Photos by the author

The Boeing P-26, commonly known as the Peashooter was a plane of many firsts and lasts.  It was the first mass produced all-metal monoplane fighter aircraft produced in the USA. It was also the last open cockpit, wire-braced, fixed landing gear pursuit plane to serve with the US Army Air Corps.  When first produced in 1934 it was the one of the fastest airplanes in the sky but more advance fighters were already being tested elsewhere and by the beginning of the hostilities which became World War II this diminutive airplane was completely obsolete. Even so a few of these planes saw service against the Japanese as export model 281's in China and the Phillipines.  Pilots loved to fly the agile P-26 but learned to fear landings which often resulted in ground loops and rollover crashes.  The exagerated headrest height was necessary to protect pilots in the event of such an accident.  Many P-26 pilots owed their lives to this ungainly feature.  For all of its shortcomings and in spite of its relatively short service life this was one of the best known and best loved airplanes of its era.

This model depicts the colors of the 95th Attack Squadron stationed at March Field, California  in 1935.

Specifications:
Year produced: 1934 Wing Span: 27 ft 11 1/2 in (8.52 m); Length: 23 ft 7 1/4 in (7.19 m);Height: height 10 ft 0 1/2 in (3.06 m); Max weight: 2,955 lbs(1340 kg); Powerplant: One 600 hp (447 kW) (rated at take-off) Pratt & Whitney R-1340-27 Wasp 9-cylinder supercharged radial engine; Max speed: 234 mph (374 km/h); Ceiling: 28,300 ft (8626 m); Range: (normal) 360 miles (579 km) on internal fuel; (extended) 635 miles (1022km); Armament: One 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine gun and one 7.62 mm (0.30 in) machine gun, or two 7.62 mm (0.30 in) machine guns mounted in the fuselagesides firing through the engine cylinder banks.  Racks were provided under the fuselage for five 30 lbs (14 kg) bombs or two 100 lbs (45 kg) bombs.
 
 

Kit:
This is a 1/33 scale model designed by Marek Pacynski and distributed by DeWayne Barnett in the United States. The model is available on CD  which can be ordered at http://www.teuton.org/dbarnett/. The model consists of a single PDF file containing one cover page, a page of construction diagrams and 4 parts pages on the CD. There are three pages of color parts and one page of formers and reinforcement parts.

Preparation:

I printed everthing except the color parts on plain paper on a Canon S520 ink jet printer. For the color parts I used Hp Premium glossy photo paper because I wanted a shiny finish.  This is a coated paper which weighs about 125 grams per square meter and is approximately equivalent to 60 pound card stock. The color parts are designed to print out on A4 card stock, approximately 8 1/2 by 12 inches.  Since I have only letter size stock I used a 3/8 inch "cheater" strip attached to the top of the page.  This resulted in a printout with very narrow margins on top and bottom. The ink for the Canon S520 is water soluble so before I start I spray the sheets with a sealant. I use Krylon Acrylic Low-Odor Matte Clear which is non-yellowing. This works great and costs about four to five dollars for a 11 oz. can.  If you decide to use glossy paper as I did for this model be aware that it is more difficult to glue than uncoated stock  and that even with the sealant the finish can be easily damaged.  Try using coated stock on easier models first and have a variety of glues to use.  I used four different glues with this model.  Cyanoacrylate glue worked well for most joints, white (PVA) glue worked well to attach the formers inside the fuselage and to attach fuselage sections together. I used a glue stick (UHU) for the large flat wing trailing edges and when all else failed I used a solvent based glue called "Quick Grab" to persuade reluctant parts to form a close fitting joint.
 

Construction:
Construction of this model starts with gluing the formers onto cardboard. You can use anything from cereal boxes to poster paper to give you the strength that you need for the internal formers. You can go to any hobby,  or art store and they will have a selection of poster paper of different thickness which are fairly inexpensive.  The thickness should be between .5 to .8 mm.  Now you can start building the fuselage.

Construction of the fuselage is of the "butt type" very common in Eastern European models. In this type of construction you build each fuselage section and then when finished glue and butt the sections together to get the complete fuselage. Start by constructing each of the fuselage sections with a former in each end making sure that the formers do not extend beyond the section. There is a center cut out that will create a hole that you can use to align the formers if you so desire. I don't use them as they are hard to cut out and can weaken the former. It is very important that the formers be aligned correctly and that they fit up to the end of the section or the sections will not go together correctly. On the other hand if the former extends beyond the fuselage section you will get un-colored gaps between each section.  I used a light blue felt marker (Sharpie) to color around the edges of each former after glueing to minimize effect of any gaps.  I glued a length of silver floss thread inside of section 5 prior to glueing the formers in place since it would be more difficult to attach the thread after the section is completed.  Section 3 contains the cockpit compartment which is assembled seperately  with the rear former for section 3 as shown in the two photos below.  The completed assembly is then fitted inside section six and the front former is glued in place.  As you can see in these photos the detail contained in this assembly is simply exquisite, especially the instument panel.
 

Here are the assembled fuselage sections 3, 4, 5 and six with the wing and tail section spars in place.  This part of the model building process is critical to get a properly aligned finished model.  So be careful and patient.  Make sure that each section is aligned and true and that the panel and side markings match from one section to another.  Check the spars for alignment and straighten them if necessary.

A flat former  is glued in place above the tail section as shown below and is used to support and shape the rudder.  The wings, rudder and tail pieces are all constructed by wrapping these parts around the supporting spars or formers and glueing the trailing edges together..  The kit includes several parts meant to reinforce each of these pieces.  You can use them but I found the placement of the wing reinforcing pieces to be confusing. So I used a piece of light card stock cut about 3 to 4 mm smaller than each wing as a reinforcement as shown below.  I glued them in place after running the thread for flying wires through each wing.  I used the same reinforcement technique for the rudder and the tail pieces.
 
 

Here is the model with the wings, tail pieces and nose sections attached.  The top flying wires have been run into section three of the fuselage and then out the front of this section.  The threads were then glued in place and trimmed before attaching the rest of the fuselage sections. The fillets which close the gap between the wings and fuselage have not yet been attached in this photo.  These must be very carefully aligned and the slits in each fairing should be cut to make it easier to form each piece to the fuselage.  Faring pieces are also provided for the joints where the rudder and tail pieces join the fuselage.  I did not use them because these joints fit very nicely and I did not want to take the chance of maring the glossy finish.

Here are the main landing gear  (left) and tailwheel pieces (right).  The parts for the strut fairings and wheel pants are wrapped around the former which is made up as a "sandwich" of three pieces.  This helps to give the proper bulk and shape to the final assembly. The main wheels are not shown here. They are constructed of a sandwich of disks similar to the tailwheel pieces shown on the right.   The tailwheel assembly is deceptively simple.  I used a piece of 1 mm thick sheet craft foam for the center disk.  This material is readily available at craft and hobby stores.  It shapes easily and does not require coloring to create a convincing tire.  The trouble I had with this assembly was in keeping track of the orientation of the blue pieces.  I made several attempts before I got the front/back and top/bottom alignment sorted out even though I had dry fitted these parts first.  It's was a good reminder to me to recheck assemblies before the glue is completely dry.
 

Here is the nose of the model with the engine cylinders glued in place and the landing gear installed.  The proper location for each engine cylinder is determined by cutouts in the nose section.  The cylinders are then inserted and glued into place.I used the partially assembled Townsend cowl ring to help determine the proper outside diameter for the engine assembly.  After the engine cylinders were completely dry I then attached the partially completed cowl.  This is important since the cowl is narrower on both ends than in the middle. Attaching the small ring in front after everything else is dry makes this assembly much easier.  If you look closely at the top of the right wheel strut fairing you can see a gap between the fairing and the lower wing surface.  This is one of those places where the Quick Grab cement was very useful.
 

Here are the pieces for the propeller assembly and the engine cover plate.  I used straight sewing pins cut down to about 10 mm in length to help mount the propeller blades to the hub.  I removed the head from a short (10 mm) map pin to make a shaft for the propeller.  The engine cover plate seemed a bit to flat as shown in the construction diagrams so I used some modeling clay as a backing then wetted the unprinted side and gently curved it until I got the shape seen in the photo below.
 
 

Here is the completed engine, propeller and cowl ring with the exhaust stacks in place.  The simple rolled cylinders make a pretty convincing engine on the completed model.  The rolled tubes which make up the exhausts must be cut at an angle on both ends to fit properly and to look like the exhausts on the real aircraft.  A good three dimensional exploded view of the nose and engine assembly would have been very helpful for this part of the model. Fortunately I had a pretty good reference book at hand for the P-26.  Some additional detailing of the model in this area could turn it into a contest winner at almost any model club.
 
 

Here is the completed cockpit area.  The clear windscreen was fairly easy to make since it's made up of only three flat panels. Since the cockpit is already very detailed a clear windscreen compliments it nicely.  After cutting out the opaque panels, I used clear packaging tape on the unprinted side of the windscreen and used clear acetate for the panels.  No glue needed!  The kingpost is a delicate item, especially since it must support the last two wing wire threads.  I used a flat toothpick shaved very thin to reinforce this piece and cut a notch at the top of the post to nest the criscrossed threads from each wing.  The headrest is a very simple two pieces and a former which fits very nicely in place on the fuselage.  Unfortunately I neglected to run the radio wire thread through this piece before attaching it! A small sewing pin rescued me from this mistake and with a dab of Testors yellow acrylic paint it blends in fairly well with the rest of the model.
 

Completed Model:
Here are a few pictures of the completed model. This most complex model that I have built to date. It is also the most rewarding model I have built so far. One thing which was a great help in this process was that I had a good reference book to use in addition to the diagrams supplied with the model. The book which I used is from the Squadron Signal series of aircraft reference books.  Besides providing lots of photos and three dimensional drawings these books give me  a sense of the historical significance of the actual aircraft.  In addition, before attempting a model such as this one, I highly recommend that you build a few simple designs such as  the Fiddlers Green models. These little models are ideal to learn about card modeling and you can buy them on the Internet or on a CD as you can with this  model. The big advantage of this is that if you make a mistake, then you can print out another copy and try again.
 
 

This model is available at Models by Marek (DeWayne Barnett) at http://www.teuton.org/~dbarnett

Summary
 

Model:	Boeing P-26A
Kit:	On CD only in PDF format
Designer:	Marek Pacynski
Scale:	1:33
Difficulty:	Moderately Difficult
Number of Parts:	150
Time Required:	Approximately 60 hours
Instructions:	None
Diagrams:	One page of  2 dimensional views , very well drawn but could use additional  exploded 3-d details for the engine, exhausts and Townsend cowl ring.
Fit:	Very good, I did have some trouble aligning sections 5 and 6 on the fuselage.
Coloring and Artwork:	Excellent
Printing:	Excellent but very dependent on the quality of printer and paper used.

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