GWH 1/32 Curtiss 81-A2 Hawk-AVG, Pappy Boyington's White 21 (4 Viewers)

[zaxos345]

Good evening gents, new model on the bench, as the title says, GWH's 1/32 Curtiss Hawk 81-A2. I will try to depict Pappy Boyington's White 21 aircraft.
Here is the kit with some after markets i will use...

And the Pappy's plane...

I have also found another photo of the starboard side of the white 21 that i was not aware of...

What i did, surprisingly, noticed here is the different style of "Adam & Eve" emblem form the one on the port side...hmhmhmI also have a photo of Whte 13...

...of the same squadron, which depicts the same style of emblem on the starboard side, unfortunately i dont have a photo of the port side to compare.
Anyway this is something to discuss later on the build, but if anyone has any info regarding this please share!!!!
I started the build from the cockpit...i did some small modifications...

The throttle, combined by two pieces, is beautifully depicted, i only shaved it a bit and changed the shape of the nob using UV resin..

I added the armored plate behide the seast of the pilot....

I did not like the instrument panel from GWH, the instrument faces which are curiously domed outward....

So i chose to use the Yahu one which comes as a set with some placards as well as with the big panel at the port side of the cockpit. To blend the Yahu panel to the plastic one i had to shave down to ''see through'' stage the plastic one, in order to keep the small dent you see on front of the IP, due to the depth of both the plastic and the yahu panel itself!
I also deleted the plastic between the wing gun charging handles, as the real one
Here is the outcome with all the details on...
Worth the pain i think!!!

I added some details to the sidewalls...

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[zaxos345]

And everything with some color on... I tried to replicate the Curtiss cockpit interior with a mix of ZCY, Black and some aluminium...

Everything wethered..

Upper wing or bottom of the cockpit with the gunshight mount on....

Pilot's seat....

I carefully glued all the cockpit parts and dry fitted all together!! The fit is great!!!!!!

Thats all for now, hope you like it.
Feel free to comment and add any info ragerding the AVG's birds!!!

John

 

[fubar57]

That interior looks fantastic, John

 

[zaxos345]

That interior looks fantastic, John

Thanks George!!!

 

[Wurger]

Nicely done !

 

[talbot]

exceptional work!

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far!

 

[zaxos345]

Good evening gents, a llitle update on my build...

Before closing the fuselage i wanted to sort out some details...

I added some rivets here and there according to plans from modeller Jumpei Temma...

and tried to add some realism to ''Nun's Hat'', so i separated the 2 front parts, covered the gaps and smoothed out everything.

The next detail I wanted to deal with was about the noticable seam line around the side windows.

As you see here

There is no true seam line....

The kit...

So I decided to try to solve this issue. Before that i had to choose the colors of the upper camo, I made some tests and finilized my decision to FS34079 for the dark green color and FS30118 for the dark earth one. I painted the colors, glued carefully the side windows and tried to smooth out the seam!!!

I think that i managed it, here are some shots with primer on, i have masked the windows a bit inner from the seam in order for the color to cover the seam and give the reality of the above presented photos of the real thing.

Next detail, the exhausts...

I noticed that the most of the AVG planes had no seam line on the exhausts as it is shown also in Dana's Book..

So i took the kit's exhausts and smooted out the seam line. I painted them with Mr. color MC214 dark iron, buffed them out and added some MIg's old rust pigment.

I assembled the fuselage...

I also dealt with the guns, cut the gun barrels, drilled holes instead. I have the Master's gun barrels, dryfitted them before commiting to glue the guns and added them inside the wing i forgot to take photos

) Here are the wing assembled with the stick and other details!!

Before assemble everything together i wanted to deal with the wind screen and the strange gunshight projection glass AVGs had improvised.

First of all as you can see in many photos the AVG's gunshight is not tilted to the right...

Well this is my try... I think i made it!!

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[zaxos345]

....
Fuselage to wing assembly..

You can see in the above image that i have added the vent tubes to the front portion of the Nun's hat...

I also added the small white antenna insulators on the upper fuselage and the small detail with vents underneath...

Next to the insulators, in all the aircrafts, there are two small oval-shaped covers. I assume that the left ons is for the upper identification light, which was installed on British-ordered aircraft, or fon an antenna mast cover. The small one maybe the opening for the so-called Recognition Device or Signal Discharger.

Anyway i saw them and cut and glued some aluminium foil there!!!

Masked everything...

I primed everything to see any flaws and added the Insignia with my own masks. I couldn't find any info regarding the sizing and the color so i made my own choises taking measurements from the photos.

Next milestone will be the shark's mouth...Stay tuned!!!

That's all for now lads, hope you like it and feel free to comment anything!!!!



John

 

[fubar57]

Some very fine work going on here, John

 

[zaxos345]

Some very fine work going on here, John

Thanks a lot George!!!

 

[Wurger]