|
|
REVELL 1:72 BOEING P-26A PEASHOOTER
Reviewer:
Richard Stracey
(rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:
11 November 2001
Aircraft:
Think
of pre WWII US Army Aircraft and the chances are that you think
“Peashooter”. It claimed a few first and lasts. The first all metal American
production fighter. The first production monoplane fighter. The last (Army) open
cockpit fighter and the last with fixed undercarriage. The last with externally
braced wings and Boeing’s last production fighter. The air forces of Guatemala
( used as trainers till 1957!) Panama, Spain (1), China (11) and Philippines
used them. The last two using them against the Japanese. The P26 was replaced in
time for America’s entry into WWII by the P35 and P36. It was a time of
colourful aircraft, yellow wings, red, white and blue rudders and lots of trim
and squadron insignias. The length being 23’10”and the wingspan 27’11 ˝”.
The P26 A was powered by a P&W 500hp R1340-27 engine and armed with either
two 0.30”or one 0.30”and one 0.50”machine gun and two 100lb or five 30lb
bombs.
Construction Notes:
Revell
Kit #4117 1/72 Boeing (Model 248) P-26 Peashooter
The Revell kit dates from 1980 (see addendum below). I know this as it says so in raised letters
under the wing! There are twenty one parts (including a pilot) in yellow plastic
with medium to heavy detail. I didn’t, but now wished that I had, used the
cockpit interior (11) as a template to cut a floor and rear bulkhead before
adding an Aeroclub V0 55 Interwar seat and stick. I added a stick and seatbelts
and should have included a dashboard too. Anyway, the construction is
conventional and straightforward and the parts fit well with the minium of
filler and tidying up. Being a bit ham fisted, I managed to break off the pitot
tube and since the rudder ariel post too a list, I replaced both with steel
wire. I don’t know what Revell have done but in the picture of the kit on the
box lid ( give me nice box art anyday) has a gross pitot tube but the kit one
was OK. Holes are supplied for the rigging.
Painting &
Version accuracy:
So
far, so good. Now for the complaints! Revell, hang your head in shame! For an
American company to get the colours of an American aircraft so wrong is just not
on. I suspect that it is to promote their own brand of (limited range) paints.
Why Revell (and Heller) bother with paints, I don’t know. Let’s try to make
sense of it. Wings, 310 (Humbrol 197), not bad but Humbrol 188/ Testors 1707
Chrome Yellow, better. Fuselage, 350 Lufthansa Blue (Humbrol 198). No way!
That’s about the same shade as the blue in the decals. AS far as I know, no
one makes this blue known as Light Blue No.23. I have read that it can be mixed
by adding one part French Blue (Humbrol 14) to three parts of Mediterranean Blue
(Humbrol 48). Anyone with ideas on the subject, let Mark know. An aluminium
coloured gun sight? How about gun metal or black? I can’t find a picture of a
US Army P26 with black propellers with yellow tips. All seem to be bare metal
with no tip colours although I wouldn't be surprised if the rear faces were
painted black in some cases. The face plate of the engine would normal be grey
although many Peashooters had theirs painted other colours. While on the subject
of colour, you may wonder why some P26s had blue and some olive drab (ANA 613?)
fuselages. Originally they were olive drab but in mid 1934 the instructions came
to change to blue but only when major overhaul or repair was done on the
airframe. This resulted in some aircraft still being in olive drab in early
1936!
Decals:
The
decals are fine and are for one un named squadron ( the 94th Pursuit
Squadron 1st Pursuit
Group). I used most of the decals but made an olive drab fuselage aircraft of
the Bolling Field Detachment using the insignia of the Capital Building (which
is across the river from the field). I used the insignia from Microscale
(Superscale) sheet No.72.22 that is a very useful sheet if you are interested in
this era. The decal wasn’t quite correct as the sky was the same blue as the
outer ring so required touching up with a lighter blue. The cowling was painted
in six yellow and six blue bands, that is segments of 30 deg. In this case, but
not all, the tail number was angled to read as when the aircraft was on the
ground which looks a bit odd. Revell also don’t supply the “US ARMY” in
black for under the wings, this too came from the Microscale sheet. Rigging was
done with fine wire.
References:
References
can be found in Profile No.14, Flying Review of May 1965 and Scale Models of
November 1974 has a review of Hasagawa’s 1/32 P26 which, naturally goes into a
great deal of detail and also supplies very good 1/72 scale plans.
(Addendum supplied by Randy Geithman) : A P-26 reference worth mentioning is Squadron's "Mini in Action". It covers the variants and includes some good cockpit shots - a must when doing something about the gaping-hole-with-lawn-chair the kit gives you!
Overall:
In
all, a nice little kit with reasonable, but not complete,
decals and that painting guide! Not a one off, try painting Revell’s TF
104 G (40011) as per instructions!
Addendum on kit information
(Thanks to Randy Geithman and Dave McDougall - also see Dave's Inbox review link
below):
In
spite of the 1980 copyright stamp under the wing this kit is a reissue of a much
older Revell release which dates back to 1966 and subject to Dave's Inbox review
separately.
© Richard Stracey 2001
Related Reviews:-
Related INBOX Reviews:-
SMAKR Home
| What's New | Submissions
| Information Requests | News | Links
| Reference Corner | Site
Info
1/72 Reviews | 1/48
Reviews | INBOX Reviews
