Please visit the preview for more information on this aircraft and a peek in the box.

Frankly, the main purpose of building this kit was to try out the Legends Productions P-36 cockpit set. I'd never used one before and wanted to see how well it worked. I know the Legend box says Academy, but the Hobbycraft kit is the exact same kit. The first thing I did was to remove all the big bits from their resin blocks. It couldn't have been easier. You see, Legend doesn't use those massive chunks of resin to attach its pieces. No, it has taken a different approach and the bits are only held to the 'blocks' as it were, by on thin attachment point and some thin rods of resin. Removal of the part took seconds instead of minutes and was done with a sharp hobby knife. No need to spend all that time sanding and no mass of resin dust to deal with. The only part on a resin block was the seat and that block was easily removed with a pair of cutters and a minute or two of scraping with a knife. I really couldn't be more pleased with the ease with which these parts came free.

With the main parts ready to use, I first carefully scraped (actually gouged and hacked) the detail off the sidewalls of the kit fuselage. Then I test fit the side wall pieces. Before supergluing them in place, I glued the back bulkhead to the cockpit floor piece and set them in the fuselage to get things properly aligned. The resin parts use the same kit interior alignment keys so don't cut those parts away. Then the resin sidewall was placed in position and held with a small piece of tape. The rest of the interior was removed, the resin part lifted up with its tape hinge to make sure it doesn't shift, the area under the resin sidewall flooded with superglue, and the resin sidewall pressed into place. I make sure that the glue oozes out a bit for a good seal. The same process was repeated on the other fuselage half.

If you didn't test fit the sidewall and just glued it in place, you'd miss that there needs to be a gap between the rear bulkhead alignment section and the resin piece. Conversely, you could just as easily glue the sidewall to the interior parts first, but this way makes it much easier to paint and not have to worry about how one will get the sidewall pieces to fit flush once the interior is in place. I actually don't know how the instructions would have you do it as this is a test set without instructions!

At this stage, it seemed like a good time to go ahead and paint all this resin. I used Aeromaster US Interior Green acrylic for the base and then detailed the various bits and pieces in a manner similar to what was shown on the box for the detail set. Once that was dry, I started gluing in all the rest of the bits like the seat frame, seat, controls and the instrument panel. The seat frame is a bit too wide for the mounting holes on the floor so I drilled the holes out a bit wide to accommodate the frame. I then glued the seat in place, but messed up and used fast setting superglue. The seat set out of alignment and removing it wasn't fun. Once it was pried loose, it and the frame were sanded a bit, repainted and then the seat glued with slower setting glue. With all those bits in place, I then installed the instrument panel. Obviously, I missed something by not having instructions and the panel wouldn't fit properly. It was trimmed and stuffed in place. Superglue was used once it fit pretty close to properly to keep it from moving about.

At this time the fuselage halves were permanently joined. That was no real problem and though there were some spots that needed filler, nothing really major compared to some kits I've built. With all that done, I glued the wings in place. The fit of the wings leaves a bit to be desired as I had gaps in the front and one one wing root or the other, depending on how I positioned the wings. I decided to make the left side the 'good' fit and glued that and those places where it touched on the front and rear. Once all that had dried, I stretched some sprue and set it in the gap on the right wing root. Using my Pro-Weld glue, it softened and settled into the gap. It was then on to more filler and sanding to take care of the other gaps. The tail planes were then attached at this time.

For those of you wondering about all the filler and less than perfect fit, it is normal for me and for many Hobbcraft/Academy kits. One just comes to expect these things and for most of us, it is no big deal. You know, not all kits are shake and bake Tamiya kits,  and some of them (like this one) require the use of some standard hobby skills to complete. If you don't have those skills or need to hone them, then this kit is as good as any to exercise them as the fixes needed are quite minor.

Once the fuselage was nice and tidy, the engine mount was glued in place and the engine (which had already been glued together and painted) was attached to it. While all that was still drying, the two cowling halves were glued around the engine. This whole thing was adjusted quite a bit until I was happy with the way that it was attached. There is lots of room for fudging and it was needed to get a decent fit. During this time, the tail wheel insert was glued in place. This fit OK, but needed filler all around it to get a smooth surface.

Nearly ready for overall painting, but I needed to do a bit more work. That consisted of installing and masking the clear bits and gluing in some additional bits to the cockpit sills. These last items I totally screwed up. Once I had them installed flush with the outer fuselage; filled in and sanded smooth, no less, I realized that they should have been flush with the  of the cockpit. In other words, recessed. Well S**T! Being too lazy to correct things, I left them as is and went on.