North American Harvard Mk.IIA

by Nico Henning

1/72 Academy

South African Air Force

62 Air School (Central Flying School)

Bloemspruit, South Africa

1945

Nice little kit from Academy. The overall detail is quite good. The cockpit is out of the box, I only added aftermarket PE seat belts. Sidewall and instrument panel detail was good enough in my opinion. I added a bit of detail to the engine with copper wire and plastic card. A bit of filling and sanding was required around the wing / fuselage joints. SAAF Harvards had a gun port and bump in front of the cockpit windscreen. A bit of putty was used to create the bump and the gun port was drilled out with lots of patience!

I made my own decals using MS Paint and MS Word. It was printed on white decal paper.

I decided to paint this model in the colours of a 62 Air School (Central Flying School) Harvard. It was based at Bloemspruit Air Base in 1945 and was used for "Beam Approach" training. I used a combination of Tamiya and Humbrol Acrylics to paint this model (Aluminium - Tamiya XF-16, Yellow - Humbrol 24, Green - Humbrol 3) all thinned with Tamiya Acrylics (50% paint, 50% thinners). After the paint and decals were on, the model was sealed with Future floor polish.

It was a very enjoyable build! The paint went on nicely and I'm very happy with the end result.