Kitty Hawk Models T-28 B/D Trojan *FINISHED*

[Hubert Boillot]

Looking good Brian (but your engine looks slightly slanted with a small rotation to the left when viewed from the front. The top cylinders and oil sump should be perfectly vertical)

 

Your build has definitely sold me on using the decals. They definitely look better than any hand-painting I could try to attempt

 

Hubert

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks guys.  Actually the whole fuse is actually canting to the starboard in that pic. The engine could be canted slightly as well, but I remember looking at the rudder being slightly off as well when I took that pic. 
Either way, its not as bad as the pic makes it out to be, and at this point Im not going to tempt fate by trying to remove anything. 

 

Onward for today! 

[John F Smith]

Awesome progress, Brian.

 

Looking very, very nice.

 

John

[Youngtiger1]

Nice work Brian. Your cockpit is looking fablous!

[Out2gtcha]

Thatnks guys! I agree...........and one thing KHM seems to have done great lately, is fit of clear parts, and things like fitting gear doors in the closed position......in my case to be used as masking for the wells. The fit of the gear doors in the closed position is OUTSTANDING. The fit of all the clear parts is EVERY BIT as good as the doors. 'll the clear parts including the windscreen are all drop fit with almost no problem pressure.

 

Pics soon!!

Edited April 24, 2016 by Out2gtcha

[PhilB]

[zaxos345]

Excellent work so far Brian!!!

 

John

[Out2gtcha]

Maru, Phil (nice to see you bub!) John, thanks for stopping in on me, and taking the time to comment. I have found some interesting observations from this latest KHMs kit, which is also my latest OOB build...................lots and LOTS of progress to share as well.  

 

On to it then! 

[Out2gtcha]

Well, I kind of again went from 0 to 100 on this thing again................no work for a few weeks, then painting and assembly of the interior and now I have finished the seat belts, all of the interior and have now sealed up the fuselage, and since the gear wells were already glued into the wings, and the wings too had been previously assembled, I also got the wings glued on.

 

So here she is, with the bulk of the main air-frame completed (flying surfaces are still separate for ease of painting):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Observation:

 

Kitty Hawk has gotten substantially better, with each and every release they have come out with............................

 

Better in most ALL areas.

 

- Fit has been markedly improved with the T-28.  This model is NOT the KHM of old!!!!!   This kit fits really well in almost every facet of the build.

 

- KHM has obviously been doing something important lately: LISTENING TO MODELERS WHO BUILD THEIR KITS.  Not only has the fit of these new gen kits improved markedly, the noticeable omission of irritating things like 6 or more sprue gates on super delicate parts, as well as the VERY welcome addition (or removal of more appropriately) the dreaded "all open panels" methodology they had been adopting previously.  Fit is great in part due to this very fact.  

 

- KHMs has gotten very good at some things that no one seems to be paying a lot of attention to, like the fit of things in positions that they are normally NOT put in;  IE clear parts fitting VERY well in the open AND closed positions, as well as the fit of things like gear doors in the closed position..................which leads me to my next update......

 

I DID then clip all of the gear doors off of their sprues to see what the fit was like.  Good thing I did, as I would HIGHLY recommend using the T-28 gear doors as a way of masking the gear wells.

I smoothed the doors out, then just put a bit of liquid mask to seal things up, then after the liquid mask dries, took some alcohol and smoothed off all the excess liquid mask:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE.....................

 

 

 

[Zero77]

That cockpit looks very good ! Those new generation kits are really a big step forward.

 

Very good job Brian !

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Nicolas!  Indeed, KHM has done a great job improving all facets of their new kits IMHO. 

 

 

While i was letting the fuselage and wing joints harden off, I decided to tackle something that had been brought up previously on the T-28, by Clunk and Dirk who are both like me, currently building this kit, and that is the length of the prop hub.

 

Like the hub, there ARE some niggles with this kit, but so far they are few and not major:

 

- Prop hub length (This is too long OOB, and needs to be shortened)

- 4 part cowl DOES fit well, but is VERY fiddly. ( take your time and get the sections glued in 1 at a time starting with the lower cowl parts, as these have to fit in a specific way to go around the oil cooler)

- Flying surfaces including flaps are NOT meant to be posed down, so if you want, you will have to modify these appropriately

- Canopy parts fit EXCELLENT, but some very slight provisions will be necessary to pose it open.

 

 

Here is how I decided to handle the overly long prop hub.........

 

I took the OOB part and cut the two stepped hub off the back of the prop center, then took a center punch, and punched a hole in the back. From there, I found two consecutively sized sections of brass tubing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, the two pieces slipped together as one fit nicely inside the other, and inserted, then glued this into the main hub:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This does give a bit of additional strength, as well as getting to the whole point of the exercise, and that is to shorten the length of the prop hub, which it did nicely:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you also may have noticed that the front engine housing is now no longer attached to the engine. As Hubert pointed out earlier, the engine seemed a bit askew in situation, so when I started looking at it, I found it was not glued down as well as I thought, and as it turned out, could be pried off very easily, which I did. Turns out it was a minor adjustment of the gluing on my part of the front engine cover that was off, and not the kit.

 

I have not yet put this part back on as it will now be MUCH easier to not only sand and smooth the cowl lip, but leaving the front engine cover off until after paint and decals will make masking the engine off MUCH easier, so I will leave it off until that point. 

 

 

Now I got a chance to dip all of the clear parts in Future with a brand new bottle of Johnson's Floor Care! (Formerly "Future" but the exact same formula in the exact same bottle).

This went off without a hitch, and as in my last few KHM builds, the clear parts are well done, and crystal clear. This is also another area that KHM has vastly improved in, and can STILL be a PITA in a lot of kits, and that is the fit of the clear parts, canopy and windscreen both.

 

The windscreen is probably one of, if not THE best fitting windscreen on any kit Ive ever built. This is just setting on the fuse, with 0 pressure, and astoundingly fits even better with a tiny bit of finger pressure:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The canopy fits JUST as excellently as the windscreen does, and even with 3 parts to it, it all lines up very nicely with the windscreen as well. As Herr Clunk pointed out, you will have to do a bit of accommodating to pose the canopy in the open position, but I dont foresee that being a huge deal. 

Glass looks as great as it fits, and as Glen has asked that this one be "all closed up" including the dive brake and canopy, I wont be making those mods, and will pose this one in the closed position:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thats all for now guys, as Im going to try to get back on this one this week, but I also have to split time between this and getting my bike prepped to be taken up to the Ducati dealership for sale.

 

More next time, so cheers!

[Zero77]

The fit looks awesome on that kit !

The way the gear doors fit perfectly is very impressive. The canopy, too.

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Nicolas. Agreed the fit is really great, just as Ernie found as well. The fit on the T-28 is IMO on par with the likes of Tamiya......it's just that the molding quality is not nearly as good; and you get things like more flash, and "ejecties" that must be clipped off. The exterior sudface molding quality is there, so I'll take fheinor inconvenience of flash and ejectites, to keep the great price point and outstanding kit subjects.

[Out2gtcha]

Brian,

One thing I wish I had done is to take the time to place everything in the closed position, just to experience the thrill of perfect fit. It's not often one gets to experience that kind of perfection in a model.

 

Personally, I would call the main exterior detail easily on par with Tamiya, but I relate the rest of the kit to a good multimedia (resin) kit. Some care, trimming and prep will be needed, especially on the smaller parts, to get them ready to use.

 

But like you, I found nothing so outlandish that any moderately experienced occasional modeler couldn't accomplish with minimum fuss.

I'm looking forward to seeing your version completely closed up.

 

Oh, one more thing. Your decal sheet should arrive by Wednesday.

 

E

 

 

Tanks man!  Im not quite at the decal stage yet, but its approaching faster than I thought it might............that being said, I think your right, that the fit is on par with the best kits in the biz, so Im hoping any kits designed AFTER the T-28, Im hoping for similar outstanding fit.

 

I think the KHM P-39 was a bit of a mis-place, in that it came out quite late in the KHM line-up, but was in reality one of their early deisgns, so I dont think fit was/is quite on par with the Trojan.

 

 

I would personally recommend the Trojan as a GREAT kit for anyone who wants a good easy build without a lot of fuss.  Its really been a truly enjoyable build.  

[Guest Peterpools]

Brian

Fantastic progress and some mighty nice tinkering to solve the hub issue. I'm blown away with the canopy fit and absolutely agree it's one of the best Ive. seen. I've never been a Future fan for the canopies instead polishing with the 3 part Novus system. I have to admit, you front wing screen look as clear as they get.

Keep 'em coming

peter