Converting a Texan/Harvard to a CAC Wirraway

My First love has always been scale, and I have and/or are building, quite a few scale projects. I haven't forgotten the Lancaster and it is almost to the fitting out stage but unfortunately I lost a lot of the build photos due to a camera malfunction. A mate of mine who is a wizard with Photoshop is recovering some of them for me so I will resurrect that thread in due course.

Besides the Witmann Tailwind - which is on another build thread on the forum my latest project is to rebuild my old Harvard and convert it into a CAC Wirraway. This was brought about by a wheels up landing - the bloody air retracts let me down - which caused some major gravel rash - well - a bit more than that so I was faced with the hard question on a favourite model - scrap - or rebuild.

You should know me by now - I'm an old fart - 70 next month!! - I'm catching up to Garry!!!! and I love to do things the hard way - SOOOOO - why just rebuild - HELL NO - not me - I'll go the whole hog and do a conversion as well!!! :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:

The Wirraway is an Australian built and modified version of the NA 16 - the predecessor to the Harvard/Texan - the two aircraft are similar but quite different in some ways - for example the Wirraway has a fabric covered fuselage and heavier armament - It was also used as an attack and dive bomber during the dark early days of WWII - when the Japanese were close to invading. One Wirraway from 4 Squadron RAAF even shot down a Zeke (Zero). I've flown the Wirraway - the real thing that is - and to be quite honest it's a bit agricultural but a part of the history of the RAAF. So the conversion:-

I started off by stripping the balsa sides off the model and replacing them with stringers to represent the fabric covered fuselage - I also stripped down the wings and made a new rudder which is a different shape to the Harvard. My next job is to rebuild the cockpit interior and replace the fuselage top deck from the engine firewall back to behind the Observers (rear cockpit) seat. The rebuild is a slow process as accurate drawings and photos are a bit hard to come by but I have been lucky and now have most of the reference material I need. A few photos to follow in the next post: - My internet connection is playing up and it won't load a big post.

What I started with - the Texan - which became a Harvard - which .........



Will become a Wirraway





I then stripped the model down to the bare essentials





Then I added the stringers to the fuselage sides - 6 per side



And made a new rudder

Some of the detail to be added to the cockpit. I'm duplicating the internal tube structure.








I done a lot of research to get the conversion as near to scale as possible - this is some of the reference material I dragged up. Heaps more not in the photos.






Rebuilding the top deck of the fuselage - tricky to get the contours around the twin Vickers Mk 5 303 machine guns right.

It's still early days yet and my research is not complete - right now I'm trying to make sense of the colours used by the RAAF in WWII - it's a bit of a mine field - just what colour IS foliage green???

www.clubhyper.com/reference/foliagegreenrefgb_1.htm

www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77395

www.redroomodels.com/hints-and-tips-foliage-green.php

www.art-paints.com/Paints/Airbrush/Lifec...-Green-FS-24092.html

on the second link there are links to shops, etc, not sure if any are mail order or close to you but worth a look

Oh - one more thing - power will be a REAL proper IC Engine - My OS Sirius 7 cylinder radial!! It fits into the available cowl space just nicely.

I'd like to keep this post as clean as possible please Ladies & Gentlemen - no one liners please!

Thank you for the references Willow - I have the Red Roo information and their book on the subject - I've been to the RAAF Museum as well and there are two aircraft there allegedly painted in Foliage Green - different colours on each aircraft - I'm actually an ex RAAF pilot and I don't know - the controversy rages on!!!:ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:

'Economy' paint pigments weren't stable, Grumps, so the actual colour would alter over time, due to sun and weather.

I like the conversion you are carrying out and what a dream of an engine or in Garrys case a nightmare,very inpressed love the Harvard/Texan ,I have one thats been treated badly, and crashed 3 times non my fault,other peoples,look forward to seeing this model proceed.

Sorry to add this Grumps, I also have a Harvard / Texan bought second hand in perfect condition It is electric of course, but I have to report it is a superb flyer, and looks the part.

Comment about one liners noted.

Garry

Its interesting that when someone on here gets a plane out you have and it hasnt seen loght of day for a while you become inspored to do something with it.So my Texan has been dug out,Tony has started the glider,so my glider has been dug out,and Christmas is on its way and my Soarrow hawk has been prepared for a flight,now all I need is some business to get some money to but a few bits and bobs,like Lipos,e/motors and ESCs for the winter.
Apologies Grumps,Im swearing on you build thread oops.

When I pulled the Bird of Time out of the back of the hangar I started a new thread and some one reminded me that I was repeating myself - OK - valid point - so now I've started fooling with the Harvard to Wirraway conversion again I'll avoid the same mistake. I have a few photos of some more progress and as soon as I get them re-sized - (they are about 4000 x 3000 and around 5 MB) I'll put them up here.

Since I last worked on this conversion I've had access to the real thing for a look around and it's revealed a couple of things that all the drawings, photos and profiles don't AND -I have the OS Siri... Oh bugger - I've already mentioned that. Stay tuned, I might even drink another 3 cups of coffee and stay up past my bedtime to post the photos tonight - then again I might end up going to sleep on the keyboard.

Well I have one cup of coffee down the hatch and here are a couple more photos: -



Intrepid Blue Box Pilot inspecting his future "office". Well yeah - it does look a little like a (much) younger version of me. :lol: :lol: :lol:


Finally got the elevator and rudder covered in plain solartex - model will be painted in as near to authentic RAAF colours of the period as I can manage


The gun troughs for the twin Vickers Mk 5s had me tricked for a while - 1/16th balsa soaked in warm water for 10 minutes gave me the flexability to bend it without snapping. The handles of a couple of old Xacto knifes gave me the right radius!


Startingto fit out the cockpit internal tubing. The setup is similar to but not identical with the Harvard/Texan. One difference is the paint. All Wirraway cockpits of the period were bare metal -silver dope colour.

The one at the back pretending to "drive" looks funny hehe!

They arent those waving pilots are they? cos they freak me out! :woohoo:

Did you find the right colour/paint in the end?

Now Willow - would I be guilty of freaking out a sweet young thing like yourself?? - Damn right I would! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

But no - they are classic Blue Box pilots - not those wave as you go by electronic things - I've seen one of those in another club member's model - bloody thing jerks around like it has a stick up it's bum. [badass]

And yes Willow - (ooops - had to do a hasty edit there - typed "wollow" !! :lol: ) I did find the right paint colours - the links you gave me were very helpful. Thankyou.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I believe the RAF ones really do have a stick up their bums :evil: :whistle:

You can call me Sarah if you get stuck with willow , was just an internet name I picked 10 years ago and have had it since and cba changing lol.

When will you be ready for painting it?