Cutaway 1/48 Curtiss P-36 Hawk

[Army_Air_Force]

In addition to some styrene details on the rear fuselage and cockpit wall, there were some larger details required. These were made from 'Chemiwood'. This is a resin based material which can be sawed, sanded, drilled, tapped, turned etc., and has no grain. It is very easy to work, wet sands to a lovely finish and accepts all paints I've tried. If you want to try some, it can be bought from the company I work at fighteraces.co.uk, under the Building Materials section of the menu. ( I get nothing from any sales, so this isn't just a shameless plug, it's just genuinely nice stuff to work with! )

Here's a small block of rough cut chemiwood. It is normally supplied in a block 6 x 4 x 2 inches.

See in this picture is the fuel tank behind the pilot, what I think is the oxygen tank, and battery. In the bits box in the upper right of the photo is the hydraulic cylinder.

[Army_Air_Force]

More good progress today, although I'm not done yet.

The fuselage halves were taped together temporarily in order to add the fuselage skin under the port wing root to fill in the cockpit wall next to the floor panel. The side piece was tacked in with cyano first, trapped between the floor and fuz side at the front. Next a piece was trimmed to simulate the wing skin, and glued to the wing fairing and the newly installed fuz skin.

Once the joints had hardened off a little, the new parts were trimmed. The fuz skin was trimmed a little higher than the hole in the fuselage side to make this inner skin more obvious as part of the fuselage.

[Army_Air_Force]

The inside of the port fuselage half also had stringers added at the rear bottom where they will be seen once the fuz is joined.

[Army_Air_Force]

Here's a few of the rear fuselage parts done yesterday.

Hydraulic tank.

Oxygen tank.

Hydraulic pump.

[Army_Air_Force]

The seat also got some attention, reshaping the bucket and backrest, plus bending the seat frame and adding additional tube structure.

[Army_Air_Force]

.....and finally, the tailwheel retraction mechanism was added, along with the fuselage lifting tube. The tailwheel leg was also cut off and replaced with thin piano wire. You'll notice the rudder has also been cut off as it warped a bit, so a new fin post has been added and the rudder will be heated and straightened in due course.

[Army_Air_Force]

Two more pics to finish the night.A few more bits and pieces fitted to the interior, and a shot with the bits in and the side placed on. The model is stuck to a lump of 'Blu-tack' poster adhesive. I find it very useful for holding the fuselage at what ever angle I need while parts are glued in.

Edited May 30, 2010 by Army_Air_Force

[K2Pete]

You really make good use out of a rainy day, don't ya!

I find it a lot more satisfying to build it like this rather than just slapping two fuse halves together and calling it done. There's something about seeing the aircraft's guts that just makes all the effort worthwhile.

This is looking great! It looks like you're enjoying the build as well!

Pete

[Army_Air_Force]

I like to make kits last longer than a few days entertainment. It makes the hourly rate of entertainment against kit price much better! ( although most of my kits recently have been free! ). The 1/72 scale crash recovery diorama I recently finished took four months of building almost every day, for one aircraft and five vehicles, all modified.

I don't have space to display hundreds of finished models, so building quantity is a bit pointless, so I'd rather spend plenty of time on a single kit. This is also a very cheap hobby compared to my giant size R/C models and running my Willys Jeep which is a big factor now I have a six month old daughter. While I have a 23x12 feet workshop, I do much of my building on a board on my knee in the lounge where I can work and keep an eye on her playing too.

Regarding building the interior and structure, I've always liked visiting museums like Duxford in the winter when all of the aircraft are stripped down for maintenance. There's something fascinating about seeing how it all works.

Edited May 31, 2010 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Been working on the engine, crankcase and ancilleries today, pics later. I've also been experimenting with a new batch of solvent adhesive I mixed up. I posted previously that the solvent I use is quite powerful, meant for acrylics, and evaporates a bit fast. My new batch is 50% of this solvent and 50% cellulose thinners as a wetting agent. This new mix flows better into joints, evaporates more slowly, still glues well, and makes my solvent supply last longer!

[Army_Air_Force]

Here we go, engine pictures. Been working on this for about 8 hours. Firstly the engine mouldings were cleaned up, cylinder heads drilled for the ignition harness, and the two pieces glued together. The cylinders on the front and rear rows aren't all at exactly at the correct angles, so some rear cylinders don't line up correctly with the gaps between the front row. Hopefully the partly cowled engine will help to hide inaccuracies.

[Army_Air_Force]

The rear crankcase and ancilleries were made from styrene sheet, tube and rod. The kit crankcase is also shown in the photo.

[Army_Air_Force]

The crankcase was then drilled for the induction pipes which were made from copper wire from mains cable.

[Army_Air_Force]

The only other job done today was to add a piece of tube under the firewall to represent the leading edge of the wing which can be seen in the bottom of the ancilleries bay.

[Army_Air_Force]

No progress over the last week with preparing for a camping trip away to an old US bomber base for a D-Day event ( got to ride on a M4A4 Sherman again ), and various websites I run for people needing updating. I'm hoping I can get something done tomorrow and Thursday evening, because we've got guests for the weekend, so will get nothing done then!

I did get a Monogram 1/48 visible B-17 through the post this morning which is another future cutaway project, so let's hope this one goes well, as the pile of kits heading towards being cutaways is mounting!

[Army_Air_Force]

Spent most of tonight fiddling with copper wire, bending, soldering, jiggling and filing; and ended up with an engine mount!

I also made the oil tank from a piece of chemiwood.

[Army_Air_Force]

I spent most of tonight carving the exhaust collector ring from a sheet of 3mm styrene. This horse shoe piece of styrene is now supported from the rear of three cylinders by short plastic rods. Once this has dried, I'll cut and fit the other 11 pipes for the other cylinders. Pictures once it looks respectable!

[Army_Air_Force]

I finally got back to the Hawk today, and put a full day into the build. I started out continuing with the fitting of the exhausts between the cylinders and collector ring.

Where the exhausts pass from the ring to outside the fuselage, I needed to know where the holes were. This resulted in the starboard cowl half being glued to the fuselage side, and the exhaust fairings fitted. The gun blisters were also fitted, although the barrels were trimmed off and the fairings drilled out as the fullsize doesn't have any guns fitted. The second picture shows the port cowl half cut out to show the engine and ancilleries bay. It is not yet glued as the engine needs to be fitted first. With the external exhaust positions now known, the joining pipes could be made for the collector ring. These were glued to the engine, while the exhausts exiting the aircraft are glued into the fairings.

[Army_Air_Force]

Filler was applied on the exhausts to blend the pipes into the collector ring, and the engine was then put to one side to dry. I then made a start on the wing, cutting out the wheel well. The photos I have suggest the metal well sides extend to the top wing skin. There is a canvas liner in the well, but my picture shows pipework and the wing skin behind the canvas.

Wheel well and main spar.

The wing opening was then cut and the wing skin thickness reduced to give a fine edge around the hole.

[Army_Air_Force]

Spars, stringers and aileron ribs fitted.

and the top skin in place, now with part of the aileron and skin above the flap cut away.

[Army_Air_Force]

Last thing done tonight was to fit the flap ribs and the wing ribs ahead of the main spar. The ribs still need trimming down to match the top skin once dry.

Edited June 26, 2010 by Army_Air_Force

[mlicari]

Awesome so far!

Mike

[Steve N]

Looking good! But I'm curious..did the P-36 have a different wheel well structure than the P-40? The P-40 wheel well is squared off, with a round opening in the lower skin. I've got plenty of detail pics of the P-40, but the only P-36 I've ever seen is the one at the USAF Museum, and I never checked the wheel wells.

SN

Edited June 27, 2010 by Steve N

[Army_Air_Force]

My cutaway drawing showed a round well, but I've searched the net and found an under restoration photo that shows it as just ribs and spars boxing in the wheel, so I guess I'm going to have to cut the well sides out. Shouldn't be too much trouble with a mini drill. There's a job for this afternoon!

[Steve N]

Sounds like "fun!"

I hope my post didn't come off as snarky or critical..I think this is a really cool project! I've always liked the round-engine Hawks. I'm planning to build the old 1/72 Monogram kit as Phil Rassmussen's Pearl Harbor bird, using the Starfighter Decals resin cockpit set.

SN