Warbird Information Exchange

The wheelwells have paint again!




Photos show Super Tim (AKA Agent86) touching up some bare areas using his airbrush. Thanks for your help Tim!

Overall it turned out pretty good (considering neither of us admit to being painters). One area requires slight remediation (i.e. fix the sag), but once all the parts are installed in there any other defects will be nearly impossible to see without a lot of effort.

Anyhow, another milestone passes... Now I have to strip and paint all the details and start installing them. I need to have the plane back on the gear by the time the overhauled engine is delivered.

Looks great!

Have you decided on paint scheme / markings yet?

Bela P. Havasreti

Well done Brad... must be a tremendous sense of accomplishment to be at this stage of the restoration. Looks really great!

Cheers,
Richard

I'm still not Brad...

Bela, I'm thinking of polishing it! I prefer the "factory new" type of scheme with the WW2 stars and bars rather than something fancier with lots of markings.

There is another T-6 at Chino that is polished. After speaking with the owner it didn't seem like it would be out of the question. His plane is far from smooth but it looks great from 10 feet away. He says that the crowds are aways drawn to his T-6 over painted ones. He dusts the aircraft weekly, but only washes it every 6 months just before he buffs it out.

We'll see how far I get before I give up!

Brandon

G'day Brandon,

Great to see the progress on your Six. At least those wheelwells will be easy to clean although they might be difficult to keep clean! I'm working on a Wirraway down here in Australia and the two types are so similar and yet SO different. Kind of frustrating that only a few small T-6 bits are the same as in the Wirraway.

Keep up the great work mate.

Cheers,
Matt

Lookin' good!

_________________
Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Ayeee! Sorry about the mistake on your name Brandon! Think I need a new brain on some days, and this was certainly one! Great to see the progress on your project though. Keep the images coming when time permits. I love to see aircraft in pieces going back together.... somehow, I almost find them more interesting this way. Now that's weird!

All the best!

Richard

No problem Richard- I've been called far worse!

Nothing strange in my book about liking to look at airplane pieces. An aerospace engineer by trade, I think I prefer to be looking inside the tailcone of a wreck to figure out how it all worked than to see a nicely restored warbird sitting on the ramp. Maybe there is a 9-step program for people like us???

Matt, just keep at it! If it wasn't hard it wouldn't be worth doing. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I won't repeat my wife's thoughts however.

There's certainly a lot of aluminum to polish on a T-6! I've had to
polish my fuselage a couple of times already, and it's basically
never even seen the light of day. But with all new skins
on there, I just couldn't bring myself to scuff them up and prime/
paint them.

I thought about fancy markings for mine, but towards the end of the
war (and immediate post-war), they just weren't painted up
very fancy. I know what mine looked like in 1951, and it'll
probably get "painted" up just like my avatar (polished with
green instrument training bands).

Keep at it.... My goal is to start drilling apart (2) wing center
sections this winter so I can make one good one out of the
two I have on hand.

Bela P. Havasreti