sargevining

Dang, that's purty. The exposed engine, IMHO, makes this a step above the Special Hobby P36, and you've executed it extremely well. Still having second thoughts about the Engines n Things Engine? I also like the way that Trumpeter does the fuse work behind the side glass, it really helps make it look like a separate piece of metal. It stands out very well on yours.

OK, If I'm going to do a plane with flame coming out the butt, it's going to be US and it's going to be EARLY. Towards that goal I just got two Hase F86 kits from EvilBay. I note there's a good article here on LSP. Anybody else got any pointers or links? I'm at work and for some reason they frown on my doing research here......

Actually Haggis, the only real hard work is finding out what the problem is/was. After that it's just dealing with the plastic dust on the carpet. Once this is done, I think I'll do a write up on it so other folks don;t have to take the hard road.

Bill; That would be great..of course now that means I spent twenny bux I didn't need to. Email to follow with snail mail

Thanks Stef; Am interested in any info on your I16 build. I'm kind of an "early war" nut and that one fits the bill. They look especially good in Spanish Civl War colors. I'm also weird in that I really like the early war US Olive Drab over Neutral Grey color scheme and the kit provides decals for the Rasmussen plane that shot down tw Japs at Pearl Harbor. That will be the one I do. I recently bought a sheet of blueprints of the P-36 from: http://www.aviationshoppe.com/catalog/curt...-p36c-p-58.html The ship that Rasmussen flew was a P-36C and should have under wing "brass catchers" for the wing mounted .30 cals. The kit is incorrect in showing wing mounted mgss for the P-36A and the C should have only one per wing. I'll be scaling those drawings to make the brass catchers and will try to post a drawing so that others can do the same. If you do an A or a C, you will have to fill in the holes for the mg and the detail on the wings for the ammo stores. Speical Hobby is obviously coming out with more versions. My hope is that they come out with one of the Nationalist Chinese versions. I like that color scheme as well and it will look good next to an AVG bird. I've got to say that I really do enjoy this kit, despite the fit problems. I know that this is mainly due to limitations in budget and tooling. Companies like Trumpter and Tamiya do not have similar excuses and are supposed to make kits free from major errors and fit problems. (Although I will admit that any problems I had with the Trumpeter P40 were the result of setting too high a goal for myself) One hopes that as Special Hobby grows they will invest in tooling that will help them to come up to the standards of the bigger companies. The attention to detail here is pretty good. They hit some high points common to both airplane types (P36 and P40) that Trumpeter missed in the P40.

Bu, by thinning the bulkheads, dihedral is now unaffected.

The rear bulkhead no fits nicely. Material had to be removed from the sides and the curved areas at the rear windows. What remains can be filled with cyano snd lightly sanded, although this will require repainting. but the cowl fits OK even though the forward bulkhead keeps the wings from mating at the proper elevation.

Quick fit to see if this has gone far enough to solve things. Looks like the MGs will need to be removed and repositioned. You can see here how the bulkhead will negatively affect both cowl and dihedral.

A day of sanding and fitting, and some progress, as well as more evidence that this is the way to go to insure fit at the cowl and wings. One problem remains. Below is the forward bulkhead , sanded to a point where the machine guns foul the fuselage.

This shows the biggest culprit is the forward fuselage bulkhead even better than the previous. Here it sits on top of the taped cowl. The bulkhead should fit inside both the cowl and the fuselage in the same manner. We now fold our tents and head to the Hobby store for a supply of sandpaper, but will first use a wre brush to clean out the grooves in all the files on the workbench...they will be needed. In the meantime, the wings need to be assembled as any further attempt at fit of forward area of the fuselage will also largely depend on them as well.

The cowl tapers from front to back, so it will be impossible to glue the halves together and then put the engine and bulkhead in from the rear. Test fitting of these is going to have to take place. For the time being, I taped the cowl halves together to test fit to the front of the fuse, sans bulhead. It's not perfect, but not tremedously bad either. A minor criticism here is that the cowl does not end at the cooling flaps but at a panle line about a half inch past the forward edge of the wing root. This is probably to accomodate different cowls for more verions of the Hawk 75, but I would have preffered the join been made at the cooling flaps to make it easier to cut out and display open.

The forward bulkhead. Both of these have been placed in until friction held them in place, and no farther. I had at first attempted to push the rear bulkhead all the way in and in the process separated about a half inch of the glued joint right at the cockpit end of the spine.

And on the morn, comes the fit problems. Pics below show how the bulkheads fit in the now glued fuselage. First, the rear cockpit bulkhead

Back from a long hike and will do the last thing for the day. Glued the fuse forward of the cockpit, again from the inside using capillary action. Nothing to clamp here, so tape is being used. The two piece under the top piece hold the tape away from the seam so that the liquid glue does not capillary up under it and glue the tape to the fuse. Tomorrow morning we'll take the tape and clamps off and see what we've done. I think I'll join the cowl halves together tonite too so that the fit there can be checked against the front of the fuse before any bulkheads are added.

Bill; This confirms my suspiscions about the seat. The AF Museum ship has the fuel filler port moved to inside the cockpit and there are a couple of modifications and omissions in it as well. I'm willing to be that a "new" seat was put in by a post-war civilian owner at the same time the fuel port was done. I would wager that it was a seat not fit out to allow a parachute to fit inside. Looks like I'l be going with the Eduard seat. I'd use the CE seat out of the P40, but I like the seatbelts provided with the SH kit more than I do the "posable" ones provided with the CE seat that I've already installed on it.