Wolwe82 Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 (edited) Hello guys, so after few months things around me did settle down, i did settle down as well after moving to new house and i started to work on new projects I have to get used to new work bench (small house means small work bench.. ), but i ll handle it! I was thinking what kit to build, as i have few P-40s in stash (some might make it for this GB yet - Trumpeter B, Academy E, Sword short tail K, Hasegawa N). In the end i decided to get one more P-40, this time Academy P-40M/N. I m going to use some aftermarket stuff - first, PE sets i have at home (P-40E Marabu design, amazing set made for AZ model P-40E, but it ll work here too and P-40E flaps for AZ model as well), Quickboost exhausts and decal set. From the decals i would like to go for "Wairarapa Wildcat", though here i have first question - does anyone know, what colours were the roundels on the Wairarapa Wildcat? On the decals there are blue-white-red roundels, but i saw also blue-white-blue and such.. Sad part of the decals is, there is only one wildcat decal and it seems there should be one from each side of nose.. Anyway, i did some start on cockpit yesterday. The sidewalls are done using combination of Marabu PE parts, evergreens and wires. The floor is all new, as the original would be too thick and i would not be able to fit there the wheel wells. Seat and armour desk behind seat are from the Marabu PE set, headrest is scratched from evergreens. I ll continue tomorrow in this build Edited March 18, 2015 by Wolwe82 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skids Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Cracking start, looking really good 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 The roundels were Dark Blue/White/Dark Blue on the wings and the fuselage were Dark Blue White and had a tiny red spot in the centre and a narrow yellow outer ring. For the best description of NZ3072 see this http://rnzaf.hobbyvista.com/gf.html 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolwe82 Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 Thanks Silver, i saw many various descrpitions of the roundels and i was not sure which one was right. So i guess i ll have to make some masks for the wing roundels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Wahoo!! Good to see you back on BM!! And what a lovely start!! Beautiful cockpit detailing as usual. Looking forward to seeing more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolwe82 Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 Thanks Stix, it is very nice to be back, cheers! :yahoo: now find some time tomorrow to check all your builds and others as well.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazdot Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 That looks lovely really good and welcome back 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Glad to see you in this GB Wolwe! I love watching your builds, and you've made a flying start with this one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Great work on the office ,looking forward to your build Les 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne 0 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Wow, nice start. You sure it's 1/72 ? Will keenly follow this. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolwe82 Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Thanks a lot guys for your support, i m happy you like her so far I did not have done much things over weekend, as i was preparing the wings for the Marabu flaps set and for wheel wells also from Marabu PE set. So it was all about grinding, grinding, grinding and thinning the wings as much as possible (damaged a bit of the wings mainly on the trailing edge, but hopefuly it should not be too hard to fix with a bit of putty later). So here is where i m now - the wheel wells and flaps are installed, i drilled out the landing light (not sure if i can cut such a small round from clear evergreen tab, so maybe i ll use clear fix to make the "glass" ) and also cat out the area where later ll be radiator flaps, so there wont be flat wall. The flaps were quite enjoyable to build, i was a bit scared of it, because you have to glue every single rib alone, but the fit was amazing and using HVP extra thin CA glue helped a lot too (i was used to the cheap CA glues you get in every shop, bought the HVP CA glues to try it out and it is amazing stuff!). I did some research on web about the "Wairarapa Wildcat" and on kiwimodeller.com some guy in his build mentioned, this P-40M was delivered in the US olive drab camo, with US dark green waves around wings/tail edges. Does anyone have any info about this? Also most decal sets/kits shows this plane with pure white stripes but the decal sheet i have uses red line along the white stripes. But i did also read the darker line around the white stripes could be just fresh olive drab.. So if anyone has any info about these, i ll be happy if you leave me hint here Thanks 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Hi Wolwe. You, sir, are an artist in 1/72!! Superb as always! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazdot Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Woah that's fantastic particularly in 1/72 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Welcome back Wolwe and off to a flying start too! Great stuff! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Amazing work as usual Wolwe! The metal work on the flaps and gear bays is incredible. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolwe82 Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Haha thanks guys for your nice words, you are too kind to me realy The flaps goes all to the Marabu PE parts, i think it is my favourite trade mark, even slightly ahead of Eduard.. Only shame they have very limited range of products Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 It is possible that the scheme is as you say but looking at photos of '072 it doesn't seem that way. The red stripes appeared in a book from the fifties and have been faithfully replicated since. There was a lot of artistic licence in the book, the red fronted Mustang scheme on the 60s Revell kit is direct copy from it. I'd still follow the link I sent you earlier for the best current interpretation of the scheme. http://rnzaf.hobbyvista.com/gf.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Very nice looking a good build Les 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolwe82 Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 Thanks Les And thanks Silver fox once again, i guess i ll follow the scheme then Although i got some new decals for pacific fighters and there are few P-40 (going to make P-40N and K from the decal set), one of them is M "Little Audrey" (A29-347 serial, SV*M code letters) RAAF and it looks great too.. Little bit of progress today. Mostly just polishing the wings and fuselage, but last hour i spent working on gunsight (made from scratch) and here it is 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazdot Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Nice like it..... a lot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Hall Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 (edited) Wolwe, fine work. You and I are working on similar planes. Not exactly the same, so don't worry. I am learning about these Ms. I can endorse what Silver Fox says about the blotches, at least at the edges of the fin and rudder. Probably shouldn't be any on fin and rudder. According to Dana Bell, the order had gone out in 1942 to paint blotches around the edges of the wings, horizontal stabilizers, elevators, fin and rudder, However, Curtiss and its suppliers were inconsistent, so that we see the blotches on some Olive Drab Ks, Ls and Ns. There are not enough good photos of the wings of the RNZAF Ms to settle my mind about blotches on the wings, but I'm not going to put any on mine. If I learn one day that there were some, then I can add them at that time. Substantial red on P-40s serving in the Solomons/New Hebrides area was prohibited. Red would have tended to undo the reason for the white stripes, which was to help identify the P-40s as Allied. (The Dutch put red on their P-40s, but they were nowhere near the Solomons/New Hebrides.) Edited February 24, 2015 by Tom Hall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 You must have amazing eyesight and small fingers!!!! Great stuff!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolwe82 Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 i have small but very fat fingers Stix Tom thanks for another info about the RNZAFP-40s, i ll stick with it, thanks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyverns4 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Wolwe, cracking start! Looking forward to watching this one develop, oh and a, belated, welcome to the group build! Christian the Married and exiled to africa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolwe82 Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 (edited) Thanks Christian and hope the exil in africa is not too rough for you.. Yesterday i did some progress because i had all day off. There is a lot to be done yet though so even if it might looks like that, i m not going to finish anytime soon So what i did yesterday.. (no pics taken, sorry guys, i got into that modelling trance and woke up at 21hr, when my lady came home and noticed i m siting still by the table, as she left me there at morning... ) -painted the wheel wells and flaps inner side (more ll be done later, using washes, oils and pigments) -used surfacer on whole airframe (the canopy sliding part is just placeholder for easier masking), followed with sandpaper to polish it, repeated few times (still could use few more) -masked the wheel wells, flaps and air intake -sprayed it overall with alclad airframe aluminium, after few mins followed with mig´s chipping fluid -painted the bottom side with italeri(vallejo) acrylic light grey (with very gentle postshading, i ll break the surface with oils later) -painted the top side with mix of italeri acrylic panzer olivgrun and drop of olive drab (ANA 613) -applied mascol with sponge on top side to make some patches (chosed mascol over salt, did not want to risk the surface moistening would activate the chipping fluid - next i m going for mascol straight, it makes better looking patches and you do not have salt EVERYWHERE! ) -painted the top side over the mascol with mix of brownish olive drab (ANA613) and few drops of vallejo zinc green (next time i have to be more brave, the colour diffrence - darker vs lighter shade - can be done much more, i think the effect right now is too subtle to survive the varnishes...), followed with some gently random postshading (with added few drops of RLM02 to the base paint) -removed the mascol - here i have question on you guys - what are you using to remove mascol used for weathering? i had to use old tooth brush but still there are some tiny drops left here and there.. and around fragile parts it was a bit dangerous.. but using anything sharp (tweezers)led to big scratches into the base metal paint.. -sprayed the top side overall with some greenish mix of various olive drabs i have, very much thinned (the final result is more green, the photos are too much on the brown shide, no idea why, but it was late at night and iw as taking the shots in a hurry) -removed masking tape from bottom side and wheel wells (and managed to break one of the tail wheel wells doors, great..:/ ), there are some spots i ll have to repair tonight (some medium grey in the wheel wells and flaps is on purpose, should simulate some respraying to repair the original paint on the field, but some grey there is just overspray..) -used water, toothpick, needle, short stiff brush and soft brush to make various scratches. Probably a bit overdone on the guns acces pannels so i ll fix it tonight as well. As i said, the olive drab is way more into the green and i ll use green oils to fade it more into the greenish hue. Next work ll be done tonight - i ll give it coat of acrylic varnish and do the white stripes and roundels - i ll try to use homemade masks for roundels, never used masks for roundels so it might be interesting... One important thing for me - from now on, i m going to do rivets on all seriously ment builds at the very beginning.. I thought i would do rivets into the surfacer (you do not have to push it that hard), but the rivet wheel would not reach the corners and edges... ofcourse i did not think about it earlier... The rivets helps a lot to the chipping process, because you have something to hold on, you can chip the paint around the rivets and it looks realistic.. now when you do some chipping in middle of the panel, it looks weird So lesson learned.. Aaaand i did order another academy P-40N and going to build that one (i have hasegawa N at home, thought i would build it, but still cant decide.. the canopy is better than academy, but there are even few panel lines made as recesed, no idea why when 99% of the panel lines are in "negative".. and me and scribing tools are not the best friends ever.. ) Edited February 26, 2015 by Wolwe82 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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