Ron Bell Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 Since two other P-40s have appeared on this forum in the past week, I thought I'd add this one. It's the new tool Airfix P-40B, which I happen to win in the "starter" kit form with the paint and glue at a club raffle. I thought I'd see what the kit was like at least but the only paint of their's I used was for the interior. If any colors are wrong, blame Airfix. To my surprise it is a very nice kit indeed. Fits very well. Good detail including a pretty nice cockpit (at least to my non-aircraft-building guy standard) and the decals were fantastic. An easy build that was fun like old modeling use to be and the price is excellent. I even tried some new stuff for me, like accenting panel lines (finely engraved) and adding exhaust and smoke stains. I left the windscreen and canopy off in these two shots so you could see what they give you for an interior. There are rudder pedals under the instrument panel (decal) that you can't see and the seat belts are from tape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 That's really sharp Ron! I've heard the newer Airfix kits are much nicer than their old stuff, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. You really captured the Brit's original sharkmouth! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brews Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 (edited) That's very nicely done, Ron. I dare say it's the best I've seen extracted from this very good kit that has been done by many modellers since its release. Cartograf made the decals, IIRC. Airfix finally did something after years of complaints about their decals which, to be fair, were made at Trun in France (Heller had a reputedly state-of-the-art decal machine which has never produced decent decals). The very old Airfix decals made in England were ok, the ones that came out of India and China a few years back (Brown backing paper) are reputedly useless, and so they went to what seems to be everyone's favourite decal manufacturer. They're not faultless, but they're very, very good. One thing that's apparent from your photos is that the inside of your carb air intake on the nose is unpainted. I would paint it RAF interior green, as even if it was not in that particular colour, it could pass for one of the many shades of ZCY. Edited September 27, 2013 by Brews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bell Posted September 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 Ya know, you find things you missed in photos that you never see in real life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spruemeister Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 It really is a great little kit. Its so nice to "discover" these little gems out there in the high grass of mega kits, and mega prices. You can be very proud of that build. Rick L. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRatzenberger Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 Nice, Ron !! I did that kit and just loved it; have a few more in the stash to get around to. Here's mine, not in kit markings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Deliduka Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 Ron, that is a most impressive little model! Way to go. I've always loved Airfix models, even the hard-to-build ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bell Posted September 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 John, Nice P-40 with interesting markings. Like I said, I'm not an aircraft guy so excuse the ignorance, but what unit used the black and white/sky underside? I thought that went away during the first part of the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRatzenberger Posted September 30, 2013 Report Share Posted September 30, 2013 Ron, I'll have to dig around to find my source, I think it was from an old RAF FR (and thus suspect), but here's the particulars. built as Tomahawk IIA AH896/RM-Y of 26 Sqn (SA), Gatwick, summer of 1941. These aircraft, although considered 2nd line, performed some recon, interdiction, and attack on the continent and stood by to repel any invasion. 26 Sqn received Tomahawks in Feb 41, this particular one from 403 Sqn RCAF, and started conversion to Mustangs in January 1942 with the last Tomahawk gone by January 1943.From the color profile you can see it is DG/DE/Sky and has the black port wing, which is what attracted me to it. There are a few distinctive markings -- a large black aircraft code "Y" under the starboard wing, a small "H" under the nose left over from 403 Sqn, and a small Springbok heads on each fin flash. This latter will cause me some difficulty -- if a seach of the decal stash doesn't turn something up I'll have to assume away the problem of put a suitably shaped brown splotch on instead. Otherwise the markings -- spinner, band, codes, etc, are standard. I'm an early war type and go looking for black/white/etc undersides .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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