Old Man

Here is the assembly under a first coat of primer. Here is the model re-primered, after adding raised detail from strips of foil tape, adding radiator shutters, and landing gear. Here is a look at the landing gear, which is practically invisible at most angles on the model.

Well, Gentlemen, I will avail myself of the extension here. I have the structural rigging done(but not photographed as yet), and from incidents during it, fear if I push things to try and make a tomorrow midnight deadline, I will screw something up. Next weekend should see this complete, though. I will take the opportunity here to post up the 'missing links' between a few weeks back and my last posting.... Here is most of the interior before the fuselage is closed. Gun breeches are tucked in under the fore-decking. Here is the thing pretty much assembled. The exhaust runs are from .75

I will post up the 'missing links', Gentlemen, but here is how matters stand as of now: Cabane struts are from .75mm x .50mm strip, and are assembled on the model, after the upper wing is attached to the interplane struts. Cabane rigging (.004" wire) is in, but does not show in the picture. The odd angular bit behind the cowling is the starter crank, which Curtiss provided clipped to the airplane itself (doubtless of some assistance in event of forced landing). The fairings on the ends of the kit struts have been trimmed off; they were on the P-6E, but not the P-1. Fairings for turnbuckles

Thank you, Sir. This is my third run at one of these 'dolphin's brow' cowlings: I have scratch-built a Boeing FB-1 (with the D-12), and an N.E.I. Export Hawk (based on the original P-6, with the Conqueror). It is an interesting shape....

Just a quick uo-date, Gentlemen. Here is one picture that pretty well reflects the state of play (a bit more detailing has been done on the fuselage).... I will post more when I have the next enforced pause for drying, which will probably be after I put on the wind-screen and sighting rod, and get the upper wing on....

You want the new Special Hobby kit, Sir. I have not built one yet, but I have bought two, and have built the old MPM kit. The MPM is serviceable enough, if you can put in the work and make some bits from scratch. The MPM requires a bit of conversion to build as a Chinese Hawk III; it follows the surviving Thai example, which differed from the Chinese. Its vacu-formed clear parts are not too good. The decals have the Nationalist markings much too pale. Its cowling is very, very poor. The Special Hobby re-issue is derived from the older kit, but much improved in quality of moulding. It has the

Definitely in for this, Sir. Probably with an Academy P-40N, possibly a Hasegawa Ki-43-II (in 1/72 of course).

Quick work, Sir! Where did you hear Revell will re-issue their P-26? It would be great if they did. In some ways, this is better than the more recent Pavla kit, in my view.

I would certainly appreciate an extension, Sir. As I said in my build thread, I am reasonably sure I will manage to make it, but there is no margin of safety in the calculation....

Thank you for your kind words, Gentlemen. As things are getting near the end, I am making a picture-less up-date (some have been taken, but not yet processed). I do feel I have a decent shot at getting this done by the dead-line, though probably just under the wire.... Fuselage, lower wings (from the Monogram kit), tail surfaces (scratch-built) and under-carriage (scratch-built, with wheels from the spares box), are complete, assembled as a unit, and painted (except for the upper tips of the lower wings, where the inter-plane struts have yet to be attached. The upper surface of the upper wi

Thank you, Sir, and always remember: old age and treachery beats youth and strength, every time.... "I ain't so good as I once was, but I'm good as I ever was once."

Curtiss sold almost as many Hawk biplane fighters on export contracts as they did to the U.S. Army and Navy combined. Their first substantial export order for Hawk fighters was from Chile, for eight P.1 A and eight P.1B types. This project is something between a scratch-build and an extreme conversion. I will employ the wings from an Accurate Miniatures re-issue of the old Monogram P.6E kit (throughout the run of the taper-wing biplane Hawks, the appearance and dimensions of the wings did not change), and one or two other bits, with the rest scratch-built. Construction starts with the no

I will be using a portion of the Ac/Min/Mngm kit for the front decking, as it will same time and trouble. It has been clipped to fit, and given shim at the front to give it the proper level line. Here it is resting in place. It will be filed down a bit more, mostly at the top, and the rear of the nose-piece will be blended back into it. Actually, in the Curtiss vee-12 Hawks, the transition at this point was pretty awkward....

The final shape of the tail is put in by cutting off the last 5mm on the fuselage, replacing it with solid plastic, and sanding the final taper into it. The fuselage are blended into the nose, and given their 'bulge' in front from the stringer. There is a 'ship in a bottle' quality to doing interior work from the top, but it has some good points, and as a technique, and is unavoidable given the construction method.

The fuselage side were bent at the scores, then fixed to the nose piece, and anchored at the tail by a plate. The bottom of the sides was trimmed away to allow for a bottom piece of .03"/.75mm sheet (this was only crudely shaped, glued on, and trimmed to match the sides).

Most of the fuselage is now assembled, and interior work begun. First fuselage sides were cut, from .03"/.75mm sheet. A template was made by taping a cut-out portion of the profile plan to a sheet of plastic and then trimming to shape. The sides were taped together for final shaping to ensure similar results. The inner surfaces have been scored to receive the stringer that bulges out the sides (and will be visible in part in the cockpit sidewalls). The inside is also heavily scored for bending to shape towards the tail.

Thank you, Sir. I have made a good deal more progress over the last wek. This is sort of a 'clap on all sail' project, as I do want to get the thing done by dead-line.

Excellent work, Sir, and on a very interesting subject.

Thank you, Sir. They are indeed 'pint-sized' models; you can easily fit all four on a standard sheet of typing paper. One thing I did not notice till I had the pictures up on a large monitor is the clouding on the Type 24 and the I-15. On display in the living room the finish appeared nicely weathered, but it seems from the picture display I got the ratio of flat-base to Future wrong. I will put a coat of straight future over them, which should fix the matter. The Soviet paints were glossy when new, so even if the fix comes out with a little shine, it will not be a problem. I have a couple m

Nice work, Sir! Nice to see you over here.

Very nice work, Sir. Did the lozenge decal come with the kit, or was it after-market?

Very nice work, Sir. That cannot be more than three inches long; is it?

A bit late for a start I know, Gentlemen, but I think I have a decent shot at bringing this in under dead-line. Chile was the first substantial export order for fighters Curtiss managed to land. By the end of the run of the Hawk biplanes, Curtiss had sold almost as many of them abroad as they did to the U. S. Navy and Army combined. This will be something between a scratch-build and an extreme conversion. I will be using the wings and interplane struts from an Accurate Miniatures re-issue of the old Monogram Curtiss P-6E kit (from start to finish of the taper-wing Hawks, the wings remain

The Encore boxing of the old IMC Polikarpov I-15bis. This was he first kit I bought with any real intention of building as an old man. I was at the hobby shop with my daughter, who was getting stuff for a school project, and wandered about the kit section in a fit of nostalgia. They had a few odd things there, and that was one. I thought I would have given my eye-teeth for a model of this when I was young, and bought it. When I got home and opening it, I figured I would only botch it if I piled straight in, and put it aside, but I bought a few more kits and started buying kits now and then, fi

And so at this point, I wanted an equal number of monoplanes and biplanes. So I resorted to an A-Model I-16 type 5 I had. One of my long-range projects is to do some Chinese Polikarpovs, and some Nomonhan examples, which will require Type 10 variants (an odd omission in the available models), and I figured now was a good time to get the hang of the A-Model I-16, since either a late model (ICM) would have to be back-dated to a 10, or an early model (A-Model) would have to be up-dated to a 10, and it would be foolish to decide which without having some experience of both kits. The kit call-outs