1/48 Hobby Craft P-35A

Cool!  I look forward to following your build.

I've got one for my "Doomed at the Start" collection of American aircraft in the Philippines at the outbreak of the war.

As for that window, I have a vague memory of a story-possibly from the book, "Doomed at the Start", of someone escaping as a passenger in a P-35, curled up in that space.  I may be misremembering something else.

I suppose I should dig into this subject further, Baron.

This is the only picture I've found where this window is present and it's from the 34th Pursuit in the Philippines.

No other picture shows this window and I painted over it. (Facepalm)

Anyone have any other ideas about why it's there?

This isn't the exact aircraft I'm building, so I think I'm in the clear (haha).

Very cool, like seeing the off the beaten path subjects!

Look on Google Images as it shows Buzz Wagoner's #17 having the window.  Are you going NMF, or ragged OD-41?  The one on Wiki looks like the window was overpainted with OD-41.

I'm going with the weather beaten OD41. And I will probably make the hatch a more freshly painted OD.

Interesting subject -- following along. 

Wow! That is one chubby looking airplane. I'll follow this build.

It was this airframe that inspired the P-47.  The P-47's daddy, you could say.

And coincidentally, a lot of Japanese aircraft designs as well. Seversky got some heat for selling 20, 2PA (2 seat fighter-bomber versions) to Japan (IJN) before we entered the war.

Also, most of the P-35's sold were shipped to Sweden as the J-9. "In early 1939 Alexander P. Seversky himself took a demonstrator aircraft to Europe to sell the fighter to European buyers but only Sweden placed an order. 120 EP-106 variants (European Pursuit 106) were produced for export to Sweden in 1940.

The EP-106 was fitted with a Pratt & Whitney R-1830-45 radial piston engine with 1,050 hp (the original P-35 was fitted with a Pratt & Whitney R-1830-9 radial piston engine with 850 hp). Unfortunately for Seversky, in 1940 he was  fired from the company by the board of directors, and his namesake became Republic Aviation!

Only 60 EP-106 fighters were delivered to Sweden though, due to a June 1940 US arms embargo on all aircraft deliveries to Europe other than Great Britain, out of the fear they may end up in Axis hands. The remaining 60 were acquired by the USAAC and redesignated as the P-35A. 6 were exported to Ecuador to form their first fighter squadron."

Actually, the P-35 is more of the grand daddy of the P-47. The P-43 was the daddy, where the lines really took shape, just not turbocharged. 
I want to say that there was also an Italian fighter that was influenced by the Seversky Racer/P-35 design, the Reggiane R2000.

The FEAF aircraft in the Phillipines are a fascinating subject. In 1941, like all the other US forces in that part of the world, "they were expendable", buying time with their sacrifice. 

That Hobbycraft P-35 is not a bad kit. if they had gotten the sharp shape of the Razorback spine correct, the kit's only real flaw, it would be even better.

Thanks, Stik! I forgot about the P-43. I have an R2000 (Falco I) in 1/72 and the lines are very close.

The fault in the kit I can forgive, as I can't fix that. 

The forces in the Philippines did draw the short stick, but they held the IJN back for a short time at least.

Some or all of the EP-109/P-35A's had the window and door, and could carry a passenger back there.  It wasn't for photo recon.

Then I will definitely have to make it look painted over.

Thank you for that info, Jeaton. I needed that. 

stikpusher

...I want to say that there was also an Italian fighter that was influenced by the Seversky Racer/P-35 design, the Reggiane R2000... 

You are correct.  There was an engineer, an Italian national, who worked for Seversky and then returned home.  I think I read that in the old Squadron mini-book on the P-35.

I've got some paint in the pit. Just basic stuff, but it's some progress. 

Like I said, nothing fancy yet. Basic coverage in Interior Green, black panels, minor greeblies added to fill space, and a Milliput parachute for a seat cushion.

That's all I've got. More to come later once I get this stage all wrapped up.

I finished up the pit and the pilot, then got into the prop hub and engine. The kits details on the hub were basic and undersized. I decided to look up some references, scrape off the old details and build my own.

The pilot isn't my best work, but he's presentable. I pulled him from the old Monogram P-40B kit and he's a scrawny little feller, but he fits the bill as an early WWII Pacific Aviator.

Because he's in there you can't see much of anything besides the control stick and the guage panel. I knew this would happen so I didn't go crazy in there anyways.

I need to dress up the engine a bit before I glue it in there. It's got all the basics, but it's begging to be wired up. 

M. Brindos

 

I finished up the pit and the pilot...The pilot isn't my best work, but he's presentable. I pulled him from the old Monogram P-40B kit and he's a scrawny little feller, but he fits the bill as an early WWII Pacific Aviator...

Thanks for checking in!

Hey, he came out pretty nice, well done!

He flies Monogram's P-38, too.  He was an improvement over the generic pilot in the first generation of their 1/48 airplanes.

Looking great Mike!

Thanks, Baron. I wouldn't have used him if I didn't think he'd work well for this build.

Normally I don't include a pilot if I don't plan on hanging it from the ceiling lol. Thought I do this one a little different.

Thanks, Trey. I'll take that to the bank. 

Well hello there!

I've made enough progress over the last, um... time has lost all meaning so forget it, that I'm updating this thread. Finally.

I opened up the cowl flaps with the handy-dandy razor saw and readjusted them so they're now a little open. That led to adding an exaust collector ring so there's something to see in there. I won't be adding the exhaust ports out of the heads as that will lead to having to scratch up the intake manifold and intake pipes and, well, none of that will be seen. I've checked.

The collector ring was a bit of head scratcher as to how I was going to get it behind the aforementioned engine, being it wasn't going anywhere. So I heated up some length of sprue and wrapped it around a bottle cap. This actually took two pieces of sprue which were cut to form two semi-circular halves that I temporarily glued together. I then sanded the entire  (wonky) circular assembly and honestly, its probably too big. I broke it back in half and smoothed out the mating faces, drilled and set pins for reattaching them. I set some spacers on the firewall and glued it all back together behind the engine. Dang, that was a lot of explaining. (Deep breath) Annnnnnnd... onward.

After re-reading my A-24 Banshee thread I was reminded that some of you pointed out that the engine sat too far back in the cowling. (Facepalm) But, I'd already glued it on the night before. Well I didn't feel like ripping it off, dang it. So the solution was to make an extension for the prop hub instead and after a lot of careful adjustment I found the right distance that would allow the prop to adjust if it were an actual function that the model did. Whew, alrighty then. Moving on.

Now as I was freely spinning my prop around for funsies, I noticed my scratch made centrifugal pitch mechanism was off center. Uhg. So off it went for a rebuild, which meant sanding everything down and realigning it all over again. This time I used a drill bit to keep it all aligned as I went. Spinning it about for funsies again and, woohoo! Now it's all centered and balanced!

I added the headrest framing and added a head cushion to that. Checking my references I noticed the holes in the framing. Okay, that's easy enough, drill time and done.

I stretched some sprue and spent far too many hours making an ignition loop and then adding the wires. All of it different thicknesses of sprue. Gawd. The details is gorgeous, but wow, that takes immense patience.

Last thing I did was to add the exhaust tips to the bottom of the cowl and which at a later time I will actually add some exhaust pipes stemming from the exhaust collector ring. Guide holes have already been drilled for alignment pins later. Enough is enough for tonight.

I stopped after I attached the machine gun ports to the top of the cowling. They need some TLC and I'll drill them out, sand them to proper shape, and add new gun barrels later.

Pictures or it didn't happen, you say? Okay.

So... What is that? Five pictures? And that's all I've got to show for spending the better part of two days on this kit? 

Nice progress, Mike!

Thanks, Baron! I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Such as smoothing out the gun blisters with Perfect Plastic Putty, drilling, counter sinking, adding gun barrels, and drilling them out (very carefully) and spraying some primer.

I also got some paint on the engine. I started with Tamiya NATO Black and then covered that with Vallejo Metal Color Aluminum. The firewall was sprayed with Vallejo interior green and then oversprayed with thinned down yellow to filter it to yellow zinc chromate. 

(Blurry picture to be replaced later. My apologies)

Nice job on an early subject.  Curtis' next claim to fame was the P-40 no?  Skinny bird compared to this one. Or am I confusing the Seversky p35 with the curtis p36...

I do have a couple P-40B's to finish.

The Airfix needs some paint and the Monovell is in the que.

thats moving along beautifully...

The engine is all painted up and ready to go. No complications with the paint or anything. 

The wifey went to bed and passed out so I stayed up and finished the prop too.

And I'm calling it a night. 

crown r n7

thats moving along beautifully...

 

It is for the moment. Thank you, Crown!

Will be catching up on this thread when I get home. Great to see you back around Mike!!! Where ya been man??? 

Hey, Mustang!

Sadly, I haven't been anywhere. Haven't been working since April and haven't received any relief yet.

So, depression and no motivation.

But my benefits should be showing up eventually and I've been feeling a little better lately. Bills will get paid! I just still don't know when.

But I'm getting back in the saddle. Maybe finishing up some models because it does help the mood.