George, @gblair
Thank you very much for posting the detailed essay on how you went about achieving this worn / faded look. I am really liking how it looks, and you're not even done yet ! I have used the Tamiya weathering decks and Q-tips to add effects such as dust and to mimic how paint fades.

Olive drab during the early part of WW2 was not very durable, according to what I have read that Dana Bell has written on the subject. I have a very good set of books published that he authored, that are called "Air Force Colors". They are broken down into 3 different volumes. One section is dedicated to the "Home Front".

I also have another book that was written by the late Jeff Etthels. His book contains a bunch of fantastic color pictures of the various planes and the pictures were taken from around the world.

After looking at these P-40 photos, and remembering the pictures I mentioned in the books listed above, you are well on the way to achieving a very authentic look. I also believe that since you have personally spent time flying as a military pilot, from the very same airbase that this plane you are building was located, I think you have a very good idea as to how it should look.

I have always wanted to build up another Stateside training plane every since I saw this color photo. This P-38H was flown out of Orlando Army Airfield during WW2.

Now that Tamiya has come out with the 1/48 scale limited edition "white box" version of the P-38H, (which this plane is in these photos), I have plans to someday build up the Lightning shown here. Florida was a very busy place during the War, training thousands of young men and women how to fly. I am fascinated with the history from this region, since I grew up here.

I have scrounged up a set of decals for this exact same P-38, from Scott Zuiebeck who owns / operated "RebelAlpha" store on EBay. How cool would it be to build all three planes in the last picture ? It's tempting... 😉

When the time comes, I will definitely refer back to what you have done with your P-40.

It is really looking good !

Thanks again, and stay safe.

You are doing some fantastic painting/weathering with your P-40, my friend @gblair! Nice to read all info and thoughts on olive drab. Our friend @lgardner, once again, came with amazing info.
Looking forward to this super P-40!

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). Worn Effects and Chipping Fluid is fun to use. It is like the old "hairspray" method, but more controllable. I was thinking the fragility of the Mission Models paint was a negative, but I started thinking that you could get some great effects, if you can control it.

Looking great George! I expect that a round of oil weathing is due...? A little bit of weathering will go along way to help accentuate the fine base work you've produced. Looking forward to more progress!

I've used a technique on some builds too where I take a thinned down drab color and mottle it on lightly to separate panels or leading edges to define some wear or touch-up's. Once you accept the fact that an OD service a/c was hardly ever uniform, it opens up your artistic rendition to a new world of "that may not be right, but it's perfectly imperfect".

Maybe not sprayed in the correct "easiest" order, the outcome is very nice George @gblair
Also the repaired/replaced panels do look great.

Great paintwork and weathering, George.

Today was decal day. The decals came from Wolfpack, and they performed very well. They were thin, and were easy to position on the model. They didn't have a tendency to fold up on themselves, which is always a plus. I used MicroSol and MicroSet to help settle the decals on the plane. Next step: 24 hours for the decals to dry, check to see if they need any more attention, then some clear flat. Cheers.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks, John (@johnb). You are right about the quality of decals. I may complain about decals sometimes, but they are light years ahead of the old ones.