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

[Graham T]

Blimey, must be 0ver 50 years since I built this!  In those days it came in a box with frameable box art!!

 

[TheRealMrEd]

Hi Folks,  sorry for the long delay between updates,  but I've just (figuratively) shot myself in the foot for the time being!

 

Actually, in the last pic, I had just painted a layer of the Klear to dull the shine a bit.  A few hours later, I realized that I must have failed to either shake or stir the bottle!

 

Unlike Aqua Gloss which doesn't like to be shaken or stirred  -- certainly not very James Bond-ish! --  this stuff requires it.  So, I am now stuck with several days/weeks of waiting for the paint to dry enough to handle, plenty more of which is going to be required.  Right now, the P-26 is setting in a closed room with a dehumidifier running full tilt, trying to speed the drying process.  It seems to be working, slowly.

 

Anyway,  I'll be back to this thread when I have better news to report.  Meanwhile, I may just start something new, to tide me over a bit...

 

Ed

 

 

[TheRealMrEd]

Just a brief status report.  After a week in a small, enclosed room with a dehumidifier blowing right onto the model, it's about half-way dry.  As I'm going o n vacation for a few days, hopefully, it will be dry enough to move on.  If not, I'll shot a coat of Aqua Gloss atop the sticky paint, and see whether it will work that way.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

 

Anyway, the next update will be sometime toward the last week in July.  See you then!

 

Ed

[bigbadbadge]

Have a lovely holiday,  it should be dry when you get back!!!

Chris

[TheRealMrEd]

Well the model finally got dry enough for minimal handling, so on we go....

 

Next up, the wire rigging.  I started with the wire braces between the gear legs.  These are incredibly thin and hard to see, much less handle, and of course, right off the bat, the first one launched into space, never to be seen again!  But, moving everything atop a large sheet of white paper for further work, I installed the second of two onto the model, in the unlikely event the first part ever turns up again (arrow):

 

 

Also note above, that the lower wires provided by Starfighter are too short to fit into the models' factory pre-drilled holes, and they are not the same width apart as the holes.  The Starfighter parts seem more accurate than the holes, however.

 

Next, on the upper side, while the Starfighter wires align perfectly with the holes in the fuselage (A), they are two long for the holes (B):

 

 

Therefore, if ever I were to build another (not likely), I would begin by filling all the wiring holes in the model gear legs and wings, but NOT the fuselage holes. 

 

Since I was too far along for that, I glued the top of the topside wires into the fuselage (G-S watch cement), and aligned the wires as well as possible to their natural positions, irrespective of the holes, and glued them into place:

 

 

(I treated those on the underside of the wing in much the same manner. )  When dry, the holes were then filled (as well as possible) with paint:

 

 

Not perfect, but looking much better.

 

I'll be back, after I ponder my next move.

 

Ed

[TheRealMrEd]

Hello again.  Nest up, the antennae rigging.  One thing to mention here is that before installing the tall, front antenna mast, I took a tiny razor saw and cut a little span-wise (when mounted!) slot in the upper tip.  On the vertical antenna mast atop the tail, I sawed a fore-and-aft slot (when mounted).  These help to hold the Invisible Thread into place, when rigging the antenna wires.

 

Next,  holes are drilled all the way through the wings, just a bit behind the wing-tip lights, and one is drilled atop the headrest fairing on  the fuselage, and another behind the headrest fairing.  I started the wiring by taking a piece of Invisible Thread and gluing the center of the length to the top of the larger, forward antenna mast.  When that had dried, the ends of the thread were led through the wingtip holes, exiting the underside of the wings.  At this point, I used medium alligator clips to weight the ends of the thread, pulling them taught, and gluing each into place.  I used G-S cement, but CA works fine as well.

 

The wire (thread) from the headrest area was glued into the top hole, and another short length of thread was glued into the hole behind the headrest fairing.  When dry, the foremost wire was laid across the slot in the tail antenna mast, and glued into place, again weighted, but leaving just a bit of slack.  Later, when this had dried, the short thread at the rear of the headrest fairing was laid atop the previously installed line, and held at an angle, was weighted with another alligator clip.  The intersection of these lines were glued with a drop of G-S cement, and when dry, all excess ends were trimmed with a flush nipper:

 

 

Next the previously assembled bomb rack was glued into place:

 

 

I could find no clear references as to whether the rack was painted to match the fuselage or not, so I just left it bare metal.  It will eventually have two practice bombs glued to it.  There seems to be a definite shortage of WWI era bombs, much less between-the-wars offerings, so after searching the spares box, I just did the best I could, which will be seen in the final pics.  I was looking for the British 25-lb bombs, which used to be had from metal (Aeroclub?), but seem to have gone the way of the Do Do.

 

Next up, the back of the propeller was painted maroon, as was the custom in those days, the bombs were added  -- oh, and somewhere along the way, I had added the opened, drop-down cockpit door, along with the wing-tip lights.

And suddenly, she was done:

 

 

I will post up a few pics in RFI HERE.

 

In closing, let me say that the old Revel offering is still a bang-up kit, and fits together very well.  The Starfighter resin update set really adds to the detail and needed corrections.  The wire rigging set, as long as you fill the requisite holes, also adds to the model, and the bomb rack is unique in this scale.  Having stated my opinions about their decals, and the travails caused thereby, I will leave their use to your own discretion!

 

Thanks for looking in, and see you next time,

 

Ed

Edited August 5, 2021 by TheRealMrEd
added link

[VT Red Sox Fan]

Ed, an inspirational build of a colorful in-between the wars aircraft (yes, I know some P-26s found their way into WW2 combat, but I believe it is fair to say their hey day was before WW2)--I just mosyed over to Starfighter Decals to contemplate the purchases you made for your aircraft--it looks simply gorgeous--would be nice to see it next to one of your other builds--I think the camera makes it look much larger than it actually is--your skills are impressive and the outcome is amazing!  Best, Erwin