RAAF Kittyhawk P-40E.
The role of the RAAF Kittyhawks in the defence of Milne Bay in 1942 has been well documented elsewhere & this particular aircraft was in the thick of it with 75 Squadron. Apparently flown for the most part by Flying Officer Geoffrey Atherton, it has an added attraction for me as it was also flown on several occasions by a late friend of mine, during 1943, whose normal mount was A29-118. Unfortunately I have been unable to find the correct individual side letter for the latter so this is a reasonable substitute, substianted by log book entries.
The kit is the Hasegawa 1/48 P-40E from a good few years ago, but still assembles very well & there are several excellent decal sets available for my subject. Assembly is straight OOB, plus seat belts. Paints were Model Master with 'home brewed' satin clear & a final coat of AK Ultra Matte Varnish air brushed straight out of the bottle. Very happy with the finish! Surely it is not too much to hope that Eduard will serve up an updated Kittyhawk range? I still haven't built a P-40F with the Merlin engine! Hope you like it, I had a lot of fun with this...
Beautiful looking p-40! Really liking the markings/scheme you chose. Well done!
Thanks David.
Great looking Aussie P-40! Yes, a very attractive scheme. Nice little dio.
Thanks Robert. I like my little 'Dio'. It's just the cork side of a discount store placemat with a scattering of model railway scenics. Gives the models a bit of context I think.
Fantastic P-40, Tony! Nice story behind the individual plane and a great diorama, as well!
Congratulations!
Many thanks Spiros.
Nice work, she's a great looking P-40.
Thanks Bob.
Great looking P-40 Tony. I've also been hoping someone would do a new tool P-40 F/L in 1/48. I did a stable mate of your model in 2019.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Thanks Dale. Your 'Shuftie is a beauty. I note your rigging, brake lines & the ring & bead sight. I'll have to see what I can do as it does make a difference!
Beautiful result on this P40 in RAAF scheme, Tony @tony-prince
Thanks John. I have a couple more to do. As they say: "watch this space!"
Very nice work on this Tony and a good result.
Thank you Tom.
Nice build Tony Like the digger in the Bush hat 👍
Thanks Guy. My digger has seen a lot of service, especially in New Guinea!
Nice work, Tony.
Nicely done Tony, that's a good looking KittyHawk. Really like the little Dio you did to display her. One can never build too many P-40's because I've build 28 to date. About the only P-40F/L kit available today is from the AMT series. They got the carburetor intake wrong but it can be corrected with a little work as I did with the P-40F Long Tail I posted on iModeler awhile ago. Two thumbs up for your work on Cleopatra, glad you posted her.
Thanks Tom. You must have your own private airfield, but they are irresistable with so many different schemes. i have another three to go, but with a new tool kit, who knows?
Well done, Tony! Nice figs as well.
Thanks Gary. I like to add a little extra occasionally!
I found the Hase P40E is a touch fiddly with all those inserts. Nice model though.
Yours turned out to be a much better result than my bird.
Hi Dan, thanks for the comments. If it of any help, I glued the rear fuselage parts to each side to make two complete halves. Still had to use a little bit of filler & a light sand, but it seemed to be the answer for me. I had to be very careful with the rear transparencies though & I used Aquadhere very sparingly, so as not to risk damage from too much Tamiya extra thin. At least you can wipe it off!
Nice Kittyhawk build, love the paint scheme.
Glad you like it Chas. Thank you.
A beautifully built P-40. Looks nice on that base with the figures standing beside it.
Thanks Jay. I've done a few with bases; usually cork backed placemats. Cheap & cheerful. plus some railway scenic materials to suit.
Great looking Kittyhawk! Love the Far East schemes and markings, and the P-40 is among my top 5 favorites.
Thanks Greg. There's a ton of information on RAAF Kittyhawks on the web. I spend more time on research than on building; can't help myself!
G'day Tony (@tony-price),
This is a great build.
I'm in the middle of building a pair of these kits - one will be 75 Sqn and the second 76 Sqn.
https://imodeler.com/groups/work-in-progress-aircraft/forum/topic/three-p-40s
Like you, I glued the tail and fuselage inserts to each half but found there were a few sink marks and a slight step to deal with on the tail parts.
The gun inserts are also a pain.
I'm happy with things now and have undercoated them with painting to come shortly.
I can see that you dealt with those issues faultlessly, resulting in an excellent model.
Liked very much!
Thanks Michael; glad you liked it. I had a look at your builds & they look really good. You've gone to a lot of trouble to get things right, so I'll follow them with interest!
I've build a few P-40s, mostly Hasegawa, Mauve & Airfix, but even the old Arii kit, which is a bit of a horror story. I was given another of these a while ago & thought I'd try to see if it can be improved; especially the wing leading edge taper. A bit of a challenge, but we'll see how it goes...