Just completed my first ever Hobby Craft kits, building the Boeing P-26C Peashooter in tandem with Seversky’s P-35A.
I recall when I returned to this hobby back in the mid-90s seeing Hobby Craft kits on the shelves, such as an AVG P-40B or the P-36, but never pulled the trigger on them. I will say that despite the age of these kits, they were a joy to build (well, other than some self-inflicted angst on the P-35).
The detail out of the box is decent. Panel lines don’t seem to be over-done. Plastic was smooth and took paint pretty well (except when one forgets to put primer on the separate rudder piece of the P-26). That said, these were not completely out of the box. I used some old Mike Grant instrument bezel decals to spiff up the IPs in both these kits. To replicate the P-26’s awesome looking rigging, I used K&S Metals 0.015 music wire along with 0.020 styrene rod for the stiffeners. I also added grocery store paper bag seat belts.
Hobby Craft was more than a bit stingy with painting details - no color callouts for any interior parts, for instance. I took what I know about early aircraft typically having an aluminum interior and just went with that. I never found many color photos of either of these aircraft that were not restorations, so I was not able to verify if my choice was wrong. The P-26 called for medium blue for the primary fuselage color on the P-26; my medium blue paint is a Tamiya paint that looks more gray than blue, but I like the way it looks even if it should be more blue.
Decals were hit-and-miss. Most of them worked well with Solvaset and eventually settled down nicely. Those decals on the P-26 landing gear boots were supposed to meet at the front of the boots, but I got the feeling they were never going to adhere properly to the curves so I opted to simply move them back a bit rather than ditching them. Both included decals for the red, white, and blue rudder stripes that were far too large for the parts, but I didn’t realize that until I had already soaked both in water for the P-35. The P-35 is therefore painted, rather poorly I might add. I trimmed the decals for the P-26 to a point where they are acceptable.
I find it interesting that the Seversky company became Republic and subsequently developed the P-43 Lancer (soon to appear on my work bench) and the famous P-47 Thunderbolt.
Next up - Tamiya’s Focke Wulf Fw190 D9 of the JV44 squadron.