Cutaway 1/48 Curtiss P-36 Hawk

[Army_Air_Force]

No offence taken. Sometimes I find I can become model blind when working on something for a long time, and find I miss things that I spot later. Looking through my pile of research photos, I found I already had the wheel well photo during restoration showing no liner to the well, and yet when searching through the photos yesterday, my eyes kept on sliding past it.

I should really have put the pictures into different folders for the different parts of the airframe, so all the wheel pictures were in one group.

[Army_Air_Force]

There you go, 5 minutes with the mini drill and the wheel well is gone. I was wondering how to clean up the edge of the plastic flush with the inside skin, especially with the spars in the way, but a fine grinding stone in the drill worked very well. I just made sure I didn't grind the same area too long which would cause melting. Once the ribs are glued in next to the wheel opening, there'll be no trace of the original well.

I also noticed last night that three of the leading edge ribs should have had lightning holes in them. Fortunately I was able to put them in with a Permagrit needle file.

[HOLMES]

It s pleasure to follow your builds Stepehn..

Nice work ! :)

[Army_Air_Force]

Today's work. After the wheel well was removed, the remaining wing ribs were made and fitted. The ribs were left to dry for a while before being trimmed and sanded to the aerofoil section to match the top wing skin.

[Army_Air_Force]

The machine gun was then made and fitted, plus the landing gear retraction mechanism and leg drag struts ( or at least the upper part of the strut. The lower section will be added once the leg is fitted. )

[Army_Air_Force]

I wanted to show the tailplane cutaway too, but the kit part was a single moulding so I couldn't just miss off the top and build structure on to it. Instead, I made a new tailplane half from styrene, half the thickness of the original. The remaining tail thickness would be the structure. I started cutting a new elevator, but decided to use the kit elevator un-sectioned as it had the fabric/rib moulding details.

[Army_Air_Force]

The stringers and ribs were added from 0.25mm styrene, and sanded to section once dry.

[Army_Air_Force]

I was in a complete panic yesterday. I woke up to find my internet not working!!!!! :wub:

A quick investigation showed I was getting no ADSL signal through the phone line. Fortunately after a call to my provider, service was restored by this morning. Never felt so lost in all my life! No forums, no emails, fortunately someone in the street has an unsecure wireless network I was able to use to get on line and find my account number and help line number!

[Army_Air_Force]

Yesterday saw much of the internal structure of the airframe given a coat of primer, and tonight, I've given the same areas a coat of the dark green to match the internal photos I have. Pictures later.

[Army_Air_Force]

The engine with a base coat of silver.

Various wing and fuselage parts.

[Army_Air_Force]

[Army_Air_Force]

For several days, I've felt that I haven't been getting anywhere with this project. Today that changed with a number of parts painted, and most of the fuselage details added.

The engine had further detail painting.

[Army_Air_Force]

Engine temporarily fitted. The engine mounts still need painting and there is further detail to go in the engine bay.

The hydraulic tank, not fitted here, was a bit large to fit without fouling the port fuselage side, so a little was shaved off the rear face to allow it to fit further into the fuselage. While not perfect, it isn't that noticable once the side is fitted.

[Army_Air_Force]

Some of the detail was a bit hidden once the side was fitted, so the front and rear holes were opened up a bit, leaving the radio bay hatch intact.

The port wing had the details painted and the upper skin glued on.

[Army_Air_Force]

More progress today. The pilots seat had the padded backrest added from Milliput. Seatbelts were made from painted masking tape, with a single strand of wire from a multi-strand cable used for the parts of the buckle.

The instrument panel had the gun breeches added, which on the real aircraft have dials on the rear face, so I suspect that modern radios are hidden in the breeches.

[Army_Air_Force]

Here's another couple of pictures of the rear fuselage with a few more wires/pipes added. I'm missing off control cables as the fuselage is just too small for me to be bothered! Perhaps on a larger aircraft.

[Army_Air_Force]

Cockpit fitted out with seat, control column, skid plates on the floor and instrument panel.

[Army_Air_Force]

Here's the wing from a couple of days ago, but with the addition of a matt coat.

Engine was fitted, plus ancilleries in the bay behind.

[Army_Air_Force]

With the engine in, the fuselage was joined. Some seams were a nice tight fit, and were glued with solvent. Others took a bit of force to push together so a little cyano was used, especially where there were slight gaps. In the kit instructions, steps 1, 2 and 3 are building the engine, fitting it in the cowl, and adding the seat/control column to the cockpit floor. Joining the fuselage eventually gets me to step 4 after two months!

Port cowling came next, and the port gun blister drilled right through to allow some styrene rod to form the gun barrel sticking through the top of the bay. I didn't think the aircraft had guns fitted at first as the kit had barrel ends poking out of the cowl blister, but photos of the real plane showed nothing. A picture taken during servicing with the panels off showed it did have a barrel there. Also seen to the right of the picture is a new piece of styrene glued on for the headrest, to be trimmed once fully dry. The kit part was far too small.

The plastic tube that forms the leading edge of the wing when viewing in the engine bay was trimmed down underneath to allow the wing to sit correctly.

Edited July 12, 2010 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Lastly for tonight, a couple of pictures with the fuselage placed on the wing. These were taken before the cowl was fitted.

[Big Kev]

Wow, that is some really excellent work mate! Loving it.

Kev

[K2Pete]

Yessirree, you're doing a very nice job!

Bearing in mind you're just using this little 1/48 for 'practice' ... it looks like this is on its way to being entered in some contests!

I'm really enjoying your build ... keep up the great work!

Pete

[Army_Air_Force]

Cheers guys. I haven't touched it in a week due to some tinkering on the Jeep I needed to do, plus a weekend away at a fly in, then 1000 photos to sort through!!!

Here's a couple of them.....

Hope to get back to it soon as it is very satisfying seeing it start to come together.

[Ro-Gar Hobbies]

Amasing work, its really coming out nice!

Robert

[Army_Air_Force]

Although it doesn't look much different to the picture a few posts ago, the Hawk now has the wing glued on, the the starboard wing skin added. I've had to add filler around the front lower seam, but otherwise, the fit is reasonably good considering all the chopping and changing adding additional cockpit flooring and the top wing skin behind the pilots seat.

I have also cut the other elevator from the tailplane, cleaned up the balance weight and hole. The elevators will be glued on in a slightly upward deflection, which is how all my photos show them when the aircraft is parked and unattended.