DerekB

OK, work on the physical model has slowed to a crawl, but some CAD work is still happening... The rear seat in the Wirraway can spin around and face reverse, so the observer can use the rear gun, sight and shoot the camera or lie on the floor to use the bomb-sight. To do this, the rear seat is mounted on a complex frame with a rotating mechanism at the centre of its base. Here is my almost-complete CAD model of the frame, soon to be sent to Shapeways for them to do their magic. Wirraway 32 rear seat frame CAD model by Derek Buckmaster, on Flickr And here's a view of the actual seat framework in A20-10: P1040098 by Derek Buckmaster, on Flickr

Great to see you working on this subject Chuck, I have four of these kits, all destined to end up somewhat modified. So I'm very interested to see what you can do with this one. Great choice of subject too! I'm always amazed to see kit manufacturers coming out with so many inaccuracies in their kits... some are understandable if the subject is rare or poorly documented. But with so many Texans and Harvards around, the mistakes in this kit are unforgivable!! The tail-wheel detail by KH is stupendously poor, and I noticed your solution based on Max's fine work. Since I have 4 of these kits, I've been working on a 3D printed solution to the tail-wheel "knuckle", see my photos below for how it should look: Harvard tail wheel collage by Derek Buckmaster, on Flickr You can see the shape of the fuselage cut-out and the triangular shape of the "knuckle" when viewed from below. It was nice of the Imperial War Museum (Duxford) to hang their Texan up in the air to enable lots of photos of the underside, which you can't normally get! Also, the amount by which the tail-wheel protrudes from the fuselage is due to the fuel and crew load, not related to the position of the tail-wheel. Since the tail-wheel is sprung with an internal pneudraulic cylinder, if the fuel tanks are full and there are 2 pilots on board, the tail-wheel doesn't protrude much at all. In the photos above you can see that with no load on the wheel it is fully extended. Cheers, Derek

splendid work on the model Max. That prop looks like it's ready to slice off a finger!

That looks excellent Max! Great work, and lots of innovative solutions!

OK, work has started. I've added some stringers to the insides of the fuselage side panels and started some interior green painting. And now some playing around... here is the Kitty Hawk Texan kit with a set of CAC Boomerang wings from the cool Alley Cat resin kit... this gives an idea of where this is going... P1080728 by Derek Buckmaster, on Flickr The colours of VH-SNJ are exactly as shown for RNZAF colours in the Kitty Hawk kit. OK, no, I'm not really going to donate the wings from my Alley Cat Boomerang! I'll be converting the Kitty Hawk kit wings to match the Boomerang wings...

Starting another build based on the 1/32 Kitty Hawk Texan kit... Back in 1993, Guido Zuccoli fitted a pair of CAC Boomerang outer wings (built from detailed drawings by Matt Denning) to his Harvard III VH-SNJ! According to Matt, this resulted in a "Hotrod" Harvard which had 10% faster cruise speed, 50% faster roll rate and aileron deflection loads 40% lower! Below is a drawing of a standard Harvard III with the Boomerang outer wings overlaid... Harvard with Boomerang outer wings fitted by Derek Buckmaster, on Flickr Apart from the swapped outer wings, the aircraft was stock, and painted in its original RNZAF colours as NZ1085. Luckily the Kitty Hawk kit includes RNZAF markings, so the fuselage and wing centre section will be quite straightforward and OOB. The canopy framing will need to change.

Max, yes, the Wirraway and the Harvard I shared the same wing design. The conversion of the KH Texan kit to a Wirraway requires lots of surgery, but it's the only thing close in 1/32 scale, so it's a useful starting point. My build log is here: I'm still researching for the other two KH Texan kit builds, so I'll start the build logs for those soon...

I should also have explained that I'm working on 3 of these kits at the moment. Two as Harvards and two as Wirraways. If that doesn't add up, that's because one of the Harvards is a Wirraway. And that statement will make sense when I put up the build logs on these particular models...

Nice work on the tail wheel Max - it's hard to imagine how KH could have got this so wrong on a 1/32 scale kit!

Hi Paulo, actually, my project is an Australian civilian-operated target towing Mustang, with a second seat and target winch installed behind the pilot. Luckily this conversion used a standard canopy. Here's a link to the (slow) build log: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/75745-aussie-target-tug-mustang/

Continuing my preparations for this build... Firstly, I decided that the Hasegawa kit's sparse cockpit details were not going to cut it, since most of the focus for this model is around the cockpit and the modifications for the target towing gear and rear seat. So I sourced a cockpit sprue from the Tamiya P51-D/K Pacific Mustang kit from eBay. Second, I needed better seats, so I purchased two Barracuda Cast seats. So far I haven't found any photos showing the interior of VH-BOZ in target towing configuration, but these seats will be a good start. Third, I picked up an excellent set of photos of VH-BOZ from "The Collection" (search for them on eBay), selected by David Muir, author of Southern Cross Mustangs. These are all very useful. I'm currently working on a 3D CAD model of the Type B towing winch, so that I can get one printed by Shapeways...

I'm enjoying watching this Paolo, as I have to add a rear seat to my Mustang project (although facing rearwards, since the second seat was to operate the target towing winch). Nice work on the two-seat conversion!

Looking fabulous Eric! Curious reversed CAC lettering on the right hand side speedbird. But then I checked, and that's how it comes in the kit!

Nice one Eric, wish I had one of those! Enjoying this CAC build very much!

very sweet work Chris. I was admiring two of these birds in the flesh at Nowra just 3 days ago.