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


Out2gtcha

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Guest Peterpools

Hi Brian

Nice to see you back at the bench and know all too well right now about bench time being oh so rare.

terrific work on the front office and looking forward to a OOB build.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

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Several things to note here:

 

- KHM has significantly improved things in each of their latest releases

- Substantial improvement in certain areas of design

- Additional detail and changes have been made with each new release

 

 

KHM,have vastly improved and added details and engineering to each kit they produce, and each time, things like design and engineering seem to improve. I give Glen and KHM MAJOR kudos for this, as that is ALL anyone can ask for..........when and where there are design or engineering problems, they seem to readily be able to improve them as they are noticed or picked out. 

 

A perfect example of this is the R-1820 in KHMs T-28.  Previous engines have been decent, but some design and/or engineering issues prevented them from being great. Although this engine is far from perfect there are some notable improvements here.............

 

- For one, KHM now includes a separate ring with the push rods, making the ends fit neatly into slots on the top of each cylinder.

- The re-design of the engine now includes a "stacked and locked" type of configuration that sees the ring for the push rods, as well as a connector ring for the ignition ring all stacked below/behind the engine case, which also keeps both in situation nicely.

- KHM have seemed to listen to us, and now certain delicate parts have not only been re-designed (most notably the ignition ring design!) to be MUCH stronger, but they have seemingly stopped puting 1,592 spue gates on super tiny and/or delicate parts.

- They are now including spark plug wires WITH the newly redesigned ignition ring, all using plastic that doesn't seem to be too brittle or delicate (at least on MY copy

 

 

I did some very initial work on the engine, which is VERY, VERY nice IMHO. You can see below, the outer lip on the engine face/casing with the notch at the bottom that directly corresponds to the ring and notch in the ignition ring in the background:

 

 

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As I mentioned above, KHM has really done a GREAT job of identifying problem areas in their kits, and dealing with them nicely. 

In the past, as in the case of the KHM OS2U, the ignition ring was  SUPER delicate small ring, that was held to the sprue by 6 or more sprue gates, and it was just about fully impossible to remove without breaking it into multiple pieces. 

 

The new KHM T-28 ignition ring has now been redesigned with a flat inner ring inside of the actual ignition ring, that sets under the front of the engine housing to keep things stable, and offer the ignition ring itself some MUCH needed strength as well.

The new T-28 ignition ring also now comes with some very decent looking plug wires too, all with about a total of 1 - 3 spue gates too, and NO sprue gates to the plugs themselves at all!

 

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I know it was not much of an update, but kudos are due when they are due, and I give props to KHM for this type of improvement. KHM kits are far from perfect, but their price point, overall outlines, general fit and engineering seem to be progressing and improving with each subsequent release.

Great job Kitty Hawk! 

 

 

 

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Props indeed to KHM, how great it is to see a manufacturer actually listening and responding so rapidly to feedback.

I grew up in the days of Revell and Monogram kits, where the mould was set in steel (better than stone) and there was no way in the world of communicating with the designers, those were 'take what you're given' days.

 

We are a spoilt lot nowadays and I LOVE IT

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Thanks for the kind words, and indeed you are correct.................we live in the Golden ara of LSPs for SURE.  I love the fact that Glen and KHM have in fact listened to the feedback on their kits, and indeed have made changes for the better!

 

 

Although slow, I HAVE actually been making some progress!  :lol: 

 

On to it then.................

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I kicked things off, by assembling the gear wells. I assembled the fuselage sections of the MLG wells, and got them installed in the fuselage. (no pics of that actually) These are a VERY precise fit, and if they were a mm or two wider, they would not let the fuse close up at all. 

 

I then assembled the semi-fiddly wing mounted sections of the MLG wells, as well as the nose gear wells, and sprayed some MM insignia white on them (VERY shiny stuff and usually takes a full day to cure/harden off, but works well for wells as you dont have to gloss clear it to add a wash). Right after I sprayed the insignia white, I also sprayed some acrylic GZC on all the cowl interior parts to make a full AB session:

 

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Then during the same AB painting session, I sprayed some flat clear on all the cockpit parts, so I could move forward to assembling the pit, and then fuselage respectively.

Now that the flat is applied, you can really see how well the KHM OOB decals sunk down on to the raised detail of the IPs and side consoles. The side console decals were the true surprise, in that I knew they would conform, but did not know they would snuggle down quite this well. The flat really brought out the contours well. This is JUST out of the spray booth, and I still have not added the rudder pedals, nor scratched up the throttle/trim/flap levers yet however. At this point, I also still needed to put a drop of MS Krystal Klear in each of the IP bezels to simulate glass:

 

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I also got the engine more or less finished up as well. I have not done the exhausts yet as I keep forgetting them, but will knock them out soon, as I am inching closer and closer to finishing up all the needed parts to close up the fuselage:

 

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Lastly for this section I also knocked out the PE seat belts. I had been dreading this as most times I dont enjoy working with PE seatbelts that much, but it is what is in the box, so its what I used. 

These actually did not present as much of a problem as I have had in the past w/PE belts, and they really played well actually.

 

I used my normal process for dealing with PE belts:

 

1 - Annealed all PE including belts on fret 

2- Quench PE fret

3 - Remove belts and bend as needed to position on seat

4 - Semi-attach belts to seat to paint 

5 - Paint belts on seat and glue in w/thin CA

 

Seats here in process, but not fully painted as I still have to paint the buckles and add some wash/weathering:

 

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Tiz all for now lads..................as soon as all this paint and clear dries, I can start weathering the cowl parts, then the well parts, and finally Ill make the exhaust, and SHOULD be ready to assemble the fuselage fairly soon.

I have to use some vactaion time at work, as I have 177 hours of vacation to use before my re-up happens on June 8th, and my partner is taking some time this month, so I have to start taking some of the time this week, then will need to use another couple weeks in May in order to not loose any time.

 

Ill have Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun off this week, so Im hoping I can get some REALLY big chunks of Glens T-28 done!! 

 

Cheers!

 

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Thanks guys. These absolute 100% OOB builds can be really nice refresher. It really takes you back to the skills we all used to have to employ when we were younger. For the most part it makes me seem to try to get the absolute best out of what only comes in the box, and knowing you dont have to scratch most anything is really nice.

 

I think Im probably going to go the opposite way next, and dive into the FLY Wessex with some resin and add ons.

 

Thanks again for stopping in on me. 

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Thanks all, and yes, they were a PITA, but not as bad after I annealed them.   Well, its kind of naught to 100 on the build for me!  I was distracted by work and Blue (the Jeep) but since Ive had a few days off, and its been cold and rainy out, Ive made substantial progress on Glens T-28........

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Started off by finishing up the seat belts, which included bending them in the proper positions, painting and weathering. They really started cooperating well after annealing:

 

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Next, I made the only scratch built additions I will make to this entire build, and that is the throttle/flap/trim quadrant. There are no provisions in the kit for these, so if you want to add them, your on your own, at least till (hopefully) KittyHawk will start to include these pieces.  

In my case, I wanted to stick to as close to 100% OOB build on this as I could, but its hard to add OOB parts that are not in the box. I also assembled the pit in its entirety, (without glue) and it just did not look right without something there, so I took some PE from the spares drawer and cobbled some thing simple together. This included a PE & polystyrene square rod throttle lever.  This is nothing fancy nor totally accurate, but I think it look good in situ, and fills the otherwise completely odd looking VOID:

 

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Once all the paint in the wheel wells had fully cured, and since I had all of the cockpit now fully done, I decided there was no time like  the present to glue the fuselage together..................So thats just what I did, and then even finished the exhaust, glued it on, then added the completed engine assembly (you can see by where the model is now balancing how much an extra 1.6 Oz of lead that far forward can effect the CG!  :lol:  ) :

 

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While I was at it, I also got the wings glued together, gave all of the wheel wells a good wash in dark dirt, and even managed to get the speed brake glued in, in the closed position:

 

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I know its likely supposed to be gloss white inside the speed brake well, but I didnt really realize this until it was already closed up and too late. Although i dont know for sure how the older birds were, I like the look of the GZC better anyway, as it will be a nice contrast with the white when done:

 

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

 

 

 

 

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While I was at it, as this all had previously cured, I figured I might as well see if I could assemble the fiddly looking 4 piece cowl assembly. This did in fact turn out to be fiddly, but it also in the end fit really well. Just make sure to take you time and line things up and you wont have any fit issues..............and if you do; it just may be something you did and not the kit. I thought I had fit issues a couple times, but it turns out in both cases, I just just had something misaligned (thankfully both in the dry-fit phase) myself. In the end the fit was excellent, and this will indeed be a great looking model once on the tables:

 

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The fit of the 4 part cowl is really good, and the parts around the air/oil cooler are very smartly engineered with fit reflecting. Finish sanding still to come on these parts, as although the fit is good, I still need to smooth them out before paint:

 

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This particular OOB cockpit I think is one of the better ones Ive turned out, as the IP and side console decals turned out surprisingly well, and contoured better than even I could have expected. I can only think things will get even better once Eduard gives the Trojan some love:

 

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Thats all for tonight's installment ladies and germs..................Im sure Ill be back hitting it again tomorrow, so Ill see how far I can go! 

 

 

Cheers!

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