Okay! Here's a quick update with more to come later tonight hopefully.
I'm finally able to get these wheels turning over and get moving. =] I started painting this Hawk and now it's starting to come to life. I'll try to be brief here. Began painting the skidwalk on the wings. There seems to be some talk as to whether or not these were present, but in many of the photos I referenced these skidwalks were painted over in the camo scheme of Earth and Green colors and worn away somewhat with use and became visible. So I've included them here with the intent of painting over them and using MiG's product Absolute Chipping to subtly reveal them.
image by brittvallot, on Flickr
Normally I would wear these a bit more to show the aluminum surface underneath, but that doesn't seem to be the case with them painted over in DuPont colors.
image by brittvallot, on Flickr
For the undersurfaces, I'm trying something different. It seems that due to a lack of communication between US manufacturers and British reps at the time, the color Sky has a shady history. There are two colors describing a light blueish-grey, but it seems this color may have changed with more colors coming into the palette for the British which required a wider degree of separation. I have my sources that I've been referencing for this build, but I would certainly love to hear from anybody on the forum that knows a bit of the history behind this story, but for now I'll just get to the point.
Since there is no true FS match for DuPont 71-021, I have come up with a mix of my own. There are several P-40s showing undersurfaces painted with the -021 and later retouched with a Neutral Grey. So with the help of MiG's Absolute Chipping I'll be painting the bluer color down first and following up with a slightly warmer grey. =] With the help of a phone app (thanks to dflu78) I've put together a mix that approximates FS 36463 which is a bluer mix of -021. I use Tamiya acrylics for everything that isn't metal. =] For this color I chose Sky Grey [XF-19] and RLM Grey [XF-22] in a 2:1 ratio respectively. Now...what I actually ended up doing since I'm too impatient to wait 24 hours and get more paint at the LHS...I instead mixed Sky Grey [XF-19], Dark Grey [XF-24], and Flat White [XF-2] in a 2:1:1 ratio respectively. The actual color came out a little greyer than I wanted, but I think it would've been fine. I did end up adding Light Blue [XF-23] at about 50% of what the mix was to give it a bluer color. Even though I haven't personally mixed the first mix, I do believe it would be an easier way to get this color. This is where I'm at now:
image by brittvallot, on Flickr
I'll cover this with the Chipping solution and allow to dry and come back over it with the next color which I'll outline later as I need to stop now seeing as I got a little long winded. =]