1/32 Hasegawa P-26A

Gallery Article by Eric Richard Engstrom on Aug 19 2014

 

Here is my first ever rigged aircraft model!! And also my first (in adult modeling career) pre-WW2 aircraft, the wonderful 1/32 scale Hasegawa P-26A Peashooter.  For a 40 year old kit, it has everything a modeler can ask for and reasonably expect from a modern kit. Fit and assembly were great. The only problems are sink marks that were undetected until I painted the wings (that actually may be by design) and the oddity that the propeller blades were asymmetric, as if one blade was short shot in the molding process. I used Starfighter Decals wonderful sheet of markings to depict a ship from the 94th Pursuit Squadron, Selfridge Field, 1935-6 timeframe. They went on so d##ned well, just look at the pictures!! I used .015 music wire to represent the guy wires that braced the thin wing, and I will use this method again and again, as the results were outstanding. The radio wires, being much thinner, were depicted from EZ Line, another remarkable material that I cannot believe I had not come across yet. 

 

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The color of pre WW2 blue used on US Army Air Corps aircraft is a point of contention for many historical modelers, and after fairly exhaustive research, I found that FS35193 is the actual color that was referred at the time as Blue 23 or Light Blue 23. I mixed this color from Model Master Enamels 35164, darkened with 35044. According to Hayes Hobbies official FS595 color chip set, it was a spot on match. I like the color, and it is definitely different from every other similarly colored aircraft model I have seen. Not that True Blue 35102 is not a great color mind you.

The cockpit was straight out of the box with the addition of lead foil seatbelts. Shoulder belts were not offered in USAAC aircraft during this time. Being a pilot of 12 inch to the foot scale airplanes, I rather admired the sparse layout of the cockpit, with everything the pilot needs to fly and fight the plane right there, no searching for switches or what have you. As far as armament goes, notice the twin .30 cal M-1919 machine guns sticking out from between the engine's cylinders at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions. Clearly a very simple point and click interface, once you charge the guns. Look for more 1/32 Hasegawa pre-WW2 aircraft coming out of the Engstrom Air Ranch in the coming months!!

Eric Richard Engstrom

      

Photos and text © by Eric Richard Engstrom