Shark! 1/32 Great Wall Hobby Curtiss Hawk H81

Merriam Webster Dictionary says: ICONIC - adjective: "Widely known and acknowledged, especially for distinctive excellence". I guess few would argue that the shark-faced Curtiss P-40's of the American Volunteer Group do not fit that definition. The toothy decoration was seen on aircraft before and since of course, but I feel safe in saying the good old P-40's pretty much own this particular art work. It just fit perfectly on the nasal contours of the P-40, especially on the early version flown by Chennault's A.V.G. Just about every air museum and warbird collection needs to have a Warhawk, as it helps to draw spectators, and here the young ones can learn. Learn about the great deeds, done against long odds, performed by those youngsters long ago.

Yes I am predjudiced. The P-40 in all it's incarnations is my favorite airplane. Since my own youth I have been interested in the exploits of the China Hawks with the teeth. I have also modeled many of them, in all scales. But THIS one, folks, is the Cat's A*s. Great Wall Hobbies has put out a stunner. Fits and details rival anything from Tamiya. The shapes are right. It has a very detailed Allison engine, with cool options that work right. It has a large decal sheet with many choices, and the first release has nice resin gun barrels, AND a "Flying Tiger" 80th anniversary patch. How cool is that? As soon as it came out, I had to have it. Just didn't inform my economic advisor what the cost was.

Part of the fun is that some sub-assemblies attach "just like the real thing". The elevator/stabilizer for example. The wing to fuselage, and the wing fairings. The mentioned Allison engine is designed to be interchanged with the regular front end to display it. And boy is it worth displaying. This engine is a kit in itself. In fact, I built it first. There are hoses and tubes galore. In fact, I am building Tamiya's Spitfire VIII at this time, and that Merlin has nothing on GWH's Allison.

It looks bare in comparison. The engine comes with a stand to display it on separately. If you are interested, that build is shown on the "In Progress" site, under GWH Hawk 81. The interior is good, all is where it should be, with a bit of etch to spice it up. I used my own mix of "Curtiss interior color". The seat goes in after the fuselage is together, making masking easier. I put in a set of color etch lap belts I had lying around. Oddly, the headrest part is not mentioned in the instruction booklet. One of the few things I think this kit missed on, was the weird ammo box setup on the wings. There are plastic boxes, and etched covers that are a pain to make sit right, but I survived. The wheel wells have nicely represented canvas inner covers, although how long these would survive in Burmese humidity, I'm not sure.

Next custom part of this kit, is interchangeable landing gear. Using magnets, the extended gear legs and wells are designed to be interchangeable with a set of retracted legs, complete with half wheels. I did not partake of this bit, though. I just went extended and used the included rubber wheels. Some folks don't like rubbers but I do, they don't need painting, and can be scuffed up to look quite realistic, with a coat of airfield dust. As long as they don't rot later on, we'll see. Actual molded brake lines are included (use care removing from the tree).

As to paint, I leaned on "AVG Colors and Markings" from Osprey, Aircraft of the Aces #41. Seems very well researched to me. I used the last of my Model Master RAF Green, uncut, and new Tamiya LP-74 "Flat Earth" (Isn't there a Flat Earth Society?) lacquer. Also Tamiya lacquer was used for the underside, their LP-34 light Gray seemed a very good match. I had never really looked too hard at the Sharkheads (that's what the A.V.G. guys called them) before, but it turns out they were NOT all the same, far from it. They came in all shapes and variations in color. Looking at all the photos I decided I liked a certain style, one featured on a pic often seen of a Shark at Mingaladon in Burma. A simple black white and red, with a gentle curved swoop that reaches back to the cooling shutters. Also, the camo line could be seen in the center. It seems the 3rd squadron, "Hell's Angels" mostly had blue backgrounds, so they were out. All 6 of the kit sheet's Sharkheads were quite short. So...send away for more decal sheets. A Kitsworld sheet had what I wanted. I also wanted an earlier fighter, flying from Mingaladon in Burma. Osprey's profile #17 was a 2nd squadron ship involved in the Burma fighting of January and February, flown in combat by several pilots, with no pilot markings, featuring the style of Sharkhead I liked. Plus one of the pilots was the redoubtable "Tex" Hill. Done! The Kitsworld decal worked beautifully (Thank God, I hate decals) and the numbers cobbled up from several different sheets.

The rest was all the standard stuff, flat coat, sludge wash, dirty up and all those fun bits. Then the canopy...here we go again. The masks in the kit worked just fine. The sliding hood fit fine. Then time to do the weird inner armorglass/gunsight pane inside the windscreen. A nice blob of liquid glue found it's way into the windscreen during fiddling with this, requiring a great deal of polishing to get it back to a "passable" state. Not good, passable. Fug.

Modeling is fun.

Well enough of that, here it is. It sure looks like a Shark, unlike another certain 1/32 kit I shall not mention. Great job, GWH. I needed to recruit a volunteer pilot for my machine, so I cobbled up an "AVG" figure from some stuff I had around. Looks just a bit like a scowling John Wayne. Or Greg Boyington? Certainly not Tex Hill. Also a Line Chief

I had from my P-40E vignette, to keep the Allison in tune.

I highly recommend "Flying Tigers" by Daniel Ford, for all the skinny on Chennault and the American Volunteer Group.

13 additional images. Click to enlarge.