Sometimes a kit comes along which really tests your modeling skills, or perhaps in my case reminds me how mediocre I am at this hobby. This has been an exercise in my patience so far. As you may know, Hasegawa likes to use inserts or "plugs" to get more mileage out of their molds. This would be fine and dandy if they actually fit correctly or landed on panel lines like Tamiya thoughfully does more often than not. I figured since the kit was large the sanding would be easier. I got busy and started out by adding the inserts to each fuselage side taking care to make sure the panel lines lines up.
As you can see this area is a total abomination. Who ever came up with this idea should be fired. Lots of sanding, filling and rescribing. This is about as good as I could get it to look and was pure torture. I still need to go back and add the rivet detail. For those curious, I use the superglue/accelerator trick for most of my gap and seam filling needs. I apply it with the tip of an old exacto blade which gives me great control.
The cockpit and radiator fit great. Nice design here.
On to exercise in patience #2......the rear windows. The idea was great where they used a clear insert and integrated the windows into it, like Tamiya did with their Storch. The only problem is Hasegawa isn't Tamiya. Like the tail inserts, they don't fall on panel lines and require alot of careful sanding. This took hours to make presentable. I ponder, would it have been that hard for Hasegawa to mold two separate fuselages instead of having these turn out like a bondo'ed Buick?
I got it sanded and then added the windscreen assembly. This was a clever design and fit nice. The area was taped off and is ready for some primer to check the seamwork.
Time for the wings. More inserts for the machine guns.....joy. I remember these being a nightmare on their 1/48 version. I glued them to the top first and made sure they were plum. I figured I could fare in the bottom later. These seemed to be easier to deal with fortunately.
I did have more trouble with the underside seams. I needed some filler using the CA method.
Wings together.
Test fit. Looks like there are some wing root issues. I guess I need to be challenged evey step of the way sometimes. Or I've been spoiled by Eduard and Tamiya....talk amongst yourselves.
Here's how I deal with wing minor issues. It usually works for me. I use making tape to pull the roots together with lots of tension. Like a clamp if you will. Don't worry about dihedral, it will level out later.
A little glue along the seam....
Let that turkey dry...
Perfect wingroots (usually). I needed a touch of putty at the leading edge. Starting to look a little like a P-40.
I forgot to mention this nightmare. The wing root fuselage joint is comical at best. Lots of sanding filling and rescribing. This took hours to get presentable. I got here and gave up. I truly have no idea what they were thinking. Perhaps it's just a difficult area to recreate on a scale model of a P-40. After Primer I may have to go back and touch up more.
Looks ok from afar......
I ordered the AK Real Colors RAF day scheme paints. I look forward to trying these out on this kit.