This is a biplane model for an experienced biplane modeler, and is a challenge even there. The kit does not have locating pins for the landing gear or wing struts - which are also too long and need shortening if the upper wing is not to end up sitting too high above the fuselage.

As I said in my article on the companion F4B-4, construction begins with sanding out the fuselage halves in the vicinity of the cockpit to allow the cockpit interior to be seen. What is provided is simple, but given that one looks at it through a small cockpit opening, what is there is effective. Remember when making seat belts that at this time American military airplanes did not use shoulder harnesses, only lap belts. After the fuselage halves were glued together and the resulting seam sanded smooth, I attached the horizontal stabilizer and the lower wings. So far, so good, the easy part is over.

The landing gear is where things begin to get difficult. You need to have photographs of the real airplane, and will need to test-fit the landing gear as you cut it and sand it and shape it to fit. It's a good idea at this point to attach the drop tank. I covered over the forward part of the top of the tank with 15-mil sheet styrene, since the hole can be seen when the tank is properly attached otherwise. When I finally got the

landing gear to look right, I attached it with cyanoacrylate. The kit comes with a resin tailwheel, the same as for the F4B-4. This is incorrect for the P-12E, which flew mostly from grass strips and in consequence used a tailskid. I scratchbuilt a tailskid with Evergreen rod, eyeballed from photos in the Squadron book.

The cabane and interplane struts are more difficult to get right. I shortened the interplane struts 3/32" on either end, then sanded them to give the proper outward-splayed angle when attached to the wings.

I then glued the struts to the lower wing. When they were set up, I attached the upper wing by tacking it to the interplane struts with a drop of C-A, and then measured and cut the cabane struts to fit properly, and glued them to the fuselage in the proper positions. When they had set up, I detached the upper wing.

The engine is all resin, with separate cylinders and crankcase. Cut the separate cylinders off right at their base, and attach them to the crankcase. I use .020 Evergreen rod to finish the magnetos and glued them in position. I then glued the two halves of the cowling together. When it was dry and the join seam smoothed away, I test fitted the engine inside the cowling and sanded off a bit of the cylinder heads to allow the engine to slip inside smoothly.

The kit provides the original individual exhaust stacks, which can be used of you are making the Panama airplane. However, if you are making the later airplane, or airplanes of other units during the period, you need to examine the photographs of these airplanes in the Squadron book, and see how the exhausts were changed. These can be scratchbuilt with Evergreen rod, which is what I did. As an alternative, if you have an "extra" Hobbycraft P-26 - or are going to make it as an early version with the individual exhaust stacks - you can use the late version exhausts from this kit, as both the P-12E and the P-26 used the same engine. I ended up using the early exhausts on an airplane done as a 95th Pursuit Squadron, 17th Pursuit Group, airplane based at March Field in 1932.

At the time the P-12E was in front line service, the wings and tail surfaces were painted Insignia Yellow, while the fuselage, interplane struts and landing gear were painted Olive Drab. You should note that this is not Shade 41 Olive Drab of World War II, but the more green-based Olive Drab used on military vehicles of the period. I painted the yellow of the fuselage and cowling stripes when I painted the wings, then masked them and painted the black stripes before painting the fuselage overall Olive Drab.

I painted the propeller with Future, and when it was dry to the touch but not fully set up, I rubbed in SnJ polishing powder and polished out the prop to a high gloss.

When all this was fully dry, I gave everything a coat of Future. When it was dry, we were ready for the decals.

Classic Airframes now uses Micro-Scale decals, which makes everything easy. The decals went on with no trouble. The "Kicking Mule" of the 95th Pursuit Squadron came from the old Micro-Scale 1/32 P-12 sheet, where it is too small in 1/32 and perfect for 1/48 (a common MicroScale/SuperScale mistake you should watch for whenever you used markings from this manufacturer).

Final assembly included attaching the vacuformed windscreen and telescopic gunsight, and attaching the upper wing. Having pre-fitted the wing, it went on easily. I then glued the engine inside the cowling with cyanoacrylate and glued it into position on the front of the fuselage.

Rigging:

The great bugbear of biplane models: the rigging. You can't get away from it, though, because this is where the model "comes alive." Fortunately, the Boeing P-12E/F4B-4 has a very simple rigging system. I used Evergreen .010 x .020 strip, painted silver, to create the flat-section "raf wires" used on the airplane. These attached easily with white glue and all was done.

As you can see from the accompanying photos, this is a good-looking model when completed. and I can tell you it looks good sitting next to a Hobbycraft P-26 "Peashooter."

Copyright ModelingMadness.com

Thanks to Classic Airframes for providing the review kit.

Review copy courtesy of me and my wallet! If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.

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