Seversky P-35

Dora Wings, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

The Seversky P-35 is an American fighter aircraft built by the Seversky Aircraft Company in the late 1930s.

A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109, the P-35 was the first single-seat fighter in United States Army Air Corps to feature all-metal construction, retractable landing gear, and an enclosed cockpit.

The first P-35s were delivered to the 1st Pursuit Group (27th, 71st and 94th PS) stationed at Selfridge Field in Michigan. The aircraft used a wet wing to save weight and ground personnel quickly learned about the persistent fuel leaks. The P-35's performance was poor even by contemporary standards and, although USAAC aviators appreciated the aircraft's ruggedness, it was already obsolete by the time deliveries were finished in 1938.

Sweden

Aiming to increase sales, Alexander P. de Seversky personally took a demonstrator on a tour of Europe in early 1939. As a result of this demonstration, Sweden ordered 15 EP-106 fighters on 29 June 1939, a development of the P-35 powered by a 1,050 hp (783 kW) R-1830-45, which improved performance by over 25 mph (40 km/h) and armed with two 7.9 mm (.311 in) machine guns in the cowl and two 13.2 mm (.52 in) machine guns in the wings.

A second order for 45 EP-106s was placed on 11 October 1939, with a third order for 60 aircraft, placed on 6 January 1940, although by this time Seversky had been thrown out of the company bearing his name by the board of directors, with the company renaming itself Republic Aviation. The Swedish Air Force designated them J 9

On 18 June 1940, United States declared an embargo against exporting weapons to any nation other than the United Kingdom.

Optimistically, Republic continued to manufacture EP-106s which, by the 24 October 1940 order, 60 were taken over by the USAAC as the P-35A.

Philippines

The aircraft were re-armed to American standards with a pair of 0.50 in machine guns that fired through the propeller, but retained the Swedish specification of a 0.30 in machine gun mounted in each wing. Flight instruments were metric, and both their labeling and flight manuals written in Swedish. Of these, three aircraft were kept in United States as instructional airframes for mechanics. Six P-35As were delivered to Ecuador to form the first combat unit, the Escuadrilla de Caza.

The remainder were sent to the Far East Air Force in the Philippines beginning in February 1941. Eventually all pilots of the three pursuit squadrons on Luzon transitioned to the P-35A from the P-26. About 10 of these were lost in accidents.

The P-35s were used primarily as gunnery trainers by all three squadrons because of a critical shortage of .50-caliber ammunition in the Far East Air Force, placing a strain on the engines of all the aircraft since no replacement engines were available.

In October 1941, the P-35s were earmarked for transfer to the Philippine Army Air Corps after sufficient Curtiss P-40 Warhawks were received by the FEAF.*

This is not the first 1/48 scale injection moulded Seversky P-35. Hobbycraft launched a family of P-35s in 1993 with four kits in Hobbycraft colours and two reboxings from Academy. This was a good kit for its day with crisp recessed panel lines and decent accuracy, but nearly 30 years later the fixed controls surfaces, basic cockpit and generally simple approach does not quite cut it any more.

Enter Dora Wings with their 1/48 scale Seversky P-35. This is actually the second in the family as their Swedish J 9 was released last year.

Dora Wings' 1/48 scale Seversky P-35 comprises 142 parts in pale grey plastic, 14 parts in clear, 32 photo-etched parts on a single fret, die-cut vinyl masks and decals for four marking options.

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Thumbnail panels:

Surface textures are made up mainly from very fine, recessed and consistent panel lines. Fabric texture on the control surfaces are subtly done with narrow raised rib tape depicted.

The well equipped cockpit comprises 26 plastic parts and a photo-etched instrument panel and harness straps.

A decal is supplied for the instrument dials.

The engine is nicely detailed with two rings of pushrods, two sets of finely detailed cylinder banks and crankcase. The cowling is made up from two side halves, a separate cowl ring and the upper cowl deck. Two sets of photo-etched side cowl flaps are also included.

The wings are made up from a full span upper and port and starboard lower parts. All control surfaces are separate parts and may be posed neutral or offset.

Each main undercarriage assembly includes separate retraction struts, and two-piece wheels with smooth tread. All the nice detail of the undercarriage legs will be hidden by a set of undercarriage pants.

Clear parts look good. The canopy is made up from three separate parts so you should be able to pose the centre section open.

Dora Wings has very thoughtfully included die-cut, self-adhesive canopy, window and wheel masks, which will save some time!

Moulding quality is very good, but being a limited run kit, you won't find little luxuries such as locating pins. Take a little extra time with preparation and test fitting before you apply glue.

The sprue attachments extend onto the mating surfaces of the larger parts. This is good news because it means that the sprue attachments won't scar the visible outside surfaces, but it also means that you have to take care not to gouge out too much plastic when removing the waste.

Instructions are supplied on a 12-page, glossy booklet. There are 33 illustrated construction steps.

The marking guide is in full colour.

Markings

The decal sheet is printed by Decograph from Ukraine. The decals are satin in finish.

Registration and printing look good.

Markings are supplied for a four options, three in bare metal overall silver.

The other one is finished in two-tone brown upper surfaces for wargames at Prope Field in 1940.

This is a nicely detailed kit and a worthy replacement for Hobbycraft's vintage 1/48 scale Seversky P-35.

As a limited run offering, some modelling skills will be required for parts preparation and alignment, but I don't see anything at all scary here.

Dora Wings' 1/48 scale P-35 will be warmly welcomed by WWII US fighter fans

*Historical summary adapted from Wikipedia

Thanks to Dora Wings for the review sample.

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2022 by Brett Green
Page Created 16 March, 2022
Last updated 16 March, 2022

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