Old Man Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 I have several of these kits; their shape is better than most any modern kit of this type. A previous owner did a little preliminary work on this, but nothing of importance. This one fits a bit more loosely than an other one I have opened, I do not know why. I will be using a Aeroclub motor, one of two a gentleman in New Zealand sent me a while back. Since I intend using the kit canopy, I am not going to install the Starfighter resin, but will use it as a guide. The kit decal sheet has a perfectly serviceable instrument panel decal. I will be finishing this in the classic orange, green and white scheme of the 27th Pursuit squadron commander at the National Air Races at Cleveland on September 2, 1939. At this point my plan is to use the squadron emblem decals from an old Matchbox Boeing P-12E kit; it looks about the right size.... First step is constructing the cockpit interior.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Old Man Posted November 5, 2011 Author Share Posted November 5, 2011 This is moving right along, Gentlemen.... The next step after making the cockpit elements is dealing with the wheel wells. The legs retracted against a solid surface, and it was,I gather, usual for a fitted canvas liner to be employed in the recess the wheels retracted into, to protect the wing's interior. The wheel wells require notchings be made the ends of the upper wing; here is one wing upper half dry-fitted in place to illustrate: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Old Man Posted November 5, 2011 Author Share Posted November 5, 2011 With the cockpit made and painted and the wheel wells done, fuselage and wings can be assembled, and the pieces scribed. The square area cut out in the front of the rudder will contain some visible works; in planes of this period it is always wise to look closely at the tail area, for usually something weird is visible there. Here are two pictures with the wing assembly dry-fitted to the fuselage assembly: The insides of the cowling have been thinned out considerably to assist fit of the motor (though much filing on that piece is still necessary. I have trimmed a away a locator pin and receiving lug at the bottom of the cowling, and filled in the space of an air-scoop there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Mikester Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Looking good, need to get some photos of my in progress on my Hawk up too! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Luno13 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 You are a plastic-modeling machine! Stunning progress so far, can't wait to see the rest! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Deacon Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Nice work on the wheel wells mate. Deacon Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Old Man Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 Thank you for the kind words, Gentlemen. I must confess it is a bit of fun doing something without struts.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Old Man Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 Quite a bit of progress on this one, Gentlemen. First, some detailing. Here is what can be found inside the rudder cut-out: At the top, there is something that seems to be a support for the rudder; the rest is the works of moving the elevators; a collared connecting rod, horns, and push-rods at the bottom. Here are the landing gear pieces as they stand now: The legs themselves had to be thinned down considerably, as did the covers themselves. The covers actually should curve in appreciably at the bottom, I think I have managed to suggest this, at least, in thinning them, but the pieces are really flat. I made the cut-outs, and added that knee-join (whatever it is, I have no idea, but it is in photographs) and the 'fender' bits (again, very prominent in close-up photographs). The wheels had to be thinned down to fit. Detailing is by no means complete:the strips slanting back have to be replaced by two separated rods, there is another rod that goes off parallel to the leading edge of the wing, and there is a bit of cover for the upper leg that will have to be added. Landing gear and motor are the weakest part of this kit, by far. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Old Man Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 Major assembly is now complete: wings, tail-plane, motor and cowling all are together. I had to file the Aeroclub motor severely, even putting a bit of oval section and some taper to it, to get it into the cowling space. The -problem'is that the motor is to proper scale size, but the thickness of the kit pieces is hardly to scale, and of course could not be and retain structural integrity. I expect this happens a lot with after-market items. I had some bad moments putting on the cowling piece, but consider them part and parcel of the motor fit, not inherent to the kit pieces. Fit of the wings seemed quite nice, and I have trimmed the guns and added the cartridge-catchers. Photographs seem to show the single wing guns in line with these protrusions, not to one side of them. Fit of the port tail-plane was exemplary, hardly even needing glue; fit of the starboard tail-plane was odder, and needed some filler, mostly for faults in the fillet on the fuselage. I have thinned the moulded-on doors for the tail gear, and filled in the void there to represent its canvas liner. I have adjusted the color of the cockpit interior somewhat: the state of research on this subject has changed in the last couple of days. It was previously thought P-36 production started with silver lacquer cockpits and ended with a close relative of bronze green employed instead; since this aircraft is a P-36C, which is how the last twenty of the run were completed,I went with the bronze green tone. This past Friday Mr. Dana Bell posted on HyperScale that he has unearthed the original contract specification, which indicate 'yellow green', defined a mixture of zinc chromate, black, and aluminum paste, was specified before a single P-36 had come off the line. So I hit the more visible areas of the cockpit with a yellow wash to change the tint. Next step will be priming, putting on the canopy pieces, and setting out to paint the thing.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aaronw Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 I've been proding at one of these kits. Like the 3 interwar biplanes I'm very impressed with these late 60s Monogram kits. If I was only more proficient with natural metal finishes... Looking forward to seeing more progress on this one. The 1930s camoflage experiements turned out some very unique aircraft. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Old Man Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 I've been proding at one of these kits. Like the 3 interwar biplanes I'm very impressed with these late 60s Monogram kits. If I was only more proficient with natural metal finishes... Looking forward to seeing more progress on this one. The 1930s camoflage experiements turned out some very unique aircraft. I hope you have good results, Sir. I, too, like this kit very much. One thing I have in mind for one is conversion to a Cyclone variant. Allow me to recommend foil for the bare metal examples; it is not so difficult as many suppose. Nothing looks quite so like metal as metal.... This scheme is 'off-brand' even by the standards of the time: it was purely for display at the National Air Races, and not part of any manouver or exercise. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Old Man Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 Painting is just about complete, gentlemen: I think the white needs one more thin coat, and the borders need dressing in a few spots still.... I was able to find an out-of bottle match for the orange, and used something in the PollyScale range called Soviet Brown #2. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Mikester Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 (edited) Now that is an attention getting paint scheme, very cool! Edited December 21, 2011 by The Mikester Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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