Airfix 1/48 Curtiss P-40B Warhawk

[sheppsea]

Good evening everyone:

This will be my first build thread and I will be attempting the Airfix 1/48 Curtiss P-40B Warhawk



I am going to see whether I have the perseverance to keep a build thread updated before entering a GB (the First World War one is appealing to me - I already have an eye on an SE.5 and a Fokker Dr.I)

The build doesn't look complicated and although I originally wanted to do a scheme with olive drab and a shark mouth the only aftermarket decals I could find were for the C variants; some quick research suggested this kit would need some new parts to make it a C and I didn't want to make the build too complicated. In view of this I have decided to go with the kit scheme for the Flying Tigers, who have an interesting history themselves - some information can be found on Wikipedia for those (like me) who hadn't heard of them



The plastic looks okay with only a few ejector pin marks and blemishes to fix

Sprue A:



Sprue B:



Sprue C:



Clear Parts:



Decals:



I have also bought a bit of aftermarket for it - the Eduard PE set, Brassin exhausts and wheels, Master Gun Barrels and Pitot Tube and HGW seatbelts. The PE, resin wheels, gun barrels are all real improvements on the kit parts, although I am reserving judgement on the exhausts . The HGW seat belts are not the fabric ones either so I will see if I am as impressed with these as I normally am with their products. I am also not 100% sure they are accurate as it seems this scheme was actually more a Tomahawk than a Warhawk, so may actually have used British seat belts (I must admit I haven't quite got my head round the different names and variants for these planes!)





So, the first stage: washing everything in warm soupy water (I know this isn't really necessary but I still like to do it - all part of the ritual of starting a kit )

[Twokidsnosleep]

OOooo you got lots of goodies to go along with it
I will pull up a chair and peer over your shoulder while you work.
I promise I won’t whistle through my nose while I breathe

[Cymru]

So, the first stage: washing everything in warm soupy water (I know this isn't really necessary but I still like to do it - all part of the ritual of starting a kit

Quite so

I was going to get this kit but instead went for the Eduard P40 N 1:32 kit. Your build should be a cracker with all the AM your throwing at it, no pressure like

[sheppsea]

Thanks for the interest both of you

I was going to get this kit but instead went for the Eduard P40 N 1:32 kit. Your build should be a cracker with all the AM your throwing at it, no pressure like

That looks a nice kit too, unfortunately 1/32 is a little out of both my price and space range

[DrSprue]

Oh this looks like a cool build and a nice kit, love the p40.

[sheppsea]

Finally got to the bench today, although may not have been as productive as I could have been, as you'll see below

First, I went to grab to now dry sprues and found evidence that one of these two:



spent the night climb over the sprues (and therefore the kitchen tops)



The only thing I have worked on so far is the seat, the PE set comes with one so I decided to go with that, but snapped off one of the parts which made it slightly more difficult, I also attempted to solder it together but found CA glue easier in the end. I'm not sure if it was because I have a cheaper soldering iron but the solder didn't seem to stay melted on the tip . Still some work to do to clean it up but I will do that next time

I have also included a photo of the kit part for comparison.



I then realised that I should have studied the kit instructions as well as the PE instruction when looking at the seat as this was one isn't actually used in the variant I'm building! There is a straight top version, which isn't part of this PE set, there is a seperate PE set for the Tomahawk with the correct seat! I may still get that, I'll look into it more closely tomorrow to see if there is anything else different as they look quite similar




I made still use it, or maybe find a reference photo to see if I can adapt it somehow

[Cymru]

Tedious but get the sander out to the kit seat & bring it to scale And the forensic evidence has them bang to rights

[sheppsea]

Tedious but get the sander out to the kit seat & bring it to scale

Ended up buying the other PE seat, possibly a late night impulse buy, but the PE set is only £10 and there are one or two other different things in there too, will keep this one back for a future build

While looking into this I did find that despite Flying Tigers P-40s seemingly having more in common with Tomahawks, the seat harness do seem to be the same as the Warhawk version, so I have the correct seatbelts at least

[DrSprue]

That PE seat looks pretty cool. The cats (and why do many of us modelers have 2 cats) May cause a problem if too close to the sprues or at least cut parts. Im still looking for a peice of landing gear from my Hurricane.

[Cymru]

...and why do many of us modelers have 2 cats?

Odd isn't it?! Here is one of my five, yes five, doing his party peice...

[sheppsea]

Very brief update - I'm waiting on the PE ordered in my last post to arrive before continuing in earnest (which I expect will not be until Tuesday or Wednesday next week). In the meantime I thought I may as well prepare as much of the plastic as I could so I downloaded the instructions for the PE and found what needed to be done.

First of all I starting putting together some of the cockpit - no drama or excitement here



I then started to work on the side walls and instrument panel, there was little a bit of detail to remove here so I did this will a sander and a scalpel. I also cleared up the edges on the side wall by running a hobby knife along them. These were also one of the few parts which had prominent ejector pin marks, and they were quite deep as well so I decided to fill them with sprue goo and will sand them back next time

[sheppsea]

Not many updates this week - I was away with my wife and daughter for most of the week, and today I have been mainly working on another build, but I did fit some work in for this this evening.

FirstIy I sanded back the now dry sprue goo removing the EPM, I also added a piece of PE, which is barely noticeable to the naked eye let alone on a photo



I then bent the PE seat into shape - the detail on this is much better than the plastic, but the difference isn't as pronounced as with the other seat type. I have posted a photo of the plastic part as well for comparison



And finally, I added some PE to these two parts. The two handles on the sides are also PE; I was weighing up whether I should add them now as they will inevitably snap off, but decided to risk it



Thanks for your time - until next time

[DrSprue]

Wow really nice close work on those PE parts sheppsea! Need to do more of that too.. it really pops out the aircraft detail so much better.

[sheppsea]

Another small updated from yesterday

I realised I forgot to add a piece of PE previously so first thing I did was add that - at least you can actually see this piece!



I then cut the two fuselage halves from the sprue and cleaned them up; the bottom one in the picture had a opening for a hatch which needed to be glued in place. A little TET ran through while I was holding it in place which left a finger print on the outer side, but it was only minor and was cleaned up with the Ultimate buffer easily enough. Obviously the hatch is to see some kind of interior detail, but there is no provision to have it open in the instructions so I am not sure if it is intended for a future release? I find Airfix including it as a seperate piece a bit odd if they don't give you the option of using it in their instructions

As you can see there are also a number of ejector pin marks in the moulding, but unless you position the access panel mentioned above open none of this will be visible once the cockpit is in place so I just left them there



And finally I added some PE to the air intakes - the detail on the PE is much better than what is supplied with the kit but whether you will see enough to appreciate the improvement once inside the fuselage is up for debate - I suspect the lack of light in these parts means not! Apologies, I forgot to take a photo of the kit parts beforehand to show the difference

I had a slight mishap with the part on the left as I glued the PE in place before joining the two plastic parts together. I subsequently found that I had glued the PE a tiny bit too high so the plastic part didn't fit in flush, but it was nothing a little CA debonder couldn't fix



The next thing I need to think about is which colour to paint the cockpit - the instructions call out for Humbrol Interior Green, but some of the pre-coloured PE is a green I suspect is meant to match the rest of the cockpit so I would prefer to use that (I also don't really want to use Humbrol!). I know Eduard generally match to Mr Hobby so I will need to figure out which green this one is matched to

[DrSprue]

Oh cool update sheppsea, yea I can see that PE a bit better now at the top. A question if you dont mind. When you guys use CA on your PE parts like the air intakes, I know there is thin, medium and heavy CA available, what do you use for PE application? Thanks.

[sheppsea]

Oh cool update sheppsea, yea I can see that PE a bit better now at the top. A question if you dont mind. When you guys use CA on your PE parts like the air intakes, I know there is thin, medium and heavy CA available, what do you use for PE application? Thanks.

I use a medium one personally, I find the thin ones two difficult to control (to be honest, I rarely use this generally) and the thick ones too much for thin and delicate PE parts

[NorthernModeller]

Beautiful aircraft. I really like the choices of aftermarket used. Looking forward to seeing it come to life.

[DrSprue]

Oh cool update sheppsea, yea I can see that PE a bit better now at the top. A question if you dont mind. When you guys use CA on your PE parts like the air intakes, I know there is thin, medium and heavy CA available, what do you use for PE application? Thanks.

I use a medium one personally, I find the thin ones two difficult to control (to be honest, I rarely use this generally) and the thick ones too much for thin and delicate PE parts

Thanks bud. Now im ready for my next PE project.

[aur0ra145]

Looking good so far!

[sheppsea]

A bit on this over the weekend, although not as much as I would have like unfortunately

The first thing I noticed was that the inside of the fuselage halves had quite a rough texture, so I smoothed out the parts that will be visible on the finished model - I have tried to capture before and after photos below



I then checked some reference photos on the internet to see if there was any cockpit detail missing, from what I could see there wasn't much that wasn't already in the kit or PE set but I did add some rods and lead wire to represent wire. I know the internet is free, but having good reference books is so much easier and inspires much more confidence.

Gluing the lead wire to the kit part got a bit messy, but this area will be under the seat anyway so I decided not clean it up



I then decided that I couldn't live with the small gap in the fuselage when the access door was glued in, so covered the surface detail and filled it with sprue goo



And finally I primed everything in Ultimate Gloss Black ready for aluminium once I've left it for a day

[chief5437]

coming along nicely, the pe seat may not be that different to the kit seat, but in terms of scale thickness its way better. ive been tempted to get this kit, and it looks like its getting added to my ever growing wish list, thanks to you! btw, my wallet isnt thanking you!

[DrSprue]

Lookin cool so far!

[sheppsea]

Thanks both

[sheppsea]

Just a short update as I am waiting for some paints from eModels (hoping they arrive this week) - a recent magazine article showed the Eduard pre-coloured parts matched to the Mr Color Interior set so I have ordered that. It one of those things where I suspect it won't be noticeable on the finished model, but if it is, it would be an irritant every time I look at it!

In the meantime I have put some Alclad on the interior parts ready to create chipping effect. I read recently that it is possible to use chipping fluid on Lacquer paint too, just takes more effort, so I will be trying that

[Kingdan]

Nice pussy's oh and nice progress I prefer the pe seat over the plastic will be watching closely


Dan

[sheppsea]

Its been a few weeks since my last update, but I did get a bit done over the last week or so

The first thing I wanted to do was get some markings on the bare metal part of the aluminium part of the cockpit floor - to do this I flooded the relevant parts with thinner before dipping a stipple brush in black oil paint, removing the excess and then stippling the paint into the thinner - this is what I ended up with, which is what I was going for



I then added a few little dabs of masking fluid in random places, which the intention that these will create a chipping effect in the base colour



I then masked the bare metal parts with the thinnest Aizu tape on the outside and masking fluids on the inside



Before putting some XF-1 down (I like using black bases as I think they give natural looking shadows, although it didn't work as well as I would have liked this time



And finally the main colour is down - the shadow effects aren't showing as much as I would have liked but its the cockpit so will barely be noticeable anyway. The colour is the interior grey green from the Mr Color Aircraft Interior set (CS681), which for some reason they don't seem to sell separately. It isn't quite the same colour as the pre-painted PE I was hoping it would match, but c'est la vie, such is life. I do like the colour anyway



And finally I also removed the masking for the bare metal part - a bit of the main colour chipped while doing this, but this is not going to be noticeable on the finish model as that is where the seat goes. Unfortunately the masking also seems to have taken up the work I did with the oil paints as well, I'm sure the subsequent pigments etc going down will cover for that though. I will leave it to fully cure for a day and will then remove the masking fluid for the chips and detail paint

[sheppsea]

So, took the masking fluid off today - not quite happy with the result as, despite my best effort to use the minimum possible fluid, the chips are still too big for the scale. I think I will stick to the paint and sponge method in future, I find it gives the best results with the least hassle





I also did the detail painting, there wasn't too much to do. I'm quite happy with this result - the only bit I'm not quite happy with are the wires on the floor; the colour of the copper wires and red boxes are the end are too similar (and look virtually the same in the photo!). I will see whether I want to repaint them next time




Next job will be to add the pre-painted PE; I wasn't in the right frame of mind for it today but I should have some spare time during the day on Friday to do it so may attempt it then

[DrSprue]

Really nice detail sheppsea, love the chipping.

[sheppsea]

Thank you - unfortunately I really don't like like the chipping. Most of it will not be noticeable on the final model so can live with it but one pieceI couldn't live with was the seat.

I decided to try covering it using a technique I saw in a magazine a year or so ago where the writer applied various greys and metallic colours with a sponge to create a worn affect. I used Tamiya XF-56 Metallic grey and XF-63 German Grey and the results are below. I was also going to use some XF-16 Aluminium but as the original chips were still showing I didn't need to



I then dry brushed the cockpit to bring out some of the detail, particularly on the black parts. I used XF-21 Sky on the green parts and XF-53 Neutral grey on the black parts. The photos really make the colours at the bottom of the cockpit look garish - they aren't that bad to the naked eye!





Finally - I also realised I need to paint two other parts of the fuselage now - these will be two different colours (one side the interior colour and the other the underside colour) and both will be visible from the outside. These had already been painted aluminium so I have put some black down to cover this but won't be putting anything down to chip back. I will marble and paint tomorrow before applying the colour PE.

[sheppsea]

First up today was a bit of painting. I painted the Sky Grey colour using Tamiya XF-19 (this will also be the colour of the undersides). I mottled the grey on the black base and then covered. Unfortunately I overdid the blend coat




I then repeated the process again for the other side, but this time using the interior colour from the Mr Color Aircraft Interior set (CS681). I also covered the panel line on this part in black again to pre-shade a little. The line is a little thicker than normal as I had slight issues will an airbrush block at this point but as it was pre-shading though I wasn't too bothered. Again I over didn't the blend coat a little, was obviously having a 'moment' . These isn't going to be noticeable on the finish model so I will not correct it




I then moved onto the PE - surprisingly this session went well, even when I dropped a small piece I managed to find it very quickly!! The only thing of note is that the PE instructions didn't mention that a bit of plastic needed to be removed on each of the two bars running down from the instrument panel, between the rudder pedals (as seen on the photo below).



Below are the completed photos. There are a couple of levers and boxes I have left off for now as I know they will snap off otherwise As you can see, the green paint I used didn't match the green on the pre-painted PE at all






Next step, a gloss coat before oil pin wash. The smart thing would have been to add the gloss coat tonight so it would be fully cure before I next get to the bench, but I just couldn't be bothered washing the airbrush again

[sheppsea]

So, not much done in terms of modelling, but I feel I have a good excuse as our second daughter arrived last week and you know what they say about raising daughters



Anyway, I have managed to do a little since the last update. First I brush painted Mr Hobby Metal Color Dark Iron on the grills (I just could be bothered masking in there) - this took longer that I expected as it needed quite a few coats - despite using Mr Metal Primer but I was happy enough in the end



After touching up the base colours when some Dark Iron overflowed and buffing the dark iron I gloss coated everything I had done so far. This was the first time I tried the Mr Levelling Thinner and Tamiya X-22 mix - this is highly recommended as I though the results were outstanding; 1,000 times easier and much better results than Alclad Agua Gloss IMO (at least for people with my lack of skills )

After the gloss coat dried I applied a black oil pin wash and removed the excess with a cotton bud.



Next step will to touch up a lever which I previously painted brown; I now have Model Color Mahogany so wanted to tried that. Then it will be a satin coat, some streaking effects, a matt coat and finally pigments. After than I'll finally be ready to join the fuselage halves

[ElCapitan]

So, not much done in terms of modelling, but I feel I have a good excuse as our second daughter arrived last week and you know what they say about raising daughters

Congratulations!! I hope she's settling into the family well and mum had an ok time of it

From a modelling viewpoint - that pit looks fantastic, the pin wash really makes everything pop!

[sheppsea]

Thanks a lot, all settled okay and everything went smoothly - we arrived at the hospital at 6am and she was here at 8:20am, which was a lot quicker than our first

[DrSprue]

So true about daughters sheppsea. It seems I remember being at her little play kitchen pretending to eat some god awful plastic hamburgers or something like it was yesterday. Also that pit is looking really nice!

[sheppsea]

A little more progress over the last few few days. First I painted the top of a control lever Model Color mahogany brown - I was considering adding some woodgrain effect on there too as I bought a bottle at the same time, but trying that for the first time on such a small part probably isn't the best idea



I then realised I had forgotten to detail paint another part so I painted that Model Color leather brown - I think some shadowing may be needed, but I will see, I am quite please with how this turned out for some reason - I have no idea why as there is nothing particularly special about it



I then put an acrylic satin coat on using Winsor and Newton Galeria ready for streaking



And the final part of this update is that I put the HGW seatbelts together and on the seat. These ones are are not the normal fabric ones - they are paper ones (although the paper is textured). The main differences in terms of using them is that the seatbelts are on a piece of paper one needs to cut out; the instructions on these are also even worse than the fabric ones. I followed my normal process by threading the fabric parts through the PE while the PE is still on the fret. Below is a photo of the completed belts on the seat. I must admit I don't think the seatbelts sits as naturally at the fabric ones do, which makes me think the paper ones are not really worth the extra effort (the fabric ones are well worth the effort though )



This has fried my brain this evening so I will gloss these tomorrow ready for a wash.

[Twokidsnosleep]

The bird looks great and congratulations on the little one’s birth
Hope all are well and good
I can sell you a couple teenagers if you need...cheap!

[sheppsea]

Thanks you - all is going well, I've been at home with this one, which has actually proven to work out quite well as I have been a bit of a house husband (I was originally starting a job on the 12th but that has been delayed until May now)

Its all a lot less stressful second time round

[Twokidsnosleep]

So, not much done in terms of modelling, but I feel I have a good excuse as our second daughter arrived last week and you know what they say about raising daughters

I always thought I would look this good in a tutu, however reality and 50 years of life have proven otherwise...tutu or no tutu

[sheppsea]

Another update for the last few days. The first thing was that I wasn't very happy with the part behind the seat - it didn't seems realistic that it would be the same colour as the rest of the cockpit. A little research revealed that this is in fact a fuel take and a reference photo shows that the tank was black and the straps are the cockpit colour. I did start to mask it up to spray it Tamiya Nato Black as it is quite a big piece, but then I realised that the part will barely be seen and I couldn't be bothered masking so I just brush painted it Model Color Black Grey



I then gloss coated the seat again ready to give the seat belts a burnt umber wash - below are photos before and after the wash



Then an acrylic satin clear coat and 24 hours curing time ready for streaking effects



And yesterday evening I started on the steaks - the first thing I did was add small dabs of Ammo Mig Streaking Grime for Interiors on the green parts and Ammo Mig Dark Streaking Grime on the fuel tank (I hadn't used the Dark Streaking Grime before so through it would be a good place to experiment as this part will be largely hidden once the seat is in place).




I then let is dry a little (during which time I finished masking my Stuka), before streaking it down. The Dark Streaking Grime (perhaps unsurprisingly) didn't show up very well, although I still don't think I have completely mastered this technique to be honest, I think the brush still was a bit ' too damp' when streaking. The streaks are there on the green, just not showing very well on the photo




And finally, an acrylic matt coat was sprayed on everything ready for pigments, and hopefully assembly later this evening

I do love it when the matt coat goes down - it just makes everything seem more realistic IMO

[Kevthemodeller]

Looking good really like the seat harness detail are they fabric, PE or transfer?

[sheppsea]

Looking good really like the seat harness detail are they fabric, PE or transfer?

They are HGW fabric ones, but seem to be an earlier release so aren't the laser cut fabric version one normally gets. The main difference is that one needs to cut out the seatbelts from a sheet of paper

Looking at the website these are the same material as the laser cut ones but I found these didn't lie as naturally on the seat - not sure if that was me or the belts though

[Kevthemodeller]

They are HGW fabric ones, but seem to be an earlier release so aren't the laser cut fabric version one normally gets. The main difference is that one needs to cut out the seatbelts from a sheet of paper

Looking at the website these are the same material as the laser cut ones but I found these didn't lie as naturally on the seat - not sure if that was me or the belts though

They look great mate, many thanks

[sheppsea]

A little more work completed last night; the first job was putting pigment down. This plane was based in Kunming, China, and after researching what kind of soil they have there I found out the area is famous for have a vibrant red soil (https://www.topchinatravel.com/china-at ... d-soil.htm) so in addition to using Ammo Mig Airfield Dust (with a little Russian Earth and Light Dust from the same company for variation) I decided to also add a little primer red as a nod to this famous soil (although I have no doubt that soil never went near these planes!) . It probably won't be visible on the finished model but I liked the idea



I then added a little Microscale Kristal Klear to the dials to create a glass effect - I have tried to reflect the dials in the light below



And finally I realised that I had forgotten to add the PE parts I previously left for fear of knocking them off, so I added those - these are generally tiny levers so not massively important, although there was also a big box, which I left of as the attachment point on the plastic was tiny. After adding these another matt coat was put down (after masking the dial on the Instrument Panel to make sure I didn't loose the glass effect )



And with the next update this should start looking like a plane

[sheppsea]

Finally got the cockpit glued together, a couple of photos of the cockpit held into place, it took longer than I anticipated but I'm quite happy with how it turned out







I then glued everything in place and, against my better judgement as it was slightly rushed, joined the fuselage halves together




Next up, the part I hate most, working on seams , I suspect there will be quite a lot to do as it was quite awkward getting the fuselage halve together as they aren't a solid shape and putting pressure on one part pulled another apart. Thats a job for tomorrow though

[Twokidsnosleep]

That cockpit is just excellent

[DrSprue]

Amazing cockpit sheppsea... wow

[sheppsea]

Thank you both

[alextheblue]

Loving the detail on the cockpit, looks really realistic!

[sheppsea]

Loving the detail on the cockpit, looks really realistic!

Thanks a lot

[sheppsea]

After a week or so break on this I did a bit more work, and initially I wish I hadn't

The first thing I did was work on the nose, Airfix have used somesort of modular system for this, I assume for different variants. I appreciate companies need to make as much money as possible, but I really wish they did this another way because the modular system didn't work very well at all; I'm not sure if I made a mistake beforehand, but it strikes me that even a slight mistake will result in issues. Below shows a gap I will need to fill and a step I will need to deal with - there is some detail which will be lost but the fit was the least bad I could get

I have checked the nose against the propeller and it looks like that will look okay when I come to gluing that in place



Next up was work on the wings - this was a much more pleasant experience. First up the was gluing wing roots in place, this is the first time I have seen it done like this, and after my experience with the nose I was slightly concerned at having more pieces than necessary but ultimately it all fit very well indeed .






And finally it looks like a plane Just need to sort out the gaps and seems now