1/72 Revell Boeing P-26 "Peashooter" Plus

[TheRealMrEd]

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

[billn53]

So glad you are doing this build, so I’ll have something to follow when (ever) I get around to digging mine out of the stash 😎

[TheRealMrEd]

Yeah billn53,  it's kind of an adventure for me also.  Last time I built one of these was around 48 years ago!

 

Ed

 

[billn53]

19 hours ago, TheRealMrEd said:

Yeah billn53,  it's kind of an adventure for me also.  Last time I built one of these was around 48 years ago!

 

Ed

About the same for me! Around 1974, maybe?
 

[Eric Mc]

Funny, I built one around 1973/74 as well - nice dark green plastic I recall.

[VT Red Sox Fan]

Just joining--I cant wait to see what you do with this--I really enjoyed your F-100 build--best, Erwin 

[TheRealMrEd]

Thanks Erwin!

 

Guys, ain't it funny how time slips away...

 

Ed

 

[Ed Russell]

Well.......... snap! I have the Starfighter conversion so I will watch with interest.

I made one not long after they came out - so late 60s.

 

 

I'm not sure what was the source of the information for the home-made Philippines Air Force decals but I would not put much money on them being accurate!

 

Edit - for those interested, this would seem to be a great place to start - https://shellwings.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/the-boeing-p-26a-peashooter-of-the-paac-part-1-a-color-analysis/

[Bejay53]

13 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

Funny, I built one around 1973/74 as well - nice dark green plastic I recall.

I actually have the entire “collection” revell/monogram put out. P-26, P-6E, etc. The P-26 I have is in the dark green plastic. The P-6E is in the canary yellow.

For their age, they built up well even 40 years ago.

Edited June 18, 2021 by Bejay53

[TheRealMrEd]

Ha Ha, Bejay53...

 

I'll see your entire Monogram collection, and raise you a mint Matchbox P-12E:

 

 

Seriously though, I think Starfighter makes the parts needed to convert an F4B-4 to one of these...

 

Ed

 

 

[TheRealMrEd]

Ed,  the Pavla P-26 also has Philippine marking, albeit with a gold stripe and some other numbers.

 

Ed

[Eric Mc]

6 hours ago, TheRealMrEd said:

Ha Ha, Bejay53...

 

I'll see your entire Monogram collection, and raise you a mint Matchbox P-12E:

 

 

Seriously though, I think Starfighter makes the parts needed to convert an F4B-4 to one of these...

 

Ed

 

 

Been fiddling about with one of these over the past few days. I discovered that the combing section that "locks in" the fuselage mounted cabane struts is missing.

[TheRealMrEd]

Tough find Eric!  Unless someone has one for scrap, I don't think you'll get very far, although I have seen one for a reasonable price on E-Bay lately, and as said above, Strarfighter makes parts to convert the F4B-4 to a P-12E...

 

Ed

[dogsbody]

Dang! There are a lot of us old geezers on this forum! I remember when I first saw the Revell P-26 kit. I didn't buy one then ( 1966 or 67 ) because I didn't know what it was. My 12 year old self was just beginning to learn about aircraft then.

 

 

 

Chris

[TheRealMrEd]

Now for a brief update.  Time for the paint booth -- or not.

 

Another thread  about brush painting white acrylic paints got me thinking.  While this has nothing to do with acrylics (I rarely use them, and only for very limited purposes), it may be of interest to some.  I decided to show the effects of brush painting with True North AlKlyd Enamels.  First,  the wings with one coat of Chrome Yellow, and other surfaces with Insignia White:

 

 

Above right, with two brush-painted coats.  As you can (hopefully) see, it took two coats of the white, and I could have probably got away with one coat of the yellow, but I wanted to get a two-coat picture for comparison.

 

Next, after two  days drying time, I masked all the painted areas with Parafilm "M", and shot the green color, using Colourcoats O.D. 41.  Since my one remaining tin had already been thinned for brushing,  I could not get a brush-painting test of their coverage, so I had to use an airbrush.  I sort of suspect that Sovereign Hobbies' offering would have brush painted quite well:

 

 

As it turned out, the outer halves of the wheel legs/pants fell apart (white glue didn't hold up), so I ended up painting them separately on a strip of tape.  Above right, after another two days, the masking has been removed.  She needs a little touch-up on the white tail-feathers, but is otherwise good to go.  Had I a fresh tin of the O.D. 41, I actually think brush painting this little guy would have been easier than masking and spray-painting!

 

After touch-up and more drying time, I decide to do the decalling before installing the engine and cowl.  On decals that go both top and bottom (or left and right) like these on the P-26, I like to start on the bottom, and/or right sides of those surfaces.  In this case, the bottoms of the horizontal stabilizers and elevators.  First, some MicroSet goes on, and then the decal.  The decal is then centered as well as possible on the surface of the model, trying to allow equal clear or colored film overhang on all sides.  After this has dried, I use a coating of Walther's SolveASet atop the applied decal.  At this point it is wise to not touch the decal at all until it dries thoroughly.  It will wrinkle up like crazy, and you will think it will never lay down, but it will.  Sometimes I give it a couple of coats of the SolveASet, to get the decal to really snuggle down on the engraved detail.  Once this coat is nearly dry, I sometimes use a wetted finger or brush to gently help any excess deal to wrap around it's nearest edge.  But, CAREFUL HERE, the decal will tear easily!

 

 

Above, the arrows point to some of the excess mentioned above.  This picture is shown after the first application of SolveASet, before any help is given to the wrap-around excess.  One last thing -- the very dark green used on the Starfighter decal sheet is much darker the the O.D. 41, so beware, and look for an even darker green!

 

Ed

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by TheRealMrEd
Hit the wrong button, posted before done

[TheRealMrEd]

dogsbody, you are such a whippersnapper!  I think I bought this one for about 69 cents, back in the day.  I saw one go by on E-Bay a few days ago, for $10.00 US.  Some people are asking even more.. Folks, they are just old models, not gold!

 

Ed

[TheRealMrEd]

Still chuggin' along...

 

 

Above, the fit of the details on the rudder and vertical stabilizer are even worse.  It totally escapes me how someone could spend the money on developing decals FOR ONE EXACT MODEL IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE, and still get the sizes wrong!  I don't know whether Starfighter contracted with the decal printer for the artwork, or whether they supplied the artwork themselves, but THEY SCREWED UP!

 

All the other decals on the sheet are fine; well-printed, aligned, sized, and properly colored.  They come off the decal backing after only a short immersion in water, and do not tear easily.  In all other respects, they are fine.

 

For all other decal maker's artists out there, it is very simple.  Take the actual stabilizer parts parts of the model, lay them on a sheet scanner, and scan them actual size, moving the resultant scans into your art software, be it Photoshop or whatever.  Then, you increase the size of the scanned parts' outlines by maybe 2 - 4 percent, to allow a small amount of overlap.  Then you do the artwork on the resultant resized shapes.  Duck Soup!

 

Also, just to re-iterate for the slower decal artists among us, to get the THIRTEEN red/white stripe widths, you measure the total width of the area to be striped, divide by fourteen, and you have the widths for 13 stripes.  Questions?

 

Okay, enough of the rant, back to the model.

 

Next, I added more decals.  This process take hours, as each surface (top/bottom or left/right) is worked in a single session, so that the SolveASet has time to work it's magic, and allow the decal to snugly fit the surface details.  Sometimes, it takes even longer, because you might have to add another application of the SolveASet (or your favorite brew), letting each dry thoroughly between coats:

 

 

Applying decals is one of those things that can easily make or break a model, so it's worth the time and care needed to do the job correctly.

 

Next, another slight decal challenge, in the case the decals for the "spats" on the gear legs.  Unlike some other decals on the sheet, these are not marked as to side, etc., but they are indeed "handed":

 

 

Above, note the arrow, pointing to the little flat area.  This goes on the bottom of either side, and fits around the cut-out for the wheel itself.  Ergo, the part pointed to by the arrow always goes on the bottom side of the aircraft.

 

They look like so, with just the left side applied:

 

 

The arrow at the back points to more of the poorly-designed decals problems.

 

The next picture simply shows the model propped up in a box on it's right wingtip, to allow the left side of the model to be more or less horizontal, allowing the SolvASet to use gravity to help pull the decals down into the surface detail:

 

 

There will be a few more day's decal time, so see you then...

 

Ed

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Beautiful and the perfect scheme, I have a Peashooter and want to do it in the Green gold scheme. Now Im off to find the decals. 

[Bejay53]

On 6/19/2021 at 1:15 PM, TheRealMrEd said:

Tough find Eric!  Unless someone has one for scrap, I don't think you'll get very far, although I have seen one for a reasonable price on E-Bay lately, and as said above, Strarfighter makes parts to convert the F4B-4 to a P-12E...

 

Ed

And I just happen to have that conversion set! One of these days.

[billn53]

Other than the undersize decals, she's lookin' mighty fine!

[TheRealMrEd]

Hello again!

 

Time to fix the decal problems.  At first, I had decided to just touch-up all the decal errors with paint, but then my lone bottle of Insignia Red decided to act up, so I went with option "B", using other decals from the Starfighter sheet.

 

 

I cut just the red and white rudder stripes from another set of the decals, and applied them just around 2mm or less back from the blue stripe on the originally-installed rudder decals.  Unfortunately, I cut too close to the blue, and left a tiny strip of blue (arrow) that will still have to be touched up!  I will cut the other side about 1/2mm further away from the blue to avoid this problem again.  also, the "X" 's show where strips of black decal can be cut to repair the leading edges of the tail-feathers.

 

Next, just a shot of the underside.  Note that the excessive shine is from the coat of Alclad II Aqua Gloss used to seal the decals.  This will be toned down later, as I don't believe that this level of gloss is scale-like:

 

 

Above right, repairs done.

 

Next up, the carburetor hot air intake installation.  This was, for me at least, one of the toughest things to figure out.  Hopefully, the following photos (many lightened to better show the detail) will make YOUR task easier, should you travel down this road!:

 

 

The two longer pieces actually extend to the front, between engine cylinders, to admit cold air.  This area is heated by a turn of the exhaust pipes around these tubes (out-of-sight), and air is exited through the short pipe directly behind.

 

Next, the numbers correspond to the Starfighter upgrade set numbers:

 

 

Above right, a view of the left side, showing also the carb air intake tube.

 

Finally, the cowl ring is installed, with tiny drops of Canopy white glue atop each cylinder head:

 

 

She's coming along now.  A few more detail, killing the shine a bit, adding some antennae and she'll be ready for the part that scares me a bit, the Starfighter wire rigging set!

 

Back anon,

 

Ed

 

[billn53]

Very, very nice!
 

Tell me, how do you spray Alclad II Aqua Gloss and what (if anything)do you use to thin it? My first experience airbrushing it wasn’t very satisfactory, so maybe I didn’t thin it properly. 

[TheRealMrEd]

Hi billn53,  I just shoot it straight out of the bottle, about 20 psi with a .02mm tip.  They don't recommend shaking it, stirring it or thinning it at all!  It goes on very thin.  Airbrush cleans with water, IMMEDIATELY after painting.

 

You didn't say exactly what your problem was, bit it sounds like you might need either more air pressure or a bigger tip.  You do NOT want a thick coat, however.

 

Ed

[TheRealMrEd]

Back again, this time with MORE sad news about the Starfighter decals!

 

When I applied the decals for the cowl ring, I found that they were WAY too short, fore-and-aft.  I even went back and checked the fit on the Revell original kit cowl ring, and they are too narrow for that also.  Didn't anyone from Starfighter actually build using these decals?

 

 

 

Above right, my first attempt at correcting the decal hand hand painting resulted in this view.  Not correct, but better.  At this stage, I also added the antenna mast, made up out of hard plastic sprue, and the tail mast, also of harder stretched sprue.  They were both drilled and pinned with thin, hard wire, and inserted into holes that I drilled in the aircraft.

 

After model hand-brushing and fiddling, I got it looking a little better.  Not exactly the way the photos of the real aircraft back in the day look, but interestingly, it looks quite a bit like the sample hanging in a museum!  Guess they had a similar problem, figuring out the correct curves.

 

 

I guess I can live with this.  Also note that I may have installed the cowl backward, but I couldn't get it ti fit over the engine the other way around...

 

The shine on the paint has been killed a bit, using an air-brushed coat of Alclad II Klear Kote Lite Sheen,  and while that dries, I'll start on the PE rigging fret.

 

Since there was a PE bomb rack on the fret, I figured I'd start there, because if I messed it up, I could just leave it off!   I began by separating the bomb rack parts from the fret with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade.  I then positioned the long vertical (in the picture) parts to a rolled-over strip of Tamiya tape.  There are three etched-out spaces on these where the two thinner, and one thicker, cross-pieces go.  All the pieces have center lines to help line things up before gluing:

 

 

Above right, when all three horizontal parts have been positioned correctly, and stuck down onto the tape pretty well, each intersection is glued with a drop of CA, for which I used a Glue-Looper.  Then I installed the first of two vertical

parts onto the previous assembly, aligning the three shots in the bottom edge with the horizontal crosspieces.  This makes for an L=shaped beam going the long way of the bomb rack.

 

After all the parts are CA'd into place, the little parts on the end are bent straight up, and by using the @11 blade gently on each side, the completed bomb rack can be separated from the tape, without too much bother:

 

 

Hope this helps any future builders of this little critter.

 

Well, back in a few with more,

 

Ed

[VT Red Sox Fan]

Just catching up—incredible—I may have to follow your lead and get one of these guys on my shelf—best, Erwin