The original HUN HUNTER
For those P-47 fans out there, the HUN HUNTER name may ring a bell. Some of the best color film footage of P-47s in combat is from a film named "Thunderbolt" filmed in 1944 but not released until 1947, ( there were many technical delays in production, and the war ended by the time everything was finished,
long story).
With an introduction by Jimmy Stewart, with narration by Loyd Bridges and Eugene Kern.
Documenting the 65th fighter squadron of the 57th fighter group, wile stationed on the island of Corsica.
Commanding Officer of the 65th FS at that time was Lt.Col. Gilbert O. "Gil" Wymond. Fyling his P-47 the HUN HUNTER XIV.
This article however, is about 2nd Lt. Wymond's P-40F, his original HUN HUNTER.
Wymond earned his commission graduating flight school in Dec of 1941 and was assigned to the 57th FG flying P-40s.
Deploying to North Africa on the USS Ranger and landing at Accra in the Gold Coast, and moving to Cairo Egypt in Aug '42. The 65th FS moved through Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Malta, Corsica, and Italy, transitioning to P-47s along the way.
There isn't a lot of information about this P-40. I found a color profile of 2nd Lt. Wymonds Curtiss in the Histoire & Collections book Planes and Pilots, Curtiss P-40, from 1939 to 1945. I've included a photo of the profile.
The kit itself is the 1/32nd scale Trumpeter P-40F short tail kit with the horrible art work that looks like the P-40 is about to crash.
The kit has its issues, the two main ones being the usual wrong cockpit floor that plagues many P-40 kits the second being the badly shaped upper engine cowling.
I let the cockpit floor slide as it's not that noticeable after being buttoned up. It pains me that it's like that, but I can live with it.
The second issue, the badly humpped up upper engine cowling HAD to be fixed. Surprisingly I found a simple and easy fix. Before gluing the two fuselage halves together, I glued a piece of .080x.187 HIPS Strip plastructs rod down the length of the cowling clamping the "hump" down flat. No cutting and filling and rescribing lots of lost panel lines, just a couple across the top. I've included a photo of a Line drawing behind the actual model to demonstrate we'll this worked out.
Other than those two issues the Trumpeter kit is pretty good. I checked my references and ever the radiator intake opening is correctly shaped.
I opened the carbarator intake and added a separate disk to simulate the butterfly intake valve. I also added Eduard resin block tread wheels.
The rest of the kit is built out of the box. The seat belts come with the kit as do the PE for the dropped flaps. ( I know the S.O.P. was to put the flaps up right away once on the ground, but I like the way they look dropped, more visual interest.)
Paints for this build were Vallejo over Alclad, with Tamiya for the detail work. Because there are no decals for this particular livery that i could find, I sprayed all the markings on this one including national insignia, the U.S. ARMY under the wings, and the nose scallop. The serial number and the HUN HUNTER name were hand lettered on with black ink using a technical pen. I did use a couple small decals for some of the small stencil markings like the oil fill and master cylinder fill locations.
I almost put this kit in the circular file when I spray the flat coat on after all the markings were done and the paint crazed and cracked pretty badly. I think I laid down to heavy of a coat and it pennatrated through the acrylic top layer and bit into the Alclad. After letting it sit for a couple weeks, I went back and knocked down the surface with a wet/dry sanding sponge and lightly went over it a lightened version of the top color, hoping to play it off as part of the weathering.
Speaking of weathering, I used my usual oils and pastels and Tamiya smoke with a touch of brown for the exhaust and gun stains.
Rapping it all up, I used Uschi 's .005" elastic rigging and some Albion Alloys micro aluminum tubing for the aerial. It was my first time using it and I liked it alot.
Well there she is, not my best work, but I'm happy enough with it.
Well, he is beautiful. Beautifully executed details. I rarely do wear and rather just hint. But yours is really realistic and brought the plane to life completely. I really like your work.
Thank you very much Milan. I tried to tone down the weathering a little bit on this one, but I like to do chipping.
Nice work, Clint. Iβve always had an interest in those first short tailed βFβs that flew off Ranger to Africa. Well done.
Thanks, John. I've always had an interest in the North African campaign, and the short tailed P-40Fs have been a favorite of mine for a long time, the proportions just look good to me.
Fantastic job and great article, Clint!
Well done!
I appreciate your kind words Spiros. Thank you very much.
That is a fantastic P-40, Clint @curtisshawk! π€© I really love those undersides close up pics, but the entire model is a true beauty, sir. Great article and model!
Thanks so much. For some reason I really like desert paint schemes, Como or plain, axis or allies alike. I'm still working on me photography, lighting and such, so thank you for the compliment Gary.π
Dayum that is SWEET. If you did not mention your paint problems, I would never have noticed. Weathering is spot on, just the right level of grunge, fading and chipping. The painted on markings and hand lettering are cherries on top. Overall, one great P-40 and write-up.
Thanks Bill. Yea, I was about to scrap it when the paint crazed on me, after doing all the marking and lettering. I'm glad I just walked away for a bit, and came back to it. So I just tried to blend it into the weathering, a well worn, desert heat damaged and faded paint scheme. At least that's the story I'm sticking with. P-40s are my favorites and I really didn't want to scrap it.
Great build Clint π thanks for the heads up mentioned in your narrative π Top stuff
Thanks Guy, I'm happy if it helps someone out. π
I've had that issue with flat coat and ended up doing the same. Nice recovery. Excellent model.
Thank you Dan. I was so close to dumping it the the trash, but when I went back and looked it over it over I thought I'd try to fix what was there. I'm glad I did.
Brilliant idea on the cowling fix, which takes this kit out of "Doggy Doo" terrritory and gives it a chance to be part of society.
Excellent work on the weathering - looks like the color photos you can find at 57thfightergroup.org
For those interested, Gus Wymond made it all the way to Hun Hunter XVI by the end of the war. He was 65th squadron CO throughout their time overseas. Was killed in 1949 in the crash of an F-84E. The 57th FG was the first USAAF fighter group to enter the European Theater when they arrived in Accra, Ghana, for their trans-Saharan flight to Cairo. As fellow 65th squadron member Michael McCarthy noted in his memoir, in the two years between his arrival in April 1943 and the end of the war in Italy, there was a 400% changeover in pilots, primarily through losses. They were originally in IX AF as American contribution to the British fight in Egypt, then transferred to XII Fighter Command after the Palm Sunday Massacre. (herewith a shameless personal plug: my next book, "Turning The Tide: the USAAF in North Africa and Sicily" arrives in May and the 57th FG folks are Major Players in the story)
Again, really excellent work on this kit and a super result.
Thank you Mr. Cleaver. I appreciate your comments very much. The Trumpeter kit is far from perfect, the spinner is to long and pointy, the cockpit floor is totally wrong, the hummed up cowling, etc.
Thank you for the added information on Lt. Col. Wymond and the 57th FG. I look forward to your book by the way. The North African campaign has always held a fascination with me, and after watching "Thunderbolt" a gazillion times, your book will be a must have.
It's a shame about Lt. Col. Wymond, after all that combat, winning, (I should earning) a silver star, and then like so many other WW2 fighter pilots loose his life flying jets after the war just boggles my mind. I know any kind of flying is dangerous, I flew a lot in UH-1s and AH-1s, for engine test flights and as crew chief when needed. But to make it through so much combat then that, it just makes me sad.
Again thank you for your kind words. I always look forward to hearing your opinion.
Excellent build and supported by as great story, Clint @curtisshawk
The painting and weathering is superb.
Thanks John. As I mentioned to another poster, I tried to be a little more restrained on this build. I think I did ok. I'm pretty happy with the results.
I'm a huge P-40 fan, and this one is fantastic! Well done!
Thank you Greg. It's great to here another huge P-40 fan likes my results. They are by far my favorite fighter of the war. Without them we would have been in sad shape.
That turned out really nice! Good job, Clint !
Thanks Jay. I appreciate it.π
Excellent build, superb details and finish.
Thanks a lot Chas. It really isn't that bad of a kit, with a little extra work, it builds up nicely.
π ... Greetings ... π :
Marvelous work on this fine P-40 model Clint.
Thanks for sharing these picture's.
Your welcome DE4EVER, and thank you for the compliment. I greatly appreciate it. π
A high level of realism on this outstanding build, Clint. @curtisshawk
Thank you John. It came really close to not making it across the Finnish line. I really didn't want to give up on it though. I'm glad I pushed through in the end.π
Really glad you pushed through with this one, Clint, it turned out great.
Thanks George, me too. I'm really a huge fan of the P-40, and it might sound crazy, but I would have felt bad giving up on it.
Great job Clint, a well-worn torn Warhawk
Thanks Robert!
Great work Clint!
Thank you very much. I truly appreciate it.
This is a great Merlin P-40. Desert pink and heavy sand-driven weathering effects are fantastic.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks for the kind words Bob. I'm glad the photos translated what I was going for here.π
Nicely done Clint, hopefully Eduard will come thru with a 1/48 F/L in the near future.
Clint Miller (@curtisshawk)
This is an INCREDIBLE build. I enjoyed reading your article just as much I enjoyed looking at the pictures.
I have a soft spot for the P-40. My very first model kit I ever built was the old 1/32 scale P-40E in the Flying Tiger's boxing... the original release too. OK I'm getting older. Beats the heck out of not getting any older.
Outstanding work here ! I clicked on several of the boxes.
Louis, thank you so much. I have at least 3 of the Revell 32nd scale P-40Es in the stash not to mention all the other ones. The P-40 is my all time favorite. I'm looking forward to see what Eduard comes out with.
Thank you so much for taking a look, I appreciate your kind words very much.
This is an amazing build Clint! I'm so impressed how you worked through the curve balls of the kit. I don't think I could have worked through those issues.
Thanks David. I'm a huge P-40 fan and I really like the Trumpeter kits, but they have there issues just like all P-40 kits seam too. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. My biggest problem was with the clear flat coat, a problem I made for myself. I laid it on to heavily and It started to lift the Alclad under the acrylic sand in places. I managed to "fix" pretty well without stripping any paint. If ya zoom in really close you can still see it.π