P-26A Peashooter Revell 1:72

[Julien]

P-26A Peashooter

Revell 1:72

It has been said that so rapid was the pace of aircraft development in the 1930's that many aircraft were actually obsolete by the time they actually entered service.

Boeing's B-9 bomber came into service in 1931 and was actually faster (at 188mph) than the fighters of the day. Some people actually thought that this might be the end of the fighter. However Boeing then designed the P-26 to counter this.

The P-26 was the first American all metal fighter aircraft, and the first pursuit monoplane used by the then US Army Air Corps. Due to the fast pace of aircraft design this would be the last US fighter to have fixed landing gear, external bracing and an open cockpit.

The first aircraft rolled of the production line in 1932, and were capable of a top speed of 230mph. The last aircraft being made in 1936. Its worth remembering that in 1935 prototypes of the Hurricane and Bf-109 had flown showing how outdated this aircraft then was

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In USAAC service 22 squadrons would go onto be equipped with the P-26, earning its "Peashooter"; nickname from pilots due to its diminutive size.

P-26's served in combat with the Nationalist Chinese forces, and in the Philippines where they did actually manage to shoot down a few Japanese aircraft. I was surprised to learn that they were still in service as late as 1957 with the Guatemalan Air Force. After the US effectively smuggled them there in the 30’s under the designation PT-26A Trainers to get around restrictions of sales to Latin American Countries. Their last combat being seen in that countries 1954 coup.

This was Boeings last foray into the fighter business until they acquired McDonnell-Douglas in 2002 and started deliveries of the F/A-18E/F super Hornet.

The first thing you notice about the box is that they have missed the name Boeing off the box, this may I think be intentional to save having to pay a licence fee to Boeing? However yes its hard to believe the P-26A was designed by the same company who would give us the mighty 747. In fact the 747s internal cabin is only seven feet short of the P-26's wingspan!

The Kit

When getting the kit I first thought it was a re-release of an old matchbox kit, but Matchbox made a P-12. I have been told that this is an original Revell kits from the 1960's, however the tooling say 1980 on them, it is very much an Airfix style kit where you just get a bag of bits as opposed to actual sprues.

The kit comes in the standard Revell box with the box art showing the only decal option available from the USAAC. Instructions are the standard Revell affair of 4 pages of A5, though only one of these is used for the 11 construction steps. A decent sized rigging diagram would have been nice, however its not to difficult to figure out where all the rigging needs to be.

On opening the box the kit parts are bagged. These consist of three small light grey plastic sprues and one very small clear part.

Sprue one contains the two fuselage half’s, two tail planes, main bracing strut and the rear part to hold the prop on.

Sprue two contains the bottom main wing, pilot, seat, engine and engine cowling.

Sprue three contains the two main upper wing half’s, fixed landing gear spats, and the wheels.

The one clear part is very small and a bit thick for the job.

In all there are only 21 parts to the entire kit.

In general the parts are as you would expect from a mould this age. There is some flash present but it will not be too difficult to remove. Recessed lines where the elevators are, are a bit too deep and the main body of the aircraft is festooned in rivets. The rivets are not over large though and should look respectable under a coat of paint.

There is no cockpit at all to speak of, just a large armchair type seat onto which the pilot figure will sit. Given the fairly large cockpit opening some scratch building in certainly the form of an instrument panel will be needed.

The Decals

The decal sheet as they say is probably worth the price of admission. Its printed in Italy so Cartograf is a given. The markings are for the 95th Pursuit Squadron, 17th Pursuit Group, US Army Air Corps; March Field, California 1934. These aircraft were highly colourful in service and this is reflected in the Bright blue fuselage and yellow wings.

For the money I would recommend having a go at this kit, it should build up into a nice model with the application of a few "modelling skills". Rather surprisingly there are a few aftermarket resin and decal sets out there for this kit if you want to go to town on it.

Overall conclusion, I think it will make a nice small colourful addition to any modelling shelf.

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

[Iain Ogilvie]

Yup - Revell original from 1960's - built it as a kid back in the 70s and rather liked it IIRC

Iain

[Julien]

Yup - Revell original from 1960's - built it as a kid back in the 70s and rather liked it IIRC

Iain

Cheers for that, was not 100% sure.

Julien

[rs2man]

I have to agre that this is a very nice little kit , especially considering its age . I would also highly recommend the Starfighter Decals cockpit set & engine set , which are of good quality & very reasonably priced

[fostersdave]

picked up one of these at the weekend,cost hardly nothing,thanks for the review.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Built an ancient boxing of this one recently:

Even the decals worked!

FWIW & All the best

Andy S.

[AndyC]

That must be teeny...I built the Academy 1/48 and THAT was small

[Old Man]

I like this kit, and am glad to see it re-issued; I have two old ones in stash, and will be buying two more this week. But a couple of things need to be said about it, both con and pro.

On the con side, it misses the shape of the wing-tips badly, the P-26 had elliptical wing-tips. The kit seems to follow the wing outlines of the prototype, not the production version. The trailing edges of the elevators and rudder also do not catch the right curves. The kit gives a wasp-waist to the portion of the fuselage between and below the wings, which is incorrect; this should be fully round, a straight 'barrel'. The issues with the wing-tips and tail surfaces are fairly easy to fix, the fuselage bit is trickier.

On the pro side, the kit gets some things accurately that the Pavla kit botches badly. First, the kit gets the dihedral right; the dihedral should begin only outboard of the undercarriage legs. Pavla has the dihedral begin at the wing root, and this is very, very difficult to fix. The kit has the horizontal tail surfaces in the correct position, Pavla does not, and again, this is very difficult to fix.

With the detail sets made by Starfighter decals, providing a proper engine and cowling and cockpit, this can be made into a good model of the P-26, and with some correction to the plastic, into an excellent one.

Edited October 4, 2012 by Old Man