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

Fantastic!!!

- Ron

Got it started on it while I waiting on the forums to settle down and run slower this weekend..

I know some guys in the UK are jumping on this.

uglygoat

do you have the actual photo's or just your excellent rendition to go by?

Ask, and you shall receive:

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Top: Our P-40E in the markings as applied after the Japanese Army captured and painted-over the US insignia (but not the nose art).

Bottom:  Our P-40 in Japanese hands but still in its original US livery.

I have more photos of this specific a/c on my website: http://colesaircraft.com/1-09-p40e.html  They're not all the best quality - having been printed in an old Japanese Asahigraph magazine from 1943, but they'll help.

MORE HISTORY:

This a/c was reportedly one of several P-40Es smuggled into the Philippines after the Japanese invasion of Dec. 1941 - through the Naval blockade.  American crews painted it to emulate the already-by-then famous Flying Tigers.  Obviously it fell into Japanese hands not long after.  In the pictures on my website, you can see the Allied crews who were forced by the Japanese Army to 'ground school' them on the aircraft type - as they were certainly not familiar with it at the time.

I'm thrilled to see all the interest in building this bird!  

What I'll do is - if folks would like to send me in-progress pictures, I'll post them online in a special page.  It would be neat to see several people from around the world building the same airplane in various scales - both in US and Japanese markings.

Of course, all who complete it get a print.

All the best!

-Ron

http://www.ColesAircraft.com

Awesome! - I did that this afternoon, the minute I saw it!

Hans von Hammer

Hope ya don't mind, but I HAD to grab that for my wallpaper, Ron... I'll remove it from the thread here if you object though..

Heck, no!  That's awesome!  I'm flattered.

-Ron

I was thinking the same Hammer - oils.

In the field it was surely a base of yellow, overbrushed with red/orange. The shark mouth hand painted, of course. Replicating that in 1/38 will be a different thing, though.

I wont be anywhere near a "soon" completion... mine isnt as far along as I thought. But I'll pester it until I get there. I feel motivated on this one.

I don't see any other way to paint the nose than by brush... At least the mottling.. The base color could be sprayed, I reckon... Right now, I'm playing around with it in oils... Using a P-38 hulk I got...

Any idea how the paint was applied - sprayed, brushed etc?

Hope ya don't mind, but I HAD to grab that for my wallpaper, Ron... I'll remove it from the thread here if you object though..

And the race is on...

do you have the actual photo's or just your excellent rendition to go by?

Click on the link next to the profile, then scroll down..

do you have the actual photo's or just your excellent rendition to go by?

It so happens, I have a P-40E that is nearing paint stage. I was going to do in another scheme, but that one doesn't look too hard to pull off. I'll give it a shot.

Just happened to have pulled an E-model (1/48th Monogram Pro-Modeler) off the shelf a litle while ago and was contemplating what paint scheme to use..

Build this aircraft in any scale, in either US Army A/C markings or Japanese markings -

I like it... and it actually does not look too difficult to pull off.... as John Cleese might say, "and now for something completely different."

Don't we all!

No problem - my deal doesn't expire.

Good luck!

- Ron

That's one cool looking plane!  I would love to build this, but got to finish 2 other kits already in the queue first.