Jump to content

A pair of 1/48 P-26c Peashooters


ghodges

Recommended Posts

I have 2 1/48 P-26 Peashooters to be used with the new Starfighters P-26 decal sheet. One is the old resin Classic Castings kit, which I'll be building next. This one is the Hobbycraft kit. Here's some interior shots made just before I closed it up today.

100_3363.jpg

The only addition outside of the kit are the lap belts which are pre-painted Eduard items.

 

100_3361.jpg

 

And here's a pic of the kit engine, painted and washed.

100_3366.jpg

 

The Hobbycraft kit is pretty nice, and seems to be a straight-forward build so far. The fuselage and wings are together now, so I expect more progress in the coming week! Questions, comments, and critiques welcome, as always. Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Hobbycraft kit is pretty nice, and seems to be a straight-forward build so far. The fuselage and wings are together now, so I expect more progress in the coming week! Questions, comments, and critiques welcome, as always. Cheers! GIL :smiley16:

 

I built the Hobbycraft kit back in '99. Yours looks good so far. If you don't have it, beg, borrow, or otherwise obtain the Aerofax Minigraph on the Peashooter--it clarified a lot when I built my kit. The Squadron Mini In Action also helped.

 

A few items to note:

 

1. That cushion-looking deal on the aft cockpit bulkhead should be off-white--it was some sort of "luggage compartment", or so said the Aerofax.

 

2. You'll need to do some surgery on the flying and landing wire fairings on the wheel pants--they're a bit too large as they come in the kit.

 

3. The aileron outline isn't quite correct--you can correct it with a few swipes of a sanding stick or do as I did and ignore it.

 

4. Make sure to delete the carburetor intake stack if you're doing a P-26B with the fuel injection system.

 

5. Check your refs when assembling the exhausts to see whether or not your airplane had the upper collector or stubs all around.

 

6. Ditto on the refs to check whether or not your airplane had landing flaps.

 

7. Before you rig the airplane, check to see if your airplane had a wireless fitted, then add or delete the transmitter and receiver antennas as necessary.

 

I like the portly little Boeing fighters. Enjoy your build!

 

Ralph

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Ralph! That's a lot of great info that I'm sure will come in handy to a lot of guys. Unfortunately, you've mistaken me for a guy who really wants to build an accurate Peashooter! :smiley2: I actually already have one on the shelf, and will be building these two just to do the 2 great markings on the Starfighter decal sheet (one blue and one OD fuselage). Thanks, just the same! :smiley20:

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Ralph! That's a lot of great info that I'm sure will come in handy to a lot of guys. Unfortunately, you've mistaken me for a guy who really wants to build an accurate Peashooter! :smiley2: I actually already have one on the shelf, and will be building these two just to do the 2 great markings on the Starfighter decal sheet (one blue and one OD fuselage). Thanks, just the same! :smiley20:

 

GIL :smiley16:

 

The good thing about the Hobbycraft kit is that it is pretty good OOB--you don't have to worry about accuracy, because what they gave you is 99% there already. I built mine OOB, I only corrected the aileron outline. I added paper belts and basically enhanced what was already there.

 

I'll have to get the Starfighter sheets--I have several more Hobbycraft kits in the stash...

 

Keep posting pics...

 

R

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love to see yellow wings getting built. It is such an interesting period of aviation, but it doesn't get that much attention.

 

It's looking good so far. :smiley20:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I didn't over-indulge on St. Patty's day (for a change), and have made some progress. The Hobbycraft kit has the yellow on the wings and tail, and the resin Classic Castings kit is mostly assembled and has the first coat of primer on it. I plan to put the blue on the fuselage today. I'll post some pics in a day or so when I get more painting done! Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your P-26 encouraged me to keep striving on my P-6E (1/32"). It falls within my era of aircraft interests nicely. Keep up the good work!

 

 

Mark Fiedler (aAzZ09)

IPMS#14333

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the delay, but I've had a week of computer problems (which I hope have been fixed)! SO moving on....

 

The Hobbycraft P-26 is painted. The blue is Mr. Color "Character Blue, and the yellow is Model Master Chrome Yellow.

100_3385.jpg

I hope to get it decaled in a day or two.

 

The Classic Castings P-26 is shown here primed and coated with Mr. Surfacer 500.

100_3388.jpg

It has since been sanded and primed again. Also, much of the interior work is done, so it will be closed up and sanded and primed one more time later this week.

 

By the way, the white primer is from a spray can of ARMORY white primer, which is made for the figure/wargamer guys. It's very close to the same thing as the Tamiya white primer, except that you get a much larger can for the $. Look for it in a shop with wargaming figure supplies! Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good news: the decals are on!

100_3392.jpg

These decals lay down beautifully and are opaque enough that there's no undercover bleed through of the blue in the bright yellow.

 

The BAD news:

100_3393.jpg

The cowling decal SUCKS! The biggest problem is that it was too small as printed (or the width of the flashing on the front fuselage is too large). As you can see, I've positioned it on the cowl so that it aligns properly with the fuselage flash. However, I had to CUT it to do so. Now I'll have to repaint the blue and the yellow in the center to make it look right. :smiley13:

 

There's a lot of other small areas on the tail and the wheel pants that will also have to be touched up. I'm not too disappointed in that, since it's VERY hard to print the decals to handle all those compound curves. I do like these decals, but be warned about the fit of the two around the cowling! More pics after the repairs have been made! Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

These decals lay down beautifully and are opaque enough that there's no undercover bleed through of the blue in the bright yellow.

 

Very, very cool that these decal colors performed in this manner. This is an issue that can drive me nuts. Can't stand the greenish-yellow effect, especially when other parts of the plane are painted with a decent yellow that was supposed to match. Am always suspicious of doing light decals over dark paint, to the point that I wanna test them first (if there are spare images on the sheet). If they are not opaque enough, the only recourse appears to be betting on a different/aftermarket set, or undercoating the affected area with white, a daunting challenge for complex shapes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got most of the cowl repaired, but it needs another gloss coat or two before I take any pics.

 

As I have one more of these to build, I've hit upon a MUCH simpler solution, now that I know about the problem ahead of time. It will be a lot easier to split the long fuselage flash in half and overlap it to make it smaller! I can do that and make it's width at the front match the cowling decals and at worst have some yellow overlap in the flash down the side. Anyway, that's what I'll try on the next one!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Zee cowling she is repaired, and all of the other little touch-ups are done too!

100_3396.jpg

Not perfect by a long shot, but it will do for my shelf. Now that i know how to tackle the problem, I have higher hopes for the other P-26 model (in spite of it being the lower quality kit). By the way, the initial painting has started on it. I applied the yellow for the wings and the dark red for the cowling and the tail today. It should be dry enough by next Monday to paint the OD!

 

Well, I'm off to Venice for a model show, so I'll see y'all next week!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking cool

I look forward to seeing your bracing wire work..Those have kept me away from trying this kit :smiley13:

Good Luck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got 'er rigged!

100_3438.jpg

 

100_3439.jpg

I used very fine nylon fishing line that's made for beading purposes. If you look closely, you'll note that it sort of bends into the wing holes instead of angling directly in. If this had been a contest model, I'd have used sprue. It reacts to the heat (to tighten it) better than the nylon line does. The only real advantage to the nylon line is it's all the same diameter and you don't have to keep melting sprue!

 

Also finished up the engine. It's ready to hang on the front!

100_3440.jpg

 

Now if I can just add all of the fiddly parts without breaking the frigging rigging! :smiley5:

 

GIL :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks good so far.

 

You really should try music wire sometime. Once you get the hang of it measuring and cutting is no big deal:

 

http://www.smallparts.com/small-parts-steel-music-straightened/dp/B003R5028A/ref=sr_1_3?sr=1-3&qid=1303056599

 

For something like a P-26 the wire is already very bright.

 

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the link Mike! I've used the smallest floral wire for rigging in 1/32, but it's slightly too large for 1/48 stuff. What size of the steel music wire would you recommend for 1/48 rigging?

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the link Mike! I've used the smallest floral wire for rigging in 1/32, but it's slightly too large for 1/48 stuff. What size of the steel music wire would you recommend for 1/48 rigging?

 

GIL :smiley16:

 

I use .005 for 1/48th and .008 for 1/32. If you do the math .005 x 48 = .24 which is a quarter of an inch. The real ones were probably a bit thicker than that but I think they look good. I have some .003 but it will sag on a run of any length longer than elevator / aileron pushrod runs.

 

The place is in Miami and gives great service. They ship in plastic tubes so damage is not an issue. They also have hypo tubing for guns.

 

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...