Hey all,
Just today I walked into my LHS and there she was.. Trumpeters new P-40B(sorry to burst your bubble J-Hulk
).
Dont know where to begin... but I was able to take a peek inside and from what was in the box, she sure is nice looking.
To start off the interior is nicely laid out w/ a lot of room for after market goodies. The instrument panel is clear w/ the addition of a instrumentation that is laid out on a clear plastic card.
The overall engraving of the panel lines are good, about a B+. The rivet datail is good to but the back flying surfaces seem to have a lot of rivets(did not really check out the ref's though).The control surfaces are seperate which is a plus in my book.
The landing gear are well done w/ basic details and the tire/wheels set up is the only downer of the whole kit. The tires are done up in halfs w/ a two piece hub section. Well at least for me but this wont stop me building this kit.
What surprised me is that Trumpeter offers a complete engine which is one of the better detailed egines that I have seen in a while from a 32nd kit.
The clear parts are broken down into 17 parts. Most of the parts consist of the navigation lights, position lights and the landing light.
The main windscreen and canopies frame work is done up very nice w/ good rivet detail.
Actually the clearness is better than the Wildcats which had a frosted look.
The kit also has a few PE parts which consists of seat belt buckles, three filters, a gun sight and two pieces that looks like it belongs w/ the flap section(did not really have a close look though).
Finally they give you a choice of two decal options. The first one is for the Tomahawk Mk II, 26th Sqd RAF, 6-7/44 and of course a ship from Pearl Harbour, 18th PG.
I give Trumpeters new release
up.
To sum this all up I was the first kid on the block to own this sweet lookin bird which which also happened to be built in the next city over from me.
Flaps up, Mike