Hasegawa 1/72 SOC Seagull

This is my first RFI post and I've chosen the Hasegawa SOC Seagull as the subject. This is an old kit and not really any particular version of the prototype. For example the kit cowling includes engraved (though inaccurate) cowling flaps which were only present on the SOC-1 and none of the other versions. It also includes a couple of small bulges which were only fitted to the SOC-3 so it's really a bit all over the place. Surface detail is very nice but not accurate and incomplete. In the picture below I've removed some of the fabric ribbing and replaced it with the metal panel that was there.

Hasegawa are stingy and you can either build the wheeled version or the floatplane version but not from the same box (apart from one dual combo set). Once again we have a mixture of features - for the floatplane the lower wing is wrong and for the wheeled version one needs to fill the floatplane strut location holes. For the wheeled version there was a fairing added in front of the wing which was removed on the floatplane. One needs to remove this fairing if one is modelling a floatplane version and to restore the fuselage. Thankfully the wheeled version was common.

Incidentally, there are a lot of metal panels to add to the fuselage which were omitted when Hasegawa tooled the model. Adding and replacing detail is a must. The kit engine definitely needs replacing and the Radial Engines and Wheels Pratt and Whitney Wasp 1340 is a superb addition. You do need to widen the interior of the cowling to take the new engine but this is not too onerous and it helps to make the cowling flaps thinner and more prototypical

Other alterations and additions included detailing the propeller which only has detail on half. Adding a cockpit. Here one can use the Starfighter Decals improvement set but that is also simplified (though far better than the kit version) and doesn't include fuselage stringers. I scratch built the whole cockpit. The underside of the centre wing needs detail as does the underside itself. I extended the fabric portion using 0.064 mm brass rod for the ribbing. I also added panels and position/navigation lights to the upper wing as well

Some surface detail needs replacing by finer details particularly the trailing aerial and elevator actuators. The 'coffee cup holder' on the left hand side (third picture from the top) usually had a pole included which is what Hasegawa have modelled but sometimes was empty and also can do with drilling out. For reference I used the absolutely superb Steve Ginter book (No. 89) which covers the SOC in fantastic detail. This is a must if you want to make an accurate model of this aircraft. Rigging was 0.2 mm brass rod with the spreader bars from 0.4 mm plastic rod. The radio aerials were 0.1 mm Albion Alloys rod with 0.5 mm brass tube cut to length to represent tensioners.

I wanted to do an early SOC-1 in the grey and aluminium dope scheme (Colourcoats Cerux Grey which is apparently very close to the interwar grey used by the USN and Tamiya Flat Aluminium enamel XF-16). I also wanted to do an independent aircraft allocated to an individual ship not one of the squadron allocated ones and chose one from USS Raleigh in 1936. USS Raleigh was the flagship of the destroyer scouting force at the time and it's aircraft had the rather fetching design on the fuselage. This was assembled from individual letters paying close attention to actual layout. The same process was carried out for the bureau number. The fonts aren't strictly accurate but it's impossible to find the correct USN 4 inch lettering font in 1/72. The roundels came from spare Starfighter Decals sheets which had some excellent examples. Weathering was kept light as the aircraft were generally clean.

This project was a lot of work but very enjoyable.