These will add strength and ensure correct alignment when fuselage halves are glued together. Short strips were cut from plastic and added to fuselage halves to act as locating stabs. Control column and throttle detail were shaped from stretch sprue and added to cockpit interior. Two crew figures were also added to two front seats. The entire interior was painted cockpit grey green with seats painted dark brown and seat straps added from cut strips of masking tape. Rareplanes also provide cockpit floor, bulkhead and instrument panel and central console. These spars when fitted give the correct wing dihedral when wings are slotted in. Slots were opened on fuselage sides to take wing-spar parts using a drill and pointed modelling blade. Careful cutting of kit transparencies also contribute to accurate fitting of these parts on their respective location. Careful checking these areas ensure that assembly goes smooth. The kit plastic is soft and one takes care to preserve the correct outline shape. įuselage halves are dry fitted followed by cutting away areas at top turret, ventral gun position, cockpit area and astrodome, making frequent check with kit clear parts in order to ensure that areas cut away matched transparencies attachment areas. This was followed by sanding each part on different abrasive sheets to remove excess plastic, checking frequently with scale plan drawings, normally down to the pencil markings at the edge of each part. These come with well detailed instructions, 4-view drawing and an exploded view of the kit parts.Ĭonstruction starts with separating the parts that were marked with a pencil at the periphery, and scoring them with a sharp pointed knife before snapping them from the backing styrene sheet. The Rareplanes kit is to the usual high standard with accurate moulding, good raised panel line detail and the kit comes complete with injection moulded propeller blades, tail wheel and main wheel legs. Type: Vac-form kit with injected with injected props, tail wheel and legs In scale model form the Harpoon was first issued by Rareplanes as a vac form kit and more recent years by Special Hobby in injected form. Others went into civilian service and could still be spotted in airfields in Arizona. When the Neptune came about the P2V Harpoons units hanged to reserve wings. Besides serving with the US Navy, there were other foreign operators which included France, Brazil, Peru, Portugal, Netherland, South Africa, Italy and Japan and continued serving into the late 40s. The bulkier design resulted in reduced speed by 20mph but on the positive side it was a longer range patrol bomber, with an increase over a ton payload and its range increased to 1,200 miles.ĭuring the war the Harpoon was well established in service in the Pacific particularly in patrol missions and offensive actions. The redesigned tail unit resulted in improved handling especially in single-engined flight. The Harpoon resulted into a much greater capacity and better performance. The Harpoon was a development of the Ventura, a Lockheed design that was a follow-up of the Hudson that succeeded from model 14.
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