mozart

Another small feature of the RATG Harvards was the addition of a grille on the front of the intake on the underside of the forward fuselage, as can be seen here in a wartime photograph and two that I took in Gweru in 2013: Once again I used a thinned piece of mesh from a Bf109 kit, then I cut an open rectangle from ten thou plastic card, sanded to make it more scale in appearance: Also worth noting in the flying Harvards is the tailwheel. The faired "oleo", if that what it is, is completely missed on the KH kit so will be scratchbuilt along these lines: Busy few days coming up so little modelling time sadly!

Now here's a funny thing!! As can be seen from this extract from the T-6/Harvard manual, the engine cowling comprises three parts: so I wonder why KH decided to make the model one four parts, none of the joints coinciding with the panel joins on the real thing: More sanding, more polishing!

It looks very effective and business-like Joachim, go with it as is and don't sweat about if it's "right" or "wrong" cos nobody knows!!

Agreed! That's a fantastic looking engine, so more of the rest of the build please!

A lovely clean build, she looks very menacing!

Thank you Pascal. The figure is a Wings Cockpit figure, adapted as mentioned previously to get rid of the Mae West, but the only way you can order is via Facebook or try david.allen@wingscockpitfigures.com, the figure is coded RAF01 in David's excellent range of figures.

You'll always be the Archer rivet King Andy!!

Thanks for that Kev, dyslexia strikes again....or senior moments! Will correct immediately lest I cause offence!

I've picked up my Harvard build again over the past couple of weeks, a few update pictures and brief comments where necessary: Work on the cockpit and pilot figure: The KH kit lacks the horns on the rudder for the linkages: so some work on this: The fit of the aft panel isn't great on the KH kit, I'm not sure why they planned it as a separate item instead of moulded as part of the fuselage halves, so filling and sanding necessary: Another area needing work is KH's attempt at portraying the underlying metal structure of the fabric covered empennage. As can be seen on the Harvard photograph, it's not that obvious: so the lines were sanded off: and lines of Archer rivets applied - not strictly accurate either I know but an improvement to my eyes: I've done a little work on the air intake on the port front cowling. The kit version is just a flat blank so I drilled that out, thinned down a BF109 radiator grille and cut it to shape for the intake: Another area needing a little detailing is the refuelling points. KH's mouldings drilled out and replaced with better looking versions: The IPs supplied are wrong for an RAF WW2 vintage Harvard, so these are being addressed. I've taken a rather lazy approach I'm afraid in just putting Airscale dials straight onto the plastic surface, I may put the bezels in front....hmmm? The large white lump on the inside of the top nose panel is additional anchorage for the tall radio aerial, mine snapped off on my first build when the aerial was stretched. And finally, Mustang wheels were ordered to replace the flimsy KH ones. The Harvard is going to be in-flight, but possibly flaps down and uncart being lowered....... that's where "it's at" folks. More later I hope!

I think what AK et al (mostly Spanish companies?) are doing is making some of the traditional weathering techniques and materials more easily, instantly perhaps, available to today's market. I must admit I've never bought any at all, preferring to use my own judgement (I hesitate to use the word "skills") to create the effects that I want.

A question of scale build up I suspect creating a lack of space in the model that wasn't there in the real thing.

I'd agree with everything Brian has said. Drawing rectangles is easy because there's a specific click-on tool for it, then just use the line tool to go from side to side to the desired width.....and yes, make sure the grid view is on. You can change the grid width setting and select "snap to grid" if required.

Don't be too hard on yourself Joachim, it looks absolutely fine and, let's face it, will not be that easily seen once fitted in the cockpit. As for it fouling the other item of kit, be practical about it - position the camera as a priority and either move or better still, bin the other bit, who's to know!!?

Good stuff Carl, I'll be interested to see how this beautiful model progresses. There's a fascinating article about the He219 in the March edition of Flypast magazine; the development of the aircraft and the story of many of the pilots who flew them.

A fortnight's golf Nick....my life's all rainbows and unicorns!!