of the fuselage after the canopy (way too thin), armament (wrong), etc... The cockpit and its inner framing have been completely re-designed, KH made a lot of mistakes here. I replace the propeller by a correct one (I forgot the manufacturer name) and the engine (resin). (If somebody is interested I have the full list of correction to be made to have a decent T-6G). To add some twist to the build, I open the port fuselage panel to show the inner details. Thanks God documents are plenty. 

 

I selected a yellow bird my dad flew also (he crashed in an aluminium-painted aircraft) because of the big shark mouth, the trademark to this squadron. The paint scheme is a mix of different yellows to mimic the faded "trainer yellow" applied originally in US when the aircraft was delivered to France. Also, I painted all the roundels and codes and obviously the shark mouth because the decal proposed by KH is wrong. 

Here are the pix (sorry for the poor quality:

The true bird:

 

 

 My dad aircraft:

 

Hope you will enjoy this kit! 

[Spitfire31]

Marvellous finish cum weathering, and the interior is plain fantastic!

 

Any special reason why the port wing rockets are mounted at an angle visavi the centerline?

 

Beautiful modelling!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

1 minute ago, Spitfire31 said:

Marvellous finish cum weathering, and the interior is plain fantastic!

 

Any special reason why the port wing rockets are mounted at an angle visavi the centerline?

 

Beautiful modelling!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

Thank you much! in fact, the rockets angle is exaggerated by the focal of the camera and the wing dihedral but also by my poor experience in model aircraft pictures. In reality, they are aligned with the centerline. 

[RMCS]

Stunning skills 

[Pete in a shed]

On 06/01/2022 at 16:29, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

I open the port fuselage panel to show the inner details.

Fantastic work Patrick. The cable loom and its associated P clipping is amazingly realistic.. It sounds like your Dad had an eventfull career.

Pete

[gingerbob]

Superb finish, and interesting back-story!  The thing that really impressed me is the heat shield (?) visible when the cowling is removed- looks just right.

 

I'd certainly like to see your full list of corrections/mods.

 

bob

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

2 hours ago, gingerbob said:

Superb finish, and interesting back-story!  The thing that really impressed me is the heat shield (?) visible when the cowling is removed- looks just right.

 

I'd certainly like to see your full list of corrections/mods.

 

bob

Thank you much! I will try to translate into English all the work I did on the kit but it will take me some times. I wrote an article about this kit in a French Modeler website but I think just a summary will be enough. 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Well done. Harvards always bring back childhood memories for me. We only lived a handful of ‘clicks’ from RNZAF Wigram.

[djos]

Stunning details, and great overall finish.

Regards Djordje

[SAT69]

Clearly the work of a plastic modeling professional!

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

5 hours ago, gingerbob said:

Superb finish, and interesting back-story!  The thing that really impressed me is the heat shield (?) visible when the cowling is removed- looks just right.

 

I'd certainly like to see your full list of corrections/mods.

 

bob

Hello Bob, here is a list of the main modifications I made to the kit (this is applicable for a French T-6G2); sorry the pix are small. 

Cockpit:
− seats to be changed ("Warren MacArthur" P-51 type) and equipped. I decided to modify a seat from "Barracuda Studio", keeping only the bottom part and building around all the structure;
− Internal tubular structure: wrong design from KH, to be remade (not difficult);
− observer's instruments panel wrongly positioned, needs to be moved forward;

- French radio set to be added below the pilot's instrument panel;

- "SFOM" gunsight, to be added (scratch build);
- Cockpit floor re-done;

Canopy: KH piece is acceptable, not too thick and pretty transparent, however a vacuformed one is preferable if you decide to open the different parts. Some handles need to be added.
Basically, I rebuilt completely this area of the kit, keeping few parts from the kit. A kit within a kit, time consuming!

 

Fuselage :
− I re-shaped the luggage box which has a wrong pattern and I decided to open it. not too difficult;
− The area at the end of the canopy is way too large and needs to te reshaped. It took me a long time to find the correct shape. 
− the tail wheel front protection is missing (easy to correct);
 the modified shape
Engine & Engine cowling:
− I replaced the original one (which is BTW fairly acceptable) by a "Victory Model" resin engine. I added the cables and wiring accordingly. The most difficult part was to rebuild the engine framing (original one are too thin and unrealistic) and to adapt the new engine on. 
- The kit engine cowling is given in 3 parts and "stick" too much to the main fuselage. It needs to be slightly enlarged by adding 1.5mm of evergreen.

- the propeller is wrong in shape and length, I replaced it by one from "AMS Resin". 

 

Wings:

Some panels are wrongly positioned and need to be corrected. I made the Port/Starboard little windows to check the position of the L/G, as well as the fuel tank caps which have a wrong shape;

I decided to lower the flaps (Eduard P/E) so the inner part of the wings were scratch built accordingly.

The landing lights are not correct: they should not be centered but shifted to the fuselage side. Also, the left wing has two L/lights, a normal one and a smaller red one. 

 

Weapons/Armament:
− The machine gun gondolas are way too short and need to be elongated. This is not an easy modification, but with some plastic, putty and patience, it is achievable. If you decide to equip your T-6 with them, some extra work is necessary to open the cartridges ejector, fit the handles etc... 

This picture shows the cartridges ejectors, how the gondola is fixed to the wing, and its correct length

 

The red sea shows the portion to add to the original piece. other parts are to be removed
-  The structure to carry the rockets have been remade and corrected. (original ones are too simplistic)   

The best for the end: the landing gears and the wheel wells: this is the main KH kit default, quite a hard work to correct: the wheel wells shape is totally wrong and what is inside is missing. Of course if you modify the shape the L/G covers need to be also modified. Thanks Got, on the French T-6, these covers were removed.

The L/G are too short, I replaced them by metal pieces from "Scale Aircraft Conversion". Their positions in the wheel wells is wrong (too close to the fuselage centerline). The tail wheel is too thin also and need to be replaced (Scale Aircraft Conversion). 
This pix shows the wheel wells inner details and plumbing

the red shape is the correct one. The holes are to be removed. 

 

Decals :
− I decided to paint the roundels and the shark mouth +eyes ,which are totally wrong in the kit decal sheets.

 

That's all folk, sorry for my terrible english! 
 

 

[Wez]

Patrick,

 

That's a really neat Texan, I'm impressed,

 

Thanks for telling us about the differences between a Texan and an Adl'A T-6G2, I knew many of them but not all of them so duly noted (like the P-51 seats for instance).

[brianj1uk]

Lovely build, by far the best T6 I’ve seen in any scale except for 1/1! Even then yours looks much better than some real ones I’ve seen. Great back story too. Thank you for sharing, Bonnie journey!

[John_W]

Amazing build.

Love Harvards. Especially love yellow Harvards.

[MVTB]

Awesome for sure!

[72modeler]

Beautiful craftsmanship! We have an aviation museum here in Texas that has an AT-6 that has the same area cutaway, and your looks exactly like it! Well done! You don't often see an AT-6 in markings other than USAAF/RAF/RCAF, Nice to see a French one like yours, or a German, South African, or Portuguese one!

Mike

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

12 hours ago, 72modeler said:

Beautiful craftsmanship! We have an aviation museum here in Texas that has an AT-6 that has the same area cutaway, and your looks exactly like it! Well done! You don't often see an AT-6 in markings other than USAAF/RAF/RCAF, Nice to see a French one like yours, or a German, South African, or Portuguese one!

Mike

Thank you Mike> The French Air Force has a special relationship with the T-6, as many French pilots (like my father but also other European pilots) learnt basic flying on this bird, and we were too a great consumer (to include the French Navy) of T-6Gs (and T-28) during the 50's - early 60's. 

So there are plenty of fancy liveries to model when building a T-6, at any scale! 

[gingerbob]

Thanks for the notes, Patrick.  I just looked back up at the pictures, and I hadn't even noticed the wrenches on the wing walkway!  So you weren't just showing off detail, they were actually in the middle of fixing something 😉

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

2 hours ago, gingerbob said:

Thanks for the notes, Patrick.  I just looked back up at the pictures, and I hadn't even noticed the wrenches on the wing walkway!  So you weren't just showing off detail, they were actually in the middle of fixing something 😉

Most welcome! In fact I did a little and simple dio but I didn't put any figurines as I am the worst figurine modeler in the galaxy. Tools/ toolbox and wrenches come from aftermarket, may be Brengun (???) I forgot.