Someone Must Build This P-40E in Crazy Markings!

Okay, I made some major headway with my model this week. Next up is a coat of future, decals, and a wash.

This is the old Otaki kit, the cockpit was very spare, so I scratched built some details and corrected the seat's shape. Comes with an engine, but is inaccurate, so I gave up detailing it and just glued it in place to hold the rest of the pieces up.

The plane is closed up, canopy masked, and primed. Followed by some Khaki Drab.

Now the eagle/hawk head. First a base coat of yellow/orange. Then airbrushed a deeper orange in to create a background for the feathers.

Follow that with a brush using the same color to stroke in the feathers an eyes.

Mixed a deeper orange by adding some red for the eyes and more feather effects.

WOw..!! looking Sweet!! good job..

Thanks, going to try get some decals on this weekend. I'm going to scrounge around for some shark mouth, so the fit will be issue I'm sure. Just hope it's opaque enough to cover the orange.

hey.. like your silly putty idea.. I might use that.. is it working out ok? looks good in the pic..

good luck on the Shark mouth.. I was looking thru a bunch I had, and nothing is close to the arc of the mouth that is on this plane.. I was thinking of handpainting mine...

It will be nice to see what you come up with...

The silly putty came from a magazine article some years back, don't remember where.

The painting actually came out better than I had thought. Initially I thought I could do it all with the airbrush, but I realized I was way out of my airbrush skills comfort zone trying to be that precise. So I went with the brush to add the details.

Yeah, I'm HOPING some of my sharts mouth will fit properly. I have at least 3 sheets for the P-40 and I have a P-38 sheet that I think has a mouth like that. Of course, the P-38 won't fit properly, so it may be a cut and paste job, or touch up with paint.  I'm sure I don't have the skill to paint the shark mouth by hand.

Okay, did a marathon session this weekend and finished her up.

hey..that came out great,, !!

What did you use for the mouth ?

Mine has gray and green on it now.. maybe tonight, I'll start the nose art...

Thanks. I used decals that I printed myself. I downloaded some images and then manipulated in photoshop and printed it out. Turns out the decal paper I had was too translucent - it said it woudl dry white, but that enver happened - so I underlayed it with a white decal sheet.

I just cut out the correct shape using the actual decal as a guide. Put the white decal on first, and then put the color one on top. Then I used TONS of microsol to get it to conform to the compound curve.

Wow, very cool looking! I'm impressed by the airbrushing on the nose. Not much for camouflage, you could see that thing coming from miles away!

Thanks for your comments, Jon. Yeah, that orange is sure bright!

ah... got mine in yellow/orange last night.. got some pics, but had to leave quick and early this am for a Fire call, so camera was left at home..

Progress !!

Ok..here are some updated Pics... first.. with the green..[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

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now with the Boyds, yellow mixed 3:1 with Boyds Mango

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Now with the feathers added, using Boyd's Mango, straight from the jar. I used a brush, and hand painted all the feathers,, it took a while, and the more I did, the better it looked.. or so I thought.. I did each feather as a 3 stroke feather, sorta drybrushed, some were wetter when started, some dryer, it gave the feathers a nice variation I thought..

Let me know yours..!

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comments... etc.. appreciated...

Detailing and decals,, soon... oh,, and Shark mouth and eyes..

Very cool P38j! Its neat watching two people build the same exact aircraft. Good stuff from both of you!

I think it's looking really nice. My only comment would be have you considered spraying a light or very diluted coat of the base lighter orange over the feathers? Perhaps that will integrate everything? I was unsure (still am!) about this part, its hard to tell from the b&w pictures what the contrast of the feathers to the background was.

In either case, good luck with the shark's teeth - wondering how you plan to tackle that.

waikong

I think it's looking really nice. My only comment would be have you considered spraying a light or very diluted coat of the base lighter orange over the feathers? Perhaps that will integrate everything? I was unsure (still am!) about this part, its hard to tell from the b&w pictures what the contrast of the feathers to the background was.

In either case, good luck with the shark's teeth - wondering how you plan to tackle that.

Ok,, took your advice,, and took my original color( Insignia Yellow/Boyds Mango 3:1), added some more Insignia Yellow, about another :1, diluted it pretty good, very thin,, over sprayed the nose, it toned down the feathers some.. I thnk it will work..

I then added the eyes..  ( pics soon)

I think I'm gonna try to mask off the mouth, and work it from there.. not sure on the order of colors yet,, but I will have an update soon..

Can't wait to see some pics. For the sharks mouth, if you are planning to mask it off to paint the white base anyway, I can send you the decals I printed out if you want them.  The white parts are clear, so you do need the white base.  If you want to got that route, just PM me and I'll drop it in the mail. Or course, you can always mask and paint the whole thing.

waikong

Can't wait to see some pics. For the sharks mouth, if you are planning to mask it off to paint the white base anyway, I can send you the decals I printed out if you want them.  The white parts are clear, so you do need the white base.  If you want to got that route, just PM me and I'll drop it in the mail. Or course, you can always mask and paint the whole thing.

thanks for the offer, but I think I'm going to try it on my own, I'm going to try to get the arc of the mouth closer to the pics,, it has a really high arc to it..

thanks again tho!

Well, good for you. That is the biggest mistake in my build, the mouth is just too low. The Arii p-40 kits seems to be 'taller' than my other p-40E kits and the decals just didn't fit too well. By the time I noticed it I was too far in to start from scratch.

ok, Latest update,, I got the mouth done, and some more detail painting..

Masked of the nose with Parafilm...

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:0] Drew the outline of the mouth with a Sharpie:550:0]

cut out the outlone. and more masking..[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]airbrushed the mouth red area[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

hand painted the teeth ....[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

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ok, done.. and some detail painting done,,, wheels, guns,, etc,,[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

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Whew,,, ... didn't come out to bad I don't think...

Wow, a sharks mouth all done by hand, very impressive!

waikong

Wow, a sharks mouth all done by hand, very impressive!

Thanks,!, I think it came out pretty good.. Later tonight,, the finish detail painting,, and prep for decals..

WOW! Nicely done on the sharks mouth. Looks just like a decal.

thanks, i was nervous freehanding it.. but it came out pretty close to the original..

Last night,, decals went down,, hopefully it will be finished this weekend... !!

PICS soon,,,

Dude, that is incredible!!!  P-40's had some really cool markings...unfortunately they are overshadowed in this respect by the 51's and 47's...really cool work...

Thanks Manny ! I appreciate comments from a figure of your stature and location, must be hard getting connection at the front..

Well.. as of 2 nights ago. the canopy is done,, the framing came out a bit lighter than the rest of the plane, so I am going to give it another coat.. I did add some exhaust streaks, but not much else for weathering as the plane appears all in fresh paint except the nose in the pics... Hopefully final pics on Monday/Tuesday...

looking forward to the finished build.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]ok,. finally all done!! I kept the weathering to a minimum, as it looks like the Japaneese cleaned it up when they got it.. it also looks like was repainted IJA green.. so.. for final review...

Thanks, comments welcome..

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Outstanding work!  Wish I coulda joined you in the "winner's circle", but alas, my P-40 was one of the "casualties" of the recent break-in we had here... I'll try it again later though... Eventually.  It's just too good a subject to forget about!