Stik,

Cockpit looks great, sight has come up well, I think...

Nick,

Thanks for that, I like the colour contrast too

Sopwith Camel is still on the bench, but have missed a few days here and there of getting myself to sit down ...

Got the struts sorted out, but man it's true like someone stated on another forum - it's like trying to balance a ruler on four free standing pencils.   The cabane struts are fixed directly onto the fuselage, different from Eduard's design of affixing them to the cockpit decking.

The outer struts I found a bit short in height, so added some plastic sheet to the ends.  Once the glue dried, the ends are sanded flush with the original part.  All ends also had some brass pins added to better lock into pre-drilled holes.

... and finally grey primer is on.   Upper wing is just a test fit for photo purposes.  Should mention the resin MG's (Gaspatch product), were not a  simple drop fit.  The undersides had to be carved,  as well as the framework they sit on inside the cockpit.  Compared to the kit's weapons, Eduard had them undersized.

regards,

Jack

Nice Jack, looking really good. This is the tricky bit. Good luck with it.

Cheers

Tony

Jack, the strut and wing alignment look to be a serious challenge. But I have no doubt that you will pull this off quite well.

Looking good Jack, nice job on the struts.

Gee whiz Jack! 

Have you tried using poster tack or something like that to hold them in place till you get everything aligned? I swear sometimes I wish I were a squid with ten tentacles, two hands just ain't enough...  

Thank you Tony, Stik, Bish, and Cliff.

I did use some poster putty when working out the outer struts.  At the start of the Cabane configuration is where it was at it's most wonkiness.  I used green putty and super glue gel here, so had a good hour to adjust angles and such.

regards,

Jack

Hey all-Sorry for laging in this GB-lost motivation but finally got back in gear and did some work on the P-40E-assembled, painted, decaled, coat of dullcote and ready for some dot filtering/weathering....hopefully I can come close to completing it by the end of next weekend.

Hi Bob, that is looking great. 

Wish I was at your stage of the build, but still at the paint stage on my Camel.

regards,

Jack

Nice to see that the GB is back in business. However, it does appear that we've lost most of the posts from mid-May to yesterday. I think we lost the email chain on July 23. (Maybe others are luckier.) Anyway, just in case, I'll post what I did a few weeks back. Knock on wood gents.

OK, I'm in with an Airfix 1/48 P-40B. It will carry the colors and markings of a Tomahawk IIA or IIB. (The P-40B and P40C were almost identical physically: the C had self-sealing tanks and connections for a drop tank. When in British service they were called Tomahawks - later P40s were Kittyhawks and substantially different aircraft.) As you can see, I bought the Airfix P-40B which has US or Flying Tiger markings. Fortunately I have some decals that will serve well for Desert Air Force. Had I waited a couple of months, I could have bought the Airfix Tomahawk and saved myself a little bother. Here's the kit:

kit by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

I bought a Polish made mask that's visible - hope it works. The complex Desert Scheme is Dark Earth, Middle Stone, and Azure (or light blue - I'm going to see how common that was) so I've got some serious color mixing to do. That's fun for me and a task made for Golden High Flow with their heavy duty mixing colors. This model cries for black basing and very heavy fading and it will get it.

One thing I do promise - there will be no shark's teeth. The Germans invented the scheme for the BF110 and it's ugly there and ugly on a P-40. (I'm going to shift the Chinese decals that comes with the kit to an Eduard P I-16 which was used by China in large numbers in the late 30s. The AFG was actually in service for a very short time and there were more I-16s – mostly dead by 1942. So maybe the US P-40B was the better kit for my purposes.) Many squadrons in Desert Air Force used the teeth too - but not all.

Desert Air Force was the Commonwealth war effort in action. I think there were pilots from every country - especially from Oz. The pic below is a Kittyhawk flown by Clive "Killer" Caldwell who was the Top Gun from Oz with 28 kills - most in a P-40 - including a couple of LW "Experten."   So, we're thinking of something along this line (unfortunately I don't have Caldwell's exact markings):

Eric

Tomhwk2b by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

Eric, i am guessing this should be in the Commonwealth GB.

Thank you Jack-looking forward to seeing more of your great work.

Eric-sorry if mislead you by posting-this GB ended in April and I've just been lagging in getting this one complete.  I will be following your build in the Commonwealth GB-I picked up the Airfix P-40 and I'm looking forward to seeing your build.  Going to try to submit something there once I finish up the P-40 and a F-6B for the Shelf of Doom GB.

Bod, sorry, i had not noticed that yours was a new post. The P-40 is coming on really well, look forweardto seeing it finished.

No worries and thank you-I'll be glad to see this one though and hopefully pick up the pace for future builds.

Got my copy of the Jan issue today and there in the Reader gallery is Steve's Zero. Well done Steve for making the pages of the mag.