AIRCRAFT - On The Warpath: The Curtiss P-40

QUOTE: Originally posted by wing_nut (and hannaman your not helping me here)

Hey, I never said I was trying to help. Glad you got her back on track. Good looking work so far.

That looks great wing_nut. Glad you got that cockpit in easily.

Marc, Glad you fixed the problem. But I notice your exhaust are not in, does it go in from the outside? Looks kinda like it was meant to be installed from the inside?

Glad you were able to salvage the build without major difficulty.

Regards, Rick

It has come to my attention that someone has used my ID and posted things that, well, are just not possible. Leaving out a cockpit.... BALDERDASH!. Here are progress photos that clearly shows the cockpit right where it should be... in the boxFUSELAGE... I said fuselage.



You believe me ... right?

(and hannaman your not helping me here)

QUOTE: Originally posted by wing_nut . i could have kept this whole fiasco a secret.

You could have, but what fun would that have been for us?????

I'll admit it, I've done this before as well. I was in a rush and happy to be putting the fuse togethor on my Nuieport 17, that I did the same. I ended up splitting the front of the fuse a bit and slid it back through. THank God for radial engines!

Total brain fade there. I always use Tenax cement and for some reason I used thin CA for this piece. Maybe too much mold release still on the plastic but the wing just popped off, with virtually no damage, when I started to pry it off. Now if I had just tried that first... i could have kept this whole fiasco a secret.

I thought that I had made every mistake in the book plus a few new ones, but completely leaving out the cockpit is one mistake I have never made. I would think that the only two possibilities would be to either cut the bottom center section of the wing off or else split the fuselage open. Either option risks some pretty serious damage to the surrounding area. Good luck on your "fix".

Darwin, O.F.

Marc, that's a new one for me. Never heard of anyone forgetting to install the cockpit. Kind of hard to miss .

Regards, Rick

You forgot to put the cockpit in?!!!! Haven't heard that one before, good luck getting it back in the fuselage. If you need to seperate the pieces, try putting them in the freezer for a while. That might make it easier to seperate the parts.

Good luck.

As I am filing the wing root after gluing in the bottom wing I say to myself, "Don't break the gun sight that sticks up... GUN SIGHT????"

When I finished my 109 I wrote a list of all the mistakes made to have them in my head so I would not make the same mistake again. Doesn’t do much good when you make a whole new mistake. I remembered to put the cockpit in the 109 but I sure as heck did not remember to put it in the P-40. This should be fun

Today I finished filling & sanding down the seams. Not really much of an effort as the fit was mostly very good & the plastic is quite soft. Gave it a good bath & rinse in warm water to get rid of sanding residue. Noticed a couple of panel lines that still need rescibing, don't know how I missed them but no big deal. Hopefully have it primed tomorrow or Monday.

Regards, Rick

QUOTE: Originally posted by thehannaman Mark, does that kit have the resin pit or is it styrene?

It actually includes both resin with photoetched parts and the styrene cockpit. Even with taking my dremel to the resin floor, I couldn't get it to fit quite right but was afraid to remove even more of the resin and ruining it. I almost resorted to using the styrene floor since it's not too visible. I just took a close look at my previous attempt with the Eduard kit that I did years ago, and had the same problem then. I just didn't realize it at the time. Ignorance is bliss....

Mark

Thanks for the kind words guys. Daniel, can't wait to see pics. Mark, does that kit have the resin pit or is it styrene?

Nice work, Justen! I'll be doing a similar color scheme on my 1/48 Eduard P-40N from the 49th FG; I just haven't decided if I'll do the white on the front of the wings (I have a few versions of the plane to pick from).

That Eduard kit is turning out to be more of a bear than I remember. I've finished the cockpit and am working on attaching the wings in an effort to minimize the wing root gap. For some reason the cockpit floor, thus the rear bulkhead and seat, sit too low. I'm disappointed with it but have resigned to the fact I'll have to live with it.

Mark

Looking good Hannaman. Very nice work.

Regards, Rick

Looks very nice Hannaman. The paint job looks great. Should look even better with aflat coat on it.

I am determined to do some work on my P-40 today. It's been sitting there for weeks without me touching it. I'll hopefully closee up the fuselage and start filling and sanding today. I'll take pics of the cockpit before I start that though.

Sorry to have been MIA for a few (too many) days. Work's been rough and with the nice weather upon us, home repairs take rank on my priority list.
Be that as it may, I actually got the decaling done on "O'Riley's Daughter." Please excuse the glossy, uneven finish. Things will sort themselves out in the weathering and flat coat.



The exhaust stains are only the first layer. (I had some black left in the cup after I painted the prop. Waste not......)



And here it is next to an Exacto for scale.....



Criticism is very welcome as this is my first venture into 1/72 in years.

Until next time........

Marc, you can drill the holes out.

Regards, Rick

Jerry
I am in the same boat as you except I was asking to use the same for both builds but that does not seem fair. I plan on doing a YAK-9 and since my main interest is German stuff, and want to spend my AM $’s there, that was going to be ootb as well and I will probably sub that for the P-40as well.

Hasegawa 1/48 P-40N. Finished the pit, great detail in there, and have the fuselage together. Fit is pretty darn close to incredible so far. Minor filling on the scoop on top of the nose but that’s more a misalignment due to me being “out in the weeds” as my daughter says. Front of the intake was a hair bigger so there was a small lip. I taped it in place and sanded to blend in then glued it in to retain the “panel line” that way. A question about the little “grills” just behind the prop. Are those small panels with holes though? The kit of course has deep dimples but seems too deep and meant to be holes. Thought I would ask before I drill them out.

Steve,

Well.... I'm in a quandry..... I joined the ootb GB with the hasegawa P-40, and now I stumbled on to this GB. Hmmmmm, It seems to me that this is the place for this particular kit, and I think i will learn more here about the P-40.

So, if it's not too late, I'd like to throw my hat into the ring and join up. I'll have to appologize to Joe and change kits for his group build. So sorry Joe.

So far I'm at the same stage as Rick. I'm at the filling and sanding stage on the hase. P-40E. Hope i can join.

Jerry

Thanks for the run down Rick. I haven't got as far as you. I decided to glue the rear fuselage parts to the forward parts before glueing the right and left halves together. Looks like it might work out well. There's no step there at all for me. Only problem is, some of the panel lines don't line up. I'll sort that out later. Everything else looks like it'll fit well from my dry fitting experiments. Will hopefully post some pics of the cockpit soon.

Thanks Steve-o.. no need to bust a gut. I think one of those 2 will do nicely. I just figured if we see 16 million colors.... how many of them are tan . I just want to get as close as I can.

Progress now being made on the Hasegawa 1/48 P-40E. With the cockpit complete, I now have most of the major parts assembled. Let the glue cure & I can start filling & sanding, my least favorite part of any build . For those of you building this kit or it's sister N model, I have the following observations.

I was a little worried about the fit of the rear cockpit fuselage deck part #'s D1 & D2, but the fit was excellent.

The fit of the rear fuselage to the front is good, but not great. On mine, the rear is slightly wider than the front, giving a slight step.. Not a big problem since the mating join has to be filled & sanded smooth anyway. Some of the engraved panel lines will be partially lost, but they will be easy to rescribe.

The fit of the front cowl part # A13 was not so good. I got it to fit fairly flush with brute force & Tenax. The join will definitely need filling & sanding to blend it in.

The fit of the front of the upper cowl air inlet part # A20 was poor. On mine I ended up with a small gap on the RH side. Easy to fill & correct however.

The fit of the wing guns, part #'s M1 & M2 are pretty good, but a touch of filler will be needed.

Dry fitting indicates that the fit of the wing to fuselage looks very good. Most Hasegawa kits have a step at this join, but I don't see any evidence of that on this one. Tenax & some light sanding should be all that's needed.

That's as far as I've got so far, but if I find anything else worthy of comment I'll let you all know.

Regards, Rick

QUOTE: Originally posted by PakNicK-40 Is it too late too particcipate?

Nope... climb aboard the Warhawk Express...


I've updated the duty roster and added progress pics to the GB page on the Hawk's Nest. You can check it out HERE...

Please let me know if you have any problems with the display of text and images on this page or any other page of the site. Thanks...


Wing_nut, check this out...

http://www.jpsmodell.de/dc/shemes/p40n_cor.jpg

That says FS33711, but I have also seen FS33448 quoted. I've also read that some of the 15th FG P-40Ns were painted in custom-mixed colors. Will grunge around and see what I can see...

EDIT: There's also a pretty nice model of a 15th FG Hawk in the Model Gallery on my P-40 site, second from the bottom. You may draw some inspiration from that...


Fade to Black...

The GB for P-40's... hmmm?... a good place to ask a Warhawk question? Oh well, I'll ask anyway.

I am just getting started on the 1/48 Hasegawa N for the OOTB GB and I am going all the way OOTB and using kit decals. If I decide to go with T. Campbell’s plane it just says “tan”. Can a finer point be put on that? Like an FS number or a name! If you have seen my pix in “Completed 109G-6” you know where my head (and paint supply) currently resides. But I do happen to have a bottle of Zinc Chromate!!!! One of the mysteries of the universe.

Steve-O

I am getting ready to start a P-40N (Hasegawa 1/48) for the OOTB GB (got the shrink wrap off the box so far, sorry, no progress photo)... can I use it here too for your GB?

Don't want to bend the rules too much!

Thanks for all the comments guys.

waikong, The Hasegawa kit is a great build so far. It's a little more complex than some because it was designed to provide several Marks from the basic tooling, but so far it's the best P-40 kit I've seen. The Cover art bird in disruptive camo is correct according to my references.

Regards, Rick

Sorry to hear of your woes, Kik...

Rick, that cockpit looks great and the instrument panel is AWESOME!

For those who've asked, yes you can still get into this GB. There is no end date, really. Maybe the end of the year... who knows. It'll be done and over when it's finished...

I gots'da get un-busy with other stuff and work on a P-40 model again...


Fade to Black...