AIRCRAFT - On The Warpath: The Curtiss P-40

Falcon, if you can get through my long-winded explanation, my method may work for you...

How to Scribe Grooooovy Panel Lines


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QUOTE: Originally posted by BlackWolf3945 Take 2 I'm off to relax with a model after a night of watching my Sis' rugrats...

I was going to ask if the model was plastic or a real model.......but either way it just sounds wrong....LOL

Thanx for the ideas Steve. I will have to try them out. Now here's another problem that I am facing. I don't know which decal option I want to put on the kit. I am no where near ready to do it yet, but I want to be prepared. Here is the super scale set that I have.



I really don't want to do Robert Scott's (Thinking about saving that for the Hasegawa P-40E). The other two options are for Capt Joseph Kruzel 9th FS "Dragon Flight" Australia 1942, and the other would be for Capt Sidney Woods 9th FS/ 49th FG New Guinea 1943. Any help would be appreciated.

Okay, I finally am able to post some progress pictures. Sorry if the quality is kind of low. I'm still figuring this new fangled camera out. Anyway, here are those awesome True-Details bargain cockpits I was yammerin' about. BTW: They look better in person.

Well I guess it is time for an update on my part, I have started the first Monogram P-40B and have decided to do a basic out of the box build with the exception of a new seat, backing to the cockpit, drilled out exhaust, landing gear wells, and repositioned elevators. The model will depict a basic P-40B fighting in the early years of the Pacific war, very heavly weathered with replacment parts and patches galore, including mismatched insigneas with a painted over but still partially visable US Army Airforce lettering on the bottom. I have gotten to the painting stage and have applied the basic heavly fadded NG over OD but when I was appling my insigneas (I use a stencil technique and paint them on) a HORRIBLE THING OCCUED the decals I was using for the stencilsfor some reason stuck and pulled off all the paint on the model where the insigneas go!!! Now I have to build those parts up with paint and use decals Very hard to fade those.

So tonight I am going to try and fix it and attemp one mor time the stencil technique.

And thats my update.

The skies the limit,

V.A.

great progress. excellent work.



joe

Well done everyone. I haven't got started on my build yet, but hopefully soon.

Regards, Rick

Hannaman she is looking sweet!! I just got my 1/48 Eduards P-40M deliverd on my door. It looks pretty sweet first glance. Has quite a bit of PE and resin bits to play with, and the panel looks like I can make it look nice. It even came with the express masks. It has 5 different decal options available. I am leaning towards the Soviet P-40M which is a basic olive green with a Neutral gray bottom. It still has a sharkmouth, and quite a bit of Soviet stars. Of course the Sicilian one has a better camo job and a cooler sharkmouth.........hmmmmmm

Well I amazed myself tonight and discovered that I still know how to use an airbrush!

It was pretty warm here in the BUFF and I took advantage to do some spraying outside. Never done that before and I may have to do it more often until I get the new spraybooth built.

Anyhoo, I didn't get a whole lot painted, just enough to allow me to glue the greenhouse of the AMT P-40N onto the fuselage. I'll post some shots when it's all dried and after the greenhouse is attached.

The Mauve P-40N has not progressed beyond some parts clean-up and I haven't even looked at the Hasegawa P-40E. I'm actually thinking of pulling a kit-bash with the Trumpeter, Hobbycrap and the 'ole Monogram kit. (Revell nowadays) But I gotta finish one of these before I even begin to plan that project...

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Looks like a few more folks are coming along... Justen, that looks really nice... for little scale!

VA, bad luck for you. Hopefully you'll get things ironed out...

Bryan, my personal choice would be Wood's ship. Matter of fact, that's one of the 49th FG Hawks I've got on 'the build list'. I believe I have at least three shots of that particular ship... will get them up on the site for you soonly... hopefully...

Rick, there's plenty of time guy...

Kik, (I dunno why I call everyone else by their names and you by your forum name... ) you mentioned a Sicilian P-40... I don't have that exact kit but I have the decals from it. Are you talking about the Brazilian P-40? Just curious.

When you go to build that P-40M, be careful when putting the radiator and splitter assembly together inside the chin scoop. The splitter has no locaters of any kind and although it's not a tough eyeball-job, it doesn't line up easily with the inside edge of the scoop opening... no matter how it's attached to the radiator piece.

Keep it comin' folks!


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Hey Steve-O you can call me whatever.....some people just calle me @$$hole....I say whatever gets the job done...lol Actually I call you by your name cause it rolls off of the keyboard easily.....whereas Blackwolftake2 isn't so hot.....I thought of shortening it and callin you Blackie.....but then that just opens the door for a whole heap of other troubles..

I couldn't think of a great way to describe the Sicily version I am seeing on the data sheet that came with the kit. However, I did some research (if you can believe it!! LOL) and found a 2/3 replica of the orignal plane with the scheme I was referring to.





According to the site, the original aircraft was lost on December 19, 1943 over Ripa in North Africa. It belonged to the RAF squadron 112. On the placard sheet I have for the decals it says Squadron OC, 112 Sicily, July 1943. Perhaps it was stationed in Sicily at this time? The most notable difference in the Markings that I was going to mention between the Sicily one and the Brazilian one, is the shark mouth and eyes themselves. As you can see the Sicilian one is almost pie shaped with the eyes high on the engine cowling, almost level with the top of the spinner. Whereas the Brazilian one has more of an "S" shape lower portion of the mouth and the eyes are about the middle of the engine cowling and almost center with the tip of the spinner.


Brazilian version

Sorry dude, I tried like hell to find a pic of the Soviet Version, but it is late, and I'm not having any luck. I did find a pic of a model with the Soviet markings....and I'm not all that impressed. Still trying to decide what markings I will do in the end. But I did get a bit done tonight, cut the main pieces off of the tree and cleaned em up as well as most of the resin pieces. I'm off to bed, hopefully I will burn through some more tomm.

That's a very cool pic Heath. Would make a great looking model.

Regards, Rick

a little bit of an update. the braces for the engine and a little of the wiring is now installed.






the wire is from an old vcr as well as 24 and 28 guage.


joe

Looking good joe. Keep us posted.

Regards, Rick

Looking sweet Joe!! Are those braces just for the engine that you are putting in, or did they have braces like that in the original plane?

Last night Steve-O Jinxed me.....



This resin piece is too short, but the really big problem is the seperator piece is REALLY too short....almost .2" of an inch. From what I can tell from pics of the 1/1 bird the seperator looks to be butted up against the cowl. I'm just kind of scratching my head at this point trying to figure out how I can extend it while keeping it looking decent. Perhaps I can just bring the whole assemly forward and no one would notice....lol

Hey Steve on this kit there are little tabs in the fuselage, and cut-outs in the resin for this piece to rest in. Other than being too short, it would keep the thing lined up pretty well. Unfortunately it may be of no help to me, and I will be doing the eyeballing that you jinxed me with anyway.

heath those are my rendition of the actual mounts. the real ones are a lot more complex than i can do in 1/48. mine will be very much simplified.


joe

QUOTE: Originally posted by kik36 Last night Steve-O Jinxed me.....

Sure, blame me... story of my life...

To bring the seperator/splitter piece forward you could glue some scrap plastic on the back end where it meets the resin radiator piece. Build this up until it reaches far enough forward to meet the inside of the cowl scoop. If you build it up too much you can just sand it down...

By the way, my decal sheet doesn't seem to be for the same exact kit you have. It has the Russkie and Brazilian markings but nuthin' for 112 Sqn.

Anyhoo, I remember seeing a photo of a Russkie P-40 with a sharkmouth but am having difficulty finding it. Will keep looking...


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Looks like some good progress is being made by many! Unfortunately, the extent of my build so far consists of washing the parts. I'm trying to finish up another P-40 that I started before this group build began, and once that one is finished in a couple of weeks then I'll have more time to devote to the group build.

I'll be facing that radiator/splitter issue with my build, since I'm doing the Eduard/Muave P-40N. I built this kit several years ago, and the main problem I had was with the wing root/fuselage gap. Knowing what to look for this time, I hope to avoid any gaps.

Mark

Mark, I tried to email you earlier tonight but it bounced back... could you please shoot me a message at peter_four_oh@yahoo.com ?

Thanks!


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Mark I checked the fit on the main pieces and it seems the fit is still kinda sheisty. I really botched the seperator piece really bad tonight. I tried to extend it with styrene and ended up gluing my finger to it, and then I sprayed the assembly with some zip kicker with my finger still glued to the piece unknowingly of course. I was a little shocked to find my fingers were on FIRE!!! LOL I accidentally ended up breaking off the piece with the 3 cylinders......so I said screw it, and scooted the whole assembly forward. I filled in some gaps on the assembly with styrene and Tamiya putty. I will let it all dry overnight till tomm, but for sure I will be doing the eyeball thing Steve-O was referring to. I may attach some PE stuff to the resin sides before I go to bed, but not really sure....I may have had one too many beers to be attaching PE for the evening.

QUOTE: Originally posted by kik36 I was a little shocked to find my fingers were on FIRE!!!

I don't mean to laugh Kik, but...

I'M ROLLIN!!!!!


Seriously though, sorry to hear you're having trouble with this...
No, really, I am man... I swear...



*snickers*


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Hi everyone;

I haven't got a kit for this build yet. I'm definitely planning on joining in on the fun of this GB when I can afford a kit. I might get a few days work this week, so I might get a bit of cash. It'll be off to the LHS for a P-40 and a Corsair for the Blacksheep GB. Failing that, I might find a cheap kit at the swap meet I'm going to at the end of the month.

So......I might be a bit late, but i'll be in as soon as I can.

BTW, there's some great looking progress going on in here. I'm looking forward to seeing some of these builds done.

Lookee lookee....... PYN-UP decals are makin' a couple P-40 sheets, and they're more reasonably priced that their earlier releases. I'm in!

http://decals.kitreview.com/decals/pynuppreviewbg_6.htm

Plenty of time Daniel, I've got the kit I need, but not the time to really get going on it. Warm weather finally arrived & Golf & the Garden has been eating up my spare time.

Regards, Rick

well folks it looks like i am progressing quickly. it is an illusion. i have barely begun on this bird. there is a long long way to go. i did however install the engine and got it ready to add some details to the engine compartment. bad news is i installed it a quarter inch too far to the rear. good news is the only time it is really noticible is when the nose piece i cut off is installed. so to avoid that i am going to display this with the nose off. but you dont want the play by play. you want pics.





i also framed out the wheel wells while i waited for the paint to dry.



still much to do in this area. got wires to attach and exhausts to paint. so much still to do.



joe

QUOTE: Originally posted by BlackWolf3945 Take 2 QUOTE: Originally posted by kik36 I was a little shocked to find my fingers were on FIRE!!! I don't mean to laugh Kik, but... I'M ROLLIN!!!!! Seriously though, sorry to hear you're having trouble with this... No, really, I am man... I swear... *snickers* Fade to Black...

What can I say dude......I'm talented!!!

I probably won't get much done today. I gotta go cheer up my Mom's husband. He hasn't been able to deal with her passing well at all, and basically has locked himself in his room with booze and TV.

More progress was made on my pair of hawks. I got the fuselages together and the wings on. I am a little disappointed with the fit of the wings to the fuselages. Lots of putty used along with having to resort to a rat-tail file to literally grind the leading edge roots to shape. Now comes the fun part, resribing complex curves in 72nd. Also, as you can see, much poopy was needed where the fuselage/gastank plug goes in on the "N."

Hi all, I've been eying this build off for a while now but I'm heavily in to a few other GB's and don't want to commit myself to something I'm not going to finish, so when's the end date for this build as I'd love to do an RAAF Kittyhawk?

Also, what do you guys think of the offering by AMtech of the older AMT kits, are these any good or should I steer clear?

Thanks
Darren

Joe, Hannaman, Looks like you're making great progress. Keep us posted.

Regards, Rick

QUOTE: Also, what do you guys think of the offering by AMtech of the older AMT kits, are these any good or should I steer clear? Thanks Darren

Darren,

Personally, I like the AMtech offerings. Grant it, they are based on the AMT molds, but those molds are generally accurate in shape and outline, and have recessed panel lines. Not to mention, AMtech's decals are second to none in quality. I have built several, both AMtech's E and F models (the latter with the resin nose), so can speak from experience. I have seen Hasegawa's P-40E, though haven't bought let alone built one. Hasegawa's kit is probably the most accurate and detailed E model out there, though (personally) I don't care much for its engineering. Not to mention, it costs more than AMtech's P-40E. Not a lot, but enough to make a difference for some people.

: Don't "steer clear" of AMtech's kit. I have several in my stash and have no intention of replacing them with Hasegawa's kit, or any other for that matter. I have seen many an AMtech P-40E build up nicer than I ever could hope to build a Hasegawa. Most of the end result is based on the builder's abilities, and mine have a ways to go!

Mark

Wowser, some of you fellas are just honkin' along here... lookin' good!

Joe, you certainly are hammering away at this kit aren't you?

Heath, hope you were able to make the best of things on Sunday...

Justen, man you're coming along. They almost don't look like they're little scale. Can't wait to see some paint on those!

Pingtang, you are good to go guy! Hope you can score a cheap kit...

Darson, the end date will be... when it's finished! It's going to go at least 'til the end of the year and maybe longer. Who knows... I am planning another P-40-related GB for next year... possibly with a twist or two. So if you can't get in on this one there will be another opportunity...


I still haven't taken any pik-chers of the AMT P-40N I'm working on, but should do so either tonight or tomorrow. The Mauve kit is ready for some paint on the interior and the Hasegagme kit is still waiting in the wings...

I have to say that I was never all that impressed with the AMT/AMtech kits in the box. But now that I've pretty much built one I have to say that they're not as bad as I first thought. The P-40N, anyway. I still have a ways to go on this piece, there are still a few things about the kit that I dislike intensely and I did have to do a bit of extra work to get some parts to fit correctly... but all in all it's not the clunker I had originally thought. It looks pretty good built up, and the surface detail is excellent.

Anyhoo, I've attached the greenhouse and am now filling and sanding the related gaps and doing some final sanding to get her ready for some serious paint.

It's getting to the point where I have to start thinking about masking clear parts and that's the ONE thing I really dislike about aircraft modeling...


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