NA Harvard IIa 20 SFTS Cranborne S Rhodesia (finished)

[Dan Paxton]

   

[mozart]

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!

 

Edited April 13, 2019 by mozart

[LSP_Kevin]

Lovely work, Max! Just remember, though, that this is a KH kit, not a HK one!

 

Kev

[MikeC]

Good to see this one back under way.

 

[mozart]

20 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Lovely work, Max! Just remember, though, that this is a KH kit, not a HK one!

 

Kev

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

[monthebiff]

Good to see you back on this one Max and some nice work on the cockpit. Like your use of the Archer rivets as well. 

 

Regards. Andy

[mozart]

13 minutes ago, monthebiff said:

Good to see you back on this one Max and some nice work on the cockpit. Like your use of the Archer rivets as well. 

 

Regards. Andy

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

 

[Pascal]

Very nice work Max. Where can one buy that figure ?

 

Sincerely

 

Pascal

[mozart]

1 hour ago, Pascal said:

Very nice work Max. Where can one buy that figure ?

 

Sincerely

 

Pascal

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.

 

[mozart]

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! 

[MikeC]

An odd decision indeed.

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Been there, done that! Lovely work so far, Max.

 

Kev

[LSP_Ray]

Maybe because with raised detail at the true joints, it is easier to deal with the joints away from that detail? Doesn't answer why their are 4 parts, though...

[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!

Edited April 16, 2019 by mozart

[Out2gtcha]

Looks great Max!  Pilot really looks the business. I was thinking of a camo bird when I read Rhodesia.  I had just picked up one of Roden's "Rhodesian War "Cessna 337s. 

 

 Looking forward to more progress!