PV-2 Harpoon

Kelly Wellington
*sigh* I don't know why I get sucked in to these Special Hobby kits. It must be some kind of genetic weakness. It's an 'interesting' kit in a short run kind of way. Hey, at least this one has props on the hubs. But despite triumphing over some unique challenges (the tail vertical pieces) and frustrating bad design (the aft ventral gun port), I've come to joining the wing panels and assembling the landing gear and engine housings. The demands of the ill-fitting resin engine parts are bad enough, but a dry fit of the landing gear housing to the wing leaves huge....I mean HUGE...unwanted aperatures between the leading edge of the upper wing panel and the upper portion of the engine housing. I keep looking at the propective wing attachment with considerable trepidation....

Clifford Keesler
I avoid Special Hobby kits like the plague. It's a shame to because they put out some interesting kits.

Kelly Wellington
We won't even talk about Amodel. Or, Mach2. I'm susceptible to them all. I have to admit, there must be some significant variation in the quality of the Special Hobby kits. I've done their Bristol Blenheim I and now the Harpoon, and they come with lots of frustrations. There is a mate here who swears on Special Hobby's rendition of the Avro Anson...having done the Airfix kit, it would not be difficult to better it. In my scale, 1/72, for the Anson, it's either Airfix or Special Hobby, so, in order to have a thorough Coastal Command collection, I've got to do the Special Hobby Anson kit. Luckily, I've got a LOT of other kits by Revell, Tamiya, Heller, and Hasegawa to tinker with while I largely ignore the Special Hobby, Amodel, and Mach2 kits.

Glenn
Kelly even though they can be frustrating i think it's still better than putting up with vac-form stuff. I only go there if nothing else is available! But in this day and age and with kits costing so much and CAD-CAM technology and 3D scanning! kits should be spot on! I hate the fact that a lot of these kits have no "rotating shaft" for the props or that they don't have "locating tabs" for wing and tail surfaces! i think that's just plain LAZY!!!

Kelly Wellington
I must admit that I've never tried a vacuform kit. I've seen them and avoided them. I'm not ready for prime time in typical styrene kits, why would I want to push that envelope? Anyway...I went to the hobby shop today because I could not find the white putty I thought I had. While there, I bought some more bottles and pipettes and...oh, yeah...a 'Mighty Mini' airbrush and compressor kit. Now I'll have to learn how to mask much more thoroughly. And, some more putty...two kinds. And, of course, when I get home with this haul, I found the putty I had sought earlier, before going to the hobby shop.

I have duly applied said putty and await its hardening so I can trim and sand it down.....the Harpoon is coming together, despite my trepidations.

Clifford Keesler
You will get it there.

Kelly Wellington
Okay...Big leap forward. I got the wings attached. It's a straight up butt joint. No pegs, no guides, no blocks, no tangs, no nuthin'. Butt joint. Phew....

Clifford Keesler
That sounds like a lot of fun.

Kelly Wellington
Well, one wing fell off when I was prepping the forward ventral guns...I sanded all the surfaces again and reglued, but I didn't get as good a placement as the first time...but it'll pass. I've got the engines, nacelles, and props on now.

Glenn
Butt joints are a pain in the butt! drilling and inserting a metal or plastic rod (maybe even some scrap sprue?) through the wing should help stop the wings from falling off! 🙂

Kelly Wellington
Yeah...I'd thought about pegs, but the wing side of the butt joint was hollow. What was needed was some kind of 'box' that affixed to the fuselage butt which slid snugly into the hollow portion of the butt of each wing.

Decals today!!!

Kelly Wellington
Tis done....

John Coverley
I got "sucked in" to a Special Hobby kit, the 1/32 Fiat G-50 BIS, after reading rave reviews in 2 popular modelling magazines. The reviews seemed to imply that before you know it, it's time for the paint and weathering to begin. When my fuselage was closed up and everything lined up, the wing section was nowhere near square to the fuselage. The resin engine, a kit on its own wasn't a patch on 1/32 Hasegawa's radial engines. Like Glen said there wasn't a shaft to connect the spinner and props to the engine. Further research on the net revealed 2 reviews of this kit and both had quite a few problems particularly with fitting the engine and exhaust pipes to the cowl and fuselage. I finished the kit and it does look OK, but for the price of the kit and work that had to be done to get it to look OK I wouldn't go down that path again. 🙁 Hope things get better for you.

Kelly Wellington
Well....Having finished the Harpoon, I decided to 'dial back' and drug out the Airfix Sunderland III kit. I'd bought it at a no longer extant hobby shop and it had been in my stash for about two years. I slit the dot seals on the box, opened it, removed the internal bags and cut them open. Only to find that I have been shorted one engine. There are only three engines for a four-engine craft.....*sigh* I'm SOL on that one.

So, instead, I drug out the Special Hobby Avro Anson kit. Hmmm....it looks...more complicated than I'm ready for at this juncture. All that internal cabin birdcage stuff....and the engines are resin and have to be assembled by adding all the piston heads to the radial. So, I drug out the FROG Armstrong Whitley kit. That's what I've decided on, for the time being.

Clifford Keesler
You just seem to have all the luck. Can you write to Airfix and get another engine?

Kelly Wellington
I suppose its a shot in the dark that they might take pity on me and send me one engine unit....I had considered going to the next regiional modeling show and hitting the vendors for a cheap replacement. It's an iffy prospect, but it's not like I'm in a huge hurry. Besides, the Whitley looks interesting and it'll be my first ever FROG kit.

Glenn
I've heard Airfix are pretty good out helping out with replacement parts, Some companies charge a fee for parts but either way if you can get the missing bits it's all good. Years ago i visited the local Revell warehouse with a friend and we were able to purchase missing parts for a small fee. They opened up stock and just removed the parts we wanted! I got a very large decal sheet for a Peterbilt Wrecker that had yellowed very badly. I also wrote to Heller using the form inside the box to get a missing clear sprue for a Saab Viggen and a few weeks later it arrived packed in a neat little box! 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Revell has been just excellent with replacing parts and decals for me, with no charge. I had to request a new decal sheet for my B-1B, yesterday because I knocked over a bottle of future, and it ran all over my work bench and got my decals,which I had left lay on the work bench, like an idiot.

Kelly Wellington
Thanks, guys, for the encouragement. I'll give contact a shot.

Kelly Wellington
Inquiry sent.