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Force Aerienne Congolaise "Harvard"


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Hello All,

Just call me Fluffy. This is my first kit in a looooong time. When I saw this group build, it got me really excited and I decided to build one of stack. I thought I'd start with the Ocidental T-6. I originally intended to build a Katangan T-6, but was looking for something a big brighter and more colorful. I found this example while googling around - it's an example of a Force Aerienne Congolaise Harvard/Texan, as seen here:

Harvard_Congo_DR_1.jpg

I dug out my very old Ocidental T-6, and set to work. I quite liked this kit, although almost nothing fit without modification. It was a challenging build - or maybe I was just out of practice.

Ocidental_zpsdbcf0c19.png

I used the Eduard set, as you can see. I decided to use it instead of the "laser printed" original instrument panels because Eduard does a much finer job, and it's frankly more convenient. I knew I'd need to make my own decals, so I used drawing software to make the star and its surrounding circle, as well as the stripes. A friend printed them with a wax printer (like an ALPS, but fancier).

I'm afraid that I lost a lot of the construction photos, so what was going to be a nice build journal is really cut short. Agh.

Anyway, this is the build, about halfway through:

fuselage_zps1166f49d.png

And a more detailed picture of the cockpit with Eduard P/E:

rear_cockpit2_zps41956706.png

Edited by FluffyK
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Well, I am calling this one done! As I mentioned earlier, I could not get back all the photos from my #%$^ digital camera. But here is the finished plane:

fac_2_zpse313e363.png

fac_5_zps7b4dc923.png

fac_3_zps96e87964.png

fac_six_zps57b225c1.png

fac_4_zpsbc42f99c.png

fac_four_zps6db464ba.png

The decals on the cowl and tail were a bear to put on! They broke and shattered and shed and would not bend or stay straight, argh. I also learned that Tamiya TS sprays dissolve in Solvaset (ask me how I know). I had to repaint the cowl and tail twice. But in the end I think it turned out pretty good.

Thanks for looking.

Edited by FluffyK
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Great job!! Very cool! It may inspire me to start producing something myself.

Thanks, pauly. I got your comment, btw, but for some reason I can't reply to it. I hope you get a chance to do an African bird. If you decide to do a T-6, let me know and I'll see if I can help out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Whoo, was able to recover some construction pics:

Here you can see the plane about 2/3 complete. I actually wound up masking the cockpit six separate times, because the mask kept slipping and I was scared I'd spray the cockpit into a silver ruin. You can also see the enormous hole Ocidental provide for the antenna - any larger and it would fallen in.

IMG_8923_zps532034ed.jpg

Here is the rudder, which fortunately was a separate piece and easy to paint. This is the first of four coats (in three separate attempts) to paint it:

rudder064_zps1df9dd4c.jpg

Here is the plane very nearly done. But I decided to change the cowling stripe pattern, because it didn't look right. So I removed the decals, re-primed and resprayed and reapplied the decals in the new pattern, which I think looks better:

IMG_8932_zpsb3e18255.jpg

Thanks for looking.

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