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

Fellow Army Air Corps/Forces Builders,

I've finished my 2nd kit for this GB.  Hasegawa's 1/48th P-40N was my aircraft of choice.  This was my first Hasegawa kit.  I must say it was a nice change from the Revell kit that I just finished.  Everything fit together beautifully.  This build was out of the box, no aftermarket accessories were used.

I used Model Master enamels for my paint.  I applied future on top of the finished paint job, then applied my decals & a chalk wash.  I sealed it with Model Master Dullcote Lacquer.  The antenna is streched sprue.

I really enjoyed this build, I'm anxious to get started on my P-47N now.

Here are a few pics, 2 of which are the original Warhawk flown by 1Lt Bruce Campbell of 45th FS 15th FG on Makin Island.

That P-40 is awesome DT! The finish is really great on it.

And just a little update from me. The paint on my P-47 really turned out bad but I am currently stripping it off. Not a big deal, but it is post-poning the completion a little.

Still slaving away at the fuselage assembly.  The fit of the booms to the main fuselage and wings is not a clean as I'd prefer.  However, given the horror stories I've heard about the Revell offering I'll stick with the Hasegawa fit anyday. 

Hopefully I'll have this licked by the weekend and have some pics worthy of posting.

Well, I'm getting that modeling itch again and we have this 3-day weekend ... now if only the fellas who ship stuff from China to the States would play ball and deliver the set of flaps I ordered for my P-36 ... I could go ahead and dive in this weekend.

Everyone's work looks great so far!  Keep the pictures and progress reports coming.

Quick progress pic as promised.  Finally managed to get everything to fit, although I still have quite a bit of seam work ahead of me.  At least it finally looks like a P-38!

Great job on the P-40 DT...

Arki I did the Hasegawa P-38 a few years ago.  The only issue I had was the wing boom seam.

Sorry about the dust didn't notice until after I took the pics

I finally have started and have some photos of my progress.  I'm building the Academy P-36 Hawk complete with Legend resin cockpit, Quickboost engine, Eduard flaps and Minimeca tubing for guns (fuselage guns, not the wing guns).  My progress is to the point of having painted the cockpit interior and installed the nicely molded Legend set.  The fuselage halves are now attached.  Hopefully I'll be able to start with the engine this weekend.

Aggieman, nice lookin' 'pit!  Way to go!

Work has been crazy (which is good in this economy), haven't been able to spend alot of time with my Academy P47N.  Here's what I have so far:

Steven, that Legend cockpit looks the biz.

DT, you're a machine!  Another nice looking cockpit.

I have finally (I hope) managed to fight my way through the filling and sanding.  Canopy is nearly masked and installed, so I will soon be able to move into the painting phase.

Great builds, guys!!

Me, I'm still working on the P-36.  The sanding and filling took forever.  but I finally got to the point of laying down the NMF paint.  So far I am pleased, but next comes the accent colors and decals.  Lets hope the alclad finish holds up. [first time I've used it]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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.

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!

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.