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Turkey: Curtiss P-40B Tomahawk IIb


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Hi

About time I started a build thread.......

I'm normally a 1:48 scale builder but given how I have failed to finish the models in other group builds I thought I might have a better chance with a 1:72 scale model. I was looking through Hannants for a suitable model for this group build and they had the new Airfix P-40B Tomahawk IIb in the starter kit on offer at £ 3.99 so I thought I would use that for my entry for Turkey.

Here's the kit:

P1010029_zpsaf594db9.jpg

And the sprue shot:

P1010036_zps597840a4.jpg

The decals I will be using:

P1010031_zps39940306.jpg

I will be doing the top aircraft 710, surprisingly there are no placement instructions supplied with the decals but there are other images of the decals on Hannants site and also Tiger Head's site that show where the decals go.

onto the build and more progress soon.......

Regards

Tim.

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The top aircraft '710' is a P-40E Kittyhawk/Warhawk not a Tomahawk as in the Airfix kit.

I'd no idea Turkey used P-40s. Unfortunately as Tom says the Airfix kit isn't suitable for the first two options shown.

Ahh, that would appear to present an issue then!

OK, no problem I will choose one of the other options, like this one:

p-40bimage2_zps85d5d897.jpg

Would that be ok?

Regards

Tim.

Edited by timmah
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Another nice choice Tim.

The Tomahawk loos nicer in the desert colours anyway.

As a lot of these aircraft had seen service (and action) with RAF they often bore reminders of their previous service in the form of freshly applied paint over the old markings, as opposed to the rest of the airframe which could be quite weathered.

Good luck.

Craig.

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Hi

Ok, so now I know I'm building a Tomahawk and not a Kittyhawk :banghead: I've made some actual progress.......

I very much doubt that the wing gun barrels would survive the build and as I was planning to replace them with some brass tubing anyway; I decided to cut them off.

P1010037_zps97adb5c1.jpg

Cockpit painted and a small amount of weathering done. The wings halves were also assembled:

P1040043_zps65a8d6c6.jpg

Fuselage together. The bulkhead behind the seat had a noticeable seam running through it that would still be visible when the headrest was fitted so it was filled and repainted:

P1070045_zpsa6ecf98a.jpg

Wings on and underside glued, about to run some extra thin cement down the wing root. The fit so far has been very good and apart from a couple of area's where I was clumsy removing the parts from the large sprue gates I'm impressed with the little Airfix kit. This view also shows the seat installed with the Eduard Super Fabric seatbelts.

P1070046_zpsbec5a063.jpg

All buttoned up and tail surfaces attached. I will attach the rudder at the end of the build, this will aid the painting as the rudder will be all red!

P1070047_zps49930926.jpg

Just got a few seams to deal with and it will be time for primer and painting.

Thanks for stopping by.

More soon..........

Best regards

Tim.

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How did the Eduard seatbelts go for you?

Hi Col

The seatbelts were easy to use once they had been removed from the backing sheet. To remove them, Eduard suggests using pointed tweezers to get hold of each strap but I found that the tweezers I have were not great so I lifted the edge of the straps using a sharp blade and grabbed them from there. There is a warning to use white glue and not CA so I presume that would have adverse effects.

Regards

Tim.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All

More progress.......

Airfix want you to add the propeller at an early stage in the build before adding the top cowling; given my previous experiences with other kits, this would certainly lead to disaster! The other problem for me would be getting a nice fit on the top cowling and then masking the spinner off whilst doing the painting so I decided to do a bit of an alteration to the front end.

Firstly, I attached the cowling and made sure I got a good fit. Having left that overnight, I needed to find a drill bit and a punch in the same size from my punch and die set to create the discs that I needed. I decided that a 6mm bit would be a good size and drilled the front of the kit out. I then punched some discs from 1mm plastic sheet and a smaller disc which I would use to replace the securing part for the propeller which I appear to have lost from the kit. The disc on the back of the prop is a snug fit into the fuselage front and actually fits in without the need for glue, the spinner appears (surprisingly) to sit in the correct position and the propeller still spins!

P1230022_zps9d7f57d0.jpg

I also decided to cut off the moulded in gun barrels from the cowling. I then drilled the gun shrouds and replaced the barrels with some 0.8mm brass rod:

P1230023_zps4e066278.jpg

After some final fettling, the main fuselage was then primered with Mr Surfacer 1000:

P1230027_zpsd2f30abe.jpg

P1230029_zps2733946a.jpg

The primer revealed just a few small areas that will need some attention so I will allow the primer to fully harden before tackling these, it will then be off into the paint booth proper!

Whilst I had the airbrush out, I decided to apply some paint to the spinner and propeller. Once this is fully dry, I will mask off the tips and paint them:

P1230025_zps86aa867b.jpg

I also decided to paint the rudder. The super close up photo makes the finish look a bit "orange peel" but in the flesh the finish looks quite smooth:

P1230026_zpsc5fa1f07.jpg

That's all for now........

Thanks for looking!

Be back soon!

Regards

Tim.

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I've never used brass tube and have often wondered how you cut it (without it crushing?).

Cliff

Hi Cliff

Like yourself, I'd never used brass tube to replace gun barrels etc and I was concerned about crushing the tube but I was really surprised just how easy it was to do. All I did was put the tube on the cutting mat and roll it along with the blade of my modelling knife whilst applying light pressure and it cut straight through with a nice edge to it.

Best regards

Tim.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Like yourself, I'd never used brass tube to replace gun barrels etc and I was concerned about crushing the tube but I was really surprised just how easy it was to do. All I did was put the tube on the cutting mat and roll it along with the blade of my modelling knife whilst applying light pressure and it cut straight through with a nice edge to it.

This method has always worked well for me and I cut all my rod and tube this way, it's the modeller's equivalent of a full size pipe cutter! Lovely build so far and I'm looking forward to more.

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Hi All

More progress to report!

As my normal favourite choice of paints (Tamiya/Gunze) do not have a ready mix of RAF Azure blue (I know Gunze do in their lacquer range but did not want to place an order for a single pot of paint) I painted the underside using the Humbrol Acrylic paints as supplied in the starter set. The paint itself is very thick so it was heavily thinned using Tamiya thinners with a drop of Windsor and Newton flow improver for good measure; it flowed well through the airbrush at 15-18psi and gave a fine finish and good colour coverage which I was pleased with.

However..............

Being used to the drying times of Tamiya and Gunze paints, what I didn't expect was that having waited half an hour, I picked up the model to check the finish and promptly damaged the paint! Having never used Humbrol acrylic paints before I was not sure if the paint had poor adhesion or if the amount of thinner and flow improver was to blame? As the paint pots that come with the starter sets have no instructions I went to the Humbrol website and it states that the paint should be dry in 2 hours so it would appear that the reason for the damaged was because I was being too impatient! I scrubbed the remaining paint off the kit with an old toothbrush and re-applied the colour this time giving it plenty of time (overnight!) to dry fully. Certain areas were then overblown with a lightened colour to give a bit of variation, unfortunately the flash of the camera has flattened the effect but in daylight it is there.

P2080030_zps9caa3879.jpg

As the weekend is here and I have some free time, I will progress onto the top colour and report back soon.........

Thanks for stopping by.

Best regards

Tim.

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Hi

A small amount of progress over the weekend.

I didn't get as much time as I'd hoped so only managed to get the Middle Stone first layer applied. Like the underside, this had some lightened paint over sprayed to break up the solid colour.

P2080031_zps73fdba9e.jpg

I now just need to make and apply my paper masks and I will be ready to apply the Dark Earth final camo colour and then we will see how it all turns out.......

Thanks for looking and see you all very soon.

Regards

Tim.

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OK, managed to grab a bit of time in front of the modelling bench.

Paper masks made and applied. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, the Tigerhead decals didn't come with any painting or decal placement guides so I had to rely on their website for a PDF version. This was not an issue apart from the camouflage scheme appeared to be different on each drawings they gave. As I believe these Turkish aircraft were ex RAF machines it seemed more appropriate to paint it following the Airfix instructions for the 112 Sqn that the kit decals are based on so that is what I did.

P2150032_zpsi8fnr8ii.jpg

Dark earth applied in a patchy fashion to represent a bit of sun fading.

P2150033_zpsmi2tgssa.jpg

I left the model to dry a while then peeled back the wingtip mask to check the results, I got a little carried away and soon all the masks had been removed!

P2150034_zps3ytpedbg.jpg

The flash of camera is showing a couple of areas where the top coat is a little thin but in normal light the shading seems to blend better. There are a couple of places where I need to tidy up on the upper surfaces but nothing very drastic.

The double sided tape I used to fix the masks has lifted a small area of the Azure blue on the rear fuselage so this will need to be attended to. I'll get the wheel wells painted up and the landing gear doors done before I put the the gloss coat on and then I'll be on for applying decals!

P2150036_zpsowa9v1qg.jpg

That's all for now folks.

Thanks for looking and I'll be back with more progress soon.

Regards

Tim.

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