P-40 GB 2014

wow folks.  some absolutely wonderful work in this thread.  outstanding.

well after two weeks here i am again. 

the better part of the time without updates was spent working on engine detailing. 

please bear with me. first off was lots of fiddly bits and small tube white stuff. plug wires, tubes, etc were fashioned. then the main sticky point, the induction manifold. this is a pretty complex little part that looks oh so simple. yeah right. took me several tries before i got to this point. this is about the closest i have been to it. working off of a few pictures i cut and trimmed then cut, then trimmed, then cut, then got frustrated, then pulled myself back, then cut, well you get the point. i have tried multiple ways to do this but am really struggling with it. 

well pictures tell a better story. this has not been painted yet.







right now this is held together by white glue. i need to clean it up a little. like i said earlier this the the best i have had so far.


so with that said, fire way.


all comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged.



joe

Dflu:  Nice decals.  You might try a Q-tip with one side water and the other rubbing alcohol and try to clean it up a little.  A few times I've seen the same thing wondering what I did wrong when actually all I need to do was clean up a bit of some residue that was left over from something.  Minerals in the water??  Who knows.  But give that a try.

Looks like it needs to get a little dirty now.  =]

Here's a quick update.  Nothing really special here, but I thought I would show how I've mated the cowling panel to the separate kit piece.  I've also got the gun fairing attached to both parts as well.

You'll note the cut away part for the .50 cal gun barrel to fit through.  I've dug through everything I could to find a photo of this and came up with nothing.  This is the solution I came up with mostly out of functionality and little to do with anything I referenced.  But it seems to make the most sense also.

The fairing has been sealed up with CA and sanded smooth to fit flush over the two kit parts.  Same with the cowling.

It's a little difficult to see in the photo since this is just taped to test fit, but so far all the parts are matching up without any unsightly gaps.  *fingers crossed.  =]

Decal time.

I can't say I've ever had a positive experience with Hasegawa decals. I almost always have problems with them shattering. I really wasn't looking forward to using these, but I really wanted to do this particular aircraft. I couldn't find aftermarket for it either. Anyway, surprisingly, these decals went flawlessly. The initial application of Solvaset sucked them down beautifully. No bubbles, no tears, so melting, not a hint of silvering. I'm tickled pink.

Post shot with Future (only because I need acrylic base for next weathering steps)...as expected the stuff orange peeled, but that will go away with following clears.




See in the below pic...you can see silvering around the right horn....yeah...that's not remotely visible to my naked eye...go figure

So after loosing one of the clear bits that are supose to be the nav light lenses to the carpet monster I came up with this idea.

I dipped a toothpick into micro crystal clear canopy glue and with 3 aplications built up what I think is an OK representaion.

Painted red and green they actually look cool.

Lookin' great, dflu!

Ok. Two nights masking, painting, drying, repeat and all the painting is done (minus a small touch up). Insignia courtesy of Montex Masks (also tail number, but it's not visible in the pics here).

Alclad Gloss. Nice stuff. Performed much better than Future after the second coat.

I won't bore you with pictures, but I've about finished gluing the fuselage together. I ended up creating a step on the razorback portion of the fuselage (which wasn't happening as I dry-fitted), and along the nose piece that attaches across the front (though I glued it to one side first, then glued the halves together). I finally got those fixed, and now I'm gluing the top of the fuselage at the engine cowl. I put some plastic shims at the front of the seam in order to spread out the carb scoop to match the the nose piece, then I'll putty and sand it out to get it looking right. I'm going to have to rescribe (sigh!), then on to the wings....

Nice work Dflu!  Thought I'd post some pics of my piece of plasturd P-40.  A warning:  I'm building this kit so others don't have to.  If you see this kit at your local hobby shop, run don't walk to the section containing any other kits.  This is not a reflection of current Zvezda offerings as I have a couple of their more recent offerings and they are pretty doggone good (except for the canopies,  you can see better through a can of pea soup on a moonless foggy night but I digress.)  The obligatory sprue shot.

The extensively detailed pit shot.

What this kit won't look like.  (new tool Airfix P-40B with Starfighter decals)

For what this kit will become, mainly a child's plaything, it is well suited.  I will not be building the Academy B as it is just a half step above this kit.  It will go to the local make and take and hopefully inspire a next generation model builder.  I look forward to tackling a Hobby Boss easy build kit and the Trumpeter.

Nice going guys!

As for my P-40, I need to replace the broken off (4 times!) exhaust stub and repaint them all. The undercart is on, I still need to add the brake lines.

Paint the prop,spinner and wheels than all painting it done.

Pix to follow

Theuns

Well done dflu!!  =]  Nice lines there.  Here's a case in point how the little things can make something better.  Just take care of the little things.

After taking last night off from the bench it was back to paintwork tonight. Nothing special, did shading on the Dark Earth color:



Then it was time to use some poster tack and get the green down. I know a lot of people do the whole subject at once, but I work in sections...makes it easier I think.



All done



Of course it looks goofy with the Earth shaded and the green opaque...so some shading:





Had to do a few touch ups of both the top and bottom colors, but now it's time to move on to masking and painting insignia and markings.

As always, thanks for looking in.

True dat! =]

Whatever you use, BV, there's sure to be enough oil and fluid deposits in there to confuse the situation on the 1:1.

At the very least I may give it a slightly darker Curtiss green.  I can't find anything on colors for the engine area. Everyone only ever discusses the surface paint. Is there any reason to believe they got similar coats as RAF colors? Or would this come down to US painting with US paint?

Curtiss cockpit green?

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/02/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us_part2.htm

The Hasegawa instructions called for the interior green color. I can't tell you how accurate that is but it's what I went with. It's either going to be that or the yellowish chromate.

Does anybody out there happen to know what color the interior cowl area of the these AVG P-40s were?

Don't sweat it Dflu.  That's definitely manageable!  These planes were so heavily weathered....a little post shading to bring out what you want to see and then you'll find you're ahead of the game in the weathering department.  ;)   You may only need to tighten up a few spots, but I bet it will be just fine.  

So, I made it to the bench around 9 PM and I'm thinking "yay, I'll lay down the first coat of Dark Earth and pop open my FW 190 and get in on the Group Build.

Anyway, this was my first go at Gunze lacquer and well...it didn't go down over the black base well at all. Some of the black had scuffed from the plane sitting on my painting jig. Not usually a problem when over coating with base color, but it was showing through the Gunze badly. So I tried lightly sanding it out...nope...when I put more color down I had sink marks of uneven paint. Long story short, I wound up stripping the paint and primer off of some panels. Mainly the whole left wing and the entire nose. This took a while. So by around 1 AM I finally had the Dark Earth on over some Mr. Finishing Surfacer. Since I don't have the black base to build up I'll rely entirely on post-shading here. Oh well, I seriously thought I was going to loose this one, but recovered and only lost a night of bench time for it.

You're correct, sir. The picture was missing for some reason....very odd...but I've added it :)

Big thumbs up on all these recent posts! =]

MississippiVol is right about the Monogram/Revell kit.  Part of the canopy has been molded into the fuselage.  As Shipwreck pointed out...The "glass" windscreen/canopy gets glued down onto this part.  In reality this thicker part of the fuselage actually belongs to the canopy.  It would slide back onto the rail which can be clearly seen as much thinner on the kit's fuselage.  So, if you're going to open up your cockpits on these Monogram/Revell kits...it's more correct to sand it off and replace it on the canopy itself.  The part that is most forward on this canopy seal is part of what secures the windscreen to the fuselage.  When the cockpit is open there will also be a small space (cavity) where the piece of aluminum bevels over the seal.

That was a big help from Shipwreck.  I've been so single-minded with this engine at the moment that I hadn't even notice what was happening with the canopy.  =P

Dflu, that undersurface is looking sharp.  That's just about the look that I'm hoping to achieve as well.  Those landing gear are especially sweet too.  I haven't spent a lot of time looking at the mechanisms for how they rotate yet.  Seeing those just now just spoke volumes to me.  Thanks for those! Aaaaand I think you left out pictures of your exhaust.  

=]

Nice pic of the undercart there! I was unsure how the gears go on but now that I have "stolen with the eyes" I will give mine a go LOL.

You guys are doing really well with your builds!

Theuns

Ugh, I feel like I'm having a hard time keeping up having come in when I did. Great looking work all around. I really am enjoying seeing everyone's build.

Got some more work done tonight. Hopefully I'm getting the underside near completion.

First I darkened the base color of Azure blue with some black. I got it a little darker than intended, but that's ok it can be compensated for with the follwing step. I use this mixture to highlight panel lines and details.

Next it's back to the base color for a blending coat. Heavily thinned passes to blend it back in. I stopped here. It's a little more stark than I'd like the final look to be. However, I've found that after weathering and clear coats etc when I've toned it down more than this I've come close to loosing the effect. So even though I'm really wanting to hit it some more, I think I'm leaving it here.

Next was some work on the exhaust. I generally paint them Alclad Steel and then hit them with AK Interactive "Track Wash." Plain steel on the left and with the wash on the right. It gives it a nice oxidized look.

Been working on the landing gear legs too. Sprayed with Alclad Airframe Aluminum and Dull Aluminum

Washed with AK Dark Brown

Great work going on here!

FightnJoe - your cockpit looks beautiful!  Great scratch building detail!

Bvallot  - I have not attached the antenna cables yet.  I have some E-Z line on order that I want to try out for them.  The paint scheme is fairly accurate for the plane I'm depicting.  The outer half of the left wing is not exact - I had overspray that I was trying to cover/minimize and made the green portion a bit bigger that it's supposed to be.  The same with the left rear fuselage between the Adam and Eve decal and the number 5 - the green isn't really supposed to curve toward the tail of the aircraft.  Other than that, the camo is accurate for this aircraft.

MississippiVol - your B is looking really good too!  I wish I had sanded down the canopy rails like you did.  I'll do that on my next B.

Steve

Well, after waiting two weeks for this thing to gather enough dust, I finally finished the cockpit. Here's the instrument panel, on which I got the dials off center to the holes:

I got the sidewalls and floors painted up:

Here's everything put together short of gluing the halves together. I cut off the back of some guns from the spares box; and left them steel colored, but I may change that:

I had some extra time, and cut out the intake scoop on the underside, and put a bulkhead and the baffles in it. It isn't uberdetailed, but it allows the proper effect when looking at it from a distance:

I also hogged out the exhaust pipes:

Shipwreck and Bvallot were talking on B's WIP page in the aircraft forum about the rail that's molded on the canopy sill, and that it shouldn't be there if the canopy is open, so I sanded it off:

Great work y'all! Especially that paint technique.

Theuns, I wonder if, on the silvering, you poked a few holes in the decal and flow some Future into, if that would cure the problem?

thanks for the kind words all.

theuns you are right, the wiring should be nice and neat.  all buttoned down.  because i had forgotten it i had to go with the next best option.  then of course i cut the wire much too long and ended up with what you see.

filed away for the next time though.

joe

Man. Where do I start?

Theuns, that's a beautiful paint scheme you got there! Of course we can't see the silvering from the photos, but I'm sure it's quite negligible in person too.  I imagine you could mask it off and try to deal with it but I think it looks just fine. =]

Dflu, that's a damn clever way of painting that undersurface! =] I may have to borrow that one. Very sharp.

And that's a spectacular cockpit Joe.  How crazy are you about to get on the engine?!

And Steve...very nice. I like colors you picked out and how you put them down. We're you following a particular camo pattern? I've been looking around to make sure the one I'm doing is accurate. Did you ever happen to add the aerials?

Great  things in this GB everyone.  I always like learning something new. =]

ExeIent work all round guys!

Yes sun shine wow! Strange to see it again, Idon't know how the guys in the UK survive without sun for the winter LOL

Joe, looking fantastic! Just a question (NOT meant as insult!) were the wire looms and static pressure lines tothe back of the instrument pannels so"loose" on the real P-40? The reason I am asking is that on all the full size stuff I have seen they are usually tied together into a bundle and then to the frame somewhere to secure them from "flopping about" and maybe chaffing or comming loose.

Theuns