I’ve started an Academy 1/48 P-26 Peashooter. I bought the kit used off the internet and it came with a PE set.
Here is the parts layout.
I looks like a simple kit with the painting and rigging as the only possible difficulty.
Here is the office. I added the backrest I had removed for the PE set and used tissue paper for it and a pad for the seat as well. I don’t know if they had a seat pad as the only picture I can find of a P-26 interior is the one in the Smithsonian, which seems to be lacking one. Oh well, my plane has a seat pad. The interior was painted aluminum, although the kit calls for interior green, as the production models were left unpainted,
The OTB kit itself seems pretty detailed. So far I’m impressed with the fit. I especially like the holes in the wing, wheel pants, and fuselage to accommodate the rigging.
I completed the engine, next will be it’s painting and detailing. All the exhaust pipes were somewhat involved. I also glued the fuse halves and wings together. I’ll work on the seams first prior to attaching the wings and stabilizers.
I totally could have sworn I posted an update last night, but I don’t see it, so forgive me if I just overlooked it.
Here it is, I painted the primer and tonight I’ll get the yellow on the wings. Olive drab is on the fuselage. I’m leaving the engine off until I get everything painted up because it would be a bear to mask around. I’m already having trouble keeping all the tiny little exhaust pipes on. For those of you who want to build this kit, I would recommend keeping the stacks off until absolutely necessary. The kit appears to give you extra (I hope) because you may need them. I will mount the wheel pants on later as well as they are olive drab and the seam makes for a nice demarcation line between the two colors.
Looks like they give you seven parts C34 when you only need four? Several other pipes are rather small as well and they don’t give you extras on those.
I’m glad they give you extra. I’ve lost 2 C34’s already. I would recommend installing the pipes at the last moment to prevent the hair pulling I’m going through.
I don’t seem to be having as much trouble with the other pipes though. It would have been nice to install locater pins to help with the attachment to the engine. Too small I guess.
The build looks crisp and clean. I did one of these in 1/32 a couple of years ago and found it a cool build. I did not even have much issue with the rigging.
I sprayed the yellow tonight, and will wet sand tomorrow night, then give it one more coat. I swear, gloss yellow has to be harder than gloss white to get on and right.
I know it’s kind of late but I always base coat with flat white under the yellow. Yellow seems to be a tough color to spray and the white base coat works wonders.
With your engine, try using Tupperware. I use the Ziploc style disposable ones with a couple small compartments that you can get at the dollar store. I’ve found I can usually get a whole model’s worth of small parts or sub-assemblies that are awaiting painting or attachment into one container. That way if the pipes fall off, at least you know where they are!
Thanks for the advice Rob. I bought some containers tonight.
Here’s the yellow. Now onto masking for the olive drab. The fin seems to have a small seam (seems to have a small seam, see what I did there?) I’m going to have to address.
