FluffyK Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 (edited) 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: 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. 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: And a more detailed picture of the cockpit with Eduard P/E: Edited December 10, 2013 by FluffyK Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FluffyK Posted December 10, 2013 Author Share Posted December 10, 2013 Forgot to mention - any questions or commments are welcome. Fluff Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pauly boy Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Very interesting subject!! Can't wait to see it done. A Katangan version would have been very cool. These kind of build don't come along very often. Cheers Paul Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FluffyK Posted December 10, 2013 Author Share Posted December 10, 2013 (edited) Hi pauly, I found this image of a Katangan bird: but I've also seen it in gray/green instead of brown/green, so I don't know which is right. This Biafran one is also pretty neat: Edited December 10, 2013 by FluffyK Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pauly boy Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 A Katangan or a Biafran Harvard, maybe both, is on my list of builds along with several other obscure African projects. Anyhow, looking forward to your completion of this project. Enjoy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FluffyK Posted December 16, 2013 Author Share Posted December 16, 2013 (edited) 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: 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 December 16, 2013 by FluffyK Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pauly boy Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Great job!! Very cool! It may inspire me to start producing something myself. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FluffyK Posted December 16, 2013 Author Share Posted December 16, 2013 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FluffyK Posted December 25, 2013 Author Share Posted December 25, 2013 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. 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: 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: Thanks for looking. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vince14 Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 Excellent model, and in a very interesting scheme as well! Vince Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FluffyK Posted December 26, 2013 Author Share Posted December 26, 2013 Excellent model, and in a very interesting scheme as well! Vince Thank you very much! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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