US Army Aviation in the 1930s

[Aaronw]

Curtiss P6E Hawk, the kit is the Accurate Minitures boxing of the 1960's 1/72 Monogram kit.

The P-6E was a US Army fighter based on a 1920s racing plane. It served the US Army as a front line fighter from 1932-37 with some remaining as squadron hacks into the early 1940s. I built it in the famous Snow owl markings of the 17th Pursuit Squadron.

P-26A, 1/72 Revell kit from 1982 with aftermarket decals from Starfighter decals. The Revell details are a bit softer than Monogram kits of the period, so I used a cowl ring and motor from the Monogram Boeing F4B4 which used the same Pratt & Whitney radial engine.

The P-26 was the first military monoplane adopted by any nation since the end of WW1. It entered service with the US Army in 1933 and continued to be used in out of the way places until 1943.

[berr13]

Two more great looking models..I really like the P-6E; it's a good looking airplane, and you really did it justice. NIce work!

[Agent G]

I'm really liking these pre war birds. You did them justice.

G

[Aaronw]

Thanks, I really got kind of addicted to these things last year. I was very impressed with the Monogram kits in particular. Not highly detailed as is typical of kits from the 1960s but the engineering was very good which made them easy to build.

[Agent G]

Easy to build leaves time and energy for those subtle improvements.

G

[Aaronw]

Yep and with the small scale it just takes a little creative gizmology to give the impression of detail in the empty cockpit.

[Eric Stone]

What did you use for the rigging? I bought a 1/48 German WWI fighter yesterday (I forget the name), and will have to find something for rigging.

[Aaronw]

I use guitar string, a superlight E string is .008" steel wire. It is a bit out of scale, but it is stiff, cheap and easy to find (pretty much any music store). I can't say I enjoy rigging but I find using wire cut to length less tedious than other methods.

Edited June 30, 2011 by Aaronw

[Harry P.]

Very cool!

[Eric Stone]

I use guitar string, a superlight E string is .008" steel wire. It is a bit out of scale, but it is stiff, cheap and easy to find (pretty much any music store). I can't say I enjoy rigging but I find using wire cut to length less tedious than other methods.

That's what I had planned on using. It's even cheaper for me... My dad has about 6 guitars he regularly plays and regularly changes the strings on. I'll get him to start saving them for me.

[Wagoneer81]

Aaron, this is thread is an awesome find for me! I have an original Monogram P-6E in my build pile... Yours turned out great! That's a fine looking P-26 as well. I love prewar Hi-Vis paint schemes! Yellow wings rule!!! I recently finished the Monogram 1/72 Goshawk and agree with you on the older Mono kits. I built my 'Hawk over the course of two evenings, it was refreshing to actually finish a model! How'd the P-6 go together for you?

[Tom Setzer]

Nice couple of between wars Pursuits!

CHEERS!

Tom

[Aaronw]

Thanks.

Chris, just saw your reply (and your Goshawk). I've built all 3 of the Monogram interwar kits (Boeing F4B-4, Goshawk and P-6E) and they all go together about the same. The P-6 is the most difficult due to the paint scheme, there is a lot of painting where you would expect decals to be used. I actually borrowed some of the decals from the Olimp P-6E to finish it because they include better decals.

I posted the Goshawk in another post.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=45671

If you get in the mood to do more from the period Olimp has quite a few resin kits, and a handful of plastic kits. Special Hobby has a few short run kits, nice but fiddly (plastic, resin and photo etch). Matchbox and Airfix did a few too. Starfighter decals is a great solution for ancient decals or just to offer more options.

http://www.starfighter-decals.com/

Edited November 11, 2011 by Aaronw

[Wagoneer81]

Aaron, thanks for the links, the Olimp site is new to me so I'll check it out. I wish I had discovered 1/72 aircraft years ago... I'm loving the WWI to Pre-WWII aviation subjects. I'm working on the P-6E kit now, along with an old Airfix Fokker Dr.1 Triplane. I just finished a Revell Nieuport 28C-1.