As to the fuselage halves, you can forget about locating pins. No biggie, but there’s something that does need attention and that’s the thickness of the tail section on the starboard half that abuts the rudder on the port half. Way, way, too thick. The plastic Mark I (and whilst we’re at it, JACH) uses is quite soft and sands very easily, so don’t get carried away or the tail will disintegrate. To ensure alignment, I started by gluing just the tail section. When I was happy that everything was aligned, I inserted the cockpit and engine assemblies, then cemented the remainder of the fuselage halves together.
Time to glue the wing and horizontal tailplanes on and, yes, more sanding required. The inset in the wing that fits the fuselage is again too thick and must be reduced if the trailing edge of the wing is to be level with the fuselage. You also need to carefully whittle away the thickness of the floor of the cockpit insert or the wing doesn’t sit correctly. Truthfully, I’m not sure what the build would look like if you don’t do these steps. Mark I kits are many things, mostly good, but they are not “shake and bake”.
And whilst in the vicinity of the wings, a subtle change to the armament which, to Mark I’s credit, is noted in the instructions. The kit has two small projections on either side of the wings representing the 0.30-inch machine guns. However, most Hawks fitted with this armament served during WW2 and so these are applicable to the other boxings of the kit. The three P-36A options in this kit require that you slice all four off. As correctly noted by Mark I, photos of P-36C participants at Cleveland show the aircraft to be fitted with a single 0.30-inch gun on either side. I could have just nipped the extra one off each side as Mark I suggest (although they don’t indicate which of the pair, inboard or outboard, is removed) but I found both projections on the starboard wing of my kit to be wonky so I chopped the lot off, drilled a hole in each side and refitted a segment of fine piano wire. Methinks this was better anyway as Mark I’s projections looked a tad short versus pre-war photos.
So wings and tailplanes fitted, time for a couple of happy snaps.
