MDriskill

Both Hasegawa and Arma released versions of their 1/72 Wildcat kits, with proper Martlet II cowls and props. Hasegawa's was a dedicated separate boxing, while Arma's is an option in their F4F-4 "Expert Set." Both represent the later AJxxx version, with simplified pitot etc. (I haven't checked the other important details Mr. Archer mentions.) Both manufacturers also offer correct 1/72 FM-1 / Martlet V moldings, though Arma's requires some PE trickery to the underwing gun access panels.

Thank you Giorgio, excellent info as always. Apologies for any confusion caused by deleting my previous post (in retrospect, my comments exceeded my knowledge, and were unhelpful to the discussion).

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Both ground-attack variants of the A-5, the A-5/U8 (typically modified with a conversion kit), and G-3 (factory-built from the start) carried drop tanks under the wings. Both omitted the outboard wing MG FF cannon, and thus had a flush access panel underneath at this location in lieu of the cannon's bulged one. Note that when it was first captured, W.Nr. 160057 still carried an ETC 501 rack under each wing. These were evidently removed for US flight testing.

That is really a lovely build, and very fine photos! The Ki-100 is an old favorite of mine, what a beautiful aircraft! What a pleasure to see this top-drawer replica.

You sir, are...ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! Cripes...that's what I get for doing such things so early in the morning. I will erase it.

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BS_w: GREAT INFO, THANK YOU! As an aside, the Lionoil varnish (prominent throughout the LIFE magazine photos) also served to highlight scribed or grease-pencil marks, for drilling or cutting the metal sheets. One of the LIFE shots shows technicians with a classic "blueprint" drawing sheet (this old architect remembers those well 😀) - note the similarity of the Prussian Blue color. Such coatings were common in WW2 aircraft production, and many sheet metal fabrications use similar processes to this day.

This 1941 series of color photos from Life magazine is a great general look at Curtiss interior colors, including the cockpit yellow-green mentioned in Mr. Bell's caption above. It's mostly early P-40's (and a few O-52's), and no detailed cockpit shots, but some top quality stuff. https://www.flickr.com/photos/35963591@N00/sets/72157622864527612/with/4128889395

While excellent, the big Hagedorn / Tincopa book focuses more on history than modeling. It has many rare photos and some fine color profiles, but does not include any detailed color discussions, general arrangement drawings beyond vintage factory diagrams, comprehensive interior or "walkaround" shots, etc. The authors take pains to cite these two books as worthy, well-researched adjuncts: And for what it's worth, Dana Bell's superb book on the early P-40 series has this note on cockpit colors:

This is only tangential to your question, but below is a list of the different sprues in my Hasegawa Zero stash (note two different sets marked V, W, X, and Y). Sprues K and U appear to have an identical canopy, but sprue Y with interior armored glass is attached to sprue U in the rare-ish A6M5c kit. A A6M2 fuselage B A6M3 fuselage C common detail parts D A6M2 wings E A6M3 short wings F A6M3 long lower wing G A6M3 cowl J A6M2 cowl K A6M2, A6M3 canopy Q A6M5 fuselage R A6M5 wings S A6M5 exhausts T A6M5 cowl U A6M2-N, A6M5 canopy V A6M2-N fuselage W A6M2-N wings and trolley X A6M2-N floats Y A6M2-N cowl V A6M5c upper wing W A6M5c lower wing X A6M5c cowl Y A6M5c armor glass I admit to a soft spot for these kits. Surpassed by the newer Fine Molds and Tamiya ones in detail of course, but Hasegawa's many sprues fastidiously catch all the variant differences, they are easy to build, and the Rufe floatplane and late A6M5c are there alongside the "standard" versions.

You guys are awesome. Thread immediately bookmarked to my Hurricane file!

Wildcats with magnetos in the back: R-1830-76 (early F4F-3) R-1830-90 (Martlet II, F4F-3A/Martlet III) And with magnetos in the front: R-1830-86 (late F4F-3, F4F-4, FM-1/Martlet V) The -76 and -86 had two-stage superchargers, and can be further distinguished from the single-stage -90 by the intercooler intakes inside the front of the cowl.

This book is the closest I've seen. It does not go quite so far as clean photos or drawings of every successive variant, but does have a long chapter on the R-1830. There's a good general history, photos, factory diagrams, and descriptions and applications of many variants. A lot of color, and the printing quality is absolutely top notch. When I first picked it up it took me about 3 seconds to decide to buy it... https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Round-engine-Warbirds-Airframes-Powerplants/dp/1580072798

The German ace Marseille infamously short-shot the runway and belly-landed a C.202 after a joy ride, I've long wondered if this was the reason. (Legend has it the Italian commander hand-picked the unit's best-performing machine to make a good impression; its usual pilot was understandably miffed! 🙂) IIRC, WW2 French and Japanese Army a/c also had "backwards" throttles - something to remember when modelling a parked machine.

Late model A/F/G's with the so-called "universal" wing, have a rectangular "flat bulge" over the outer gun bay. This bay could interchangeably mount the 20mm MG 151; 30mm MK 108; or a pair of ETC 50 or 71 bomb racks. Each setup had a different access panel beheath the wing, but the upper bulge was always present, as it covered a hole in the wing skinning required to clear the MK 108. The D-9 wing was mostly identical but - lacking outer guns - deleted the "flat bulge." The hole was either filled with a small flush plate, or simply wasn't cut in the first place (sketch shows early A-6 MG 151 mount on the left; universal mount with MK 108 on the right). As previously mentioned, the D wing also omitted the removable inner wheel well cover plates used on radial-engine Fw 190's.

Fantastic drawings and notes of the entire P-36 and P-40 "family" (Curtiss H-75, H-81, and H-87) by master modeler Jumpei Temma, are here: http://soyuyo.main.jp/p40b/p40be-1.html Mr. Temma did these as an adjunct to his build of the 1/48 scale Airfix P-40B. They are in PNG format, and as with all his drawings free to download and print. To my eye the best drawings of these aircraft ever published, and maybe the first good ones of the Cyclone-engined H-75 (but note a few details even he couldn't figure out, as described in his notes).

As already mentioned, Italeri's oil cooler is preposterously inaccurate. They copied the goofy flat wedge shape from the Hasegawa 1/72 kit (how they came up with it, who knows). For what little it's worth, both kits' instructions clearly show the wide end at the rear. In real-life, the radiator portion is of constant cross-section, with contoured fairings on each end. The intake and exhaust openings are about the same width, but the intake is taller. The cooler is rigidly attached to the engine; the lower cowl panel fits around it (on a buttoned-up aircraft, the cooler's center section appears SLIGHTLY larger at the front, due to the lower cowl's slope; negligible in 1/72). Early oil cooler version, viewed from the rear: Late version (deeper than the early type): Cowlings, note lower opening to clear the oil cooler: I recently built the Hasegawa 1/72 kit. I filled and filed the oil cooler into a better shape...but still don't love it!

I too tend to doubt 76 as an upper surface color...but there are no actual Fw 190's in my yard, so who knows. For what it's worth, Jerry Crandall's volumes on the Fw 190D posit that wing upper surfaces for the 50xxxx series Doras used 81 or 83 (dark green) as the darker color; and 82 or an unspecified "light gray," as the lighter one. He also notes they frequently had the ever-controversial pale gray-green shade on the undersides.

VERY cool! Many thanks for posting this, what fun to watch. Note, the take-off and landing shots appear to be a partially-painted production machine, but most of the flying shots are actually of a recon prototype (note the camera housings on the wings). "Aerofan" no. 60 (1997), has an article on this aircraft. It was MM.08071, the third Re.2001 built. AND - it is still with us; it was recovered from the ocean in 1991 and was owned at the time of publication by the Vigna di Valle museum. And...if you've been looking for something a little different for your dispaly case..."Aerofan's" research indicated it was painted like this for the movie!

More good info at this eerily similar post. 😬 https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/color-separation-mc-202-t539633.html

Thanks Giorgio, some very interesting comments! Trying to chase down the various changes in the C.202 is a challenge, since as you mention they are not particularly tied to Serie numbers. The wing guns seems particularly confusing, as most sources say the bay for them significantly pre-dated the guns actually being installed. For what it's worth, the earliest 202 I've seen with wing guns mounted is the "C.202D" nose radiator prototype, serial MM 7768 (an early Serie III airframe). Could it possibly have also served as a prototype for this? I have seen another photo of an early machine in "continental" camo, with wing guns...but of course now can't find it!

For what it's worth, this well-known production-line shot of a later-series Macchi-built C.202 shows the wheel well covers in place. But wartime photos from beneath in-service machines are quite rare, so their presence is an eternal conundrum for the modeler!