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.