P-66
Here's my recently completed P-66 Vanguard from Dora Wings.
Others on this forum have detailed the history of the P-66 very well so I won't get into that.
The P-66 is one of the better limited run kits from Dora Wings, much like their Vengeance. I built it mostly OOB, but used Eduard Steel seat belts (no shoulder harness), .015" lead wire brake lines, and I scratch built the cowl flaps from .020 card stock. My pet peeve with Dora Wings is their PE cowl flaps! The surface detail is great, and the fit was very good, I just needed to shave a little off the bottom of the cockpit floor to make the bottom of the fuselage halves mate. The sliding portion of the canopy needed some tweaking to make it fit, and It is too thick to pose in the open position. It also sat up too high in the rear in the closed position, and after my first photo shoot, I decided I didn't like it much, so I popped it off and used it to make a heat-smash replacement so I could pose it open. Works for me. I decided to finish it in USAAF markings, the kit comes with only British and Swedish decals. I used the kit stencils and US national insignia from my stash of Yellow Wings decals and numbers. Only about 50 P-66s went to the USAAF, mostly to training units and the 14th Pursuit Group on the US West Coast. Photos I found of these airplanes do not show "U.S. Army" on the bottom of the wings, so I didn't add that feature. I don't know why these airplanes were not so marked. I decided that this one would be 26938. I had some Model Master neutral grey and OD, so I used it up. I added a little Tamiya yellow-green to fade the OD a little. Looking forward to their P-47B soon!
Great work Chas, your OD finish is outstanding. I too loath those photo etched cowl gills.
Thanks, Dale. Far easier to just make new cowl flaps than try to deal with PE!
Awesome result, Chas!
Thanks, Spiros.
Having done one of these myself, I really like what you have done here with this kit. Great result!
Thanks Tom. Your build was an inspiration and helpful.
Very well done, good looking bird. Looks like it coulda been an actual decent fighter if given the chance.
Thanks, Bill. Too bad the Finns didn't get to test that theory!
Nicely done Chas, especially like the pics as well.
Thanks, Tom.
Very well done, I too am not a fan of photo-etch flaps and I like your solution much better. I think you created a real jewel here, it looks great. I wonder if Vought was looking at this plane when they created the tail for the Corsair?
Thanks, Walt. Who knows? Maybe Vought had a spy at Vultee.
Well done, Chas (@chasbunch). Your pre-shading under the OD looks great.
Thanks, George.
Very nice result,Chas @chasbunch
The OD and the shading of it looks great, as is valid for the rest of the build.
Thanks, John.
Great job Chas @chasbunch!
Thanks, Felix.
Nice one Chas!
Thank you, Robert.
Very realistic rendition of a pretty little bird.
Convincing photography too, love it.
Thank you, Alfred. Sometimes photography is as much fun as the build.
This looks great - love the fading work you did with the paint. Excellent!
Thanks, Greg.
Excellent job Chas, great looking P-66. I love the realistic/finished look on this build!
Thanks, Bob.
The Dora Wings kits are not "shake the box" kits by any means, Chas (@chasbunch). You produced an excellent replica with this one. And, your photography so well shows your excellent work. Thank you for sharing it!
Thanks, Matt.
Fantastic job. Great photo setting! Really liked the Vultee family photo as well.