P-26 Peashooter

Subject:
Boeing P-26
Peashooter
Kit Used: Hasegawa 1/32

Review & model by:
Paul Romans
Pictures: R. Forys

[The Tamiya 1/16th scale RC M26 Pershing]

The Kit: Hasegawa was a minor player in modeling until the release of their world-beating 1/32 scale kits in the early 1970's, long considered the best available for those subjects. Over 30 years later, some are still hard to beat. The P-26 has been kitted in 1/72 by Revell, and Aurora did a "Quarter-Scale" version waaay back in the '50's, but the only modern kit is the Academy 1/48 version. It's nice, but still can't beat the venerable Hasegawa champ.

[The M26 Pershing was a 42-ton tank armed with a 90mm gun]

My original release was molded in bright yellow, dark green and silver (is this a Matchbox kit?). Moldings were crisp, but there was a bizarre "spray" effect in the yellow sprue. The engine has separate cylinders and is well detailed right out of the box, but I had trouble with the valve push rods, which are all molded together and attached to a center ring. I replaced all the rods with sewing pins cut to length. The cowl is in two halves and fits too tightly, so I sanded the tops of the engine cylinders for more clearance.

The cockpit is barren by today's standards, and needs a little help. I dressed this up with a few extra levers and controls, washed and dry brushed it, and added a P.E. seatbelt set I had in the spares box. Everything else fits together well, and the seams needed only a touch of filler.

So rapid was the pace of aircraft development in the '30's that some designs, which looked great when first flown, were obsolete by the time they entered squadron service. When Boeing's new B-9 bomber first flew in April of 1931, it was so fast, at 188mph, that the Army suddenly realized they didn't have a pursuit plane that could catch it. Some said that the day of the fighter was over, but Boeing stepped up and designed the P-26, a small, lightweight plane that was the first all-metal low-wing monoplane to enter American service.

First flown in March of '32, the little plane could hit 230mph, and entered service in December of '33, about the same time that the Russians were first flying the Polikarpov I-16. The last one rolled out of Boeing's factory in 1936, but both the prototype Me-109 and Hurricane had flown the preceding year. The U.S. had developed the P-35 and the P-36, but the Peashooter formed the backbone of Army pursuit squadrons for far too long. Nevertheless, it was fast and maneuverable, and well liked by its pilots. The "Peashooter" nickname came from the plane's diminutive size and from the prominent tube-style gunsight ahead of the windscreen. Several export versions were developed, and the plane proved popular in Chinese service, where it battled Mitsubishi A5M Claude fighters with some success.

As late as November of 1940, the entire fighter strength in the Philippines consisted of only 28 Peashooters. The few not destroyed on the ground in the December '41 attacks managed to get into the air, and actually shot down some Japanese planes, but they were rapidly pulled from front line service as soon as replacement fighters could be supplied. Surprisingly, there were still P-26's in service as late as 1957, serving with the Guatemalan Air Force. An historic plane that marked the transition between wire-braced biplanes and all-metal monoplanes, the P-26 was a world-beater in 1932, but hopelessly antiquated only 4 years later. Also, Boeing was able to sell them for $9,999 each, which was a bargain even in the cash-strapped Thirties.

Painting: I wanted the paint job of the famous 95th Pursuit Squadron, but the decals didn't supply the prominent "racing stripes", so I had to spend some time masking and painting. I decided to install the wings afterwards to make it easier to do the side stripes, and the same went for the landing gear. I spent time sanding and trimming their fit so I could avoid putty later.

The paint was Testors "Chrome Yellow" and "True Blue", which both cover well and dry glossy. A French curve helped me draw out the stripes on masking tape, but it took several tries to get them right; the compound curves screwed me up. I first sprayed a band of gloss white on the fuselage sides and the engine cowl. Letting this dry for a few days, I could then mask off the parts that were going to stay white, and shoot the blue. When this was dry, the blue was masked and the final red was sprayed. I used blue painter's tape, and burnished the edges down before spraying several light coats, letting each one dry for about a ½ hour before applying the next one. The scallops on the tail were drawn out using the tip of the kit's propeller as a template, then cut from the tape and applied. After painting, the masks were removed and everything was allowed to dry for a few days. I sprayed the kit with gloss coat to give it an even finish, and applied the decals. These were slightly yellowed with age, but responded well to setting solution and went on without trouble.

[I had to use double-sided carpet tape to get rid of a small gap at the front of the tank.]

[I added missing details like the periscope guards and headlamp plugs.]

Final Details The Peashooter had prominent rigging wires on the wings and landing gear, and I used control line wire from the R/C section of the local hobby shop. This stuff is stiff and comes in many thicknesses, but cuts easily and goes on well with a dab of C.A. glue on each end. I measured the lengths with a pair of dividers, cut the wire and dipped each end in a small puddle of C.A. glue, then set it in place. The kit was designed for sewing thread rigging and there are small holes molded in the parts to feed the thread through; these serve well to locate the wires I used. The rigging went fairly quickly, except for the cross wires between the landing gear, which didn't want to cooperate. The finer radio antenna wires were done with "invisible" nylon thread. The pitot tube, windshield, and other odd & ends went together without trouble. I toned down the toy-like gloss finish with a light coat of flat to give it a better scale appearance and help even the finish out, and used a little pastel powder to lightly weather the kit. These planes were well maintained and were never dirty, but a little weathering adds life to the kit.

Conclusion: Even though it's over 30 years old, this kit still goes together almost flawlessly. The instructions were all in Japanese, but the pictures were easy enough to follow. Decals, though a little yellowed, still worked fine. For its day, this was a state of the art kit, and surpassed anything else then available. It's an enjoyable build even today, and it doesn't take much to make it compare favorably to anything else out there. Its extroverted color scheme sure livens up my display case.

[All in all the M26 is a beautiful kit, a challenge for even the best of modelers, and credit to the company that made it.]