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Wasn't going to put this up, but then I thought, why not? Bought from Aldi a few years ago for £2.49. Its the starter set boxing, but as the painting instructions are limited by what paints come with the set, I downloaded the full instructions off Scalemates. Drilled out the exhausts, but otherwise its OOB. 20220714_215025 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20220714_215040 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20220714_215108 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20220714_215136 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr

Here is my Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk IIB in 1/72nd scale. This particular aircraft, GA-F, was flown by P.O. Neville Duke with 112 Sq, Fort Maddalena, Libya in 1941. The Airfix kit box art:- The following items were used:- Kit is Airfix starter set A55101. Kit Decals used. MRP lacquer paints for main camouflage. Tamiya paints for primer et.al. Rub ’n Buff metal paste for the exhausts. Quickboost resin propellor set QB 72 364. SBS resin exhausts 72039. Scratch-built bullet-proof screen and gunsight. Replaced fuselage spine aerial with brass rod. More Pictures of the finished article:- As promised @stevehnz here is a photo of the bullet proof screen. You can just about see a blob of PVA glue on the top left corner. I’m glad my eyes don’t have the resolution of my camera otherwise I’d never build another model! What I learned from this build. The spinner is red, not black as Airfix would have you believe. This is typical Airfix starter set practice so they don’t need to supply red paint. They also don’t supply stencil decals. On the shark mouth decals I would cut the lip extensions off and apply them separately. Tamiya Extra Thin Cement is fierce! Be careful how much you use and how hard you clamp your parts. MRP paints spray beautifully if you can cope with the smell. Use a spray booth! Don’t touch your decals after applying MicroSol until they are dried. Cutting out canopy frame masking in situ is not easy. There’s gotta be a better way. The carpet monster lives! I lost my landing light and had to use Micro Krystal Klear. Do not use a hair dryer to dry paint on resin propellor blades. They warp! Quickboost resin propellors are nice but the jigs are all but useless. The jig’s hole is nowhere near central and the blades on mine ended up angled back and I had to warm them up to straighten them. I’d still use them, but they aren’t a huge improvement on the kits propellor imho. SBS resin exhausts are very nice and well worth using. Getting old sucks. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be. Above all else choose a subject to build that you love. I made the mistake of picking this kit because although I appreciate the significance of the subject and it’s a lovely little kit, the P-40 isn’t an aircraft in which I’m all that interested. I thought I could rattle it off quickly to give myself a bit of practise because I wasn’t too bothered if I messed it up. When I built my Airfix Spitfire 1a I was always really looking forward to seeing the finished product because I love Spitfires, so I had no problem getting down to it and built it in about three weeks.. With this P-40 I just wasn’t as passionate about the subject and consequently lost a lot of interest in it. Modellers block became a serious problem and going to my modelling desk became a bit of chore rather than a pleasure, hence the seven month build time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I built it, I learned a lot and I’m very pleased with the result. However, I have more than enough kits of subjects I do love so I’ll make sure I start with them first from now on. Perhaps Special Hobby’s nice little Gnat F1. I have two of those so I can afford to mess it up. Comments and criticism are very welcome. Thanks for your interest everyone. Regards, Keith. The build thread is here:- My previous model Airfix Spitfire 1a DW-K is here:-

With RAF Tangmere just down the road from me and my local model club displaying on the Museums 'Bader Down Day' this August I thought that this model would certainly fit in as Neville Duke has such a history with RAF Tangmere when he broke the sound barrier in his Hawker Hunter. The Hasegawa kit is sublime, fitting extremely well with good detail for such a kit. Adding Eduards interior PE set rises the game to a new level. The only other extra that I did was to drill out the exhaust stacks and guns to add some depth. The build went smoothly and having lots of photos of the AF Air-wing in 1942 it was obvious that these P40s were heavily used and in by no means a pristine condition, so I set out to add a level of weathering through pre and post shading, Tamiya powders and a wash to get the right effect. As the build went on it became obvious that this bird needed to be shown its proper environment; the desert, so I found a resin RAF desert pilot and using a set of plastic from my local hobby store and other bits and pieces that I had lying around I built up a small diorama presenting Neville Duke with his aircraft. Painting was done using Vallejo Air paints, which I love to use, the pattern was free hand as the middle stone was added in theater and was not neat (Dukes aircraft had clear over-spray on the side fuselage roundels). Photographing this build was difficult for some reason. I don't have the best set up and usually use my phone camera as its as good as I have.

My entry for this GB. The P-40 Tomahawk IIb 'Ace of African Front' boxing from Academy. Review here at IMPS. A bit of background: This build will depict AK402, GA-F, 112 Squadron. This aircraft was flown by Pilot Officer Neville Duke, based at Fort Maddelena in Libya, November 1941. Neville Duke was one of the highest scoring Allied aces, with 27 kills by the war’s end. While flying AK402, Duke was shot down on Nov 30, 1941 by Otto Schulz of 4/JG27. He belly landed safely. Inside the box are three sprues of gray plastic, a clear one for the transparent canopy parts, the instructions and a decal sheet with four options. I'll use also AML's interior conversion, Ultracast early P-40 Seat with Sutton Harness, Ultracast Tubular Exhausts and Eduard's Canopy Mask. Now i've to await eagerly the D-day. References used: Osprey Aircraft of the Aces - Tomahawk and Kittyhawk Aces of the RAF and Commonwealth Osprey Air Vanguard - Curtiss P-40 Long-nosed Tomahawks Osprey Modelling - Modelling the P-40 Detail & Scale - P-40 Warhawk in Detail Various web resources

After realising that I participated in over 200 posts I have yet to present a model for inspection. I have a Hasegawa Hurricane and Airfix BF109f on the bench. I finally completed my FW 190-A3. 9 So this is my actually my second completed model. it is also my first attempt at some sort of base. I started the model just over two weeks ago and was in a rush to finish it last night so that I could present it as a gift to a young Chinese led that I have been helping prepare for his IELTS test. a few weeks ago we were practising the "listening exercises" and all I think of that the time was to briefly narrate the story of Douglas Bader. Shock and horror- he had no idea what the Spitfire was. This needed to be corrected and once, so I thought that would build him a model as a keepsake. The results are below. the aurora number of things I'm really unhappy about in the bold namely the canopy, being unable to get any type of dihedral on the wings and a few obvious the mishaps that started occurring as the clock neared midnight last night and I was extremely tired. As always I welcome comments criticisms suggestions and a general lack on the head with appropriate words "Proby" - ( Jethro Gibbs NCIS)