Special Hobby P-36 (1939 Cleveland Air Races)

[Tnarg]

So I checked the photos in "The Curtiss Hawks" and they show a pretty close agreement with what the kit contains. There is an even better photo in "Curtiss Hawk 75" by Gerry Beauchamp and Jean Cuny on pages 32 and 33.

 

The left hand cockpit has a map case just to the left of the seat (just above the second stringer down from the top), but the rest of the detail is pretty close. There are a lot of wires and cables included, but they are low on the side. The only other addition really visible is a lever sticking up below that map case, right next to the seat.

 

The right hand side has a large box in the place of the oxygen tank (?) just to the right of the seat, with the top just under the placards on the top "row" of the cockpit RH side. Again, more wiring and cables along the lower RH sides, but not too visible. The only other big difference is a lot longer lever for the mechanism just in front of the RH side of the seat. It almost reaches up to the level where that tank is now.

 

The instrument panel in the "Curtiss Hawk 75" book (called out as a P-36) looks pretty close in arrangement to the kit panel. The photo in "The Curtiss Hawks" (also called a P-36) really looks close to the H-75 photos in the walkaround reference I called out earlier. Like they say, check your references. What you have looks pretty good, especially since everyone will be checking out the cool camo instead of every little detail inside the canopy. (Easy to say, hard to do in the face of AMS).

 

Tnarg

[Tnarg]

One more thing from "Curtiss Hawk 75" book, page 229. They call out "yellowish green" zinc chromate as the interior and wheel well color. Hopefully that information is not too late for this build.

 

Tnarg

[mywifehatesmodels]

Thanks to everyone for the comments.

 

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with what I have, at this point. After doing some more searching, I know there is evidence out there that suggests that the interior of this plane could have been a variation of interior green or bronze green. However, I don't believe anything has been confirmed. I'm not trying ton convince anybody that my rendition is correct. Only that it could be and to make myself feel a little better about having glued the fuselage together and working the seams already. The same can be said for some of the cockpit details. But I still think there are a lot of references out there for different variations and it's easy to get them confused. Again, not saying it's right, just that it's hard to confirm. Also, my goal with this project is just to build what I see as a fair representation of this plane, without getting too anal retentive about it. So long as I can get it finished without putting my fingerprints in the white paint, I'll be happy.

 

I do greatly appreciate all the input, though. Even if some things are wrong, I'm still learning from it and that's half the fun.

 

Thanks again,

 

John

[waroff]

essential is that you have fun with your model

 

 

model H-75 is the Curtiss denomination, called P36 in the nomenclature USAAC

 

below the difference between model H75A, and french H75A1 and A2

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2012 by waroff

[mywifehatesmodels]

Okay, guys. After taking a closer look at the cockpit, I've decided that I probably do have enough room to work in there to get it repainted. I'm still working on the rear bulkhead seam that will need more paint, anyway and, if I'm careful, I should be able to work around some of the details, then touch it up.

 

I made the canvas shields for the wheel wells last night and installed them this morning. I hope to have more pics tonight.

 

John

[mywifehatesmodels]

I repainted the interior. While that was drying, I finished the engine.

 

[waroff]

it's a good job!

 

If you glue the firewall into engine cowling as indicated by Hobby, the crankcase will be exceed the cowling.

Glue the fire wall behind the ring in the cowling, the crankcase and edge of cowling will be at same level.

Between the crankcase and the propeller hub there is a brush gear propeller (forgotten by SH)

 

http://sosthene.pagesperso-orange.fr/H75/collecteur%20curtiss.jpg

here on R1820 single row. on top of brush gear box, there is electrical wire from governor propeller.

it's same with R1830

Edited October 25, 2012 by waroff

[mywifehatesmodels]

Well, too late, now. I just came in from gluing everything together. Wish I had read that, first!

 

I don't have any pics yet, but I ended up putting the guns in. I had used just portions of the front firewall, where they attach, but ended up cutting those down even further (to basically the top corners where the guns mount) and sticking them further into the fuselage. As the kit is designed, one would have to reach past/behind the instrument panel to charge the guns! I think I've got the wing dihedral close and that wasn't too bad, but the seam on the belly, where it meets the front/cowl section, has a huge step in it where the cowl sticks down too far. I had to choose whether I wanted to deal with a step at the top or the bottom. I chose the bottom, of course. There's also a large gap between the cowl halves on the bottom that I had to fill. But, the section of the cowl that meets with the wing roots fits pretty well (in comparison to the rest) that way. I'll get some pics up later.

 

John

[waroff]

I think that the bottom of part P11 is too large, so there are two problem;

1st, is create a gap at assembly cowling, 2nd the diehdral is too flat.

 

On my P-36, I resize the width of the part P11 to obtain 37mm

 

With 37mm, the diehdral is occrrect with 12% underwing ( 6 degrees 56")

 

I glue a spacer (plastic square 1/8"), on the underside of upper wing, so the wing can't become flatter

Edited October 25, 2012 by waroff

[mywifehatesmodels]

waroff,

 

Thanks for the photos and clarification of the dihedral. If I'm measuring mine correctly, I have a hair over five degrees, but not quite six. That's close enough for me!

 

As I mentioned, all of the main assemblies are together, the IP is done and installed and the interior has been repainted with a mix I made, trying to replicate "bronze green". It looks a little light in some of my photos, but seems to be a close match, to my eye.

 

I'm almost done working on the main seams. Here's a picture of the seam on the underside, before I started on it. I should have taken it from a different angle, as there was a step of at least 1.5mm between the two parts that had to be filled and sanded. This pic just doesn't show the magnitude of the problem.

 

Before:

 

 

And after sanding:

 

 

Also, a couple shots of the IP in place:

 

 

After the main seams are done, I'll add the horizontal stabs and work those, as well. Then, it's on to modify the spent cartridge casing bins and get them installed before painting. I've already removed the panels, etc. for the outboard guns, leaving only the inboard, as the P-36C only had one gun in each wing. We'll see how far I can get with the rest, over the weekend.

 

Cheers,

 

John

[waroff]

how have you made the wheel pocket cover?

I have not made it because I don't know how to make it.

The area in front the wheelbay is the wing underside, so it's same color as underside.

Do you think engraved the rivets lines?

Now, the cockpit is really better?

Cordially

 

I have another H75, I try assembly the two halves cowling and the underside wing, there is not this gap!

[mywifehatesmodels]

waroff,

 

I made the canvas covers by using tissue that I wet with a mix of water and white glue. Before wetting them, I pulled a square over the top of a small Testors paint bottle, which is the perfect size, and taped it around the sides of the bottle. After it dried overnight, I carefully removed it from the caps and cut off the excess. I should have taken pictures!

 

For the panel lines and rivets, I used a #11 blade, followed by my scribing tool, to restore the lines and my jewelers punch to restore the rivets. They're not exactly the same as the kit, but you have to look very close (like with a magnifying glass) to notice. The punch actually creates something more like a flush rivet, where the kit's rivets are just holes.

 

Is the cockpit better? I don't know. It's a different color now, but painting it after assembly didn't make for a smooth paint job. That's for sure!

 

John

[mywifehatesmodels]

In doing some more investigation on the spent casing bins, I determined that the ones I made are not only too long from top to bottom, but also too short from front to back. So, I'll have to come up with some new ones before I can finish. In the meantime, I went ahead and got started with the painting. In looking at many photos of the planes in this squadron, including this one, you can see the national insignia and "U.S. ARMY" markings showing from underneath the lighter camo colors. So after doing a silver primer, I applied these decals.

 

 

 

Then I started with the flat white. It's slow going, as I have to build up mist coats to keep things smooth.

 

 

Once the white is done, the rest of the camoflage should be a little easier to apply. The only area that has me really concerned is the stripes on the rear fuselage. I'm hoping I can get these properly masked and in such a way that the tape doesn't pull off any paint when I'm finished. I think I may give it at least a day or two to cure, in between coats.

 

John

[mywifehatesmodels]

"Don't look, honey! I don't have all my makeup on yet!"

 

 

I tried to get the colors that I thought were right, based on several photos, both black and white and colorized. There are a lot of discrepancies between them (and debates to go with them), but I settled on something that looked right to my eyes. The flat white is a cheap, Wal-Mart special rattle can, but a brand that's proven to be very smooth and doesn't run easy, so long as you mist it on to start with. For the sand color, I used Testors MM enamels. I mixed 10 parts "Sand (ANA 616)" with 5 parts "Skin Tone Shadow Tint". This gave me exactly what I was looking for, which is a color that looks sand/tan/pink, or even an orange, depending on what angle and light you view it from (and why I shot several pictures with/without the flash to try showing this effect, but the photos just don't do it justice). For the green, I used 11 parts Dark Green 34079 with 1 part Dark Sea Blue 35042. This seems to match the colorized photos very well.

 

I cut the masks from paper and held them in place with a gloved hand and small pieces of tape. There will be plenty of touch up to do when I get done and I still have plenty of splotches to add before I get to that point. I just thought I would post an update showing the colors.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

John

Edited October 29, 2012 by mywifehatesmodels

[krow113]

The ghost markings are hard to see in the pix ,did that work out?

Good work on this.