MikeMaben Posted September 24, 2021 Share Posted September 24, 2021 Wow ! Nice work Derek DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted June 23, 2022 Author Share Posted June 23, 2022 The Wirraway was armed with two forward-firing Vickers Mk.V guns. Gas Patch Models sell a lovely replica Mk.V but unfortunately they feature the water-cooled barrels. So after a bit of hunting around I found that the Air Master "Japanese Type 97" gun barrels would nicely replicate the air-cooled barrels of the Vickers Mk.V So after carefully hacking off the water-cooled barrel, I drilled and glued the lovely brass perforated Air Master barrel onto the first of my Mk.V guns. Sadly I lost the forward mounting point (will have to be more careful on the second gun). The Type 97 barrel is 1mm too short, and I still need to add a conical flash suppressor at the muzzle, but I'm pleased with this outcome. Landrotten Highlander, Sasha As, themongoose and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiZac Posted June 25, 2022 Share Posted June 25, 2022 Lovely work Derek! This is the sort of thing that would've had me tearing my hair out. I'm excited to see them in place! DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted June 26, 2022 Author Share Posted June 26, 2022 (edited) First step in converting the T-6 wing to a Wirraway wing... I've trimmed a wedge from the inboard end of the outer wing panels, so the trailing edge is now straight and the leading edges have increased sweep angle. This was about a 30-second job on my woodworking disk sander. The 120-grit paper cut through the wing like butter, more melting than sanding! I taped a Lego block (2x6) under the wing-tip to retain the correct dihedral... simple. The Wirraway wing is almost identical to a BC-1 or a Harvard Mk.1 wing in its shape and structure (apart from the additional hard-points added to the underside by CAC). The inboard end of the aileron cut-outs matches the Wirraway position, and the landing lights also match the position for the Wirraway wing. Next step is to modify the tips and then re-scribe all the surface detail... Edited June 26, 2022 by DerekB Starfighter, themongoose, MikeMaben and 7 others 9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted June 26, 2022 Share Posted June 26, 2022 Great to see some progress on this one, Derek. Kev DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiZac Posted June 30, 2022 Share Posted June 30, 2022 Magic! DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted August 25, 2023 Author Share Posted August 25, 2023 Still working away slowly at this big Wirraway, while building some smaller ones (see on Britmodeller if you're interested). The Wirraway engine cowl was significantly different to the T-6/Harvard cowl. It is perfectly circular and does not flare out towards the rear. So I've been experimenting with 3D printing... below are three different 3D printed cowls. On the left (white) an early attempt in FDM, clearly not acceptable. At the rear (dark grey) is a first attempt via Shapeways which was very pleasing. But the wall thickness was only 0.6mm and it was too flimsy. Then on the right (light grey) is another print from Shapeways, with the walls thickened up to 1.4mm and this was nice and solid. It needs another coat of Mr. Surfacer and a little more sanding to remove the printing artefacts on the surface. I probably should have increased the resolution of my model, but it will work fine with some more help. So the basic shape of the engine cowl is sorted, now it just needs some scribing and rivets added. More to come... sandokan, Landrotten Highlander, LSP_Kevin and 8 others 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 So glad to see this one is still alive and well Derek! I live in hopes of a Harvard I some day, a man can dream! DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted August 26, 2023 Share Posted August 26, 2023 Nice to see this back on the bench Derek , have you a particular subject/scheme in mind yet ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted August 26, 2023 Author Share Posted August 26, 2023 48 minutes ago, MikeMaben said: Nice to see this back on the bench Derek , have you a particular subject/scheme in mind yet ? Hi Mike, yes, this will be finished as A20-10, the oldest Wirraway still in existence, which I helped restore for static display back about 9 years ago. Here she is back in early 1940: And here she is when we rolled her out at the Moorabbin Air Museum in September 2014: So references are not a problem! Shoggz, KiwiZac, sandokan and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiZac Posted September 28, 2023 Share Posted September 28, 2023 I'm so excited to see progress on this Derek! DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted September 30, 2023 Author Share Posted September 30, 2023 (edited) Rhinoplasty continues... I've trimmed the fuselage cowlings (the fixed panels just aft of the engine cowling) to the correct length, now I need to blend them in to the exactly circular shape of the engine "dishpan". You can see the upper panels in front of the windscreen need to slope down more sharply, and the "jowls" around the wheel fairings need to be shaped to the correct profile. The KittyHawk T-6 kit is poorly shaped around the fillet between the wheel fairings and the underside of the forward fuselage - wrong even for a T-6. Not obvious is that the sides of the fuselage cowl also need to be expanded outwards to meet the dishpan. Fuselage cowl trimmed to length: The view from the front, with the Wirraway “dishpan" in about the correct location: And from below the nose... Edited September 30, 2023 by DerekB Landrotten Highlander, KiwiZac, Fanes and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiZac Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 Outstanding, Derek! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 So I was working on the outer wings, sanding off the existing surface detail ready for re-scribing and getting ready to cut and modify the tips. But all this work was too much for the glue seams at the leading and trailing edges, and they eventually split open. The outer wings were just too flexible to take all this work. So to strengthen them, I decided to add two spars, which I measured and cut from some 1.0mm styrene sheet. They're black because that's what I had. You can see two sets of outer wings in the photo below... the dark grey set are for this Wirraway conversion. The light grey set are for my "Hot Rod Harvard" project (these will be clipped and modified to represent CAC Boomerang outer wings). A third set (not shown) will be made for my "Gee Bee's Wirraway" project (standard Texan wings clipped by 24 inches at each tip). Landrotten Highlander, Fanes, LSP_Kevin and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiZac Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 I'm so pleased to see progress on this, Derek. Lovely work. DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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