Thanks guys for the vote of confidence and compliments. It was not so hard to do once I broke it down and studied the kit supplied instructions on how to install the nose.

Your correct Tom, she is going to take a little filler here and there. But overall I really like how it has turned out so far.

Here's a few pictures showing the resin nose installed.

I glued the top wing halves to the fuselage first to help eliminate any gaps along the wing root / fillet. I was lucky enough to get the upper halves installed with no gaps.

Then I attached the lower wing in position. Working from the rear where it joins the underside of the fuselage first, then the front center outward to the tips, I was able to get the assembly completed with no gaps. After the center was secured I glued the leading edge together. Lastly I glued the trailing edge and it came out rather nice.

I built both P-40's in this manner and the results were the same.

I'm very pleased with the fit.

As usual comments are encouraged.

I may get more work done later tonight.

Thanks David !

Here are tonight's progress pictures:

The pair of P-40's

I took Tom's advice and built a few reinforcements for the edge of the engine covers along the inside of the fuselage. I also took my time and glued the panels in while I had access to both sides...Thanks Tom, this worked great !

Port Side:

Starboard side:

Here's how the short tailed "F" version looks as of now...the plane I'm modeling had the round style exhaust. I was lucky to find a picture showing this. You need to check your references close on the exhaust for these versions as some had the "fish tail" pipes while others had the round ones.

Speaking of the nose and the side engine access panels, there is a small area along the front edge of the nose that can use some card stock as a filler. It's pretty evident in this picture below:

but it beats having a huge gap at the rear of the panel... I think.

I did a little scratch building under the nose. For some reason AMT molded this area with two small round openings for the carburetor air intakes. The real plane only had a single inlet here. So I used a small piece of card stock that had lines molded into it and fashioned a cover for the two openings that were molded incorrectly. Then I took some 1/4 inch round stock and reamed the end out enough to make the plastic much thinner.
Once I was happy with how it looked, I glued the section of round stock in place. Now it looks more like a Merlin powered P-40. with a single air intake...

In order to make it easier during sanding, and in an attempt to save the surface details during the sanding process, I masked off the areas surrounding n the new resin nose where it joined the plastic from the fuselage.

Then I applied some Tamiya putty...

If you look real close, you will notice the wings only have two machine guns now... The outer one was removed, as it was done with the real "L" versions. I have read that some of the L's had the guns reinstalled back in the field, especially if the unit's main mission was ground support.

After the putty set up a little while, I removed the tape.

Hopefully this will make it easier during sanding...

Once again, thanks for looking, and comments are encouraged.

Looking good Louis, looks like you've conquered the beast. The stock card will work just fine on the nose of the short tail version. Had the same problem myself.

Checkerboard masking is something I’ve always wanted to try and master. One thing at a time, right? But I am watching with great interest on this one, Louis. You’re doing a great job.

I’ve also read up on the P-40 in North Africa, and for all the legend of the Flying Tiger in China, North Africa is where the plane really earned its place at the table and put the Germans on the defensive. In one sense it doesn’t compare with the P-51 and P-47, but that is because of the altitude performance issue, and North Africa was a lower altitude theater of operations. The P-40, especially newer versions, was a game changer in the Tunisia Campaign, both in terms of ground support and by the devatastation it wreaked on German multi-engine aircraft. To have it well-represented is so important for the build!

Fantastic work Louis. Quite an operation to change the nose with this resin part. Looking forward to your update on the paintwork. The checkerboard will be special.

Here's how the paint was done on the short tailed "F"...

Started out with this: Look closely at the nose and you can see how the card stock worked out perfectly...

I also plugged the holes under the wing for the bomb racks. I found a few pictures of ordnance and even a diagram of the actual rack, but decided it was too much work to scratch build it. The parts would have been too delicate for my fat fingers, and I simply got lazy...

after a coat of blue was sprayed on.

and how it looks now after the tan was sprayed on. It has a slight shine to it since the paint was still wet when I snapped the picture.

Tonight I will remove the masking to see how it turned out overall. The fit was surprisingly good. Other than the card stock I added, and a little round rod to plug the wing holes, no actual putty was needed.

As usual. comments are encouraged, and recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists !

Lovely work Louis - great to see this build - I have one in the stash including the resin nose!

Thanks Bernard ! I'm not bragging, but it does look pretty smooth... 🙂 Now watch me goof it up somehow...

Thanks David M. for the kind words... If I had this to do over again, I may not have tried to install the resin nose. It was an easy fix to change over the incorrectly cast carburetor air intake that was supplied with plastic parts in the kit.

The fit along the sides of the resin parts is good, but some filling and sanding is definitely required, just like Tom Bebout said I would encounter. The resin has some nice details, but the fit of the short tailed kit has been spot on. Other than a thin bit of plastic card stock on the front of the nose just ahead of the engine access covers, nothing else has been done. No filler was needed at all anywhere in the kit.

If I left the nose alone on the "Long Tail" version, it probably would have been painted by now...

The choice is yours. But I would think long and hard about it...

You know Dave "T", I remembered after reading the articles on the link you provided that the men involved called it a "Goose Shoot"... almost like the Marianna's "Turkey Shoot" in the Philippine Sea a year and two months later... almost to the day !

Thanks for providing this additional information. It looks like the "Goose Shoot" helped to persuade Rommel to leave a little earlier than he would have otherwise. I never realized just how much the P-40 did in North Africa. Now I'm really pleased at my choices for this GB.

Thanks again my friends for the kind words...