Revell 1/72 Boeing P-26A Peashooter

REVELL 1:72 BOEING P-26A PEASHOOTER
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Dave McDougall (crustyoldseadog@aol.com)

Kit: Revell 1/72^nd Boeing P-26A (kit #H-656)

Aircraft: Boeing’s pint-sized P-26 was the fastest and most advanced fighter in the world when it first appeared in the early thirties. It’s performance was so outstanding that the U.S. Army Air Corps formed their top pursuit squadrons around the little fighter. The P-26 could easily outrun it’s two-winged sisters, exceeding the fastest biplanes by some 80mph. It soon became the pride of the Air Corps whose pilots fondly referred to the plane as the “Peashooter”. The pattern for future planes was clearly defined by the new monoplane, and the era of the biplane as past.

Parts: Nice compact top-opening box. 19 pieces of olive coloured injection molded plastic. 1 injection molded clear piece. No bag so they’re lying loose in the box. 1 folded instruction leaflet. 1 decal sheet.

Instructions: Two-sided folded leaflet printed in fairly cheap paper. (Interesting to see Revell were using cheapo paper even way back. Side one has a four stage exploded construction diagram, a parts list and a set of written assembly instructions (e.g. “cement part 10 to part11” – very 60s). Side two has background information on the aircraft, painting/decal instructions (note that these aren’t printed in colour) and concise versions of the written instructions in French, German and Swedish?. Colour callouts are given as generic colours and (on the side of the box lid) as Revell paints.

Versions: One, an unidentified P-26A in US Army Air service.

Decals: There look very nice (rather surprisingly for their age). They’re thin and crisply printed. There include national insignia, fuselage stripes and tail/rudder markings.

Accuracy: I didn’t get my scale rule out to check the measurements but I did compare the fuselage and wings to some illustrations I have and I didn’t see anything as being obviously wrong so it sure looks like a P-26A to me.

Detail: Pretty standard sixties production i.e. raised panel lines and rivets (lots of rivets). No cockpit detail. A pretty basic representation of the engine. Having said that, the fuselage and wings do carry a fair bit of detail and the phantom riveter at least kept his rivets a reasonable size. The various parts are molded quite thinly and there’s only a tiny bit of flash on one or two of the smaller items so that’s quite pleasing.

Options: Erm, none.

Impressions: Way back in the sixties, Revell produced some nice little kits; many of which weren’t covered by the other manufacturers of the day. Kits like the PZL P-11C, Fiat CR42….and Boeing P-26A. If the lack of cockpit detail doesn’t bother you (it doesn’t me) then it’s not a bad little kit. It should go together very easily and paint up into bright and colourful pre-war aircraft to add to my collection. As far as I’m aware, this kit’s currently out of production, but you should be able to pick it up second hand without too much trouble. I bought my kit this way.

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