1/48 Academy P-26A Peashooter

Gallery Article by Tony Feredo on May 27 2009

 

Boeing P-26A "Peashooter"
17th Pursuit Squadron, USAAC
based at Nichols Field, Philippines 1941
Here is my Academy 1/48 P-26A built to represent an aircraft with the 17th Pursuit Squadron based at Nichols Field in the Philippines during early 1941.  The 17th PS acquainted themselves flying over  the Philippines with P-26s and then later with P-35A before receiving their P-40Es. 
 
The model was built straight out of the box and with very minimal filling and sanding. Painting was done using my mix of automotive lacquer paints for the True Blue 23 and Chrome Yellow  for the wings.  The rudder stripes were painted.  I went to my spare decals for the 17th PS "Snow Owl" emblem and the US roundels.  The tail and wing numbers were custom made decals.  I used medical needles and steel wires for the rigging and stretched sprue for the aerials.  

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My reference in building this kit is a photo of the same plane when it was at Iba Airfield during gunnery practice. Notice how the orthochromatic film made the chrome yellow wings look darker than the light blue fuselage.

Overall it was a fun build.  I still have a number of Peashooters in my stash which I plan to build in the coming weeks.

Cheers and Happy Modeling!

Tony Feredo

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Photos and text © by Tony Feredo