1/48th Scale De Havilland Hornet F-1

This is a "Classic Airframes" kit. I was somewhat shocked when I discovered that the fuselage was not mating up with their clear windscreen/canopy part.

I moved the one piece windscreen/canopy back to where the canopy would normally be open and knew it would work out "A-OK" if I cut the windscreen off the canopy.

I filled the clear plastic part with some "Plaster-of-Paris" and after it was dry, I mask off the windscreen/canopy frames and then gently sawed the two parts apart and sanded them smooth. The plaster holds the clear part firmly while you are sawing the parts apart.

Blue Magic was used to polish the parts, then I mask them and spayed on my Tamiya yellow paint.

The cockpit was dressed up with some seat belts and Waldron buckles.

It was painting time but first I have to double check everything to make sure that all the panel line's were re-scribed in and that there were no sink marks and especially the wing and tailplane were in proper alignment.

Painting and decalling were preformed without any problems and the same for my photography. Somehow I never took a photo of the bottom which is "very" unusual. No I was not drinking any beer!

The airplane came to one of the post WW-II Cleveland, Ohio air races which were held between 1946 - 1949.

RJW.

12 additional images. Click to enlarge.