The Official 1943 70th Anniversary Group Build

I'm sorry for the delay in getting to my build.  I changed jobs three months ago with the unfortunate side effect of lengthening my commute...which drastically cut into my build time.  Now that the work/life balance is starting to equalize, I'm getting back to the bench.  Finally.

So, here are some pictures of what I'm building.  I chose a P-40K Warhawk.

Two years ago I had to travel to Sicily (Sigonella Naval Air Station to be exact - staying in Catania) for work (different job.)  It was my first time to Europe.  I had no idea how much that trip would change me; I absolutely loved it there.  My team was there for two weeks, and we saw many of the "typical" tourist sites.  It didn't dawn on me to search out any of the famous sites from Operation Husky.  However, on returning home, I picked up Carlo D'Este's awesome book, Bitter Victory.  I would love to go back and search out the sites.

So, I decided on a plane that would have participated in Husky.  I'm going to attempt Lt. Richar Lander's "Gwen" which was with the 315 Squadron, 324 Fighter Group.  I'm hoping the decals have held up as I bought this off Ebay.

This will be my first model that is not Revell.  Further, it will be my first plane in camo.

GJ

The real world is the enemy of modelers and fishermen. Hope you get priorities straight ASAP.

The kit you have is a slight variation on the one I did. It's a very nice build as was the case for a lot of companies planes of the mid-90s plus. (Many of Tamiya's ace buggies came out about that time: Hasegawa too.) You may be right to worry about the decals. I had a debacle with after-market decals and ended up using a couple from the kit. They're okay but in any kit that old you have to be a little concerned. I strongly recommend getting some Microscale Liquid Decal Film. Same guys that make Micro Set and Micro Sol. The film is for preparing old decals or sealing some you've made yourself. (I think Testors makes something like it.) You put the stuff on and let it dry for a few hours. It greatly strengthens the decal: it will not fall apart and I wish I had had mine when doing my P-40 because the stuff would have saved the aftermarket trash I'd guess. It does thicken the decal a little, but the AMT decals are pretty thick as it stands and I don't think it's that big of a factor. Anyway, it's well worth the $3.50 when you consider how badly you might to keep the decals you have and not wait a week or two for after market replacements. Microscale also makes a liquid mask. I do most "soft" camo jobs free hand or maybe use Silly Putty. (Freehand is actually pretty easy if you draw the lines on first in pencil and then use a nice hand painting acrylic like Vallejo Model Color to paint an outline. Then fill it in with some low flow, low psi airbrushing. That's the way I airbrush most things so I may find it easier than others.  You'll never see the hand painted stuff.) I know some people swear by liquid mask - which is another product made by Microscale among several companies like Gunze.

Look forward to seeing another P40. And if it's from an American unit, no reference to Warhawk is allowed. Brits used names, the USAAF pilots used numbers. I talked to a lot of P40 pilots and never heard anything but P40. I don't think the P40 even had a nickname in US circles. And for some reason I can't remember hearing "40" - always P40. Often heard of a "'38", a "47" and often a "51" (said with a kind of hushed awe among the fraternity).  USN pilots had too many F4s around not use proper names, but not the Army. I told a C47 jockey that his plane was called a Sky Train - he'd never heard the term and the guy was one of the most experienced pilots in the Pacific. (Actually the Brits named a lot of our planes. Lockheed was going to call the P38 the Atlanta - the Brits like Lightning. Ditto the Hudson. Mustang was also a British moniker.)  The Japanese used names, like the Brits, the Germans used numbers like us. The Communists used company names - wonder what Marx would think of that. See what a classical education leads to?

Eric

Wow, some fantastic looking work here. I just went thru all 27 pages of this thread. And ame up with this resolution- join fewer GBs, but partake more in the ones that I do join. A few pages back I could have put in some useful information concerning interior, wheel well, and landing gear colors. But since those pages are past I dont want to dredge up that part again unless somebody has need of the info still.

Eric, your builds here have beeen quite beautiful to see, and their accompanying historical context is excellent to read.

GJ, you are one lucky fella to have gone to Sicily.  I would love to travel there and visit the WWII battlefields. I know the island is rich with history from then. That P-40F kit is nice! You will enjoy it. I have several of those AMT/AMTech P-40 kits in my stash and built one so far. I look forward to yours.

As for me, since my 1942 GB subject, the TBD, came in late over the finish line I did not want to repeat that. Now my stash has lots of great subjects from all the major combatants in 1943, but I wanted something that would build up quck and easy, and represent 1943. What to choose? Quick and easy narrowed it down to an older Tamiya armor kit for me, but which one? And a distinctly 1943 subject- which country/theater/battle to choose?

Tamiya's 1/35 T-34/76, Chtz turret, at Kursk. so easy a build it can be made in a single day. Of course I will take a bit longer, but put me down for that...

And I will be chiming in here more ;-)

First chime... in US service, the P-40 (after the B/C) was called the Warhawk. While the Brits called their early P-40s Tomahawks, they were Hawks in US parlance, the same as their older brother, the P-36. The later P-40s (E thru N), were Kittyhawks in Commonwealth service. As to what the pilots themselves called it, I suspect that Eric is dead on target there. Fighter planes were genericly referred to as "pursuit ships" quite often by USAAF jargon.

Figure it out. The Brits loved names. The Spitfire didn't even have a number. As noted they named both the Lightning and Mustang. They would have called their P40s Tomahawks. But not the USAAF. WWII was a good era for baseball - wonder if memorizing ERAs might have inclined our gents to think in terms of numbers.

I had a gas a little while back doing the ancient Tamiya Stuart. Maybe had 60 parts. And everything fit: no one blinking problem. After my present battle with a Dragon Tiger is over I'm going to forget about selling my Tamiya Tiger II to get a more detailed DML version. Something to be said about enjoying the build.

Tamiya is great for recharging your modeling batteries. That's one reason I chose that T-34 after my last batch of involved projects... As for nomenclatures on US equipment, that still holds true even today.You will rarely if ever hear a crew refer to thier mount by the name, but will usually hear some form of the nomenclature...  Mike One or One One Three, or a popular nickname as opposed to the company name- Viper vs. Fighting Falcon... maybe it's an American trait still?

Eric: Dragon's Tiger 2 (Henschel, w/o Zimmerit) is a blast to build IMO. I'm building one for the Steel Cats GB and the turret was an almost perfect fit. I don't know about their Tiger 1s though, but the one I have in the stash (Late version w/Zimm) looks like a fun kit to build. Just my 2 cents...

Cheers, Clemens

Yes, I do not recall hearing any negative feedback about the Dragon King Tiger in our AMPS GB. But the instructions on the Tiger have been causing speed bumps for a few of the guys there...

So I was going thru the Life archives again for an unrelated build and came across these nice color photos from Tunisia in 1943

this one reminded me of Rigirider's diorama

and here a couple for G-Js P-40 build...

and yes, those are P-40Fs...

Sweet pics!

Thanks.

Stick... How cool is that picture!  I will have to start digging through the old Life Archives! My Dad (God rest his soul) served in North Africa in 1943 in the Army... And yes sir there are some very nice and skillful builds taking place here! Thank you for the pics!

Doug

Some great pics there Stik. I think a trawl through that archive might be very useful. Do you happen to have a link for them.

Yes I do. This is hosted through Google where I find most of these images, although Life has their own website as well that has its' own search engine. But the Google/Life link here works great. Type in a simple search word like "tunisia" or "normandy" and you get these incredible photos.

http://images.google.com/hosted/life

Thanks for the link, Stik! It seems like it doesn't work for me though... I get an Error message when I open it.

Try this one

http://images.google.com/hosted/life

Now it works! Thank you very much again!

Well, I finally started my GB entry here. Yesterday's meeting at AMPS was a "build nite", so I brought my T-34 along to keep me busy...

Step 1 & 2 was the lower hull and running gear, I gonna swap out a few rubber rimmed ones for some steel rimmed type that were still in occasional use for tanks produced in early 1943.

Steps 3 & 4 are the upper hull fittings. Again I hit my spares bin to find some empty fuel can brackets for the rear hull. I am thinking real hard about cutting out the rear solid mesh over the engne cooling fan and replacing it with some screen instead... So I left that part off/loose for now... maybe after my Tiger build is all done.

And then I began construction of the turret- just the basic shell and mantlet so far...

Looking nice, Stik!

Is that the old Tamiya T-34?

Wow, I forgot I was apart of this GB. I'll post pics before priming tonight. except one part I did before attaching it to make sure it was well covered.

SchattenSpartan

Looking nice, Stik!

Is that the old Tamiya T-34?

It's the 1990's reissue with the Chtz turret. Not one of their original T-34s.

Even though I am still working on my B-24, I am going to make a start on the Me 109 for this GB. This is the kit I am building.

I know its a very old kit, but rather than replace it, I decided it deserved to be built. I am building White 9 of JG 27 based on Crete in Dec 1943.

Even though the kit comes with the markings for this, I decided some of them, especially the white 9, weren't quite right. So I am some AM decals. I am also adding an Aires resin pit, Eduard PE as well as resin wheels, metal barrels and a vacform canopy. Its about time I added a 109 to the completed pile. 

Ooh, a 109! Nice color scheme, mate! Very appealing. I'm looking forward to some WIP pics of that one!

That makes two of us. I think this is going to be the most complicated paint scheme I have tried. But there's quite a few photo's of this aircraft, including one on its nose at Maleme. so I have no excuses.

Great choice Bish, I'll be watching with interest!

Doug (RR)

Hello gents!

I apologize for taking another extended leave of absense, this time due to a round-the-world move. Good news is, now I'm back in Connecticut, where I have a great hobby shop down the street, and an even better one about an hour away. Anyway, back to the group:

G-J: Don't sweat a late start, As you can see, we all have lives (some of us more than others!) I still haven't started my build for this group, or even decided 100% on what it will be. I look forward to your build though, as it has a personnel meaning to you.

Stikpusher- Welcome back to the fold! Yes, this has been an amazing little group this year. And I will gladly support another Soviet build. The T-34 was one awesome little tank! I started building one a couple years ago, until the build itself got stolen (long story.)

Great pictures, by the way! I just had to save that one of the German scrapyard. Too awesome!

Bish- Looks like a fun build! I have always heard great things about Hasegawa kits, but have yet to try one (other than my first attempt at a ship model, no comment on that.) So I look forward to seeing how it goes for you. Those markings look rather white for Malta, even in December. Do they actually get that much snow there, or is it just because it's a side view?

I need to go back and see what I need to update on the front page, but looks like good stuff still going on here guys!

hey Sub,

....welcome back to the forum and the mainland.

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I've got my kit picked out.  Changing things up by doing a figure bust of a U-Boat crewman.  Ebergerud already touched upon the Atlantic theater with his excellent Avenger, so here is something from the other side and with an added human element.

It is a resin kit in 1/10th scale from Young miniatures.  Only 4 pieces including the pillar, but will try to find a wooden base to mount it on.

regards,

Jack

Its an all grey scheme, but I know what you mean. The white tail is a special marking for formation leaders. Apparently it was regulation, but its not one I have seen often.

This is a very old kit, so we will see how it compares to the more recent ones.

Prep work is done, mind you not much to fix.  Very few, if any, air bubbles from the resin cast, just the binoculars had some seams to fill and sand.  I added some scratch built brass loops for the strap.  I'll make the strap itself out of lead foil or something similar.  So carved off the ones that were cast on the bust.  It will look better, and easier to paint in that area as well.

Sprayed on some Vallejo as a primer for the skin, thinning it with water and a few drops of Future for added toughness.  Done in roughly three layers, first the burnt cad. red overall as the shadow layer.  Followed with brown sand as the main skin colour, and finally mixing in some basic skin to lighten it up - sprayed from directly overhead.

regards,

Jack

Welcome back, Sub.  Waiting now for your 1944 GB!

Having seen your painting before, Jack, that is going to be impressive!

Hey guys. Some nifty stuff happening in here.

Welcome back, sub! Hobby shop right down the street? Did that have some influence with choosing where to live? I know I'll miss my local Ace Hardware complete with models, railroad, and R/C section when I move.

Bish, old Hasegawa 109 kit huh? That box style looks new enough that yours is probably among the better of the old Hasegawa stuff. That Hasegawa 190 I recently built  was a nightmare. Kit was from mid 80s though.

I see there's still time to get into this GB. I just might consider building a 2nd one in here .I have several that would fit. We'll see.