1/48 AMT P-40N Lulu Belle
Just of my table is this P-40N Lulu Belle, driven by 2nd Lt Philip Adair. 2Lt Adair would make a name for himself by single handily attacking a flight of 24 Sally bombers escorted by 34 Oscar fighters. He bagged an Oscar, damaged 2 others along with damaging a Sally. For this action he would receive a Silver Star. His unit the 89th FS, 80th FG, by early 1944, would be flying ground support missions in support of Merrill's Marauders.
I've built several AMT P-40's, and though not as detailed as the Hasagawa line of P-40's they can be built into some nice looking models. In this case I added an Ultracast seat, wheels and exhause stacks to improve her looks. Paints were a combination of Model Master acrylics and Tamiya rattle cans. The dark green camo was air brushed with Tamiya acrylics. The cockpit was brushed painted and nylon thread was used for the antenna line. The decals are from Fundekals and they went down extremely well.
Panel lines were accented with a Pit Pen and exhause stains are artist chalk. Also took some time to drill out the gun barrels. Not a show stopper but it was fun to build and is another P-40 to add to my ever increasing collection of them.
14 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Another excellent P-40 from the Bebout "Curtiss Factory"... I like everything about it.
You're correct about these AMT kits. I have built a few and they look just fine sitting by the other P-40's in my collection. Amtech used the AMT model as the base kit and then added their upgrades. These AMT kits are often overlooked when it comes time to make a purchase, but they look great in the hands of a skilled builder such as you.
I enjoyed reading the history. The original photo is a nice touch. One can never have too many P-40's ... "liked".
The Bebout "Curtiss Factory" ? By golly Louis, I'm starting the like the sound of it.
It does have a ring to it... sort of like the "Iron Werks". 🙂
I think you're on to something Louis. Because I'm doing another AMT P-40N at the same time but it's not quite done yet. Stay tune
Bebout's "Curtiss Factory!" It certainly DOES have a nice ring to it!
Very nice Tom
Thanks George
Nice Tom, your correct on the AMT P-40, yet it still builds to a very nice model with some upgrades. Good example here, like Louis mentioned, though not as detailed as the newer kits now on the market, it still a good kit to build. Thanks for sharing.
You know Chuck when I see AMT kits at shows for $10, I just can't resist
beautiful job tom
Thanks Bob.
As always, a great story and build! Kudos!
Thanks Michel, it was a fun build
Hey Tom that's a real nice build, Looks real good, fantastic job.
Thanks Marc
Well done, Tom! Great inspiration to add a P-40 to my collection.
Git her done Gary
I'm with Tom... go for it Gary.
Pulled the trigger on an AMtech P-40E.
Great, have some fun
Excellent Tom! I've become convinced that you can never have too many P-40's in a collection!
You've got that right Greg, always room for another one especially since just about every Allied power flew them. The number of models that could be built is staggering
Nice build and paintjob!
Also, I really like the way you photographed the model.
Some nice and unusual angles, but still a reasonably good depth of field in the pictures.
Was this a conscious effort on your part?
How did you do it?
Ulf I used a light box, which in hind sight is too small. Currently it's 16X16 inches, too small for anything bigger than a single prop. The pics were shot with a Fujifilm, F850EXR digital camera. It has a 25mm Wide and 20x zoom lenses. The close ups were taken with the Macro on. Once loaded into my laptop, I then cropped or lightened/darken each pic using Windows 10 photo program. I'm always trying different angles to show interesting perspectives of the plane. The rest is what I call the SWAG technique, translated as Scientific Wild A*s Guess.
Beautifully done, Tom!
Thanks Robert
Always a joy to see ‘Lulu Belle’. Especially when she is done as well as this. Beautifully built and rendered nicely photographed, and lovingly presented. Business as usual, Bebout.
‘Liked, Liked, Liked!’
Ah shucks David.
Ohhh, this is a very nice P-40, the build looks solid and the OD is very true to lIfe. The Nose paint really is spectacular, one can only imagine how it would look to an enemy pilot seeing it head on. Thanks for bringing it here Tom! Too bad AMT kits are very hard to find this side of the sea...still looking for one of their wonderful A-20’s.
Thanks Pedro.
Tom, I always like a nice P-40, especially with the skull markings. Well done !
thanks Terry
BRAVO! Great P-40 Tom. You can't have too many P-40s.
They weren't the best, but they soldiered on from start to finish of the war. And they brought a lot of our guys home because of their toughness.
Thanks Jeff it was a fun build.
Very nice, wonderful job, dad would love this. He would later recount from this battle,"You'd be surprised how fast a scared P-40 can fly".