AIRCRAFT - On The Warpath: The Curtiss P-40

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

Great looking build Mark

Thad

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

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!

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.

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

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).

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

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.

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.

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

mucker, that's a very nice looking model and you should be proud to display such an important aircraft. Great job mate!

Jerry

Thanks waikong and Rick. As for the roundles...good point. I'll have to take a look at the decal sheet to see if I overlooked anything. I take it you mean the "meatballs", like the red dot in the center of the old USAAC star?

Looks good Mucker. The camo was hard edged on the real bird, but many modelers depict it soft. Only question I have is on the Chinese Nationalist Roundels, which are correctly portrayed as very faded, but seem to be missing the inner blue circle.

Regards, Rick

Mucker, good job and congrats on your first GB. I like the wheel covers too.

Mark:

This was the first time I've used Sky Decals and I am pleased with the results. The Micro-Sol nicely seated them in the initial clear coat and they were easy to handle...no tearing issues. As per many reviews, the "instructions" are a little lax and erronious (such as the lack of mention of wheel covers on #77). I think a major selling point is the quantity of subject matter per sheet. If I remember correctly, something like 16 different AVG birds are represented on one sheet.

If you are interested in any of the remaining decals on the sheet, send me an e-mail (in my profile)...maybe I can swap you for some stencils?

The Ultracast exhausts were my first use of resin. They seemed fairly straight forward...I will definately consider Ultracast for future builds.

Thanks for the comments on the photography...I may res-hoot to get better clarity.

Chuck

Chuck, nice job on the Tomahawk, though the pictures look a little overexposed or a bit of too much flash. Factory painted P-40s, including the AVG Tomahawks, had a hard-edged camo scheme due to the masks used, but I wouldn't worry about it. Your paint job looks great.

Those Ultracast exhausts are great, and I use them on most of my builds now instead of the kit ones. And it's too bad about Trumpeter's cockpit. I have the kit and the detail looks great, just way too shallow.

By the way, how did the Sky Decals go down? I have the other P-40 sheet, which has MTO birds, and hope to use several of the options. And if you really want stencils, I can probably dig up some spares for you. I often don't use them because sometimes they seem to distract from the model for some reason.

Thanks for the pictures!

Mark

Mark:

Thank you for the information...now if I can come up with some stencils somewhere, I think I may add them. Otherwise, I'm pretty much finished with this build. In a way I'm glad the #77 had the red, white and blue covers. It adds color and personality to the plane.

Well, After playing around for a week+ on the camo, I am done with the Trumpter 1/48 P-40B, done with Sky decals in the #77 of R.T. Smith (and a special thanks to Rick for the guidance on the ying/yang wheel covers).

After seeing all of the wonderful creations submitted to this forum by the others, I am both a little nervous to submit my P-40, and proud to have completed my first Group Build.

I chose to close the cockpit because it was an OOB build and you know the poor detail and problems with the Trumpeter kit. Actually, it was supposed to be an OOB build, but becuase I destroyed the exhaust manifold I had to order replacements from Ultracast. They were intended for the Hobbycraft kit, but I glued toothpick to the back to make them stick out to an acceptable appearance.

Also, I incorrectly freehanded the camo, which came out with a feathered edge. From what I can tell, the demarcation in the camo was a hard line on the real AVG birds.

All in all I'm happy with the outcome and know where I need to focus on my next builds. I've always been fond of the Flying Tigers and this one will sit proudly in the display case.







Thanks for letting me tag along...I learned quite a bit about the Curtiss P-40 and was fortunate enough to see the stunning models you guys made.

Thanks Mark. I have it mostly done, but probably won't be able to do much more work on it for a couple of days. Hope to post some pics of the finished model next week.

Regards, Rick

Joe, your P-40s are really coming along. Rick's right about the Monogram kit; it's pretty ancient. I had the same problem you had with the nose area. That's why I put mine aside around '98 or '99, and still haven't finished it!

Mucker, Rick's correct again about R.T. Smith's #77 in that it had the red, white, and blue covers on the wheels. I've got a picture of his plane showing this. However, my sources indicate that the AVG Tomahawks had most if not all stenciling. I've also got pics showing the word "Prestone" on top of the engine cowling and the stenciling on the propellers, among others.

Rick, your Aleutian Tiger looks great! Can't wait to see the finished product.

Mark

Looks like a good start Joe.

Regards, Rick

Started cutting plastic of an older 48 scale AMT kit of the P 40f, which I intend to do as either a 3 Sqn RAAF or 450 Sqn RAAF bird.

As 3 Sqn had several of the Kittyhawk II aircraft on hand during July '43 when based on Malta in support of the invasion of Sicily, a reference I have shows CV-Y as KS-407 with a red/white spinner, the 'Southern Cross' motif was applied to the rudder of 3 Sqn Kittyhawks in late November '43, just prior to the transision to Mustang III's and IV's.

Or the 450 Sqn RAAF bird with the 'Boxing Kangaroo' on the lower cowling, provided I can locate the AM decals for this bird.

Don't really follow the union too much mate. I'm more of a league person. What was the score in the Union though?

At the moment, we are going pretty ordinary in the cricket against the poms. Our top order can't by runs at the moment, Shane Warne actually top scored (for those who don't know, he's not exactly known for his batting). Todays play has been rained out (typical english weather eh?).

I'm going to have to do a similar thing to the wheel wells of my Mauve P-40N soon. There is raised detail in there, but it's not accurate. The flaps could be an interesting project too......

QUOTE: Originally posted by pingtang Looks like you've done a good job of the spars in the wheel wells. Doesn't the Academy kit come with any detail in the wheel wells? Nice clean job of cutting out the flaps too.

Thanks ping and Jerry...

To all of our Australian brethern, just got up from watching the first Bledisoe Cup match...looks like it will stay across the Tasman for another year...how are your boys fairing against England at the cricket?

There was nothing for detail in the kit for wells. I figure the kit to be from the late '80's. It does have engraved lines, but minimal in number though fairly good in quality...

Take a closer look at the photo, in th lower right hand side you can see a bit tof the styrene used to box in the flap area...

Monofiliment...great idea...Looks good Joe.

Jerry

Looks like you've done a good job of the spars in the wheel wells. Doesn't the Academy kit come with any detail in the wheel wells? Nice clean job of cutting out the flaps too.

Not much to report on the kit for this build other than the filling and sanding continue...

However, for the Pearl Harbour build I am also doing a P40B...this is my progress to this point...(I figure what the heck it is a P40 so it works here to)



It is the Academy 1/72 kit. I cut the flaps loose and used styrene strips to "box in" there then closed up the wheel wells and strur compartments. The photo shows the first coat of interior green, musch more to do. The spars are fishing monofilament...

There were many RAF Tomahawks in North Africa that did not have shark mouths. They all had the desert camo of dark earth/midstone/azure blue. All that I have references on had red spinners. Codes varied from light grey to white. One of the more famous is an aircraft flown by Clive Caldwell for 112 Squadron. A Tomahawk Mk I, code letters GA (in light grey) X (white), serial # AK658.. All of these aircraft carried standard roundels & fin flashes.

Regards, Rick

Oi! Hang about...I think I saw these before...possibly even a color rendition...thought is was in The Hawks Nest, not there...would those squadron id marks been done in sky color?