Ryan PT-22 Recruit
Special Hobby PT-20 Kit with Resin Conversion Set
July 2017 - January 2019

Following my 2016 flight in G-RLWG, the PT-22 Recruit based at Breighton, I decided I needed a model of the aircraft. 

It took a bit of searching to find one, the nearest being the Special Hobby Ryan PT-20, the inline engined, straight wing version of the aircraft. This came with a resin conversion set for the radial engine, though other alterations would be needed. The main change being to sweep the wings, a C of G modification to do with the engine change. A jig was used to cut the wing upper skin to match the fairing, with the new wing sweep.

Due to the wing sweep, the rear wing fairings were now too narrow, and needed building up with filler to restore the shape. The resin nose also needed quite a bit of filling around the joint.
The fin was moulded onto one side of the fuselage, so needed filling along the bottom edge where it meets the fuselage. The small fin strake also needed to be removed to match the real G-RLWG.
The rear headrest also needed amending by moving rearward slightly. The rear of the fuselage is open, showing the fin post/tail wheel leg, so I've opened up the hole in the model. Having removed some of the wood at the tail end of the jig, I made some new supports for the tailplanes to allow those to be attached. With the fragile resin tailplanes needing to be attached with cyano adhesive, I'd only get one go at the correct place.
With the model weighted down to keep it still, the tailplanes were positioned on the supports. Tiny drops of cyano were added to the joints from the top, and once set, the model removed from the jig and additional cyano added to the bottom. 
With the tailplanes on, the model was given a dust over in grey primer. An undercoat of yellow enamel followed next.
I wasn't looking forwards to the landing gear, as the kit options didn't match the aircraft I was modelling. Brass tube was soldered up to form the main parts of the leg, while the resin articulated lower part from the kit was used. 
Both legs with the brass and resin parts joined. The over long pins at the top of the legs would be trimmed and fit into holes drilled into the model. 
Legs trimmed and test fitted. After some small rigging fairings were added, the model was sprayed with a Tamiya yellow top coat and then Humbrol enamel was used to hand paint the black trim and detail on the nose. 
Gloss coats came next, followed by the decals. There weren't many to apply. The fuselage registrations, flag on the rudder, wing walkways and the black trim lines along the wing joint. After that was the cylinders and pitot tube. With those done, I started adding the rigging from 0.1mm wire.
There was a little detail painting to do on the oil and fuel fillers, then wheels and tailwheel glued on, followed by the windscreens. 
The prop was the last piece fitted and the model was complete, ready for framing.  
Before the model was boxed into the frame, I took some ground and flying shots with a suitable background. I blurred the prop and added a picture of myself in the cockpit.
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