I'm back in the "easy on the eyes scale". I'm taking a crack at the 1/32 Hasegawa P-40E. It's my understanding it's a scaled up version of their 1/48 scale kit, complete with all the annoying inserts. Good times friends.
I'll be doing Ed Rector's 104. Rector was a 10.5 kill ace who holds the distinction of having the first Flying Tiger kill on December 20th 1941.
Rector's 104.
Additions will be Eduard "Look" IP and Brassin resin wheels. I grabbed a set Montex mask set too. I may regret this though.
I started with the pit. It's nicely detailed out of the box, especially the seat. I made up my own mix of Curtiss Interior Green, namely XF-26 Deep Green, XF-3 Yellow, and XF-49 Khaki. It's my understanding that Curtiss used the paint shop across the street to mix their paints, and they varied. I came up with my own version of Interior Green from "the paint shop across the street."
The seatbelts came with the Zoom set. They are quite nice. A brown wash dirtied them up a bit. The floor fuel gauges got Airscale dials with a drop of AK Gauzy gloss to simulate glass. I may use this on all my gauges from now on.
How about that Eduard "Look" IP? Holy Cow! I couldn't replicate that if I tried. It's essentially resin that they paint for you, and it's a drop fit replacement where you use the kit gunsight and rudder pedals. They even simulated the glass. Certainly a step above their PE Zoom sets and worth it in this scale. It's perfect for the lazy modeler like myself. I see more of these on the horizon, even in 1/48.
Time to tackle those fuselage inserts. See youse in about a month....