Italeri (AMT) Kittyhawk III
Hi All!
After fighting with the Hasegawa Harrier, I needed a simple. easy to build kit. Thanks to Steve Corvi I had an Italeri (ex-AMT) P-40E/K kit. The AMT family of P-40s are easy to build and look like P-40s. They do have their warts but are readily available and a nice canvas for those with AMS. There is a bonus; from the original three issues ( P-40F, P-40K, and P-40N) by mixing and matching parts all of the P-40 family ( P-40D,E,F,K,L, M, and N) can be built.
The kit I received had some extra parts, a resin seat, resin exhausts, resin wheels, six brass gun barrels, an aftermarket instrument panel, and a resin prop for P-40L, M, and N variants When I looked over the parts I found the tail had been changed to a "Round Tail K" tail, and the cowl sides had been glued on. Thin shims glued to the front of the cowl sides fixed the shortness i length. I carefully painted the cockpit and used the new instrument panel and the Ultracast seat. After the kit was finished I realized I had used the wrong seat, as it had a US Harness, not a Sutton Harness. The fuselage, wings, and tail all went together nicely, with minor amounts of filler. The spinner was painted red and then attached to the fuselage. The kit provides the correct narrow chord prop. Now for the landing gear. AMT originally oversimplified the gear and retraction arms. So using some scrap Evergreen forms the gear was "tarted" up.
I decided to do F.Lt. "Stocky" Edwards Kittyhawk III (P-40K-5) in the Western Desert. Edwards' Kittyhawk was finished in the RAF's Desert Scheme of Dark Earth, and Mid Stone ( over the Dark Green areas of the airframe) with Azure Blue undersides. So when all of the seams were finished to my liking, I wiped the model off with Isopropyl Alcohol. Vallejo Air colors were used for the camouflage. When the paint cured, Future was used as a gloss coat. Edwards' Kittyhawk was fairly plain Jane, with no names or nose art. The national markings came from the AmTech P-40F/L kit. While looking at images of the airplane, I noticed the underwing roundels had a yellow surround. I used another set of fuselage roundels for these. Both the serials and the codes came from Xtracal sheets. When all was dry, a second coat of Future was applied, and then a flat clear coat was sprayed on.
I now attached the remaining bits, a pitot from a Monogram P-40B, the antenna, kit clear parts, the landing gear parts, and then the wheels. Here an issue arose. The resin wheels would not work. The kits axels were too short for the recessed holes in the wheels. When I looked at the aircraft in the images, they had smooth treads anyway, so I used the kit wheels. The kit was now finished.
The model represents a Curtiss Kittyhawk III (P-40K-5) , serial number FR350 coded US*B of No. 260 Sqn. RAF in the Western Desert flown by Flight Lt. James Francis "Stocky" Edwards. Stocky Edwards survived the war with 19 and 2 shared victories, 6.5 probable victories, and approximately 29 ground victories.
The AMT series of P-40s may be a bit dated now, but with a bit of work ( we are modelers, are we not?) are less expensive, and easier to build when compared to the Hasegawa and Eduard kits. And they do look the part. I can easily recommend the AMT series P-40s to all.
Bruce
Excellent P-40, Bruce! Thanks for the info on the AMT kit!
Nice work, Bruce. I like those kits too. They buikd easy and look like P-40s. I was just examining a boxful of three unbuilt F/L versions and was thinking of knocking at least two of them out quickly to use up some paint and decals.
Really nice
Hi John!
From the AMT and AmTech kits, I was able to build the P-40D,E,F,K, L,M and N. With Ultracast seats. Eduard P-39 props and some Evergreen shapes the kit "tartup" very well.
Bruce
Looks nice! Well done.
A true beauty!
Looks excellent !
G’day Bruce (@rbrucearcher),
Nicely done.
I built three P-40s all from reboxed AMT moulds a couple of years ago:
P-40F
P-40L
P-40N
Unlike you, I didn’t “tart up” the landing gear, mostly because I was pressed for time, but I did make extensive modifications to the nose of the F and L.
I enjoyed them so much I bought two of the Italeri boxings to one day make a couple of Ks. I might “tart up” the landing gear on those two.
It is great to see your build, although a couple more photos wouldn’t go astray.
Liked!
G'Day Micheal!
I still have quite a few AMT-based kits. When I worked for a friend at a hobby store ( so he could have a day off) our supplier had a blowout sale of Hasegawa P-40Es ( he bought too many) and I bought at a ridiculously low price. I traded each kit for 2-3 AMT kits. I still have a bunch to build.
Build those kits, they are an easy relaxing build!
Bruce
Nice looking desert scheme P-40!
A very nice looking P40, Bruce @rbrucearcher
The desert camouflage scheme is done beautifully.
Nice one Bruce! There aren’t too many warbirds that don’t look better in desert camo, that goes double for the P-40.