P-40 GB 2014

Theuns, I peeked at the weather for Johannesburg this morning annnnd....

image by brittvallot, on Flickr

...it doesn't look like it's going to improve anytime soon.  [whoomp, whoomp]

Hang in there! ;)

Been lurking awhile.  Nice work Theuns and the rest of you.  Finishing up a new tool 1/72 Airfix P-40B/Hawk 81 that was too far along when I joined this build.  The only real problem I have with the kit is the canopy fit and the sprue gates on delicate parts like the stick and pitot tube are so heavy that if get the off the tree without breaking them, you will break them trying to clean them up (I also kept bending the wing gun barrels so they're gone as well).  I pulled out the Zvezda kit I was going to build for this endeavor and it is rough.  It 's already started, so I might as well finish it.  It looks like the Soviets badly copied an early Airfix kit.  I might be able to salvage the U.S. ARMY decal that goes on the underside and do it as a pre-war USAAC bird using Starfighter decals.  If not, I'll use the decals from the Airfix kit and do it as an AVG bird.

well it isnt much but it was time consuming.

trying to get the pit done. want to get it finished so i can try something different than anything i have done on the engine. to that extent first up was a small assembly on the starboard side. 



with that done and the throttle rods attached all that is needed is the ip work. so i wanted to see what it looked like in place.





now up to this point all of seven kit pieces have been used. with that being said from this point on in the interior will be mainly kit pieces. there will be details thrown in here and there but for the most it will be kit pieces.

now for the ip. there are four kit pieces. they lack somewhat in the detail so i enhanced it a bit. 





i got this together and thought wow i can move on......not so fast....... all the wiring for the ip will be seen. ok. next session will be to fashion the back of the panel and add some wiring. 


many thanks to all who have followed along to this point. i hope i havent bored you too much.


all comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged.



joe

No boring work here mate, looking good!

Lewbud, I updated the front page with your Zvesda build.

I have brushed and sanded 4 coats of future onto my P-40 and I think with a final 12000 rubdown it will be OK for decals................let's hope so! I do not want to mess them up, they were darn expensive.

Theuns

Joe, that IP looks great as does the rest of the cockpit!

Steve

Not a good week for modling it seems :-(

I was sanding the final coat of future before dacaling and saw a white spot next to the white area on top of the wing where the roundal goes.

It also feels very slightly rough compared to the rest of the plane.

All I can do is to let it cure for a few days and try to sand it off. Might the future in that area still have had a soft spot that caused it??

possibly.  you have the right idea.  let it cure for a couple of days.  then see.

joe

Joe, that pit is starting to come together!

Theuns, I don't know why your Future acted up like that; it's gotta be frustrating.

I have in the meantime put the decals on, they came out OK, but they did not really settle down as well as I had hoped into the lines and rivets. Even 3 aplications of micro sol did little to them.

Ah well, I think I will leave it as is and wait for dry weather for the matt coat.

BTW, I managed to sand out the white area in the future.

Theuns

I'd love to jump in on this one. I just started a Hasegawa 1/32 P-40 E. In fact I started a thread for it today. I just got the pit closed up last night. Give the ok and I'll slap pics up here fellas. Hope to join in.

Welcome, I will put you on the roster :-)

Theuns

Theuns, it's hard to tell in the photos that anything looks wrong.  I think what you have there looks just fine. =]  But I can imagine the camera and lighting may not always reveal imperfections you can feel and also see with your own eyes.  Still, you're beastin' this build out.  It's looking great! =]

FightnJoe: That 1:32 scale looks so much nicer to work with than what I'm beginning to look at. =P  All the tiny rods and wires and mechanisms just seem near impossible to pull off for the 1:48.  I'm not going to be rushing any of this here.  Once I get past setting up the cockpit and firewall for the engine mount set up, I think the rest of it will start to wrap up more quickly.

Your cockpit is looking pretty sweet by the way.

Nothing too new for at the moment.  I've been dreadfully careful about releasing the two engine cowls on the left side of the fuselage.  I want them to fit snugly without a large gap when they are closed.

image by brittvallot, on Flickr

So far I have one piece fitted to the kit part that comes separate.  It will require a little more attention, but I feel good about it so far.  I've also thinned down the panels to better approximate the scale here.

image by brittvallot, on Flickr

I've also started working on the firewall and locating mounting points for the engine. 

image by brittvallot, on Flickr

Still working on it...

I certainly welcome any advice from others who have been here and done this before.  This will be the first time I've attempted opening up the cowls and modeling the engine this way.

=]

you have the first rule right.  dont rush it.  there are good photos out there on the net if you still need some.  when i did mine i had to redo the firewall several times to get a look i liked.  the engine mounts were also most interesting to do.  i look forward to seeing you progress through this.

joe

I happened to recently start a P-40..came across this thread so I decided to jump in. I'll just cross-post from my WIP thread for the moment.

I have distinct memories of being a toddler and having a diecast P-40. I probably liked it for the Sharkmouth. I've always had a special place in my heart for the plane, so I'm excited to be building one along with all you guys.

Victim:

Aftermarket (minimal):

* CMK Instrument Panel

* Montex Mask

*HGW Seatbelts (the cut yourself variety - N. E. V. E. R. A. G. A. I. N.)

I'll be doing the Box Art scheme, but will be using the Montex Masks for theinsignia and tail codes.

Pretty easy pickings so far. Got the cockpit tub finished up. Modest scratching of IP cables since they are visable under windscreen and a makeshift O2 hose from some wire. Artistic license in some of the detail color. That's how I roll.

Got the fuse closed up and decided I'd test fit the wings. Oh the horrors:

Doing some some fiddling I kind of figured out that the wings weren't anywhere near proper dihedral which was contributing to the ugliness. Then I realized that the wing spar that joins the wheel wells together could be used to pull the wings into place. When I glued that down I was much happier:

P. S. Photobucket is &%$* I edited these pictures...making them smaller and cooler...and for some reason they are coming up as original...even though PB shows them in edited form.

Modest progress last night. Managed to get the wings glued up...first I had to remedy this silliness...really? Closed up ejection slots in 1/32?

Threw in a spar to spread things open a bit.

So with the spreader at the wing root I was able to get a near flawless join. I used Tenex to attach all the other points first and once those were situated I ran Tamiya Extra Thin down the root seam and it welded up beautifully. Managed to clean up most everything and attach the vertical stabs. Few places I had to dab some Mr. Surfacer to clean up some bubbles. Should be able to wrap up major construction in the next couple of days.

Welcome aboard Dflu!

I saw your post last night on the Aircraft section.  I'm glad to see you include some pictures of the sprue spar.  This is the first I've ever heard of someone doing this.  I was pretty sure I knew what it was describing, but I'm happy to see it here.  Seems like this would be fairly intuitive...but it just never occurred to me yet.  Thanks for the assist!! =]

Fantastic cockpit.  Glad to see those shell chutes opened!! =D

Nice work, Dflu!

One of my all time favorite planes, especially with that shark mouth.  Will be following everyone's progress.  Would love to participate, but couldn't meet the time line.  Best of luck, gang!

That 1/32 Hasa P-40 has way better detail than the Trump one.

Theuns

I looked into the Trumpy kit and it looked like it would want some AM help. That's weird for a Trumpy kit because they are usually very intricate...usually with details that will be unseen. This Hasegawa kit is shaping up to be really nice. Not a fall together build like a Tamiya kit, but very nice indeed. I also want to do an African Kittyhawk at some point. Maybe I'll try and squeeze that one I here too. Lol

Started work on my B.  The cockpit (what there is of it) is painted and the canopy is masked.  The mask for the new Airfix kit is close enough, although a little help will be provided.  I'm missing one of the landing gear.  I was going to raid the Academy kit for one, but Zvezda provides a gear up option as well.  Looking forward to getting this one off the table, it's bad.  Going to donate the Academy let to the local Make and Take and the finished model to our club's give away table at Scalefest.  One of our members mans a table near the entrance and if they want one, each kid who comes in gets a built up model to play with and take home.  Will post pics when I get a chance.

I am not very happy with the results I got from these decals :-(

Even though the bottom of the wing looked like glass, it still silvered a little round the edges.. Ah well, can't win them all.

I now need to do the final assembly as soon as the matt coat is cured.

I am however happy with the final colors, I think even my Azure looks close enough.

Theuns - looks great to me!  The decals look good in the photos!

Dflu - your P-40 is looking great too!

There are some really nice P-40's being built here!

Steve

Ok, so for this GB my entry is the Eduard P-40N.  I've gotten the cockpit started by laying down a coat of interior green and detailing the cockpit sides.  I did a bit of a drybrush but went a bit heavy on the left side.  I still need to add the oil wash so I hope that will tone things down a bit. 

Sorry about the poor photos, I'm still learning how to use my new camera!

Steve

I have a "bonus build" P-40 here - it's the Revell P-40B that I started about a year ago.  This started out as a scratch build test as the cockpit on this kit is horrible.  I scratch built the cockpit side walls, the wheel wells, and the fairings around the nose guns.

Here are a few photos of the cockpit:

I didn't take any photos of the nose gun fairings or the wheel wells.  I also replaced the wing machine gun barrels with fine tubing.  I lost interest in this P-40 until this GB began. 

This build was more of a test and experimental build, but as I got into it the more I liked it.  Once I got some paint down, I was really back into this build.  The Revell P-40 has raised panel lines and rivets so I wanted to see how I could get this weathered.  I used the Flory Dark Dirt wash for the weathering.  I applied it and left it overnight and then used cotton buds to remove it. 

I've added the canopies this morning and need to add the antenna lines and pitot tube.  Let me know what you guys think.

Steve

Steve, that's some excellent work!

Theuns, it looks great from here....and is that sunshine I see?

well folks here i am, the pit is finished as far as i can tell. i have a few things that will need to wait but the pit is complete.







and with that i can begin the engine. forgive the lack of actual construction photos. i am painting as i move through this at the moment.








all comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged.



joe

Golly jeepers, I get busy for one week and everybody posts all these fantastic builds! Love all the progress pics from everyone, gives me a little motivation to get back to mine

Thenus: Wow that's looking really good. I love Trop scheme colors...think I mentioned I'd like to do a Kittyhawk myself. Re; the decal silvering. I've found that with enough coats of clear gloss you can usually get rid of it. The only real problem is that you can end up filling up surface detail and washes won't stick. Maybe you could do your initial panel line wash over the first coat of clear and then hit the silvering some more with gloss.

Joe: Lovely looking pit, looking forward to the progression on this one for sure.

It was a "honey-do" weekend for me, but I did manage to get painting started.

Things were going so well...I thought I'd begin the painting process three days ago, but when I masked up and glued down the glazing behind the pilots head the trouble began. Hasegawa molded the pieces in such a way that they create panel lines that aren't supposed to be there. I had a heck of a time eliminating the seams. Putty, CA, more putty, more CA. It took three nights of bench time. Finally, today I got them where I wanted and was able to begin painting.

Primed with Mr. Surface 1500





Since stupid Sprue Bros was out of the black Mr. Surfacer, so I had to hit it with some black...I always prime with black..helps with the blending process during painting.



This is how I've been tackling painting as of late. Begin with the base color (Azure Blue) and work it in to centers of panels in a patchy way.



Next I just start building up HIGHLY diluted coats of the base color. The patchy work above helps to provide an uneven worn paint look I like.

1st go:



My stopping point on the bottom:



That's where I am at now. Next up I will go in with some slightly lightened base and add highlights...then do the same with slightly darkened base.

(Side note: Finally stopped being lazy and bought 6 clip on desk lights, so my pics should get a little better :))