What an amazing build, thank you for posting this project.  I learned so much!

Toshi

I dunno how accurate the kit is but she's a beauty and I'd have loved to have her when I was 14! 

Very nice Mike!  I believe the Monogram "B" model P-40 are still the most accurate version available in 1/48.  You did a great job on the old warbird!

Gary

You're being too humble, in my opinion. I think you did a really nice job on a kit that is far from being the prime Tamiyas or Eduards we have today, and it looks great. Growing up, Flying Tigers was one of my favorite movies (I know, I know...it made me think the AVG was active pre-Pearl Harbor for many years), and this made me smile and reminded me of all the fun I had watching it.

Also, excellent save on the eye decal on the nose.

-BD-

came out as a really nice build. if you ever tackle another avg or the 23rd fighter group, give me a shout. I must have a dozen reference sources including most of the pilots autobios, and some first person sources of Tex Hill planes through his whole military career. Again, always enjoy seeing another p40, especially those of the avg.

Great job on the old Monogram Flying Tiger.

i actually think this is a great kit. It does require a good bit of scratch building to cover up some big holes that are found in the wheel wells and through the deployed flaps.

This is the first model that I ever built. I was 3 or so at the time, and the kit was only a few years older than I was/am. I have a find spot for all of the old Monogram kits, especially those that came in the blue boxes with great artwork. As for this P-40, I have built it probably no less than a dozen times throughout my years and I even have one more, an old blue box, in my stash.

Outstanding work on a tough kit. Thanks for taking us along......and yes, Airfix has a brand new P-40 B/C scheduled for release in August. If it's anything like there Spitfire and Hurricane, we should be in for a treat.

Here's a link...

http://www.airfix.com/uk-en/news/workbench/p40b_and_b5n1_meteor/

Not too shabby Mike.  =] You've got a lot of good things going on here.  Your boy ought to like it!  richs26 is right on the money about the info above.  Everything I've ever read about the P-40B supports that.  

As far as the page goes I'll leave it here for your reference. Both had plenty of tags that can be searched, but I'm not sure how well of that works on this site.

AVG: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/158668.aspx

Pearl: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/162912.aspx

I think you did a mighty fine job, Mike.  Your son is going to be proud having that in his collection.

M. Brindos, that is a very nice job on that P-40! I like the paintwork; I've always thought this was an attractive scheme. Well done repairing the decal issue on the nose, as well. 

I applaud you for starting this with your son. My dad started build an old, screw-together metal Deusenberg kit with me when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, then we did a Datsun 280Z next. Good memories.

TF

This was one of the first kits that I built when I started modeling two years ago. Jeez, it was so flimsy and poorly molded....but a 50 year old kit at the time. Filler everywhere and with the flaps down you can see into the cockpit area...no wheeel well walls. I was scared to hold it because if I squeezed it more than normal handling pressure, it cracked the seams open.

That said....you did a fabulous job with yours and made it come to life. Great work with the Pilot, too!

M brindos 

that p-40 looks really good ..I think your son is going to love it.!!

YOUR A GREAT DAD !!!!

5-high

Only C+'s had the capability to carry droptanks.  The Tiger birds were a hybrid B with some equipment of the C, but no drop tanks the same as B models. There is a discussion on the web with a former Tiger that mentioned the equipment on Tigers aircraft.

M. Brindos

Spiralcity:Yes, thank you for pointing that out. I did find a lot of this out later on after that post you quoted. I figured that since this was more of a tribute scheme to the Tiger's I'd add the "V" just because. But yes, I did figure that out after the fact lol.

Richs26: That I did not yet know. What about the Pearl Harbor "B"s?

 

 

Your bird looks good to me. i wouldnt worry about any of the small stuff, the build came out nice and she looks great.

Spiralcity:Yes, thank you for pointing that out. I did find a lot of this out later on after that post you quoted. I figured that since this was more of a tribute scheme to the Tiger's I'd add the "V" just because. But yes, I did figure that out after the fact lol.

Richs26: That I did not yet know. What about the Pearl Harbor "B"s?

Excellent build, Mike, but for your next build of Boyington's, the Tigers P-40's and B models never had drop tanks.

M. Brindos

Waikong; You got to meet "Tex"? NICE! I haven't been to an airshow since I was 16.

As far as I can figure this unusual scheme out, my research suggests that this plane is an amalgamation of 12 year old boy dreams.

If I'm wrong about the following conclusions let me know.

First, the red nose. I haven't found any evidence that the AVG ever painted the noses any colors at all.

Second, the #14 on the nose. The only evidence I've found to support it being there is one single picture of #6, which had this feature.

Third, the tri-color hubcaps. No evidence to support this. This is a suggestion of the connection of all three squadrons I believe. Yellow for 1st squadron, white for 2nd, and red for 3rd.

Fourth, The "Hell's Angels" logo on the right side of the nose should be painted on both sides.

Fifth, The number "14" and the yellow tail stripe suggest that this plane should be in the 1st Squadron. For the 3rd squadron the tail band should be red.

Sixth, already noted is the tail number, which belongs to number 47 of the 3rd squadron; J.T. Smith.

You bring all of this together and it makes for a fanciful presentation, but a historically incorrect aircraft. So my conclusion is that the markings for this plane are nothing but pure fantasy.

But who among us was not absolutely drawn to that boxart when we were just kids??

 

Lawdog; A new tooled P-40"B" from aifix?? Oh Sah-weet!!  :D  I would like to get my hands on that for sure! Especially if they provide an AVG option with it!!!

The vallejo paints are a dream to work with on figures. The regular stuff works well in my AB too, so I'm not clear on why they have a specific "Model Air" line at all. But I haven't tried the Model Air line yet. The regular stuff works great lol.

 

A few things first: The tri color hubs are definetly on #36, #69, #74, #84, #88, and others. There are photos to prove this. I own a book American Volunteer Group Color and Markings, and these planes are in the book. The number on the noses that I can tell, are #45, #21 (Boyington), #36, #25,#5, #13, #71, and #77 in a dark olive drab. I also have a photo of R.T Smith kneeling on the ground next to his bird, which also has tri colored hubs. The shark mouths also varies as did the tiger embelm, the V for victory is not on the early birds. many early birds have no tiger marking, the markings where added a bit later, then updated with the V.

I didn't find your thread earlier, Britt. How does one search by user posts besides your own?

Well, here are my final pictures. Its not all that great and I didn't put as much effort into this one as I could have. It'll be going to my son and this is pretty much how he and I had discussed how it should look when I finish it. I think a wash in those few panel lines would separate the flaps a little more, but otherwise its not too bad.

And that's it. DOne and on display till it goes home to my boy.  :)

Oh, yes I am. I'm going to look for it now.

I have since finished this one, but as many of you have probably also found out today, Photobucket is down for maintenance.

I have pictures, but you'll have to wait, it seems.

I hear ya Mike.  I had to build two myself. =]  I ended up building Boyington's AVG Hawk and Kenneth Taylor's Pearl Hawk.  Both were the Revell kit.  There's good decals out there for both.  The second time around I painted everything on (Pearl Harbor Hawk).  I forget who made the decals for the Flying Tigers but they were top notch.  Laid down real well. It's all on my WIP if you're interested in them.

Thank you Allen. I don't mind so much that I got those rear window interior colors wrong. This is how I imagined this kit as a kid, based on the box art. Because honestly, the instructions are horrible when it comes to the painting guide. As most of you know, they only give you a couple of B/W pictures of the artists built-up model.

I really want to build this a second time, with a few scratch built details. But I also want to sand off all of the panel lines and rivets. I've seen these old Monovell kits built up clean as a whistle and smooth as a babies bottom and they make for a really pretty display piece.

I'm now torn between Boyington's #21 or the pre-war Pearl Harbor scheme.

A year and a half ago I wrapped up a kit Ive been tangling with for half a year. Was pretty proud of myself too.  And then a friend told me the cockpit floor should be hull red. Oh well, you cant win em all.

But your P-40 is looking good, Mike.

Good references! When I build this kit again I think I will have to build Pappy's plane.  :D

Thank you , gentlemen. :)

Edit: Looks like I need to make a few corrections to my previous observations. The yellow tail band is from the 2nd squadron and not the first. The tri color hubcaps look to be something Tex did in red/white/blue. And lastly, the numbers on the nose were infrequent, but used on some of the planes, as I can now see.

Just when you think you've done enough research....

Here is another source to corroborate Gary's find:

http://www.donhollway.com/blacksheep/

Boyington was perhaps associated with "21".

http://acesinaction.com/product/pappy-boyington-warhawk-map/

Can't say for certain.

Gary

Yeah I wish you had too, lol. This is why I had painted them Int. Green on the "E". I thought that was how they were painted because of this build lol.

I'd like to find out which plane Boyington was in. I already have his Corsair on the shelf.

Excellent build, Mike, but I didn't catch you in time like I did with your E model.  The glass area was painted with the regular external colors.  You mentioned R.T. Smith's plane.  There are original color photos of his fighter available to check out if you want to do one of his.  With all these Mono P-40's around, I went ahead and bought one for myself to do as Welch or Taylor's taking off at Haleiwa.

Okay, now for a little update.

I decided that since this is a fantasy aircraft that I would add the victory "V" to the sides of the fuselage as I've seen a few pictures that support that this was done on at least one plane.

I also fixed the decal flub on the nose

Decals done, I dulled the paint.

This plane looks huge sitting next to my 109. Just goes to show how freakishly small the 109 is. lol

I did some chipping and paint wear on it, but it doesn't look very good at all. I need to get into the fine point of it and fix this. Most of the chipping ended up on the tail and not much on the nose where most of it actually should be. Somehow I got it backwards as I was trying to rush to completion.

Well. Almost done. I'd really like to do this one again, now that I have a better understanding about how I would approach the build a fourth time around.