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KH T-6/Harvard Kicked Up A Notch: Apr 14/20: Finished!


chuck540z3

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6 hours ago, matto21 said:

Inspirational build as ever Chuck. 

 

Regarding the Tamiya Yellow, I always assumed it was called that as it was used on Tamiya's FW14 Williams which had yellow sections sporting the "Camel" logo. 

 

Matt 

 

And the Lotus 99T which was completely Camel Yellow

 

 

Matt 

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  • 2 weeks later...

March 25/20

 

 

I hope this update finds you well.  Thank goodness we have our hobby to keep us from going nuts while being stuck indoors.  Two more months of this and we might have record for completed models! 

 

I’ve got this bird painted now, but before I show that, I was checking to see if the interior of the engine cowling could be seen from the front with the engine installed.  The answer is “very little”, but that’s also a little problem, because the interior is full of pin marks and 4 large tabs that hold the cowling together.  If you peek inside and hunt around you can find them, so that's good enough for me to eliminate them as much as possible.  Sanding off the tabs and filling the sinkholes is hard to do on the thin plastic without damaging it, so I set out to achieve a “good enough” job which also included the Eduard brass PE detail, just in case you can see it too.

 

 

jWxAwY.jpg

 

 

After paint.  I found the inside cowling color to be all over the map from Aluminum to Interior Green, so I picked Aluminum to highlight the added detail.  You won't be able to see the slight yellow over spray at the front when the cowling is installed.

 

 

twAeo1.jpg

 

 

For the yellow paint I used Tamiya TS-34 Camel Yellow decanted from a rattle can, which is almost the perfect color of most Canadian Harvard Trainers.  Like most yellow paint, coverage over a darker base can be problematic, so I painted a white primer coat as shown earlier.  Even with the white base, however, I needed at least 5-6 coats of paint to cover everything!  Lots of paint fills lots of rivet and panel line detail, so I was quite worried that all this paint would ruin the fine detail that I created earlier.  However, everything turned out pretty darn good in the end, as the paint dried and shrunk into this detail after 2-3 days of drying time.  Whew!

 

I now think this paint is made for mostly car models, where the focus is on a deep and shiny paint job.  I had the same problem with coverage with Tamiya TS-8 Italian Red a few years ago on my P-38L, where I needed a similar number of coats to cover.  Tamiya AS series of spray paints are made for aircraft and cover very well, but colors are limited, while the new line of lacquer paints in a bottle do not include Camel Yellow.  In any case, the TS-34 still worked very well as shown below.

 

 

6OLUBW.jpg

 

 

VjCaFI.jpg

 

 

I am also pleased to say that I think I nailed the look of the ribbing on the elevators and rudder, where the rivet detail underneath is still there, but subtle.

 

 

3hZb6Z.jpg

 

 

For the black walkways, I went back to my go-to method of using textured paint out of a spray can, in this case Krylon Fushion “Textured Shimmer”, rather than Rustoleum textured paint.  While effective, the Rustoleum paint comes out of the can a bit too rough for scale, so you need to sand it down later. 

 

The first step is to mask off the walkways and then COVER EVERYTHING with a kitchen garbage bag, to avoid over spray.

 

 

HpMF6m.jpg

 

 

What do I mean by over spray?  THIS and it’s not for the faint of heart or without lots of practice.  After vigorously shaking the can, you spray in sweeping strokes and never directly at the model, which is why it’s all over the place.  The goals are even coverage and not too thick or thin.

 

 

tqPT8E.jpg

 

 

A closer look.  Some of this spray is clear, hence the blotchy appearance.  After drying for at least 15 minutes, I then sprayed a cover coat of flat black, then removed all masking tape within an hour of spraying.  If you leave the masking tape on too long, it may become impossible to remove, because the paint is very hard when dry.

 

 

1xz89s.jpg

 

 

With such a high color contrast, I also used the kitchen bag method for the gloss black on the top of the front fuselage area, which was airbrushed.  You would think that this should be flat black as well to reduce glare in front of the windscreen, but all my references show that it’s glossy.  Note the subtle but very real over spray, which would be nasty on yellow.

 

 

IVAvYn.jpg

 

 

The results.  Note that I haven’t added any details like flaps, aileron control arms or antennae yet due to risk of breakage.  The front engine cowling is only dry fit.

 

 

xubslb.jpg

 

 

The walkways turned out just like I hoped with no sanding required. They are slightly rough, but to scale rough, but are also tough to photograph in these high contrast conditions.  I will add some pastels to them later to show minor wear at the end of the build, which will highlight them more.

 

 

2ARtIs.jpg

 

 

The gloss black turned out pretty good as well, which also helps to hide the crude fit of Part D5 to the front fuselage, which is the same demarcation line.  Note the brass cowling fitting at the top I added earlier.

 

 

mQo7x7.jpg

 

 

Other side…

 

 

qWHfNq.jpg

 

 

And top view.  Note that the angled front of the walkways are due to panel lines at the front I added earlier, which is why most walkways are painted this way.

 

 

Zs6A20.jpg

 

 

Another angle of the ribs on the elevators and rudder.

 

 

MGP7WF.jpg

 

 

And finally the bottom, where everything is yellow, including the wheel wells and rear flaps.

 

 

7w6RpS.jpg

 

 

Next up decals and other little bits.  I will be using the kit decals that I understand are quite good, but you don’t have much time to move them around much.  Thankfully with my second kit to replace the canopy parts, I have a second set of decals just in case I screw up one or six. :o

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Looks great, Chuck!

 

Quote

Next up decals and other little bits.  I will be using the kit decals that I understand are quite good, but you don’t have much time to move them around much.  Thankfully with my second kit to replace the canopy parts, I have a second set of decals just in case I screw up one or six.

 

I also have plenty of left-overs if you need any.

 

Kev

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10 minutes ago, Smokey said:

Chuck,  another excellent build of yours.  Very bright aircraft you got there.  Dan

 

Thanks Dan and to give me the inspiration to get this build over the goal line, here is my subject again, all clean in a hanger at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum near Hamilton, Ontario.  The Kitty Hawk kit has these exact decals.

 

ZcBZ2p.jpg

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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9 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Looks great, Chuck!

I also have plenty of left-overs if you need any.

 

Kev

 

Thanks Kevin.  While two sets of decals should be good, I've been known to use 4, so you never know!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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Looking good Chuck, as others have said, very bright, almost need :coolio:.  Interestingly the wartime finish from the factory for the anti-glare nose panel was a very dark green but you’re doing the CWHM Harvard which is obviously black.  I’m sure you also know that the props were finished silver on the front face and black on the rear.

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