Academy 1/72 N. A. Harvard Mk. II
Well, it only took me a year but I finally finished this beastie. I used Falcon's vac-form canopy to convert Academy's T-6 into an RCAF 402 'City of Winnipeg' squadron Harvard Mk.ll. The long exhaust is Contrail tubing detailed with stretched sprue and a bit of stainless steel tubing for the heater inlet. The ADF 'football' is from an old Heller T-6 as is the engine which I thought was a bit better than Academy's. The engine was detailed with brass wire for the pushrods and ignition harness and fine wire for the sparkplug leads.
The kit propeller isn't bad but lacks hub detail because it is meant to have a spinner on. The missing detail was added using thin slices of plastic tubing and rod. Canopy frames are painted decal strip which very nearly drove me mad by the end. Next time (Next time?!? Bahahahaha....!!) I'll do a Mk. lV - less framing! In retrospect I don't think the Falcon canopy was meant to be open as the section behind the pilot is too small (it should be the same width as the sliding part), but I'm not losing any sleep over it. Nor am I waking up screaming over the (I think) slightly short landing gear legs.
I stretch formed clear plastic over the leading edge of the wing from that Heller Harvard (I knew that wing would come in handy!) for the landing light covers and used MV lenses for the lights.
Naturally I managed to break off the tailwheel whilst cleaning it up so I reinforced it with brass rod and took the opportunity to turn it around backwards (eat your heart out Linda Blair) as it often castors around this way when Harvards are parked. Paint is Xtracolour Roundel Blue and Humbrol Trainer Yellow which is an almost perfect match for the colour chip in IPMS Canada's "Canadian Colours Guide". And no, I didn't lighten it for "scale effect"...!
Decals are a mixture of Arrow Graphics roundels and 24" letters and Letraset RCAF 36" letters. Fin flashes are from IPMS Canada's RCN sheet.
Post war Harvards seem to have been kept pretty clean so I kept weathering to a minimum. Brown and gray pastels were used for a bit of exhaust staining and some dirt on the wingwalks and tires.
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