US Army Air Corps GB - Deadline extended again to June 30, 2009

Charles,

I've updated your entry and extended the deadline so you don't feel like you have to meet the 8th.

Looking really nice , Steven.

I'm a bit behind schedule...I'd like to change my entry, too. I just MIGHT pull it off in time: 1/48 Hasegawa P-51D in lieu of the P-47N. I just started today painting the interior parts. I have an old KMC resin kit which is really nice.

in all honesty I probably won'yt finish by the 8th but I'll give her a good run!

Holy Page Three Aggieman!

Only two weeks to go and I finally started the P-26.  Wings are together as are the wheels and wheelpants.  Have hit it with a dark gray auto primer to keep the yellow plastic from bleeding through.  Will hit it with Tamiya after a light sanding.  Pretty sure I'll make the deadline, it seems to be a fairly simple kit--wait a minute, I said that about the High Planes kit for the Mustang build too.  Will post pics when I have something to shoot.

Yeah - gorgeous work, aggieman.

Looks like you could hop right in and go for a ride.

Inspired by the photo Viper posted of his P-36s, I have 2 more pictures to show.  My just-finished 1/48 Academy kit alongside my ancient (built in '96) 1/72 Monogram kit.

And now on to the finished build.

The decals are actually spares I had left over from a P-40B build I did about a year ago and in this use are probably fictitious - I know these particular markings were used on a P-40B but have not found any visual evidence that these markings were ever used on P-36s.  The kit decals - which being Academy have a bad reputation - were intended either for a French Lend-Lease unit or for a NMF version that I was unable to do because of the damage that I caused to the right upper wing.

Finally some progress photos (first) and then completion photos in a subsequent posting.

Flaps:

Landing Gear:

Windscreen:

Good work on that P-38.

I've enjoyed hosting the group builds that I hosted because I've been able to follow someone else's work on a particular kit and even implemented procedures that I've noticed other's using in some of my own builds.

Fini.  Hasegawa's 1/48 P-38J with PYN-Up Decals, Alcad and MM paints, Eduard PE detailing.

I have a few seams with didn't quite come out like I'd hoped, but for the most part I'm happy with her.  The PYN-Up decals were superb.

Thanks for the hosting this GB Aggieman!  Great opportunity for me to finally build a P-38.

A little more progress to talk about.  Sorry, no photos.  My own computer has decided to die - not sure what's happening there, someone said I may have a virus but I wonder if the motherboard might be done - so I'm on my wife's PC where I don't have my photo software.

Any way, I did drill out the struts and inserted a piece of rod to give more strength to those parts.  Have not attached the struts yet permanently but did test the attachment strength and it looks good.

Per my resource book, the P-36 did not have windscreen framing along the front curvature of the windscreen.  Instead there was a bar installed inside at the top with two wires (four total)attached and coming down the inside of the windscreen and connected to the fuselage.  I have decided to replicate that first by sanding off the molded on framing, sanding the part down with 12000 grit sandpaper, and now it has a coat of Future drying.  There was a tiny bit of hazing left over from the sanding but I'm thinking the Future will clear it up, if not I'll strip the Future and go at that piece again.

I next have to fashion that bar and wiring.  I have a good piece of wire for the bar but I'm not sure that I have anything small enough to do the double wires on either side.  I may end up just doing a single wire for each side.

I agree that the effect with the PE flaps will be great but they sure were fidgety little buggers to install.

Charles, the Legend set was a breeze to work with.  I do feel like I'm going all out on this build with some new things, like the flaps, that I've not tackled before.  Today I affixed brake lines to the struts and while testing fitting the struts, decided that Academy doesn't give a lot of connectivity strength for those parts - it's a tiny little knob that is intended to support the weight of the kit.  I know it will support that weight, but I am mulling drilling out the struts and inserting brass rod to give it additional support.

Despite the difficulty, the flap PE adds so much to the overall effect.

I've made a difficult decision on my end.  I'd begun masking the invasion stripes, but the more I mulled it in my head the more I liked the model without them.  I've done invasion stripes before so that's not an issue, but I know I won't be happy once they're on despite the historical accuracy.  So I'll be taking artistic license and leaving them off.  Frankly, I doubt anyone would have noticed if I hadn't said anything.

There's some great progress here, guys! I'm still a few weeks from breaking out the P-47N, and it looks like the bar has been set pretty high!

The Legend cockpit set is really easy to use, don't you think Steven? Yours cams our tremendous. Tthe flap set really sets this off. You're going all out on this one!

A little more progress tonight.  Over the past week I have installed the Eduard PE flap set (well, actually just the upper wing portions, the flaps themselves remain to be done).  This is the first time I have put in a PE flap set and I must say that, while I really like the authenticity of the detailing, given how difficult it was to get these tiny slat pieces in place I'm not sure it was ultimately worth the effort for me.  But any way, on to some photos.

There was a lot of frustration involved in this work.  There were a couple of times where I considered the value of these parts and simply setting this build aside but the nature of the group build, with the dead line and the fact that there are others watching this build, spurred me on to complete this portion of the build.  Thanks a lot because I really don't like the idea of setting any incomplete kit aside for any amount of time.

Aggieman & Arki, great job on your birds, they are lookin' good!  Can't wait to see the final product!  Arki, despite the orange peel you mentioned earlier, your finish looks great!

Viper, excellent work on your P-36!  That is an NMF to be proud of!!!

Nice job on the P-36.   That chrome finish looks superb.

On my end, the OD anti-glare areas are painted along with some other miscellaneous markings.  Next very time-consuming step will to begin masking the invasion stripes.  Ugh.

Rob, great job on your P-36A!  That chrome finish really stands out.

When you refer to the tubing for the guns that you're waiting on, are you installing them in the fuselage gun positions?  The pictures aren't close enough for me to tell.  References I have indicate that the P-36A did not have machine guns mounted in the wing - someone correct me if I am mis-interpreting the photos and drawings found in the first volume of P-40 Warhawk in Detail & Scale, which includes a nice section on the P-36.  The P-36C did have wing-mounted guns but the A only had the fuselage guns.

Any way, nice work on your build.

Well, finally after about 2.5 months of work, my P-36A Hawk is done.  Kinda.  I'm still waiting on new "barrels" in the form of tubing.  the LHS is out of the size I need right now.  Anyway, this is the 1/48 Academy Kit.  Its built straight from the box, except for the barrels [when they arrive].  Its kit markings, aside from the red tail band which was masked and painted.  The finish is Alclad II Chrome over tamiya gloss black.  This was my first time using any Alclad product, and I was pleased with the finish.  I didnt get a perfect coat, which created a nice weathering to the metal look.  Anyway, here she is.  And her smaller counterpart, the OLD Monogram 1/72 Hawk.

I get home from work today to find that no one is home, so it's off to the work bench to get a bit more done on the P-36!  Today I drilled holes into the gun fairings atop the cowling and installed Minimeca tubing for the machine guns.  I took several photos, some of which aren't usable due to focus issues, but the photos did reveal things that I could not see with the naked eye.  The drill holes did not end up perfectly aligned across both fairings, plus it looks like I need a bit more filler around one of the gun tubes. 

I also took a picture of the wing damage I described in my last post, and the first photo revealed impressions in the plastic left by the pliers I used to reposition some of the melted plastic.  Didn't even think about that when I grabbed those pliers!  So it was back to the bench to spread on a little Mr. Surfacer for the second photo.

My P-36 is taking shape.  I've replaced the kit engine with a Quickboost resin engine that did not appear to have a way to allow for a spinning prop, so I drilled down the drive shaft (guess that's what it's called) to allow for insertion of a brass rod.  The rod is not cut to length as yet, but I will leave it as it is for the time being to give me a good handle on the airframe when painting commences.

I've also attached the wings and stabilizers and filled in most of the seams.  There are still some problem areas that I'll address when I get more time at the bench.  I also had a bit of a near-disaster while prepping the underside of the top wing for the insertion of the Eduard flap set.  I went probably one pass too many with the Dremel and wreaked havoc on (a) the edge of the wing where it should attach to the fuselage and (b) melted some of the upper outer surface of the wing.  So there went any idea of a NMF as I was unable to get rid of all traces of the melting.  Pictures won't show this damage as yet but I'll probably focus more on that area once I get to installing the flap set.

Next up is to drill out holes in the fuselage gun farings to insert the Minimeca tubing I'm using for the MGs.  Then on to the flaps.

Applied the Alclad Duraluminim over the primer coat.  Was able to eliminate the orange-peel, but dang if a couple seams didn't turn out like I'd hoped.

Still have a bunch of painting to go.  Next is masking of select panels for Dark Aluminum, then anti-glare panels, turbo-chargers, ID stripes, etc.

Managed to finally get the gloss black base coat applied.  Now to let that cure for a couple days and then shoot the Alclad.  Unfortunately I do have a little bit of orange-peel which I'll attempt to wet sand down with some 6000 and 12000 grit.