Well, it only took me a
year but I finally finished this beastie. I used Falcon's
vac-form canopy to convert Academy's T-6 into an RCAF
402 'City of Winnipeg' squadron Harvard Mk.ll. The long
exhaust is Contrail tubing detailed with stretchedsprue and a bit of stainless steel tubing for the
heater inlet. The ADF 'football' is from an old Heller
T-6 as is the engine which I thought was a bit better
than Academy's. The engine was detailed with brass wire
for the pushrods and ignition harness and fine wire for
the sparkplug leads.
The kit propeller isn't
bad but lacks hub detail because it is meant to have a
spinner on. The missing detail was added using thin slices
of plastic tubing and rod. Canopy frames are painted decal
strip which very nearly drove me mad by the end. Next
time (Next time?!? Bahahahaha....!!) I'll do a Mk. lV
- less framing! In retrospect I don't think the Falcon
canopy was meant to be open as the section behind the
pilot is too small (it should be the same width as the
sliding part), but I'm not losing any sleep over it.
I stretch formed clear
plastic over the leading edge of the wing from that Heller
Harvard (I knew that wing would come in handy!) for the
landing light covers and used MV lenses for the lights.
Naturally, I managed to
break off the tailwheel whilst cleaning it up so I reinforced
it with brass rod and took the opportunity to turn it
around backwards (eat your heart out Linda Blair) as it
often castors around this way when Harvards are parked.
Paint is Xtracolour Roundel Blue and Humbrol Trainer Yellow
which is an almost perfect match for the colour chip in
IPMS Canada's "Canadian Colours Guide". And
no, I didn't lighten it for "scale effect"...!
Decals are a mixture of
Arrow Graphics roundels and 24" letters and Letraset
RCAF 36" letters. Fin flashes are from IPMS Canada's
RCN sheet.
Post war Harvards seem
to have been kept pretty clean so I kept weathering to
a minimum. Brown and gray pastels were used for a bit
of exhaust staining and some dirt on the wingwalks and
tires.
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