Completed! 1/48 Hasegawa P-40E Aleutian Tiger

I think it looks fine great looking Alaskan tiger.

I think you nailed it Brandon!   Great build.  

Lovely build!

One of these days all you guys who build P-40's are going to drive me to buy one. Such an iconic aircraft of WWII.

BD, fantastic looking OD and undersurface painting! Makes me a little jealous. I really need to squeeze some time in. Life has me on the go these days.

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I appreciate it. This thing had to be pulled off the shelf of doom a few times, but I'm glad I did and glad you like it.

-BD-

Nice subject, nice W.I.P. documentation, really nice job!

Max

Nice Build!

Very nice. It came out stunning. Well done!

BK

Toshi, Mike - thanks, guys! I appreciate the kind words.

-BD-

Well hot Dayum, Brandon! That's a beautiful -E!

I love it!! :D

Few shades lighter?  I think you did a fantastic job on this build!  Superb!

Toshi

Ok, it's time to call this one done. The inspiration for this build came from a visit to Alaska almost exactly a year ago, so good timing I suppose.

Anyway, this is the Hasegawa kit with Barracuda decals. Lots of fun, but I would have gone a few shades lighter on the olive drab if I were doing this one again.

Thanks for looking. I do love a P-40, and the Hasegawa kit + Eduard PE does a nice job. The inserts are a PITA, but overall happy with the kit.

-BD-

I can't believe I forgot about this one! Looking forward to seeing more!  :)

Love it BD! Nice save with the decals in both situations. Very well done!

I haven't forgotten this build. It's actually very close to being done. I used the Barracude decals and got them down, then started doing some weathering before flat coats and adding the winterization on the exhausts.

The only pics I have right now are of the decal stage, so I'll put them up. Hopefully I will complete thisone this weekend.

As you can see in the pic below, the decals weren't opaque on the bars, and the high-contrast white on olive drab showed through underneath. I had to seal it, then mask it and paint it. But it came out fine.

Also, as you can see below, the tiger was slightly off at the top. This later proved to be an easy fix with some black paint and some patience.

I'm glad I pulled this off the shelf of doom, because I'm really liking where it's heading.

-BD-

I think I was unclear in what I meant about the stars and bars. I knew they came about for a short time after the star insignia without bars, and that was also when later versions of the P-40 with protruding guns were more common than the early ones that had recessed barrels. I didn't mean to equate the insignia specifically to an aircraft's armament. I just meant that I hadn't seen any protruding gun barrels on planes with the earlier insignia, but had seen them on ones with the red surrounds.

THanks again for the info though. I didn't know that about how they numbered the planes and the fiscal years.

-BD-

Brandon, the red surround of the star and bar was the marking specified for the time period of July to August 1943. It was changed to blue for September 1943 and beyond until changed in 1947 with the reorganization of the armed forces. It has nothing to do with the type of armament on the airframe.  I think that the early D and E models had different gun fairings than the rest of the production like 0610.   The aircraft you have planned to do is 0610 or otherwise known as 40-610 with the 0 standing for the 1940 fiscal year which started July 1, 1939.  The 11th FS received replacement aircraft that were not weatherized and were not painted in the Tiger scheme such as photos showing 40-597 and the aircraft next to 610.  Production of the E models ended early in 1942. 

Well, quick update - I got the color on the underside last night.

That's pretty much it for now. Hope to get at least some of the upper color on at lunch today.

-BD-

Rich - just saw you're in Alaska. I was so close to going to North Pole, but we just didn't have time. Have you been to the aviation heritage museum in Anchorage and seen the Aleutian Tiger in the restoration hanger? It's pretty cool.

-BD-

Well, I went down a rbbit hole with this thing last night. I knew Hasegawa had released an Aleutian Tiger version of this kit, and lo and behold, the shrouds are present on the sprue next to the exhaust pipes, so no need to scratch them, which is nice. Thanks for pointing that out, or else mine wouldn't have them. And every pic I can see has them in place.

The second piece was that apparently the Hasegawa Aleutian Tiger kit supplied different gun plugs for the wings, without the protruding barrels for a very early -E variant. Mine, however, has the protruding barrels.

After much searching of actual photos, it appears that both versions were used by the Aleutian Tigers. I have a theory that the first planes in service with the unit did NOT have the protruding gun barrels, and I have yet to see one with the star-no-bar markings that has protruding gun barrels.

However, my decals have the star and bar with the red outline, and photos I have seen of the planes with these markings DO, in fact, have protruding gun barrels, so I am comfortable leaving them on, which is always nice.

Again, I am building the one in the foreground of the photo below, and while I don't have an image of the guns, the plane in the background appears to have exposed gun barrels. It's possible that the black marks on the leading edge are gunpowder residue, but I really doubt it, as you just don't see it that much in actual photographs.

The image below lends credence to my theory, I believe, that replacement planes around the time the red outlined star andbar was introduced had the exposed gun barrels. It also appears that the front part of the exhaust shrouding was always there, but the layers over the middle part weren't necessarily present. This one is clearly an Aleutian Tiger, as evidenced by the winterization and the plane in the background with the tiger on it, but it hasn't had its tiger painted on yet. It also shows that the spinner and tiger weren't painted at the same time, so it's possible that there would be a variation in the color between the two, which is good news for modelers going crazy trying to match it.

Thanks agin for the heads-up!

-BD-

Thanks, Rich. You mean the shrouds around the exhaust pipes?

Hmm, I wonder how to match the decal color though if I do that.

Something to consider. Thanks again.

-BD-

Excellent work.  Don't forget the winterization done on your bird such as these:

http://s274.photobucket.com/user/jaepton/media/P-40E11thFSplayingpoker-1.jpg.html

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/uploads//monthly_01_2015/post-2011-0-69907000-1422348479.jpg

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/uploads//monthly_01_2015/post-2011-0-69907000-1422348479.jpg

Quick update on where I am:

I got the cockpit finished up and weathered a bit. In this pic, the glass is still drying on the instruments (Micro Kristal Klear).

Then I dropped it into the fuselage from the bottom and added the wings. I left it drying like this for 24 hours to make sure the glue set, as the plastic wanted to return to flat and ruin the dihedral as well as create wing root seams. Right now it sits with some Mr. Dissolved Putty on the seams, which I should be able to clean up this week and get primer on it. 

-BD-

Thanks, all!

Rooster - Yeah I am really excited about that Airfix P-40. I just preordered two so it would qualify for the free shipping. Hopefully it's good!

Brandon - we do seem to be on the same types of builds, don't we?

-BD-