AIRCRAFT - On The Warpath: The Curtiss P-40

Mucker, here's a pic of a Hobbycraft 1/48 P-40B I built as AVG #77 about 3 years ago. The decals are from Aeromaster. This shows the Chinese Roundels better than I can describe verbally.



Regards, Rick

Looks good Chuck. Congrats on your first GB. You know, there's planty of time to get a second one in! Seeing as there's no official end to this GB.

Ah-ha! Yes...quite a difference. And nice looking plane by the way.
I will check the decal sheet tonight. Hopefully there are some blue rings still left on there that I can quickly add.

I also lost the little ring-site in front of the canopy. I just KNEW I should have waited until after the wash! Impatience accounts for 99% of all mistakes, I tell ya.

But I'm optimistic...I don't have carpet, so I WILL find it. Eventually. Maybe in time for next year's P-40 GB.

Hey Chuck,

The roundels are what made me think there was a bit too much flash or the pics were a little overexposed, since I couldn't clearly make out the inner blue portion. It sounds like that's the way your decals came. Sorry about that confusion; your pictures look fine otherwise!

I'll look thru my decals later and if/when I find the stencils, I'll email you direct.

Mark

mucker - Nothing to be embarrassed about with that build, it looks great. Nice job of the camo .

I got the True details cockpit for my Mauve P-40N in the mail yesterday so I'm starting work on that now. I've given it a coat of interior green and also gave it a wash last night. I'll post some pics of it when I'm done (should be in a few days).

And the great looking planes just keep on coming in this build.... nice job mucker.

I'm not much at posting In Progress pictures, but here's a quickie to show the status of my group build entry. Decals are on, so once dry I'll shoot another coat of Future, followed by a wash and some more weathering. Obviously, the 'fiddly bits' still need to go on:



This is Eduard's P-40N in the markings of the last P-40 flown by Robert Dehaven of the 7th FS, 49th FG, around spring/summer of 1944.

Mark

Hiya Chuck, AKA Mucker, I might be blind, but I couldn't find your email. Send me one at markdebbiej@aol.com regarding those stencils.

Mark:

Your N is a real beauty. How is the Eduard kit? I';ve been reading some reviews on the N series and I see Hasegawa, Eduard and Mauve are the most popular. I would imagine eduard's cockpit comes with all the goodies

Rick:
Believe it or not, there is a blue inner ring on the roundels. THey seem to be thin and the decals look to be a pre-faded blue, so they don't turn out in the photos. I need to practice a little more with my digital camera. Mark's comments on looking overexposed are true. I have too much glare/flash, which hides some of the detail.

pingtang:
Can't wait to see the pics.

Jerry:
THanks for the comments....now if I could only find than $%#@ ring sight!

Nice looking N Mark. You've done a nice job of the painting. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Great looking build Mark

Thad

Looks good Mark. Needs some White Balance adjustment on the pics.

Mucker, Glad to hear the decals are OK. They sure didn't photograph that well.

Regards, Rick

Chuck, James, Daniel, and Rick-Thanks for the kind comments!

Chuck: You might know this already, but the Eduard kit is simply the Mauve kit reboxed with PE and resin parts. I think the decals are different and better quality, but don't know that for a fact. The only real issue I had with construction was the resin cockpit. The cockpit includes all the bells and whistles so nothing else is needed, but no matter how much I tried I couldn't get the floor to fit well, and the seat sits too low as a result. Also, try as I might, I couldn't completely eliminate the seam where the rear canopy insert attached to the fuselage. Those are probably more 'operator errors' rather than inherent problems with the kit. My only true complaint about the Eduard kit is that includes the wrong resin wheels for most N versions. I ended up using the correct Muave kit wheels, which are included, and they work fine. I haven't seen the Hasegawa N yet, but I think the Muave/Eduard kit will hold up well against it.

Rick: My camera skills are sadly lacking. The last time I photographed a model, I apparently messed up the settings which weren't discovered until I took some family photos. That's the main reason I don't do many In Progress pictures-fear of repeating those mistakes. When I finish this build in a couple of weeks (hopefully), I'll try for more and better pictures.

Mark

I've progressed on the P 40f as a 3 Sqn RAAF bird, I'll have some pix soon, I'm also doing a P 40n at the same time, both of these are the older AMT kits.

Sounds good Rob. Looking forward to the pics.

Regards, Rick

THanks Mark. I've never built an Eduard kit and you've provided me with a little motivation to give one a try. Thanks for the info.

Mark

Real nice job there so far… reeeeeal nice.

After seeing Pixilater's E 'pit I could not resist. Have just ordered the Hasegawa E, the Eduard detail set and Moskit pipes...still have decals left from the sheet I used for 'Ryan's Daughter". As soon as I finished the 109-E for the WWII AC GB that starts tomorrow, I will be working on a 2nd entry to this GB.

Robert, looking forward to seeing your next P-40 build!

Marc, thanks for the compliment! I had planned on using Moskit exhausts for my build, but apparently Roll Models couldn't get them to fill my order. I'll be using Ultracast's exhausts, which I had a spare set of.

Mark

Here is my P-40 hope ya like it.

Looks pretty good Thad. What did you use for the Antennae wire ? In the pics it looks over size & not as taut as it should be. Kinda detracts from the rest of the build, which looks real nice.

Regards, Rick

KingThad: Absolutely stunning! I am amazed at how nicely you weathered it. Out of curiosity, which brand paint did you use on the exterior?

Nice build and great weathering, James! Looks like your antenna has seen better days, though!

Mark

Looks great THAD. I like the weathering. Nice build.

My apologies for joining, then not responding or posting pics. Just a lot of stuff happening at home at the moment.

First, there are some GREAT P-40 builds here ! Far too many for me to acknowledge separately, but I've gone through all the pages and seen the pics. NICE WORK, EVERYONE !

I'm building Hasegawa's 1/48 P-40E using Eduard's new photoetched detail set. I might get to painting the airframe on Monday, so I'll have some new pics then.

Here's one shot of the cockpit:

The rest of the pics, along with a build dialogue, can be found here:
http://www.pix.prettyneatinc.com/p40build.htm

The canopy has been Futured, and the landing gear and door interiors are done. I've also painted the exhausts and wheels. The PE radiator flaps and actuators are also finished. Thanks for the opportunity to be part of this Group Build !

THAD...Looks good. Nice paint and weathering. But, honestly, the wire detracts from the overall effect. Please please please replace it! Seriously, I'll lose sleep if you don't.

Pix: Looks great. Did Eduard supply those plaques too? THey look great!

Excellent work Pix. Looking forward to the finished model.

Regards, Rick

Sorry to backout Steve-O but I got assigned to a Hotel California type project at work (I've checked in, but can never leave it seems) commuting from Chicago to Seattle on a weekly basis and I just won't have the time for this build this year let alone a number of other things.

Thanks for the comment everyone

Mucker, I used Polly S

As for my wire I did not have the right size at the time of the photo, and it was drivin me nuts the way it looked with it off. So thats why I went with the bigger wire. Believe me when I bring my boat back from the lake the 1st thing Im going to do is dig out the correct size from my tackle box.:)

Thad

Quagmyre

That really bites. But until we all can figure out how to get rich doing this we still have to use a real job to fund the hobby. The good news is the hobby, and all of us, will be here when you get back.

Does anyone else feel inadequate when Pixilator posts progress pictures? Sheesh, that cockpit is amazing.

Actually, a serious question for you. What camera do you use?