1/48 Hobbycraft P-35

[jeaton01]

Here's the next victim, the Hobbycraft P-35, the first member of the Thunderbolt family.  The Dora Wings P-43 is also in the que, I have one of those fancy instrument panels coming for it by Yahu.  The P-35 seems to be a pretty good kit as to fit and finish, but as usual for this maker a little too simple in the cockpit.  It has fine panel line detail.  I made some decals for the instrument panel and a subpanel on the right cockpit side wall based on a nice photo.  There are a few more boxes and panels to work on.  I taped the fuselage and wings together for a test fit and it looks pretty good.  I saw the misalignment on the right wing trailing edge and it looks like it will adjust up OK.

 

 

 

[deafpanzer]

Nice choice! I admit I know very little about P-35... I need to learn more about it.

[keavdog]

She had a less than illustrious career. John, are those two kill marks legitimate? I thought they all got their clocks cleaned.

[jeaton01]

I don't think two kills are legit unless they were putting squadron totals on airplanes, John. There were two kills by P-35A's of the 34th Pursuit Squadron in the Philippines on December 8, but they were by two different airplanes and pilots. I'm going to do Buzz Wagner's P-35A in nmf, though he had no kills in P-35's as he had already transitioned to the P-40 before things kicked off. They are not shown in the instructions, but those markings are on the decal sheet.  To be fair most of the P-35's lost by the US were by friendly fire and ground attack.

My best source is a Squadron Mini in Action and various magazine articles, as well as the net.

[jeaton01]

Another quick update. I had to remove the pin at the tip of the right wing to get everything to match up. The fit of the wing to fuselage was very nice all around.

[stikpusher]

You’ll like the kit John, it’s one of Hobbycraft’s better efforts. I have one sidelined mostly completed from many years back done to problems with the canopy.

[jeaton01]

What happened with the canopy, Carlos?

[kyledehart5]

Brilliant! A P 35. I love it when folks build unusual subjects. Looking forward to seeing it come together.

[stikpusher]

Jun 24, 2024 21:54:47 GMT -5 jeaton01 said:

What happened with the canopy, Carlos?

The profile on the kit's rear canopy spine is too rounded, it should be more razorback like the P-43 & P-47. So I tried to modify it and screwed it up. Then I screwed up cutting out the replacement vacuform canopy that I bought. After that I just put the kit aside for a couple house moves and look art it now and again thinking that I need to finish it up. I have in the meantime purchased another replacement vacuform canopy... 

[handiabled]

It's been a forever since I've seen a P-35 built. I'll be watching this one John

[jeaton01]

Jun 25, 2024 8:14:33 GMT -5 stikpusher said:

Jun 24, 2024 21:54:47 GMT -5 jeaton01 said:

What happened with the canopy, Carlos?

The profile on the kit's rear canopy spine is too rounded, it should be more razorback like the P-43 & P-47. So I tried to modify it and screwed it up. Then I screwed up cutting out the replacement vacuform canopy that I bought. After that I just put the kit aside for a couple house moves and look art it now and again thinking that I need to finish it up. I have in the meantime purchased another replacement vacuform canopy... 

Is the vacuform canopy any better, Carlos?  I've been thinking about doing that.  I was also bothered by the framing being too low on the side of the windscreen but was planning on fixing that with the right masking.

[stikpusher]

The vacuform canopy is not really any better in the Razorback issue. But it is much more scale thickness compared to the kit parts. Here is a good angle view of the real thing.

[jeaton01]

Thanks, Carlos.

[jmarc]

IIIIIIIIII'm here , I'm here !

[jeaton01]

Two corrections to the kit under way here. The engine/cowl assembly is being moved forward with the white spacer, and the radius of the front of the fuselage is filed from
the square shape it is molded in to a slight rounded shape, except where it abuts the top sheet on the cowl, where there are no cowl flaps. This will leave an opening
between the closed cowl flaps and the fuselage. The rear canopy section has been masked and painted in preparation for a modification to establish more of a razorback

appearance to the aft spine instead of the rounded shape it has as molded.

 

Areas that are not to be re-shaped are masked off.

 

Aves Epoxysculpt is applied to the spine, smoothed to shape with a wet finger tip.

[keavdog]

Coming along John. Looking forward to seeing the final reshaping.

[kyledehart5]

Nice work here. Your modifications will be a nice touch to make it look like it should.

[jmarc]

NNNNNNNNNNNNeat !

[stikpusher]

Very nice work on the canopy spine John! Bravo! 

[406 Silverado]

You choose the coolest subject matter to build John. Some smooth body work going on with this build bud.

[jeaton01]

Thanks for all the encouragement!

Pretty messy looking right now. The frame detail on the windscreen has all been filed off, then brought back to clarity with sandpaper down to 12,000 grit, polished with Novus #2, then a dip in Future.
The spine is about as good as I can get it without making a mold and forming a new vac form canopy. There should be more of a peak to the canopy from the windscreen bow on back.
I can hide the transition with an open canopy from a Squadron vacuform set. 




This photo shows the proper curve at the top of the windshield bow pretty well. It is the P-35A that I have chosen to model. Taken at Nichols Field in the Philippines and flown by Buzz Wagner.




A little enhancement to the propeller. A music wire shaft has replaced the plastic stub on the front of the engine and a brass tube has been inserted in the engine. Counterweights were
punched from plastic card and glued to what looked to me like bare counterweight arms on the prop hub. A bit of brass tube was added to a pin sticking out of the front of the prop hub

to simulate the piston on this type of Hamilton Standard propeller. Painted Alclad Polished aluminum with flat black on the back of the blades. No yellow prop tips in the pictures of the plane.

I have not found definitive proof but I am pretty sure this is a 3E50 hub.

[kyledehart5]

Wonderful work John!! Nice job getting that spine knocked more into shape. And that prop looks fantastic. Nice additions.

[406 Silverado]

She's lookin' good so far and I like that mod that you did to the prop John. Little things that all add up to a more realistic look. Keep the updates comin' bud, you're doing great!!!

[jeaton01]

Thanks, Joe and Kyle.

Getting closer to the finish line. The gun covers on the cowl and the exhaust stubs on the bottom of the cowl are on, and the engine is attached to the fuselage, along with the lower scoop. Rather interesting how that might have worked since it attaches both to the cowl and the lower fuselage. There is usually relative motion between the cowl and fuselage due to the cowl being clamped to the engine, which is attached to the engine mount with Lord mounts, a special type of rubber mount.

I modified the wing guns and the fairing that covers them on the upper wing, Photos show the fairing is larger and the gun barrel is mounted higher and further back on the wing than what Hobbycraft supplied and showed on the instructions. A micro drill and some Aves Epoxysculpt were used, along with some new barrels from brass tube.

[jeaton01]

Closer. A few touch ups, some decals, and a spiderweb of antennas to go.

[TJ]

Geez John that was quick

[jeaton01]

It ain't over til it's over, John!

[jeaton01]

As I said above!

I started on the decals today and the kit decals I wanted to use were beyond their sell date. I took some high resolution photos and thought I would post them here just for fun. I went back to the computer and made up some replacements to print with my ALPS printer. That and a laser printer take a lot of stress off of decal work for me, but it did take a few hours to redraw the snow owl insignia.

First the new decal and then the old ones. There were taken in a mode my Pentax K-3 II has called Pixel Shift Resolution, where it takes four photos from slightly different angles by shifting the sensor slightly, and then it combines all that data in one image.

[kyledehart5]

Pretty sharp stuff there John!! Very cool

[jeaton01]

Thanks, Kyle.

I put the decals on today. There is some guessing about markings, mostly about the wing code markings. I put them on the top left and bottom right as the few clear photos I found seemed to show that. I didn't put any decal film on the decals, that way they are very thin. Hard to handle but I deal with that by printing extras. I plan to coat the whole model less clear parts with Alclad Aqua Gloss. Wish me luck!