Two Peas in a pond este Runway

Twin 1/48 Peashooter (Academy)

This build was done as part of a commission from the Philippine Air Force to build a diorama about the Attack on the Zablan Airfield for the newly opened PAF Museum. The diorama will depict the attack done by the Japanese during the 1st few days of WWII hostilities in the Philippines. The PAF (PAAC during that time) was still using hand-me-down P-26 Peashooters from the US. Just use google if you want more info on the attack. On to the photos:

The construction started with the usual cockpit bits. The peashooter cockpit is pretty simple and it was well represented in the academy kit. We (there were 3 other guys namely Aaron, Jonvic and Jim from IPMS-Phil BA building 4 more peashooters) chose not to overly detail this part as we will have a pilot inside the cockpit.



Next up was the engine. Again, we did not want to overly detail the engine as it will not be seen up close as the diorama will be displayed inside a glass case. The mold lines were cleaned and then I installed the push rods. Engine was sprayed with tamiya aluminum.



The group decided to drop the flaps as the aircrafts that we will depict are taxiing. The area to cut was marked and it was cut by drilling small holes on the perimeter of the area until most of the material is removed. After that, using a blade, the plastic between the holes were carefully cut and filed to give us a clean cut-out. The flaps were done by Jim and were distributed to us for installation later.

After that, it was pretty much closing the fuselage, attaching the wings and stabilizers, painting and then decalling. For the aircraft numbers, 0ur maestro Mel gave us codes 3xx, with xx starting from 08 to i think 14 or 15. I chose "08" and "13" to represent the birth days of my children. "08" for my son, Emann whose birthdate is 02/08/03 and "13" for my daughter, Elisha whose birthdate is 02/13/06. Tid bit (not related to the build), my birthdate is 02/12 :) Only my wife's birthday is not in Feb, her month's August. Ok, back to the build...

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take pictures while I was assembling the fuselage and painting as we were working frantically to meet the deadline. Anyway, those will be boring to you. hahaha. The rigging was done using a metallic mylar sheet found in bookstores used as special gift wrappers. Jonvic gave us some already cut to small strips ready for installation. :) It was my first time to rig a plane, eventhough it was a monoplane, it took me several tries to get the hang of it. I think the results were good :) And most importantly, our maestro approves of it.





Fruits of my labor:








With the other peashooters in the diorama:

-completed 6/30/2006-