This is something that I have been wanting to get started on for a while now. About a month ago, I was looking through my kit stash, and I pulled these two little guys out... One is the Academy version...

While the other is the Hobbycraft version. They are identical kits, just are boxed by different manufacturers.

Lo and behold, as I opened the "Pearl Harbor" boxing, I found these Vichy French decals for a P-36.

These are pretty old, so I hope they work OK. The decals are by Superscale, item number 48-50.
Here's a quick look at the decal instructions. One plane that is rendered on the sheet is the multi colored "Temporary" water based camouflage that was tested by the US Army in the late 1930's.

Here are the decals provided with the Hobby Craft kit. Two planes are depicted, one is a US based plane stationed at Pearl Harbor just before the attack on December 7th, 1941. The other is a Brazilian machine.

These are the decals that came with the Academy kit. Here again we have a US plane, in overall Natural Metal finish, along with a French plane.

I will be using these books as a reference, along with some photos I personally took of a restored P-40B, that also just happens to be a Pearl Harbor survivor. A very rare plane indeed.

The P-36 was the Father of the P-40. Curtiss performed an engine swap, going from an air cooled radial, to a V-12 liquid cooled engine. This involved some major changes to the "nose" of the plane.

The majority of the remaining airframe was very similar to each other, until much later when more changes were made to the P-40.

First up is the Detail and Scale book ... which covers the P-36 and the early P-40's.

and this book, which was part of the "In Action" series.

So MANY thanks go to David for opening the Group build up to cover all of North Africa.

If this wasn't done, chances are the P-36 would still be sitting in the stash.

I am going to build one kit as a Vichy French P-36. These planes were flown against the US Navy during the opening days of the Torch landings. After a day or two of combat, the French surrendered.

As far as marking for the other plane, I am still undecided. Part of me wants to do a Natural Metal finish, while the other part wants to build it as a Pearl Harbor plane. In a perfect world, I could do both, and build it as the Natural Metal plane that was flown by Phil Rasmussen, The "Pajama Pilot of Pearl".
Here's a photo of Phil standing next to his bullet ridden P-36 that was severely damaged by Zeros as he was flying in combat against them.

If you look close, you can see some serious bullet holes in the plane. Look even closer and you will see the tail wheel tire has been shot away, and the radio antennae lead cable is dangling loosely, since it too has been shot off...

And how the plane probably looked just prior to that fateful morning. This is a photo of a restored P-36 at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson.

But I don't have the decals to build his famous #86.

Please follow along as I go through the construction process.

Thanks in advance.

As usual...
Comments are encouraged.

Thanks Mark ! I'll see what I can find...

Thanks again David for opening up the Group Build to include anything from North Africa. Had this not been done, these two kits would probably still be sitting in the stash piles. I sincerely appreciate this.

Hopefully others will jump on board with more subjects now that this has been done. I am going to be doing some research for what colors were used in the cockpits. I'm sure I'll learn something new about the planes along the way.

The research is almost as much fun as building to me. I really like the history behind these subjects too.

Thanks again for starting this group build and for allowing more subjects into it.

Please stay tuned for updates !

Take care my friend.

Thanks David for the kind words... The stars are aligning on this one. I just picked up a set of decals online for Rasmussen's plane.

There are several other cool planes on the sheet as well, including some P-40's !

I'll post them up once they arrive.

Cool Louis, first to building a very seldom seen kit of the P-36/Hawk 75, 2nd from Hobbycraft though basic still with some work builds pretty well. 3rd a Vichy Hawk, that will compliment the Vichy D520 I will present shortly, working on the presentation, the Hawk 75 is prominent in the story.

Looks like you've got some nice info and material to work with, Louis!