Hobbycraft 1/48 P-26A

Aircraft WWI & Interwar
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Another day, another project begins. I’m starting this one in slight trail of my F2A Buffalo, since it is a kindred Yellow Wings aircraft type. The Boeing P-26A, the US Army Air Corps’ first monoplane fighter. This is the Hobbycraft 1/48 kit

I’ll be building it in the markings of the 34th Pursuit Squadron, 17th Pursuit Group, out of March Field, California, circa 1934/35

As usual, construction starts in the cockpit. I added a seat belt using some Toms Modelworks PE buckles and dental floss as the webbing material

I also added the sidewalls parts of a pamphlet bag on one side and the throttle quadrant on the opposite side

Next up will be painting, which will be in aluminum color, as the interiors were done in aluminum lacquer.

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I’ll be watching this for sure - one of my favorite aircraft and a nice kit .
You may find this link interesting - this gentleman was building two real ones from scratch but sadly passed away before he could complete them . I hope someone with the same level of skill will acquire and complete them.

Cheers - Richard

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Thanks for looking in and providing the link Richard! I hope that you enjoy following this project of mine. It’s a nice scrappy little fighter plane… oops, excuse me, a pursuit ship. :wink:

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IPMS Philippines managed to build a 1:1 of this plane with markings for the Philippine Air Force in WW2. It’s now on display in Bataan.

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Good luck on your build, it’s one of those planes I hope to be able to build in the future as well.

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Thanks for the well wishes James! And thank you for the link as well. That is great the IPMS Philippines created that 1:1 scale replica! I remember seeing a P-26 at Planes of Fame in Chino probably 25 years ago. I have another Hobbycraft P-26, the Philippines Air Force version of this kit in my stash to build one day down the road.

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I’ve also been working on this bird a bit. I primed the cockpit area (along with other selected parts that will need that later) in Tamiya White Liquid Surface Primer. Then after allowing that to dry overnite, this morning i painted that area in Vallejo Model Air Aluminum.

I’ll let this all dry overnite before I begin detail painting.

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In between bouts of working on my F2A today, I was also doing detail painting in the cockpit here. I also installed the machine gun receivers onto the decking

Now it just needs a wash in there to make the details stand out better

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