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Tom Bebout
143 articles

1/48 Hasegawa P-40K-5

February 21, 2024 · in Aviation · · 17 · 351

Another from the Bebout Curtiss Factory and this one I like to call Snake on a Plane. I didn't have a P-40K but a did have their P-40E plus a AMTech P-40 with the Black Box resin tail. The Hasegawa P-40 K kit is as scarce as dinosaur teeth and rather expensive if you use E-bay to purchase one. But guess what nicely fits into the tail of the Hasegawa E kit? Yes sir re-bob, the Black Box tail fits nicely and the panel lines align as well. The Hasegawa fuselage is molded to fit various plug in tails to make either their P-40 E, K,M or N models. Therefore, you don't have to cut the fuselage which is required by the AMTech kit, and you still have the AMTech fuselage to make another P-40E if you desire. Sometimes you get lucky when you say to yourself "I wonder if this will work."

The Snake represents the A/C flown by Cpt. Gordon Hyde of the 78th FS/15th FG based in Hawaii, 1944. I added a Yalu IP an Ultracast seat, but rest is out of the box. Paints were Neutral Grey, Dark Earth and Dark Green. The decals are from SuperScale 48-635, and they worked well considering their age. A black PittPen was used to highlight the panel lines and nylon thread for the antenna. The Snake and the Tiger are now complete just need to finish a Parrot head P-40 to have a rather colorful collection of P-40's with heads.

Reader reactions:
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10 additional images. Click to enlarge.


17 responses

  1. What another P-40! Yes! An under rated aircraft. I think it was the third most produced US fighter in WW2. Model looks great!

  2. Great looking build!

  3. A very colourful adittion to your ever growing P-40 collection Tom. This is a plane that spoils with splashing markings to choose from.

  4. Well done Tom (@tom-bebout)! She looks great! 😀

  5. Man oh man , Tom , that is a nice looking P-40. Nice work grafting on the K-tail and on the paint too!

  6. Well done, Tom. A fine looking K.

  7. Excellent P-40, Tom. The K is my favorite of the family.

  8. Another excellent result out of The Bebout Curtiss Factory!
    Congratulations, Tom!

  9. Well done on completing this kit with the correct tail, Tom.

  10. A beautiful addition to your collection, Tom @tom-bebout
    Well done.

  11. Looks great, Tom. Well done on the tail morph. "Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained"

  12. Great build! Bringing her to Columbus? Hopefully see you there.

  13. 👍we’ll be there

  14. Excellent build! I had seen the tiger- and parrot-head versions, but not this snake-head livery. Very cool.

  15. G’day Tom (@tom-bebout),
    Another great P-40 build.
    Don’t forget the Burma Banshee skull for the collection.
    You can never have too many P-40s.
    Liked!

  16. Nicely done K-5 Tom. I've always liked all the P-40s withe the different heads and such. You'll have to do an 80th FS P-40 with a skull. 😉

  17. Great work as ever, Tom! Looks great with the snake and the cut and shut tail!

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