RAF SE5 Build


R.A.F. SE5 (EARLY)

INTRODUCTION

The PEGASUS release of the SE5 was to me a nice addition to the PEGASUS line. For those who are counting, this is WW1 release # 37 to his line of models.

Everything is the same as with all of his kits. The grey plastic, the white box with a history and color scheme and the two page instruction sheet with the exploded view and construction instructions.

FUSELAGE

A very light sanding of the edges and the fuselage fit is good. The plastic is thick so one needs to sand the sides very thin so the nice interior will fit. Again, this is typical for his kits. When you buy a PEGASUS kit, be aware that you will have to thin the interior. I had a hard time with the curved piece at the front of the cockpit. I had to thin it without breaking it and the halves did not match. Finally, super glue came to my rescue and the fit was acceptable. This applies only if you are building the greenhouse canopy version. This problem does not exist with the open cockpit version.

I had many fond words to say to the interior. I can't print any of them, though. It looks pretty straight forward but I fought it for a long time. The instructions do not give a clue as to where the shelf goes and my DATAFILE wasn't much better. I finally looked at the PEGASUS web site and got an idea of where it goes. With that done, I closed the fuselage.

Next was the two piece upper deck in front of the cockpit. The fit is reasonable but some sanding is required and there is detail that you must be careful not to lose. The fit of the metal radiator is good with a minimal amount of sanding needed to make it match the fuselage. All seams were filled with putty, sanded, and the fuselage was complete.

WINGS

Since the SE5 is a small plane, both wings were molded in one piece. There is a notch in the bottom of the fuselage for the lower wing and the fit is perfect. The fuel tank was added to the top wing and it required a considerable amount of work to make it look right. A one piece tank would have been nice. I cleaned out the locating holes and considered the wings complete.

PAINTING AND DECALS

This was the easiest part of the kit. PC10 over CDL, handpaint the metal section under the exhaust and the bottom of the radiator. Apply gloss coat and apply the decals. The decals are even thinner than I remember and I pressed too hard on one and it broke. Use a light touch. The decals go on without any setting solution.

CANOPY

I can't say anything on the canopy as my kit did not come with one and I couldn't get a replacement part. So I have no idea how the canopy fits as it comes in the kit. I had one from a vacuform SE5 kit that I cut and trimmed so delicately and I got it on as close to the Datafile as possible. Again, it would have been easier to build the open cockpit version but I wanted this one.

FINAL ASSEMBLY AND RIGGING

Again, not much to say here. I cut the struts and drilled my holes for the rigging. I set the struts in the lower wing, turned the model upside down and glued the top wing one strut at a time. The cabanes are cut one at a time making sure they are straight. I added the exhaust and prop and the kit was complete. I spent about 12 hours on the kit.

AREAS OF CONCERN

The fuselage mounted machine gun just did not fit. There is a small groove that the gun is supposed to slide into. The machine gun fits well into the cockpit in the green house version and is very visible. I enlarged the slot until it got to the point that I was going to destroy the deck. So I cut the gun in half and mounted it from both sides of the slot. Not perfect, but it works. I think the kit supplied gun is too large.

I have already mentioned the fuselage needs to be thinned to make either version work.

CONCLUSION

For some reason, I found this kit difficult to build. I have built many PEGASUS kits and this one is far superior to his early kits. I think the problem was with the builder being out of sync with his hobbly. The kit looks good completed and looking back I shouldn't have had such a hard time building it. I do recommend the kit.

My thanks to PEGASUS for another fine model, SQUADRON MAIL ORDER for supplying the kit and Matt Bittner for offering the kit to me for construction.

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