1/48 Occidental Harvard  

by Espen Eriksen

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It’s August 14, 1964 at Penhold airbase, Canada, where a 19 year old Norwegian has just done his solocheck in number 334 and has been cleared to take it up on his own for his very first solo. The instructor, F/O Schlossberger, watches apprehensively as the babyfaced Norwegian cranks it up in a sputter of smoke..

At least that is how I’ve been told it happened by my dad, to whom I’ve made this as a Christmas gift. It was meant to be for his birthday but unfortunately construction was delayed.

My father retired last year after 41 years of flying, 17 of which was in the Norwegian AF. He did his flying training in Canada on Harvards and T-33’s.

For his retirement day I got a Harvard to taxi up and park next to his 737 when he landed after his last flight for the airline Braathens, and we then put him in the Harvard for his final flight. The look on his face when it cranked up was worth every penny!

 The occidental kit is built as a Canadian built Harvard, and all the parts for this is in the kit. I used Eduard etched brass details and  Canopy masks. The masks didn’t have a very good fit and the glue on them didn’t want to stick around sharp curves, so I made some of them myself. The plastic on the surface is slightly roughened, but this is easily sanded down. Otherwise the fit is good although I am left with the impression that the vertical stab is slightly on the thick side. 

Click on images below to see larger images

 I primed the model with humbrol 64, and it’s the last time I’ll do that. It just doesn’t work for me. I managed to rescue it though and painted the whole thing trainer yellow after some subtle preshading, before painting the red and antiglare black. In retrospect looking at some of my reference material, I realize that the red should have been slightly more fluorescent or dayglo-ish, but it’ll work.

 I had a sneaky peak at my old mans logbook, and found the tailnumbers on Harvard in question as well as the date and the instructor involved. I had a good look through the Hannants library and found that the decalsheet for the Goldilocks aerobatics team by Leading Edge would provide both the numbers and the old-style Canadian flag. So once the Humbrol clear was on thick, the decals went on like a breeze.

I had some spillage through the masks on the canopy that I tried to fix with Klear. I don’t know if it was because they were coated with future before I painted or just poor quality Klear but it didn’t work. So I’m sticking with future from now on..

I stole a few hair of my lovely blonde girlfriend, painted them, and made the antennawire. The white stuff behind the rear cockpit is the instrument hood which is made out of tin foil. It was while under this hood my father was asked by his Canadian instructor: “Eriksen! What’s minimums in Norwegian!!?” making it clear that he had missed a rather important call. “eh… it’s minimums sir!!”  “Well.. then at least it’s not a language problem!!”

I left the wingflaps off because I have to put the model in a box and airlift it to Norway in a week. I have plans to build a plexiglass monter for it as well but we’ll see.. The base was built as per Florian K’s description in this sites tools’n tips.

It’s just a shame that I can’t be home this Christmas to see his face..

Espen

Photos and text © by Espen Eriksen