Nice job Cliff!  I always liked the P-40, it was one of my first kits as a kid.  Great detail, nice work on the wash.  And the photos came out pretty cool too!  A+     

Ken

Beautiful build! I think your pictures turned out pretty good too! The wash is just right.

That's a beautiful P-40, and great photos as well.  Well done Gamera!!

Gary

Hey, thanks guys!

Great build, beautiful background scenery, nice pics!

I'm jealous of the scenery in the pics, I could very happily live in a setting like that!

Great looking P-40!  

Hey thanks guys!

B-17: Just rural SW Virginia...

That's a really great looking Warhawk there.  If I may offer one thought for next time--you did the wash very nicely and the plane looks every bit the part, except for one thing.  If you look at photos of P-40s during the war, they always strike me as showing well-used airframes.  You will see paint chipped off in places, and you will see fasteners on the cowling that the paint is worn off of due to their frequent use.  Here's a quick photo of someone else's build of a P-40 from the same unit as yours.  You can see the effect that the chipping and also the exhaust staining have on the finished product:

modelingmadness.com/.../tmc3240n.htm

Please dont take this harshly--your model looks awesome and your building skills are obviously practiced.  Something like this is just one of those final steps that really make the model pop.  I am currently working on a 1/32 F4U-4 Corsair, and one of the things I like to look for when researching a build is to check for photos showing typical examples of the same type of plane.  USMC Corsairs in WWII tended to be very well worn--the famed Black Sheep, for example, were known for flying planes that were "field-repaired" using any resources they could scrape together.  It was fairly common for them to fly a plane that did not have all of its systems functioning as long as all of the critical systems worked.  Paint chipping on prop blades and the engine cowl of basically all American WWII aircraft was more the norm than the exception.  Maybe even a little mud on the wheels, and you'll have a very realistic looking build.  Very much looking forward to your future builds!

Actually, here's a good close-up shot of a 49th FG P-40, same unit as your markings.  The chipping is subtle, but still noticeable.  Hope this helps....

rivervalleymilitaria.com/.../PBR_750pxl_copy.jpeg

Sweet 40 Cliff!

Thanks guys!

F-8fanatic: You're absolutely right. The plane should be dinged up a lot more. Guess I'm just afraid to muck things up with weathering. Thanks for the link, I'm going to try to dig up an old model and try following his example.

Beautiful work on a challenging kit.  I built an 80th FG N for that GB as well.  Those Hasegawa plugs are rampid on this kit and it looks like you did a nice job on hiding them.  I'm with you on the weathering, I'm not big on dinging up my planes either.  It just seems to take away from the overall effect.  I use a Prismacolor silver pencil here and there, especially on the wing root and thats about it.  Reference the spinner stripe, I'm lousy at those too.  I just can't seem to find a compass that cuts circles instead of draws them.  Try to find a decal for it with other manufactures who have planes from that unit.  Thats what I did on my 357th FG Mustang builds.  

Joe

Very nice P-40.  Like the paint scheme very much.  I also hate propeller stripes.

Thanks guys! Other than the plugs it was a quick and fun build. They seemed to fit ok, I just had to sand, prime, sand, prime, etc about five times before they blended with the regular panel lines.

Joe: Good idea there, I'll look around for more sheets with the stripe on them. The decals I used had one but it immediately stuck fast to the spinner and I ripped it to shreds trying to line it up. Funny, all the other decals went on great.