Revell 1/48 P40 B Flying Tiger
This is a very old model. I had built it back around 1977 when I was in law school. Maybe Monogram then? I saw it at a local store on a very reduced sale so I thought I would give it a try for old time sake.
It really shows its age. Interior detail is almost nonexistent. Fit at several points is very bad and even with a lot of work done parts just don't come together. So I decided to experiment and make my first model on a stand with wheels up and a pilot.
I freehanded the camo with airbrush for the practice instead of masking.
I made several changes from the instructions. I read that no AVG P40s ever had red spinners and all period photos show camo colors on the spinner. The kit decals come with a yellow fuselage stripe but I found that the 3 AVG squadrons had white, blue and red stripes. Since red was for the 3rd squadron and the kit came with the “hells angels” marking I went with painting the red stripe. I fudged on the number because I had no higher number as would have really been on a 3rd squadron plane. So 13 will have to do.
Kit comes with a drop tank but I found that AVG P40 Bs could not use a drop tank so I omitted that.
Overall this was fun but not up to what I had hoped for. If anyone knows a better P40 kit please let me know. I would like to build one with the skull or tiger head markings. I like how the stand I made turned out.
A great result out of this aging kit, Mark @markhedrick
Good idea to build it with the landing gear up and using a stand.
The free handed camouflage looks really good.
Great result from this elderly mold, Mark!
Very good idea to go for a wheels-up model!
Nice work on this old kit. There are many nice offering out there today with more detail and better fit. It would be a cool dual display to show this old kit next to a newer tooling.
Nice work, Mark. It blows my mind that they’re still selling that 60 year old kit. Airfix makes a really nice early P-40. Hasegawa and AMT both did every variant of the later E-N models. And finally, Eduard is releasing a new E next year.
It strikes me as a beautiful, elegant plane that really echoes the past. Yes, the kit is ancient and not up to modern standards.
Nice build. I built a couple of those 23 years ago. I'll always remember the date I was working on the second one.. Sept. 11, 2001.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
A very nice P-40 - well done!
Very nice. My first kit built when I got back into modelling in the '90s