Gromit801

Amazon carries MM

Nice stock kit bash!

Would an aircraft compass face help? Waldron makes 1/24 instrument sets.

Now if I could get the 179 without a second mortgage. eBay can be so much fun.

When I kick off, my wife will have a sale. Hoping to get them built though.

Good topic. When my friend Denny Trimble passed away a little while ago, I was remembering my first IPMS meeting when I was 14, and all the older guys turning out great work compared to my meager efforts. That where I met Denny, and among other names I heard was Jim Sage as well. Now, what's become of Bruce Beamish? ;-)

I saw a copy of the old Revell 1/32 Huey on eBay currently going for about $10

They were Royal Air Force Tomahawk IIBs, perhaps with some elements of the older IIA model thrown in. Here's how the Curtiss fighter developed: In 1938, Curtiss sold 200 radial-engined P-36 fighters to the U.S. Army. The company model number was H-75, and many were sold abroad as Hawk 75s. The plane was obsolescent compared to fighters coming on line in Europe, so Curtiss redesigned it for the liquid-cooled Allison engine. The result was its model H-81, arguably the most handsome American fighter of all time. The U.S. Army bought 200 and put them in service as the plain-vanilla P-40. France ordered 140, which Curtiss built under the company built under the designation H-81A. After France fell, Britain took over the order and put the planes into service under the fighting name of Tomahawk (Mark I). Because they lacked protection for the pilot and fuel tanks, the British used them only as trainers. The RAF then ordered an improved version with armor plate, "armourglass" in the windshield, and self-sealing fuel tanks. This model was known to Curtiss as H-81A2 and to the British as Tomahawk Mark II. However, the rubber fuel-tank membrane was external and therefore not entirely adequate to stop a leak; that, plus the Tomahawk's lack of high-altitude capability, caused the RAF to assign it only to Commonwealth squadrons in North Africa. Only 110 were built, of which 23 went to Russia and one to Canada. With U.S. equipment, the Army Air Corps bought 131 and put them into service as the P-40B, known to Curtiss as H-81B. The British next asked Curtiss to install an interior fuel-tank membrance, and in the winter of 1940-1941 the last and most numerous of the small-mouthed fighters began to move down the assembly line in Buffalo. Curtiss didn't regard the change as significant enough to warrant a new designation, which remained H-81A2 for the British Purchasing Commission and H-81B for the War Department. The RAF took the plane into service as the IIB, while the U.S. Army called it P-40C. (The "C" model had other improvements, including shackles on the underside of the fuselage for a droppable fuel tank.) Britain bought 930 Tomahawk IIBs, and the U.S. Army bought 193 of the more-or-less equivalent P-40Cs. Most Tomahawk IIBs likewise went to North Africa; some went to Russia after the Germans invaded in July 1941, and 100 were diverted to China to equip the American Volunteer Group.

From this... I chose these gems based on rarity or box art... And from this stack of gems... The Crown Jewel thus far....

I think the AVG used P-40C Tomahawks, but there wasn't a lot of difference.

Give us this day our 1/700 CV-7 Wasp, CV-4 Ranger, Casablanca class CVE, HMS Glorious, HMS Hermes, HMAS Canberra, Tromp, and I could go in, in styrene.

Scratch building separates the modelers from the kit bashes. A good CV-6? How about any example of a CV-5? Had to mod and scratch build one from a Tamiya CV-8. Still waiting for a CV-7! Hard to scratch build that one. Not a huge resin fan.

Back finally, now that I have a place once again to set up a workbench. Aircraft, ships, armor, F1 and sports cars. First joined in the 70's. - Jim Ireland