I got a start at the Flying Tigers 3rd Squadron Hawk this week. This is the second one of these Airfix P-40s that I’ll have built and it offers no surprises. It’s an excellent kit. I’m leaning towards doing Chuck Older’s plane. Later in life, Older presided over the Manson family trial as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. He was an interesting guy who like so many others of his generation achieved so much throughout their lives.

I mixed the lighter Curtiss interior green from Humbrol interior green and Testors yellow zinc chromate. One of the neat features of this kit are the cockpit placards that Airfix provided as decals. Nice touch.

The lap belts are from Eduard.

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Great entry and equally great progress, my friend @j-healy!
Looking forward to it!

That cockpit is looking really good @j-healy.

I was privileged to meet Older. He lived up to his billing from two lawyers I knew who had been in his courtroom: a formidable presence. He disliked both the F4F he flew as Marine and the P-40 because of their narrow landing gear, on grounds that if you're landing with damage, you need all the help you can get. Needless to say, his favorite was the P-51 because of its wide gear.

Great progress, John @j-healy
I do remember this kit and it did build indeed nicely, fitting was great.

Fantastic progress, my friend @j-healy!

Light gray and tan look great, my friend @j-healy. Good decision on going for the OD in place of the dark green.

I used camouflage masks for the first time. The real thing was painted with masks so I thought I’d give it a go. This set is from AML and is made from a translucent vinyl. They fit surprisingly well. I sprayed the Xtracolor green base Olive Drab and returned the masks to their backing sheet. I’ll use them on my final Airfix P-40 to be finished as a camouflaged Soviet example with partial whitewash.

I’ll need to touch up some areas, especially on the fin and rudder as each plane was slightly different in that area.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

These masks work really great, my friend @j-healy!
Very nice result!