Agape forum member David Epstein (SF49erinnm) has been building quite a few Special Hobby kits. Here is one he recently completed. Great work on a very unusual aircraft, David!
This is Special Hobby kit # SH48094 of the Gloster Pioneer E.28/39 in 1/48th scale.
I seem to have a propensity to select difficult kits to build but I love the subject matter of “limited run” kits, and for some reason, have better luck building and finishing them than I do a nice Tamiya, Hasegawa, Academy or Trumpeter (etc.) kit. I love the challenge.
As with all limited run kits, you have to severely pre-fit all the parts.
With the interior sub-assemblies built, I found the cockpit too wide and the intake splitter too narrow, and the fuselage warped both vertically and horizontally. I carved down the cockpit to fit prior to assembly, and filled in the intake splitter gaps after. I started at the aft of the model gluing the tail and aft fuselage together, clamping them and waiting a day, then the center section, gluing and clamping and waiting a few days then the forward fuselage/intake area the same. I was almost tempted at times to get the hair dryer out to help but at the cost of the kit, decided not to.
The wings and fuselage matched up quite well and required little filling except on the bottom side where the wing center met the fuselage, different curvatures. Grind, sand, fill, repeat…
Once assembly was done I primered with Krylon flat light grey. It was at this time I realized I left out the nose weight. No, I’m not splitting it open! That is why you see cut up fishing weight in the nose wheel bay .
I masked and painted the underside with Tamiya Camel yellow. Once dry, I removed the mask and gave the ridges a light sanding with a 600 sanding stick.
I then masked and applied the green (Model Master Euro 1 Dark Green, FS 34092) freehand with my Paasche.
Allow to dry for 24 hours, shot with Krylon Gloss, again allowing 24 hours to dry and applied the kit decals, which laid down very nicely.
Well, a lot of work on a small kit. I’m not a perfectionist or a rivet counter, but am happy with the results.
