Lars Opland, owner/pattern/mold & parts maker, chef, cook & bottle washer of Khee-Kha Art Products has finally decided to release the 1/48th scale McKinnon Super Widgeon conversion.
The conversion consists of 10 parts per side, each side has:
1 Replacement upper nacelle/cowling
1 Engine face/carburetor intake
1 Cowling nose bowl
2 Types of prop spinners (early rounded type & current pointed type)
2 Exhaust augmenter tubes/exhaust pipes
3 Prop blades
The kit includes 2 sets of the above, enough to finish one Widgeon model.
All parts are cleanly cast in a light cream colored resin and are finely detailed with recessed panel lines, access covers and Dzus fasteners .
Clean up of the resin parts is minimal, the new upper nacelle is hollow cast and has the augmenter tube openings & prop shaft hole cast open, no drilling required.
The augmenter tubes themselves are handed and have the exhaust pipe detail in the ends.
The spinners have the prop shaft, are hollow cast and will need to be drilled out for the prop blades.
Also included are the instructions and drawings needed to modify the kit wing for the conversion along with some other helpful tips .
This is not a conversion for beginners (neither is the kit really), but is not very complicated either.
The biggest hurdles will be removal of the kit upper nacelle fairings and making the required cut in the wing leading edge to fit the wider engine cowling.
Due to molding limitations some light sanding may be needed on the joint between the nose bowl and cowling, but if you align on the top all the sanding will be on the less detailed lower parts of the nose bowl.
Since all Widgeons are highly individualized study photos of the airplane you're modeling for antennas, engine vents etc. for your model.
I asked Lars to do this conversion a couple years ago and the first sets were mailed to me last year.
Since then I've gotten one conversion about half done, not because of any difficulties, but because I haven't been building much lately.
I recently got back to work on it along with some other projects and it's coming along nicely (albeit slowly).
I have no financial interest in this nor any other of Khee-Kha Art Products.
I did ask if he would consider doing the conversion, supplied him with detailed photos and introduced him to my friend Gene Riggs who opened up his Widgeon for Lars to take measurements and make detailed drawings.
The rest is all Lars.
He also does a nice selection of vacuformed/resin models in 72nd scale.
Information regarding pricing, ordering and other Khee-Kha Art Products are available here,
http://www.mtaonline.net/~zdk/index.htm
Highly Recommended (but I'm just a bit biased).
The parts per side.
The prototype model.
