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Archive for the ‘1/48 BT-13’ Category

BUILDING PLANET MODELS 1/48 BT-13

Posted by Paul On September - 14 - 2010

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….

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