9/11/2010 Wow it’s been a long time since my last entry. But this is a good one. This is the 1/48 scale model by Planet Models of the BT-13. This aircraft was used extensively in WWII to train thousands of pilots – my dad was one of them. You can check out his story on his page right HERE.
This is my first all resin kit – it’s a limited run model and comes with a vacuformed canopy. That was a first too. The wing comes in one piece which is beautiful. The horizontal and vertical stabilizers have no tabs to locate them – that makes attachment and lining them up very difficult since all gluing has to be done using superglue. I tried several ways to mask off the canopy frames – I tried everything and ended up masking it just like I would a full scale canopy. I used very small thin strips of Tamiya masking tape. Then the canopy was sprayed first with iinterior green then the blue exterior color. I then diped the canopy in Future and set it aside to dry. I used Micro Scale white glue to attach the canopy and Tamiya paints for everything except the interior green which was Model Master. I finished the a/c with a coat of Future with Windex added to improve flow and a couple of drops of Tamiya flat base to reduce the sheen.
I drilled out the landing lights and painted the recess chrome silver then when that was dry added a drop of 5 minute epoxy for lenses. Instead of the vacuformed light covers I used clear celophane tape carefully trimmed. The landing gear had brake hoses added and were attached with 5 minute epoxy. The engine also had the push rods and ignition wiring added.
This model took me about 6 weeks to build and all in all was a pleasant experience. I learned a lot about resin models.
Now on to the pictures….
