Click on the images for larger pictures.

Added 13/08/2006 1/32nd scale Boeing P26 Peashooter

Kit: Hasegawa
References: P26 Mini in Action

The Hasegawa P26 kit is one of 4 “Golden Wings” era kits. Along with the BF2C-1 it is the best of the four. When one considers that it is around 30 years old, the amount of detail is a pleasant surprise. The cockpit has a credible, though simplistic, amount of detail. The engine is convincing when built and the airframe has fine raised panel lines and rivets.

It is not hard to bring the kit up to the standard of recently issued 32nd scale kits.

The build.

Airframe preparation.

I completely re-scribed it using the existing panel lines and the plans in the “in action” book. There are a few panel lines that are imaginary so these were ignored. The kit was rubbed down with wet and dry and all the lines were brushed with liquid cement to settle the sanding dust down.

Every point for the main rigging is pre-drilled on this kit, nice. The down side is that the holes are a 90 degrees and the rigging exits the wing at an acute angle. The impact of this is a visible bend in wire as comes out of the wing. I drilled into the wing at the approximate angle of the wire to overcome this. I also ensured that the holes in the fuselage and U/C fixing points were drilled right through. This would help when rigging later on. I also drilled fine holes at the wingtips for the transverse aerial wires at this time.

The upper and lower wing halves were joined and the flap fitted in the up position. One thing apparent is that few of the aircraft were parked with the flaps down; also the ones in the kit are a bit short on span. The inner join was filled and the flap was re-scribed closer to it’s correct span.

The inside undercarriage spats and wheels were painted and then glued together.

Engine assembly

In my kit the mold matching was a bit off so I had obvious join lines on each cylinder. I sanded the sides and top and with the help of a fine razor saw reinstated the cooling fins. (I got less and less detail minded by the time I reached the last one)

I then drill a small hole in the position of the sparkplug front and back and inserted a piece of rod to simulate the plug. I assembled the engine and then wired the plugs. It was given a coat of silver paint and a black wash to define the cylinders. The pushrods and covers were painted black and the gearbox cover grey. The induction pipes were left silver.

The fit of the cowl was not good so I added two pieces of thin plastic card to help strengthen the join. One side was glued and allowed to set. The inside was painted silver and when dry the engine was inserted, the little pins on the engine lining up with their holes on the cowl. The remaining join was glued and taped and allowed to set. Both joins were filled and sanded, the engine masked and set aside for painting. The exhausts will be added just be for the engine is added to the fuselage.

Cockpit

The seat provided has a back whereas the one in the aircraft is just a seat pan with leather back pad affixed to the read bulkhead. I didn’t do too much here. I cut the back of the seat provided and thinned the sides down. I added the lap seat harness using the Model Technologies set. The remaining rear of the seat was shaped with a file to match the shape of the leather pad. The pad was made by lamination two pieces of 40 thou card cut to size. These had the corners rounded and the edges softened. A large dollop of Tamiya putty was spread over the face and when this had skinned it was pushed down with my thumb to crease. I used a Hobbycraft 1/48 Peashooter to work out size and positioning of these parts.

The cockpit “tub” had plastic strips added to the sides and these were sanded back to so there was no gap along it’s sides when in place in the fuselage. I removed some of the details from the starboard cockpit sidewall that were not apparent in the photos I had. I cut the access door out of the port side and added some framing on the edges and a correct opening leaver.

The leather padding was made by sanding the edge of the cockpit down and gluing a piece of plastic rod in place. The metal foil from a Milo tin was cut into a strip and glued along one side with super glue. It was folded over and pushed into shape around the rod with a toothpick. Thin superglue was run into the lower edge tho secure it in place. The MDC riveting tool was used to make a line of rivets along each side under the padding.
It was painted Polyscale Italian red/brown. I gave it a gloss clear coat and then a number of washes of black and dark brown inks to give a dark red leather effect. Looks just like Grandma’s chesterfield!

To the Starboard side of the fuselage I deleted the winder where it was molded and scratch built a new one in the correct place. I also added the map holder and wiring for some of the black boxes.. To the starboard side I added a throttle quadrant and flap controls. To the rear bulkhead I added some additional framing along the edges, the seat raising mounts and the leather back pad. To the rudder pedals I added the control cables and to the floor I added the gun cocking “tee” handles.

I removed some instruments from the panel that were not in the pictures. I added a selector switch to the lower left panel in place of an instrument dial and another switch to the central panel.

The cockpit was painted silver and various details picked out in black, wood or leather.
It was given a wash of black and brown acrylics to stand the details out.
The instrument panel was painted in dark grey (RLM66). Pure black was dropped into each instrument and when dry brushed with a pale grey. Clear varnish was applied to simulate the glass. Black ink was run around each instrument to add a bit of depth.

Assembly

The cockpit was glued to one side, the fuselage halves were joined. Then I had to force the read apart and insert the tail wheel – Doh! The wings were added as well as the tail planes. If you trial fit and sand a bit you will not need any filler for any of these joints. The only filler I used was a little on the spine and some Mr Surfacer around the front firewall bulkhead.
I fitted the undercarriage, front firewall and sanded all the joints down. The windscreen was fitted and the cockpit door re-installed with PVA glue. The cockpit and windscreen were masked off and the windscreen frames were painted black. The wheels were masked off.
I applied a coat of Mr Surfacer 1200 from a rattle can and when dry polished the model with an old tee shirt. I fixed a couple of seams and scratches, (but looking at the photos also missed a few!)

Painting/ Decals


I used Polyscale acrylics for the Orange/yellow and Olive Drab. The yellow was applied first in three coats. I masked off the flying surfaces, around the undercarriage and the fuselage band and then applied two coats of the olive drab. I force dry each coat with a hairdryer so it only took an hour to paint this far with most of the time taken to mask.

The red bands were applied after masking them out, then the aircraft was polished with toothpaste to a satin sheen and washed.


The kit decals were used and snuggled down with Micro sol and set. They did tend to wrinkle but this disappeared over night. The white is translucent and takes on a yellowish caste once in place.

The kit was washed with warm water and a little detergent to remove any setting and deal residue. I then applied washes to the panel lines – Black over the olive drab and dark brown on the yellow areas.


Final Assembly and rigging

The first area rigged was between the U/C legs, and then I moved to the lower wings and finally the top wings. I used 2.2kg/5lb fishing line. All wires were glued into the holes in the wings and then drawn through the respective hole and pulled tight. For the top wing I grabbed the wires inserted into the fuselage through the semi circle hole that allowed the engine to mount. The spreaders are fine wire glued into place with thin superglue. The holes in the U/C attachments were filled sanded and touched up. All the wires were painted with silver to stand them out. The seem lighter than the wing colours in the photos.

The Cockpit door was removed and a hinge made from Milo tin foil and it was glued into place.
The two intakes and exhausts were fitted to the fuselage and the individual exhausts were glued to the engine. The engine was glued into place and the two pipes that enter the fuselage were fitted. (This was a fun part – not) The Antenna was fitted as well as the sight to the front fuselage. The aerial wire from behind the cockpit was fitted as well as the one the runs up from the fuselage. The transverse aerial wires installed. (I managed to break the aerial off twice doing this and its still not completely straight!). The aerials were all made out of black invisible mending thread.

Finally the prop was painted silver and pushed home and the Peashooter was finished.