1/72 Heller T-28D

Gallery Article by Patrick Vossenberg on Feb 3 2021

 

      

Here is my little Heller T-28D, finished as a Royal Thai AF trainer operating from Chaing Mai airport, in the mid-60's.

The Heller kit is a nicely detailed model, its delicate raised panel lines and rivets suit the type of aircraft very well. I used the recent re-issue of this kit, which is molded in a rather soft plastic making it very easy to work with. The air intake on top of the cowling (correct for a French style Fennec but not for a D) was removed and the exhaust pipes drilled out. The hardwing pylons were also removed. Furthermore, I added some aftermarket parts and scratched items:

  • Quickboost resin engine (some ignition wiring was added)

  • Armory resin wheels

  • Pavla resin cockpit (this particular aircraft was fitted with ejection seats, so I modified the Pavla seats to resemble this)

  • Scratchbuilt tail fin antenna using stretched sprue

  • Taurus vacform canopy

  • Whirlybits resin pylons, rocket launchers and gunpods

  • SUU-14 dispensers are taken from Academy’s A-37 kit

  • Bombs from the spares box

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The model is finished in Gunze SEA paints. The sharkmouth is airbrushed, piece by piece - a tedious masking job, but worth the effort I think. Decals are a mixture of Siam Scale national markings, Techmod Black & White numbering, data stencils from the kit and my own artwork decal for the tail badge (actually bits and pieces from various decals puzzled together). Weathering is a combination of airbrush shading & highlights followed by oil filters / streaks.

Enjoy the pictures!

Patrick Vossenberg

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Photos and text © by Patrick Vossenberg