That is a good looking office you got there :-)

Theuns

No reason a pilot could not have used his own personal seat pad!

I will be following this build with great interest.

It's a toss up between this kit and the Revell 1/350 SMS Emden for my next model.

Mike

1943Mike

I will be following this build with great interest.

The OTB kit itself seems pretty detailed. So far I'm impressed with the fit. I especially like the holes in the wing, wheel pants, and fuselage to accommodate the rigging.

Neat little kit. Can't wait to see it all finished up. Nice work on the padded seats too.

Here's an update,

I completed the engine, next will be it's painting and detailing. All the exhaust pipes were somewhat involved. I also glued the fuse halves and wings together. I'll work on the seams first prior to attaching the wings and stabilizers.

It should be a pretty quick build from here.

Nice start.  There's one you dobt see too often.  I look forward to your progress.  

Joe

I'll be watching this with great interest, too!  Even in 1/48 scale, I can only guess it's still going to be a small model when finished.

I really like these often-overlooked before-the-war subjects.

Eric

Super cool! I have one in the stash but the complex paint scheme keeps scaring me off from starting on her.

I totally could have sworn I posted an update last night, but I don't see it, so forgive me if I just overlooked it.

Here it is, I painted the primer and tonight I'll get the yellow on the wings. Olive drab is on the fuselage. I'm leaving the engine off until I get everything painted up because it would be a bear to mask around. I'm already having trouble keeping all the tiny little exhaust pipes on. For those of you who want to build this kit, I would recommend keeping the stacks off until absolutely necessary. The kit appears to give you extra (I hope) because you may need them. I will mount the wheel pants on later as well as they are olive drab and the seam makes for a nice demarcation line between the two colors.

Modelcrazy,

Looks like they give you seven parts C34 when you only need four? Several other pipes are rather small as well and they don't give you extras on those.

Mike

I'm glad they give you extra. I've lost 2 C34's already. I would recommend installing the pipes at the last moment to prevent the hair pulling I'm going through.

I don't seem to be having as much trouble with the other pipes though. It would have been nice to install locater pins to help with the attachment to the engine. Too small I guess.

The build looks crisp and clean.  I did one of these in 1/32 a couple of years ago and found it a cool build.  I did not even have much issue with the rigging.  

Joe

I sprayed the yellow tonight, and will wet sand tomorrow night, then give it one more coat. I swear, gloss yellow has to be harder than gloss white to get on and right.

I know it's kind of late but I always base coat with flat white under the yellow. Yellow seems to be a tough color to spray and the white base coat works wonders.

I'll try that next time.

With your engine, try using Tupperware.  I use the Ziploc style disposable ones with a couple small compartments that you can get at the dollar store.  I've found I can usually get a whole model's worth of small parts or sub-assemblies that are awaiting painting or attachment into one container.  That way if the pipes fall off, at least you know where they are!

Can't wait to see what it looks like with color!

Groot

Thanks for the advice Rob. I bought some containers tonight.

Here's the yellow. Now onto masking for the olive drab. The fin seems to have a small seam (seems to have a small seam, see what I did there?) I'm going to have to address.

What paint and PSI did you shoot on the wings and empennage?

MM Chrome Yellow enamel at 15 Psi with my brand new Badger 105.

Your yellow looks awesome!

Groot

I masked the yellow and sprayed the olive drab, looks good but the cowling is seriously frustrating me. I'll keep at it and get some WIP pics up.

Thank you Groot, it was kind of a pain.

here's the P-26 with the yellow and OD, I'm still working on the engine and cowling. After that it's rigging and all the fiddly parts.

Getting the decals now, For those of you who wish to build this kit in the future, I would recommend installing the cowling decals in separate triangles. The cowl decals come in sets of two, however they do not conform to the curve of the cowling well. I've also installed one of the rigging lines. The kit allows you to thread a line from a wheel pant through a wing, through the fuselage, through the other wing, then to the other wheel pant. This allows for a much easer rigging.

Modelcrazy,

It's looking good! Thanks for the tips regarding the build - I certainly appreciate them and will keep them in mind when I start my Peashooter.

Mike

OK, the P-26 is finished. It build up easy except for the engine exhaust and cowl. The exhaust stacks were a little touchy and I had a hard time with the cowling. The decals were disappointing at best. I had to remove some of the exhaust stacks to get the side decals on, and the wheel pant decals didn't conform to the curvature of the pants at all.The headrest decals weren't much better. All in all though, I feel good about the results. Steve

Nice work. That's a pretty neat little kit.

Steve,

Thanks for the tips along the way. You've done a nice job.

Your build is giving me more impetus to work on my Peashooter when I'm done with my current build (SMS Emden). I might even start the P-26 while I'm working on my ship although I don't think I'm the kind of person who can concentrate on two projects at once .

Mike

Thanks Brandon and Mike,

It was a fun little build, all be it frustrating at times, but what's the fun of the hobby without some challenges?