Eduard Curtiss P-40B Warhawk (for Airfix 1:48)

[Mike]

Curtiss P-40B Warhawk (for Airfix)

1:48 Eduard

 

 

The new Warhawk from Airfix is a rather nice kit, and with these new sets from Eduard, should end up even nicer with some careful construction and sympathetic painting.  As usual with Eduard's Photo-Etch (PE) and Mask sets, they arrive in a flat resealable package, with a white backing card protecting the contents and the instructions that are sandwiched between.

 

 

P-40B Updates (49786)

This set consists of one fret of nickel-plated and pre-painted brass, plus another of bare brass for the more constructional elements to be painted with the rest of the airframe.  You will need to remove the moulded-in detail from the instrument panel and some of the sidewall boxes to accept the many small parts that upgrade the detail level beyond that achieved in the basic kit.  The instrument panel is replaced by a lamination giving recessed instruments, plus throttle quadrant, levers and a complete new seat that is folded up with a separate brace across the back, and fitted to the kit frame.  Access panels are added in the scalloped rear-view windows, and a ring-and-bead sight is fitted to the nose, just in front of the canopy.

 

 

Moving out of the cockpit a new radio bay interior skin is added to the door; new mesh panels in the chin intakes; highly detailed cooling flaps around the cowling; wheel bay inserts plus new bay doors, all of which have PE stays.  The gear legs are spruced up with additional small details, plus a PE brake hose, and the tail-wheel bay is given new doors with bracing strut.  On the tail, a trio of trim-tab actuators are added long with a curved hinge-part that replaces the moulded-in pip on the rudder.

 

 

 

Seatbelts STEEL (49787)

This set includes a full set of seatbelts for the pilot in the new super-fine and flexible steel format, pre-painted, shaded and nickel plated for extra realism.  They should drape much better over the seats than the old brass belts, which couldn't be annealed due to their painted finish.

 

 

 

 

Landing Flaps (48895)

This double fret of brass will allow you to build your model with dropped flaps for a bit more visual interest, regardless of whether they were seen that way in real life or not. You will need to remove some areas of the upper and lower wing, as the flaps aren't separate on the kit. With these parts removed as per the diagrams, it is relatively straight forward to fold up the bays and the flaps, with only a few lengths of wire or rod from your stocks needed to depict the hinge-point. Each rib is twisted and bent to lie in a pre-etched track, with one separate rib that couldn't be etched captive due to a change in the trailing edge profile. I really like these sets, and they really aren't as hard to do as you'd think.

 

 

 

 

Masks (EX530)

Supplied on a sheet of yellow kabuki tape, these pre-cut masks supply you with a full set of masks for the canopy, using frame hugging masks that are precision cut to sit perfectly on your model.  All you need to do is keep the canopy clean in the meantime.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of