1/32 Kitty Hawk T-6/Harvard "Kicked Up A Notch"

[chuck540z3]

April 14/20

 

 

After about 4 ½ months of work, which is a record short time for me, I’ve finished the Kitty Hawk T-6 Texan kit into a Canadian Harvard.  This pandemic we find ourselves in provides plenty of motivation to model, especially when the weather is crappy outside, so I got a lot done the past 2 weeks.  This Harvard Mk 4 is a museum bird that lives at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum near Hamilton, Ontario and as far as I know, it stills flies now and then.  It was built at Canadian Car and Foundry in 1951 and served RCAF flying schools until it was purchased by a private owner in 1965 and later donated to the museum in 1972.

 

I have many pics of this aircraft and all of them show it to be super clean, especially those in the museum hanger.  Other than dirtied up walkways and the characteristically weathered exhaust pipe, it still looks brand new today.  I have always loved the look of these yellow birds and chose this aircraft since the kit decals are the only ones available in 1/32 that I know of.  This kit presented many, many challenges too numerous to mention, but I have a build log from start to finish here for those who might be interested:

 

Work in Progress Build Thread

 

Key aftermarket items include:

 

1. #32354 Eduard Exterior and Landing Flaps
2. #32810 Eduard Interior Set
3. #32100 AMS Resin Corrected Prop Blades
4. #BR32380 Barracuda Resin Tires and Wheels
5. #132004 HGW Late Spitfire Fabric Seat Belts
6. AR88015 Archer Decal Rivets (various)
7. Airscale Instrument Decals and Placards
8. And lots of scratch made enhancements

 

Now the pics with a few explanations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The antenna wires look just like this.  Tight, but also kind of sloppy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Landing gear was corrected outwards from the kit anchor points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To replicate a drain tube of some kind found at the bottom of the engine, I used a steel pin.

 

 

 

 

I am most proud of the exhaust, which was modified with the addition of a cockpit heater pipe, then painted with Alclad Steel and Stainless Steel, followed by Tamiya pastels in rust.  Fuel tank caps on the wings were also recessed as per references.

 

 

 

 

A red vent tube was added to the top behind the engine cowling and a steel colored dipstick looking assembly at the bottom.

 

 

 

 

The kit canopy is the weakest part of this kit and doesn’t fit at all, so I modified it with a channel slider at the bottom to hold everything together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the ribbing on the rudder and elevators was sanded down and modified with Archer decal rivets to create a subtle, but lumpy look of fasteners behind fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aileron control arms were replaced with Eduard PE replacements, which include an arm to the small trim tabs.

 

 

 

 

The Eduard landing flaps were a ton of work, but very satisfying to see them completed.

 

 

 

 

For those who might want to see the upper portion of the landing flaps, they look like this.

 

 

 

 

The Eduard set also has control arms for the rudder missing from the kit.  The formation lights were added which should be red, amber and blue in a variety of positions according to references.  Since the amber color would be lost against the yellow fuselage, I added a green one instead, just ‘cause.

 

 

 

 

If you have any questions, fire away.

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited April 18, 2020 by chuck540z3

[Dragon]

Another fantastic build Chuck!

[markiii]

Nice build Chuck and in record time.

What's next on the bench?

I always like following your build threads.

[chuck540z3]

On 4/13/2020 at 8:50 PM, markiii said:

Nice build Chuck and in record time.

What's next on the bench?

I always like following your build threads.

 

 

Thanks.  Special Hobby Hawker Tempest Mk V with lots of resin!

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited June 27, 2020 by chuck540z3

[Gazzas]

Wonderful job, Chuck!

[williamj]

Turned out beautifully Chuck...best I've seen.

[LSP_Ray]

That turned out amazing, Chuck!

Can I publish it on the website?

[dodgem37]

Great show!

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[CZPetrP]

Hi Chuck,

 

amazing modeling work. I watched the building carefully. I like your style of modeling.

Congratulation to very nice Texan.

 

Cheers

Petr

[KitmodellerNZ]

Very nice!

 

Looking forward to your Tempest build.

[Kagemusha]

It's a bit nice, needless to say, thanks for sharing, a great reference build for when I get around to mine. 

 

Great to see a Tempest a'coming over the horizon, a true classic of British aviation.

[ericg]

Lovely build with a great finish!

 

Cheers,

 

Eric.

[R Palimaka]

Beautiful build. It was a pleasure to follow the progress, and a great tutorial in building ...as usual. 

 

"213" was my first Harvard ride at CWHM.

 

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the Tempest.

 

Richard

[chuck540z3]

Thank you very much guys!  To be honest, I'm glad it's over, since this was my second Kitty Hawk model (F-5E) with a clean gloss finish with all the challenges of same.  Time for a dirty bird, like the Tempest.

 

6 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

That turned out amazing, Chuck!

Can I publish it on the website?

 

 

Certainly Ray.  I would be honored.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited April 14, 2020 by chuck540z3

[Rocat]

One more amazing work! Bravo.