1/72 P-40B/C Warhawk
Three day build complete. P-40B/C Flying Tiger - spring 1942 - 1/72 Trumpeter kit.
The aircraft is actually a Hawk H81 A-3, which was Curtiss' designation of the P-40B/C aircraft pulled from an order to Great Britain (H81 A-2) and sent to China in June 1941. That's why it's in RAF colors, more or less. Curtiss approximated the RAF's standard camouflage.
The American Volunteer Group (AVG), popularly known as the Flying Tigers, was led by East Texan (Commerce native, actually - I remember seeing a historical marker about him when I was in college) Claire Chennault. White 46 is attributed to Frank Lawlor, a former Saratoga (CV-3) pilot who was credited with seven kills in the first half of 1942. After the AVG was disbanded Lawlor returned to the U.S. Navy, where he became commander of the VBF-9 fighter squadron on Yorktown (CV-10) in 1944.
This model is OOB - no aftermarket anything. Big shout out to Vallejo paints, which had all three of the Curtiss paint colors for the China-bound aircraft in their China-Burma-India (CBI) Pacific Theater WW II set, as well as a good Interior Green. The kit is great - very few parts, which are well-designed to fit together. The canopy only needed a little trimming to slide back. My only complaint was the color guide for painting and decaling - the overhead views did not match up with the profiles. Also, the tail markings for the plane are incorrect - “P-8127” was White 47 - which is a better documented and more prolific subject for modelers. White 46 was P-8156.
My biggest shortcoming on the model was the handpainted Dark Green camouflage - would have better to mask it somehow.
Turned out great looking. Need more photos !
Looking great, Michael!
The dark green painted without masks looks great, as well!
Looks fantastic, Michael @mcsmith1964
Would be nice if you can share some pictures.
From what I can see it looks very nice! More pics (and a few closer up) would be handy... Well done.
Looks great, Michael (@mcsmith1964). You have been busy.
Great Curtiss! How about Valejo Paints? They didn't clog airbrush?
They did not. I had just changed airbrush head and they have done really great. Probably because adding by drops lets me get the consistency down. They did have problems with the older head, though, but all paints did. The Vallejo primers have been unusable, but, again, that was with the older head. I have not really tried them with the newer yet.
Wait - now I understand your comment. I was using Vallejo Model Air and had no issues. Today I picked up a couple of Model Color, and I see what you mean. Far thicker and I have not yet found the right ratio to thin for airbrushing.
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
Good clean work on this one Michael,
Looks very nice, I picked this kit up not too long ago and it is a very nice looking Hawk H81 A-3.