Trumpeter AVG Tomahawk 1/32
I couldn't help but notice a P-40 theme in the last few posts, so I am compelled to add my own rendition of this noble bird to this site! This is the Hobbycraft boxing of Trumpeter's P-40B/Hawk 81A2 Tomahawk done as it could only be rendered as: A Flying Tiger! (One of the first plastic kits I ever built was Monogram's P-40B in 1/48th scale...)
As I was test fitting the model I noticed that the cockpit didn't look quite right, like it was too small! As it turns out, it is. Trumpy molded a floor instead of a wing top which made all the other components too small and more like 1/48th scale...I was able to get a hold of Cutting Edge's P-40B resin cockpit set right quick and pit in a more accurate and more detailed cockpit. The rest of the kit is actually very nice and in almost no time was ready to paint. Trumpy did away with the rubber tires and all the gimmicks they tend to put in their kits from before (and after...unfortunately...).
From my references I found that these birds were painted with US equivalents to the British paints Dark earth, Dark green and sky grey. I wound up using Tamiya's Earth brown with a little bit of Nato brown; Tamiya Dark green with some Olive green added and MM Aircraft gray for the undersurfaces. I faded each color as I went along and hard-masked the green, along with the positions for the original placement of the british roundels, for whom these planes were originally destined to.
I chose to represent an a/c from the 2nd Squadron "Panda Bears", flown by John Petach and Bob Layher in late 1941. Decals came from EagleCals sheet #69 and are excellent as usual. After the decaling was done I used a sludge wash to highlight the panel lines , then some weathering. I used my usual Future/Tamiya Flat base mix to flatten the finish. Some weathering and DONE!
I really enjoyed building this kit, as it's an easy build (other than the darn cockpit screwup...) and it filled a gaping void in my WW2 a/c collection. Thanx for looking and enjoy!
Very nice work on this model. If you read my review over at Modeling Madnes, you'll know why we are still in desperate need of a good early P-40 in 1/32. Hopefully the fix is coming soon.
Yup that's a really hot Tommyhawk there, nice fit and finish. The Trumpys look OK as long as you don't look too hard at the nose. Like your revetment too.
Hu Juan, a very nice Hawk and very nice pictures too.The first of the additional pics, against the sun is great, as well the others.
Bernd
Juan,
The kit may have some warts but a person would not know it by seeing your build. You did an excellent job. Very nicely done
Love the P-40B/C in classic flying tigers finish. What a great job you've done on this kit. Looks like a Tomahawk to me!
This is one of your builds I don't remember seeing. Well done & good outside camera work.
Al, this is one that I have never shown in public or entered in any contest. I have a number of them from my days in Albuquerque.
Nice model, nice pictures, what more can I say, Juan. Any more P40s and I'll have to ask for my P45 (British readers will know what I mean!).
lovely
Not to knock the excellent work here, but LIFE Magazine visited the AVG in March 1942 and a whole series of very good color pictures were taken with Kodachrome in perfect daylight. I remember Air Enthusiast Quarterly #4 has them in an article about the AVG. Anyway, the photos show exactly what Dupont "Dark Earth" was. You can do it with Gunze-Sangyo Dark Earth and a dash of Tamiya "Red Brown", you can also do it with Tamiya "Flat Earth," "Red Brown" and "Khaki Drab". Basically I eyeball it, so I don't have mixture ratios. If you're using a really accurate RAF Dark Earth like Xtracolor or Xtracrylix, a bit of yellow and red mixed in will get there. As Juan notes, FS34092, US Medium Green, is the match for Dupont "Dark Green." Interestingly, pre-war (used till 1943) "green base" US Olive Drab is actually a dead match for RAF Dark Green, since both were based on the official specification for World War I "P.C.10". Tamiya "Sky Grey" is US sky grey.
Thanx to all for the comments! I have quite a number of models that have not seen the light of the internet and I am looking forward to sharing more with you all.
Real Nice Juan,
Really nice Juan, I really like the outdoor photography. BTW you workbench is way to uncluttered...;-)
Oh, I fixed that problem...I got a smaller workbench and more kits in progress!