Minicraft 1/48 XF5F-1

 

Right now the white undercoat is drying on the upper wing panels in preparation for the yellow, but here are some pictures of the construction.  I glued the nose section on the wing first, after figuring out where it fit left to right by
dry fitting the aft fuselage. I aligned the aft fuselage with the lower wing, it has a shape that drops down to fair to the fuselage there. When the nose was dry enough I glued on the aft fuselage, being careful to get
the sides spaced so there was a good match to the nose. There is no positive alignment, just some ridges that fit the short nose, not the long one The engines are nice, though the things they call the ignition harness are more
like push rod housings except for being too short. Whatever, they look nice enough and fit well. There is an intake manifold and exhaust collector ring, but once in they will never be seen again by man nor beast.
The cowling fronts fit well but I did spend some time eliminating the seams as there is no panel line there. As with the fuselage, there is no positive fit for the long nacelles, just some ridges on the bottom of the wing that are
appropriate to the short nacelle/short nose version. The fit was pretty nice but took some care and planning to get all four cowling parts in place.

The Bearcat in the photo is the original Hawk kit, which I built in 1968 and is still in great shape, a very sturdy model. Obviously the fit was great as filler was unknown to me then, and if set before a fan the propeller spins freely.