Philippines Defender 1/48 P-35A

Aircraft World War II
1

So, for my final completion of 2025, I decided to pull this old one off the “shelf of doom” and finish it up over the last couple of weeks. This is the Hobbycraft 1/48 P-35A kit that I started apparently sometime in ‘07 or so before being sidelined for whatever multiple reasons. Anyways, I finished assembly and painting and now it is completed at last. The decals fought me hard, as I had neglected to seal them in a zip lock bag and they dried out. Unfortunately I didn’t coat them with Micro Scale Liquid Decal Film until after I had already lost the tail numbers to shattering. The remaining decals that I did coat, didn’t want to play well with setting or solvents to get them to snuggle down properly, and in the end they still silvered and/or look rough. I was able to use some numbers and letters from my spare decals to cobble together the tail markings, but again, those weren’t the best either. And wanting to get this done by today shows. Time deadlines are not conducive to best results in this hobby. I finished this in the markings of the 34th Pursuit Squadron in the Philippines in late 1941/early 1942 during their gallant but doomed defense of the islands. Weathering is based off of multiple photos of P-35A’s from that time.

Thanks for looking, comments and critiques are welcome… :wink:

6 Likes
2

That’s a rare seen bird, Carlos. Looks really nice. I know, the decals from Hobbycraft/Academy have not the best reputation to say it polite. They can be a pita. As I read from your text you didn’t use any polish like Klear or Future. Next time you build an aircraft you might give it a try and spray floor polish before adding the decals. That prevents silvering a lot. I always do it on my builds, no matter if it’s an aircraft or armor, like recently here on my Monogram Helldiver. Decals here are about 20 years old. But now you have a model which is hard to get. I think it’s long time oop …

IMG_6403
IMG_6403800×600 97.9 KB

3

Thanks Torsten! I actually did use a gloss coat, Micro Gloss, and had a nice shiny surface down for the decals. Used Tamiya Mark Soft during application and Micro Sol later on but with less than stellar results. They didn’t look too bad until the flat coat went on, then the silvering became quite pronounced… :confused:

Academy has reissued this kit under their label. They have acquired and reissued many Hobbycraft molds.