David Hansen

Hey this information is seriously late in coming, but did you check out Mike McLeod's build of the Williams Brothers P-35 over on ARC? Not sure if its still there, but its sort of the standard by which builds of the kit are judged. May have some useful info. david

Dana was a lot of help to me as well for getting a better understanding of the "Graded Tone" Corsair paint scheme. Haven't seen the book yet, but a copy is on its way to me. david

Great Job, Peter! Made me actually go back to work on mine today..... david

Looks awesome, Peter! Great job! What are your thoughts on rigging the antennae? How are you gonna go about it and what do you think of the injection molded antenna posts? david

Peter, i agree with your assessment as well. The original demarcation was way too sharp; in fact, even in 72nd scale it wouldn't look quite right. Separation between grays was much more "Fuzzy" on Vought F4Us. An exception to this was Brewster, which used a very tight colour demarcation between top and bottom. The mid-waterline-level demarcation is rather exotic and i think i've only seen it elsewhere on the Vought TBY SeaWolf prototype, and early Lockheed PV-1 Venturas. david

3 house moves in 2 years? You're not a pilot by any chance are you? LOL -d-

Looks nice Andy. Great choice of paint scheme; something original. Wish the joint between the windscreen and fuselage was a bit cleaner, but i know vacform windscreens are hard to clean up and tweak. Aside from that i love it!! Cheers, david

Wow, that brings back memories. I used to work in the trailers just on the other side of the fence from the refuelling pits. 1996-2000. David

The weathering and overall paint job looks awesome. What did you use to glue in the landing gear struts? I've test fitted mine twice and they are a REALLY tight fit. Am thinking about using krystal kleer but i'm open to other opinions. david

Steve just informed me that there is a P-51H restoration underway in Blaine, Minnesota as well. Records indicate the Hayward based P-51 H is still alive and well at American Aircraft Sales. N49WB is listed with Yesterday Museum Inc. in Ft Lauderdale, FL. So, more than just one to look at (hopefully)! david

I cannot top having the actual NAA microfilm on hand, but Steve Bakke mentioned a 2 part article in the AAHS Journal, Volume 26 #3, September/ Fall 1980 was part 2 of a 2 part article (guess he doesn't have Part 1). It contains 72nd scale drawings by Thomas L Gray. Includes station and wing section illustrations. Until i make it to Hayward, best i can do. david

Wow! That is the shizzle! The 1" walkway markings and non skid areas IMHO add a lot. BTW, those oval like latches on the gun doors are actually little crank things, that move bayonet locks holding the doors fully closed. Its common to see circular scratches as the locking pin gets dragged around the radius of the bayonet drive gear. If you look at some overhead pics of the gun access doors i think you will see what i mean. Just more Corsair trivia..... david

FWIW, many, many F4U photos i've seen show the machine gun muzzles covered by tape, and the gun barrels themselves are set pretty far back into the wing, so i think that might explain why Tamiya decided to defer them. david

There may very well be a P-51H in Hayward California, where i will be based. I will see if i can find out anything about it. david

Glen, this may sound a little odd, but you might also want to ask Tommy Thomason, mainly because he's a stickler for shapes and dimensions. Also, Warbird Information Exchange may be a useful source as well. Ironically, there are 2 F-82 Twin Mustangs undergoing restoration, if it were an -82 instead of a -51H underway you'd probably have all kinds of access to drawings, details, etc. I'm not exactly a huge Mustang fan (The Navy flew only 2 of them), but i do have a fondness for the P-51H. Its sort of the Air Force equivalent to the F8F Bearcat. I hope it goes forward. I wish you the best of luck on finding reliable drawings. I'll ask Steve Bakke if he has any other ideas; i know he's a mustang enthusiast. David

Oh Yeah. That DOES look really nice!! david

Thats cool. Just as long as you were aware of it and thought things thru. david

Hi Allan, 2 points of clarification: 1) i forgot to say that the holes punched in the Tamiya tape were to create masks to paint the fuel filler caps and the sabre drain masts. They were then sprayed with Model Master Insignia Red, which seems to go on to a future-painted surface just great. 2) I had this roll of white coloured, very sticky masking tape in my stash which i never used (it tended to pull paint off). i cut a piece out, laid it on my trusty cutting mat, sliced it to size and applied it to the model. Looks OK to me. Wish i had better pictures to depict this, but my flash drive is at home and dredging these pics up from my iPhoto trash folder, re exporting to my desktop, uploading to Photobucket, and then linking them to here is just too much of a pain. david

"Tojo" to me represents a can of worms in terms of interpreting the paint scheme, so i just prefer to steer clear of it. I think the weathering looks great. I know you aren't satisfied with how the propeller is coming along but i think the propeller will look better if the hub is dulled down a bit. Just one man's opinion, but one thing i would change however, is to reduce the contrast between the fabric covered areas on the wings and the surrounding sheet metal. I understand what you're trying to depict but i think there is a little too much contrast. I hope this isn't taken the wrong way. At the risk of sounding paranoid, just wanted to make sure you will be adding the non skid areas and the 1" walkway markings to the wings. To me a Corsair just doesn't look right without them. Looking forward to more pics. Keep on going!! david

Well, for what its worth, the plating that you have so much anguish over did NOT jump out as the first thing i noticed about the model. I was more taken with the paint scheme application and the markings. So maybe that will make you feel a little better. Going back and looking at your areas of concern they don't look that bad to me. At the risk of sounding like an apologist, it looks like a Spitfire to me. david

The photography looks more than good enough to get the point across. Are you going to add shims of .005-.010 along the leading edge joint outboard of the oil cooler inlets? With folded wings, not sure if its necessary. davis

Funny you mentioned that. i washed my FG as best i could and after painting i had a couple of little spots where the Mr. Color lifted off after masking with Tamiya tape. It proved eventually fixable, but on my blended colors it was harder to fix than it really should have been. david

Special, "I'm good, but i'm slow" edition. The exterior painting, decaling and clear coating is done. Not really visible in the photos, but the wings are finished in my favourite mix of Future with Tamiya Flat Base added, and the fuselage is done in Model Master Dullcoat. The vertical fin and rudder are still glossy, since i'm awaiting some aftermarket stencils and Bu Aer numbers. I finally lost patience and removed the masking from the clear parts. For the most part they turned out OK. I could have left the masking on until i installed the antenna post (which will require some touchup painting), but i need to get the underside wrapped up so i can put the model on its feet). The red fuel filler caps were done by punching holes in some Tamiya tape by using a Waldron punch and Die set (remember those? LOL). Photos i have of my subject aircraft show the plane with tape over the blast tube muzzles and shell ejector ports. I made the tape with....uh, tape. Questions, comments, constructive criticism, as always is welcome and encouraged. d-bot

Hi Hank, Not too much value added here, as most people have pretty much accurately summarized the pros and cons of both kits. Just a couple of other observations, coming from someone who is reasonably familiar with the overall shape and proportions of the Hellcat. The general cross section and overall shape of the Hasegawa fuselage is better than the Trumpeter, although the vertical fin is a bit on the short side and would look better if it was extended upwards. This was pointed out in the now old (but still pretty comprehensive) 1975 IPMS-USA Quarterly, which was largely devoted to Navy subjects. In terms of reliable drawings to compare the kit to, i'd recommend the drawings by A.L. Bentley, and the working drawings Jun Temma in Japan made to rework his 48th scale Hasegawa F6F. The profile of the Nose ring on the Hasegawa kit seems a bit excessively squared off, but it might be correctable with careful filing and sanding. The panel lines are definitely Matchbox-like in places, but not across the entire model. Lastly, the area which both kits got wrong (and my biggest pieve against the Hasegawa kit) is the windscreen and canopy. Hasegawa made the cockpit canopy (and by default, the opening for the cockpit) too short in length, and they tried to compensate by re-locating the wind screen arch/ bow aft. As a result, the windscreen is too long at the base when viewed in profile, and the gap at the apex of the windscreen between the flat armor plated part and the rest of the windscreen is too big. To me, it just looks wrong. However, it IS fixable. For some inspiration, try to find some pictures of Rodney Williams' 32nd scale F6F-3. It was a commission build and it was done eons ago, but IMHO it is still the 32nd scale Hellcat build by which all other 32nd scale F6F builds are judged. It is THAT good. Hope this proves useful, and that it has not stolen your joy. Ian G, BTW did a splendid job combining both kits. david

Looks very nice Pascal. Words from one who had been there: double check the fit of the "boot cowl" piece that closes off the front end of the fuselage. Lots of delicate screw head detail that needs to be protected. If the joint of the boot cowl isn't good you may have some surface restoration to do. Double check the fit of the stainless steel dishpan part; it pretty much drives the fit of the boot cowl. The way Tamiya designed the engine installation makes things awkward if you like to paint up your engines from the rest of the fuselage like it do. I was able to glue the exhaust stacks to the dishpan part and believe it or not i was able to successfully mount the engine/ cowling/ etc. much later in construction. The tolerances are tight but it does work. Make sure to mask off the exhaust stack area while painting the underside. Given their installation in the construction process, hard to paint the belly and keep paint out of that area. Please forgive me if i mentioned all this stuff already. Cheers, david