GWH 1/32 Curtiss 81A-2 Hawk - Flying Tiger

[dennismcc]

This is ever so impressive and you are having fun, win win situation.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Thunnus]

On 9/13/2025 at 4:41 PM, Daniel Iscold said:

There is an Yahu Instrument panel

Thank you but I won't be adding another option to evaluate!  I think three is sufficient!

 

 

 

On 9/14/2025 at 3:13 AM, dennismcc said:

This is ever so impressive and you are having fun, win win situation.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Trying to create a better mold for the instrument panel was not so fun... failed on two additional attempts and reverted back to the original casting. More on that later.

 

 

The panel lines and rivets on this model are so fine that they have trouble holding a wash, even without any paint layers.  So I've made the decision to re-scribe and re-rivet the entire model!  Crazy, I know but I think the results will be worth the effort.  At least in my opinion!  Comparing the kit with some drawings by Jumpei Temma, I added some missing rivets on the fuselage. These were done with Galaxy Tools Rivet Wheel in 1.25mm pitch, which didn't match the kit exactly but was the closest.

 

The all of the rivets were then redone using a sewing needle chucked into a pin-vise.  Time-consuming and eye-crossing work and I'm beginning to wonder if I made a mistake on going down this route.  The fuselage is then lightly sanded, cleaned off and then given a temporary panel wash to check the work.

 

All hatches will be closed so I've glued the port fuselage hatch into place.

 

The vertical tail fin is small but has lots of rivets.  I did this to prepare for the bigger job... the wings!

 

The wings are the largest parts on the model and they are covered in rivets.  I'm going to take them 1/4 at a time starting with the upper port wing.

 

Since the rivet holes are already there, it is not too difficult to simply push the tip of the needle into each hole and make it slightly bigger.  But there are tons and tons of them so it takes time.

 

After the upper port wing is re-riveted and re-scribed, it is sanded down.

 

To get rid of the sanding residue, I took the wing to the kitchen sink and scrubbed it gently with a soft toothbrush.  Again, a temporary dark brown wash is applied to check the rivet work.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2025 by Thunnus

[Gazzas]

Your dedication to the art is admirable.  Results respectable.

[Greif8]

This looks like a very nice kit and you are bringing it to another level with your skills John.  It always sounds like you are having a good time with the build, which is the important thing after all.

 

Ernest

[AngryJazz_Models]

Impressive work! All the extra work on the rivets will make a huge impact on the final appearance.

I really need to try this myself one day. Love the look, but it's also a bit scary  😅

[tomg]

The riveting and scribing will certainly pay off.  Will continue to watch.

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!

 

Yesterday, I finished re-riveting the starboard upper wing.

 

So the upper wings are complete, which was the biggest job so it should be downhill from here.

 

The upper wing will be scrubbed clean after I check the rivets and panel lines.  Next up will be the wing bottoms. They aren't as daunting as the uppers due to the smaller surface area.

[zaxos345]

Great work as always so far John!!!

 

John

[KUROK]

I like the temporary pastel ....it looks like great tonal variation/weathering!

[scvrobeson]

Really impressive work on the riveting John. Should help set your build apart. Looking forward to what's next.

 

 

Matt 

[Thunnus]

Thanks for comments!  And yes, that is a good point about the temporary pastel wash.  You can see the indirect staining that it can cause and this can definitely be utilized as an additional weathering effect.

 

 

Yes, I've signed up for a lot of tedious work but I've made it over the hump.  With some extra motivation, I finished off the wing bottom today. Please note that the vast majority of rivets are molded with the kit.  They are just very shallow and I felt that they would not hold a wash after multiple paint layers so I've made them deeper.

 

Still have many minor parts to rivet but they are so much more manageable like adding some longitudinal rivet lines on the horizontal tail surfaces per the Jumpei Temma's drawings.

 

 

I'll try to wrap up the riveting work in the next couple of days so that I can move on to other stuff.

[Greif8]

The riveting looks superb John.  

 

Ernest

[KUROK]

It might be that Jumpei Temma's drawing were used to make the kit, eh?

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  As typical at the early stage of the build, I am jumping around from one random thing to another.  This usually happens until the cockpit assembly truly gets underway, which has not yet happened.  One of the things I wanted to determine was... can the exhaust stacks be installed at the end of the build?  The exhaust tips are separate parts and have hollowed out ends.

 

The exhaust tips are designed to be glued into a receptacle and the receptacle needs to be glued into place before you put the two fuselage halves together.  So I taped the receptacle into the fuselage side to see if I could insert the exhaust tips in from the outside.

 

This looks do-able so I can paint the exhausts separately and insert them after all of the painting is finished.

 

The exhaust opening are a little clunky looking so I drilled them out a little more.

 

Jumping over to the Brassin resin wheels... I've glued the wheel hubs onto the tires. The hubs are bit undersized so there is an irregular gap around the circumference of the hub.

 

The gap is not super noticeable but it can be easily addressed.

 

For this type of gap fill, I like to use Milliput, which is a 2-part, water-soluble epoxy.  Using a toothpick, the gap is roughly filled with White Milliput.

 

Taking advantage of its water-solubility, a folded piece of moist paper towel or Q-tip dipped in water can be used to wipe off the excess putty. If done carefully, no sanding will be necessary after the putty hardens. The pretty detail on the wheel hubs will be covered, unfortunately!

 

[Greif8]

Nice improvements on the exhausts John and the wheels as well, though you should not have had to do that with the Brassin set.

 

Ernest