Subject: Re: CA5 Wirraway for ANZAC DAY 25 April 2011 please Steve
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Phil & Rhonda Mead" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2011 12:24:45 -0700

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
ARC Air - Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.arcair.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Phil & Rhonda Mead 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 11:32 PM
  Subject: CA5 Wirraway for ANZAC DAY 25 April 2011 please Steve

  Gallery Article Template

  "Special Hobby 1/48 Wirraway" 

  by "Phil Mead"
  --------------------

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  If you wander through the Aviation Hall of the Australian War Memorial you will find the fuselage of a CAC CA5 Wirraway utility/trainer aircraft (A20-103) displayed as it was in 1942.  This aircraft is a part of Australian aviation folk lore. 

  On the 26th of December 1942 FO Archer and his observer were carrying out an armed reconnaissance flight near Buna in New Guinea when a Japanese fighter appeared out of the cloud below them so Archer lowered the nose and shot it down.  Now, how many Harvards shot down a fighter?  Don't get me wrong, the ratio of victories is very much in favour of the Japanese fighters particularly during the defence of Rabaul so it was a small victory and much needed for morale.

  Some think that the Wirraway is a version of the Harvard but this is not the case and if you look at the included photo of them in formation at Temora you will see that there are many visible differences.

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  Now, a bit of grovelling.  Thank you Special Hobby for producing two wonderful and uniquely Australian aircraft in the CAC Wirraway and Boomerang.  It is refreshing to find a company prepared to produce a kit which is not another Bf109/Spitfire variant.  Please keep it up because my tongue is hanging out for that DAP Beaufort you announced ages ago and the Firefly Mk5/6 you recently announced and please release a CA19 Boomerang soon.  Everybody should buy one.  

  The Special Hobby Kit is supposed to represent a CA9 Wirraway which is one of the later versions but after looking at many photos of Wirraways I could not say it represents any particular version but I would rather have a 95% correct Wirraway than none.  Red Roo Models makes a correction update for this kit if you want a real CA9.  I didn't.  Because I had decals for the famous CA5 A20-103 I decided to build it instead and the conversion was simple.

  The Build

  We begin in the cockpit with two very nice instrument panels which include instrument faces printed on film.  I think that the Pilot's panel is a work of Art, not totally accurate, but when it is installed you can hardly see it anyway because the canopy is moulded shut which is a great pity.  The Observer's panel is very visible, both front and back, so I found it necessary to add the bodies of the instruments and some wiring to the back of it.  The seats have etched metal seat belts which look very good. 

  The Red Roo update has corrected radios included so I suppose that the kits are inaccurate.  I used them anyway and found that the radio shelf was difficult to put into place because of the position of the rear control stick.  I realised later that this would have been stowed on the side in this aircraft but, too late!  

   

  The interior framework is well represented and the instructions need to be studied closely at this stage.  If you do it will look good.  I added a few extra levers such as the undercarriage and flap levers which I noticed in photos but it probably is not necessary.  The instrument panel floats in mid air on the instruction sheet and it is up to your imagination to work out where to attach it.  Eventually I worked out that it was meant to fit up under the forward fuselage cowl but I couldn't get it to fit.  As the Machine gun ledge is attached to its rear I made my own arrangements with some evergreen plastic (see photo) and lots of dry fitting.

  After closing the fuselage I found that the firewall (A7) didn't fit so Milliput was used to fill the gap (all the way around).  The engine is also a wonderful representation of the geared PW Wasp and fun to detail (see photo).  Again it is not fully evident how it should be attached.  I filed down what I thought was extra resin and used it as a spacer.  Be careful here because the position of the engine will determine where your engine cowling ends up.  If you glue the engine too close to the firewall you will not be able to fit the exhaust pipes on.  In fact there is a noticeable gap between the fuselage and the engine cowling.  

  The engine cowling as far as I could make out was only held in position by the air intake underneath it and was going to wobble about a bit - most precarious.  I found a photo of a Wasp engine in Wikipedia and it showed wiring running around between the tappet covers.  I put this wire on to the engine (see photo) so that it was sticking up a bit and this now helps hold the cowling in place .  The CA9 has an air intake on the front of the cowling at the 10 o'clock position but the CA5 I was building doesn't so I filled it with Milliput and filed it to the shape of the cowl.  Easy!   The photos I had of the CA5 did not have part C26 on the lower intake so I left it off.

  The wings are straight forward with the wheel wells to be added.  There are some noticeable pipes running along the top back of the wells so I added some evergreen rod to represent them.  The Wing and fuselage joint reminds me of the Monogram Harvard kit.  The protruding main wheel well has a joint which doesn't fit together easily and I had to use Milliput again and it wasn't easy to get it right.  A little Milliput was used along the wing joint but not as much as some big name kits need.

  There are lots of little bits on this plane.  Photo etched bits stick up everywhere and normally I would leave them off until it is painted but this time they had to go on beforehand.  I found the Pitot tube in two pieces and so decided to make my own.  The kit does provide landing lights but I replaced them with some craft shop shiny bits.  The clear covers didn't fit and by the time I had finished making them fit I had to fill gaps as well but they do add to the appeal.  Little etched metal brackets and wiring are provided for the control surfaces and they look good but I had to be careful not to knock them over and they were a hindrance during the painting (probably not a problem for a master modeller).   EZ Line was used for the aerials and glued in place with super glue.   The kit comes with six tiny clear lights that I could not imagine picking up in my big fingers so I substituted some CMK resin clear lights that were marginally larger.  Small metal bits are provided as link points on the undercarriage legs but you probably won't notice them if you didn't put them there and you will need to shave off the plastic which also represents them.  Some parts such as the Scarffe ring and the gun mount are included but not mentioned on the instruction sheet.  Have a look at the sprues for extras.

  Paint.  

  I really should have looked at my references before I started to build this plane and I have plenty of them.  Complacency was in top gear here!  The interior colour I used was the colour used on post war Australian built Mustangs and Winjeels, not Wirraways.  The RAAF had its own cockpit Green which is much less grey then the RAF colour.  Having said that you will notice that the restored fuselage in the AWM is painted with aluminium Lacquer on the inside.  Why didn't I look at the photos?  I will also add that I have photographed a number of aircraft in the AWM and talked to the restoration people.  They take their paint seriously and I believe that, through thorough investigation, they get it right.

  Inside the wheel wells and engine cowling was painted with an unusual Greeny Grey which is hard to replicate.  Only CAC seems to have used this colour.  My solution was a 1:1 ratio of Tamiya XF19 and XF22.  The easy found camouflage colour was Foliage Green (FS34092/Gunze H302).  RAAF Earth Brown is supposed to be FS30099 and the only brand available is Poly S.  This paint does not agree with my Badger 200 and continually clogs it up.  I think that it represents Curtis Dark Earth more than Earth Brown.  Some friends at IPMS Queensland mixed a 1:1 ratio of Gunze Dark Earth H72 and Mahogany H85 and the result looks just right.  The underside is RAAF Sky Blue FS35550 also available from Poly S.  The kit suggests Gunze Sky Blue H25 but this is a lot darker and deeper.  I mixed 3 parts Testors 2109 French Light Blue/Gray to 1 part Testors 2720 Classic White and the result matched the Poly S colour.

  The aircraft was glossed up with two coats of Testors Glosscote Lacquer and after decaling finished off with Testors Dullcote.  

  Decals (UGH!!!!)

  Where to begin?  For years I have used Aussie Decals products and found them to be of the highest quality.  Well not any more.  A change of owner has brought a change in the printing method with disastrous results (especially for those of us that stocked up without looking first).  The roundels had lines of missing print in the white and lines of red through the blue.  They were very amateurish and unusable.  We spend hours doing our best work only to find the decals let us down at the end.  Fortunately the important decals of the nose art and serials were printed using a different method and were useable.  For the roundels I used the kit decals for the wings (and they are very good decals) but I was forced to use the fuselage decals from Aussie decals and try to patch them up with blue and white paint (it ain't pretty).  No decal film can be seen (take note Mr Airfix).

          
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  Conclusions.

  Well there it is.  Please forgive my rantings; I really did enjoy making this kit.  It is not for the beginner and the rivet counters have already found a few inaccuracies but it looks like a Wirraway and, like a lot of Aussie modellers, I've been waiting 25 years for such a kit.  It was a challenge but well worth it.  I will approach the Boomerang with a better idea of what is needed I think.

  Special Hobby kits are well moulded with lots of those little parts that make it look more realistic and I commend them for their efforts.

  References

  RAAF Camouflage & Markings (Geoffrey Pentland)

  Wirraway parts 1, 2 & 3 Aviation History Colouring Book (Ian K Baker)

  Wirraway, Boomerang & CA15 in Australian Service (Stewart Wilson)

  My own photos

  "Phil Mead"

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  Just delete any of the boxes below you don't need.....it's not important to include them.....they are there to give you an idea of the finished article.  It is best to limit your article to no more than 60 or so photos, so the finished webpage won't take too long to open.

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  Photos and text © by "Phil Mead"