The Brazilian Air Force, FAB, received 50
T-6G (serials 1650 to 1699) post-war and also converted earlier T-6 models
to T-6G as well. They were used for training, liaison and armed
reconnaissance. A visit to Rio de Janeiro in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s was always marked by the roar of T-6s
flying from the Afonsos air base and other airports. My rendition
represents a T-6D trainer converted to T-6G based the Aeronautics School
at Afonsos, in Rio de Janeiro.
The Heller kit is essentially a re-worked
Ocidental kit with some minor details introduced such as new locating pins
and tabs in some parts, and an enclosed main landing gear well. The
quality of the molding is not at all what I remember from Heller in the
early ‘80s. The plastic is soft and my kit suffers from many sink holes,
dents, and a couple of short shot parts. Despite having the markings for a
US T-6D and a French T-6G, it looks like the boxing was really meant to be
for a Harvard. The canopy pieces cater for both styles of framing yet the
rear piece has a curved lower edge as on the Harvard. Other Harvard traits
are the reduced framing at the top of the canopy pieces, and a cut-out on
the bottom right trailing edge of the engine cowling for the extended
exhaust shroud. Unlike my Ocidental /HTC kit, it includes the
“football” style DF antenna fairing, yet nothing else to cater for the
D version.
For improvements I separated the elevators
and posed them deflected down as in real life; corrected the pitot tube;
thinned out the engine cowling and filled in the exhaust cut-out; removed
the rudder lights, though I had to put them back (make sure your reference
is of the right version); added ignition wires to the front of the engine;
hollowed out the exhaust pipe; added True Details T-6 wheels; and added MV
Products light lenses to the wings, replacing the kit covers with clear
tape trimmed to fit. I left the cowling unglued so I can remove it and
show the engine detail. Something I discovered is the DF loop on the T-6G
is mounted further back than on the T-6D so I repositioned it accordingly.
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I
used most of the canopy pieces from my Ocidental T-6D as they are for a
T-6G, and replaced the Harvard style rear canopy with a Squadron vacuform.
The curved bottom edge of the kit part is incorrect for the T-6G and I
would have to reshape the fuselage to accommodate it. I didn’t use the
whole vacuform canopy because I was concerned with all the masking and
precision cutting needed.
I primed the model with Alclad Grey Primer
and sanded it with Micromesh to remove the gritty texture of the
plastic. The fuselage is painted in Alclad II Duraluminum and the flying
surfaces with a mix of Tamiya Orange with some Sky Blue added to bring out
a brownish tone. The instructions from my Ocidental T-6 kit, from where
the decals came from, called for Daygloo (sic)
Orange
on the flying surfaces. In reality the orange used is not Dayglo; it’s
way more fade resistant and has a slightly brownish tinge to it. The
engine has a mix of Alclad II Duraluminum and Steel with Tamiya Flat
Yellow on the crank case. The exhaust pipe started with Alclad II Steel,
then Model Master Rust enamel with Tamiya Smoke over it.
The
initial paint finish was glossy enough that I did not use Future before
adding the decals. As usual with the early FCM decals I trimmed the clear
film as close as I could, used lots of Micro Set and then ran my finger
nail lightly over the panel lines once the decal was dry. I then gave the
model a final coat of Future mixed with Tamiya Flat Base (5:1) to tone
down the shine.
I
found no reference pictures for this particular T-6G but I did find ones
for other Brazilian T-6Gs in Airliners.net. A check of the serial numbers
revealed one of them was also a converted T-6D and it looked no different
than a factory built T-6G. The last image is the T-6D I used as color
reference; it is mounted in front of a restaurant in
Paraguaçú,
Brazil.
Happy
modeling.
References:
Wlad
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