Wirraway A20-719 / VH-WRX in 1:48

The starting point for this Wirraway / Dauntless build - the Special Hobby CAC CA-9 Wirraway kit. 

First step in construction is to build the internal fuselage frame and fit out the cockpit. But the floor detail in the Special Hobby kit is nothing like the reality of a Wirraway. So this will get some modification. 

First step is to cut the foot-troughs to the correct length and separate them into short sections. 

Next step is to re-assemble the foot-troughs and add the missing frame details. There are still some additional frame tubes to be added to form the support for the rear seat pivot point. These will be underneath the walk-ways at the rear. 

The Special Hobby kit has no detail on the insides of the fabric side-panels, so I've added stringer details and framework for the two openings on the port side. The stringers are Evergreen 0.25 x 0.50mm strip (0.010 x 0.020"). For comparison, at the top is the 1979 Monogram AT-6 kit showing the internal framework for the metal skinned fuselage side-panels. 

I've completed the modifications to the floor structure for this A20-719 build. After cutting the kit part into sections, I added new frame tubes to match the actual aircraft. It's interesting that the Monogram AT-6 1979 tool approximated the structure fairly well, and shows how the Texan is a "descendant" of the Wirraway! The out-of-box structure for the Special Hobby kit is shown at the top for reference. 

Before I add more detail to the cockpit, here's a quick comparison of the cockpit "floor" detail, showing my corrected version compared with the OOB version. The corrected frame is also 1.5mm narrower than the OOB frame, since the OOB frame is too wide. There will be some more corrections to the aft end of the framework, since there are several more fictitious tubes which have been added by Special Hobby that will be removed.