WiP: Curtiss H.75 Hawk, 1/72 Heller kit

The tape-fit is mostly good. The 2 fuselage halves have a slight mis-match on the bottom near the rear of the wing, hoping some plastic tabs can help that.


A little shim work to avoid a step on the wings. Wonder if that will throw something off at the wing-fuselage join??


Engine is... Basic. After looking at this pic, I'm now tempted to see if I can scratch something like I did with the Goose. It won't be all that visible anyway through a fairly small cowl opening...


Kit's seat, masking tape belts, rudder pedals added to the bumps that came on the piece. Control stick stolen from an Academy Me163 and then added to the top of a random scrap of sprue to get a decent height.


And a completely fictitious instrument panel to fill in the void that is left in the kit. Still needs a couple doo-dads to fil in empty spots.

Your new hobby is scratch building Vance. Someone give this guy a box with a fancy pic on it, 2 wings and 2 fuselage haves, and Vance does the rest! Good start. Those instructions look like engineering drawings.

Thanks Nathan!

~chuckle~ Yep, when you're dealing with old Heller kits of lesser-known machines, there is NO aftermarket!  :P  And the instructions on these earlier kits anyway, are all like that, text instructions with exploded-view diagrams nearby. This one isn't so hot, but some of them are quite attractive all on their own.

Looking good, Vance!

You have been doing some nice scratch building on those old kits.

Ya might yet morph into the new HvH of FSM.................

Looking good so far, Vance. That cockpit floor and seat look so familiar....like it's almost a match for  the ones in Monogram's 1/48 P-40.

Thanks guys. And yes mississippivol, I would expect a little family resemblance in there to the P40. I've built one of those Warhawks before, wonder what happened to that one?

Well, this was largely a lost weekend, model-wise, but, some progress was made.

First coat of paint on the IP...

My close-up shows a few things I still want to touch up before dry-brushing and "glass":



OK, so, the oob landing gear bay looked like this:


I scraped away that bump, whatever it is, to be replaced with some structure.


Added a pair of "fuel lines", as I'm just going to assume that they ran through there. Will also be adding some hydraulic / brake lines to busy it up.


On to the engine. This is how much I'll be able to see.




So, engine replacement isn't CRITICAL, but I think I'll still give it a shot.

"Gizmodofied"?  Haha. Love the word.  

Way to spice up the plane.  Im quite certain you'll be far more satisfied with the end result than if you had built it stock.

Great work thus far there, Vance! I've long been a fan of Heller kits - even with their sparse detailing. Like yourself I love to doctor them up with scratch built details here and there. The web is a wonderful place for finding photos of obscure details on and inside of aircraft. It took me months to build up my Breguet 693 and that interior was completely scratch built with the only aftermarket products used being evergreen sheet styrene and an Aeroclub white metal gun in the back. (I hope Aeroclub's products get picked up again..)

SirTenzan

Great work thus far there, Vance! I've long been a fan of Heller kits - even with their sparse detailing. Like yourself I love to doctor them up with scratch built details here and there. The web is a wonderful place for finding photos of obscure details on and inside of aircraft. It took me months to build up my Breguet 693 and that interior was completely scratch built with the only aftermarket products used being evergreen sheet styrene and an Aeroclub white metal gun in the back. (I hope Aeroclub's products get picked up again..)

Thank you SirTenzan! To be honest I was just going to build it as-is for a quick build, but then I got into the cockpit. "some masking tape belts will dress it up easily enough" turned into "I can't leave that big opening where an instrument panel should be"... And if I'm putting time into that, the landing gear can't be left as they are...

I'm a bit of a Heller fan myself. Yes, they have raised details that put some folks off, but they are generally really well done. I stumbled across a rather large pile of kits at a local 2nd hand store a few years ago. The bigger name kits went quickly, and I did pick up some ProModeler and Italeri kits as well, but the bulk of what I bought were these older Heller kits that everyone else was passing on.

I actually have a pile of WW2 French machines, including that Breguet 693 - you should post some pics of that one!

allan

"Gizmodofied"?  Haha. Love the word.  

Way to spice up the plane.  Im quite certain you'll be far more satisfied with the end result than if you had built it stock.

lol, "Gizmodofied" was coined by Hans Von Hammer, whom I haven't seen in here in ages unfortunately. This is definitely a kit that can benefit from some extra goodies, whether they're completely accurate or not.