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Hello again. Up this round is the venerable old Revell boxing in 1/72 scale of the Boeing P-26, known as the "Peashooter", for it's diminutive size, this time jazzed up with some Starfighter additions. I also have the Pavla P-26 offering, and was originally intended a double "comparison" build. In the end, I decided to build just this one, and mostly because I wanted to try of Starfighter's PE wire struts for the first time. The various component kits look like so: Above right, the Starfighter P-26 Overhaul set has a lot of very well molded resin parts, most of which really can't be seen when the fuselage halves are buttoned up. But, the parts are exquisite, with only one tiny casting bubble atop one engine cylinder (mostly covered by the intact push rods) to give away the fact that this kit was vacuum cast, rather than pressure cast, with pretty amazing results. Kudos! Assembly, as usual, begins with prepping the fuselage halves to receive the cockpit, etc.: You have to remove the rear cockpit bulkhead molded lines (x's), and mark two different distance lines on the fuselage halves. Mine are slightly off on one side, but that doesn't matter, because as you test fit the cockpit floorboard and rear bulkhead and instrument panel, it becomes pretty clear where things line up. Also, "D" above marks the cutout for the drop-down crew entry door, should you choose to model it open. Starfighter gives you a resin door here, but the kit part you remove has enough detail to get by, should you just choose to use it. Next up, all the interior parts are done up in aluminum, in this case de-canted Krylon silver spray, shot through an airbrush. When dry, a little black water-based wash was applied, to help "pop out" the details. I also later added some Mike Grant instrument decals to the IP, but they really can't be seen: Next the assembled Starfighter cockpit was installed as shown here from the bottom, as well as the resin oil cooler, after some minor surgery. Also added was the resin nose plug. The Starfighter instructions, while extremely detailed, don't say how far down to sand off the casting block. I ended up leaving about 1mm protruding out the front: Next up, trying to figure out the engine plumbing. Starfighter gives decent instructions, but the drawings are a little hard to decipher in this area. I had pre-painted the engine cylinders Gloss black, the crankcase engine gray, and the push rods silver. Also, the exhaust tubing was painted with an Alclad II Exhaust color, but that wore off in handling: Part 19 is figured out first, In this picture, the top of the engine is pointing toward the added oil cooler on the fuselage, so note that part 18 fits between the back of the engine and part 19, the long exhaust part. Both the exits for these items will be on the upper right side of the fuselage when the engine is installed. Please note that in the above photo, I have installed the lower four exhaust stubs "bass-ackwards", with the shorter end of the curves stuck into the engine cylinders, when it should have been the longer, straighter part that was stuck into the engine! Also, on the fuselage shown above, a hole is drilled where the carburetor intake tubing will be installed later. This tubing gets installed with the shorter end of the tubing stuck into the fuselage, and the longer, straighter part of the tubing will (hopefully) fit between the installed engine cylinders, and stick out toward the front of the engine. Also, note that the hump behind the drilled hole will later be shaved off, and another hole for the carburetor intake-exhaust (?) will be added, also from resin tubing. I know, clear as mud! Another view of the engine after making a new set of the four exhaust tubes from plastic tubing, and re-installing with the long ends stuck into the cylinders: Above right, can't install the engine assembly until she's painted, so I added the wing assembly at this time. Fits perfectly, save for the tiny bit shown above. Next up, the tail planes have been installed, and just the inner pieces of the landing gear struts (pylons?) are glued to the wing. This is because the wheels are later trapped between the halves, and there's really no good way to mask the wheels here: I'll attach the outer halves of the main gear "pants" with white glue, so that I can remove them after painting, to install the wheels. Well, she's already about set for the paint booth, so back later! Ed