Airfix Kittyhawk and Tomahawk in 1.72

[old thumper]

Hello all, I hope I am not to late to enter this my first group build. Here are my two Airfix P40s, two kits which I am sure need no introduction. I shall be building both kits straight out the box.

Edited March 17, 2015 by old thumper

[Procopius]

Hello all, I hope I am not to late to enter this my first group build. Here are my two Airfix P40s, two kits which I am sure need no introduction.

Or photos!

[old thumper]

Or photos!

I am not very good at photos, still learning. I left school in 1984 when they only gave lessons on computers to the brainy kids who listened to Rainbow and played dungeons and dragons.

I must have resized these two pictures down to small when I uploaded them, I will sort this out later.

[Procopius]

I am not very good at photos, still learning. I left school in 1984 when they only gave lessons on computers to the brainy kids who listened to Rainbow and played dungeons and dragons.

Take it from me, you don't have to be very brainy to play Dungeons and Dragons, although they may have broadened the franchise by the mid-1990s.

[CedB]

I am not very good at photos, still learning. I left school in 1984 when they only gave lessons on computers to the brainy kids who listened to Rainbow and played dungeons and dragons.

I must have resized these two pictures down to small when I uploaded them, I will sort this out later.

Ah, 1984, a classic year! Not for me leaving school (I was 30) but it was the year of the Macintosh launch "Insanely Great".

I use PhotoBucket for my pics because you can upload easily (from my iPhone, of course) and resize / edit there. Most people prefer (in my 'survey' anyway) pictures of around the 800 x 600 pixels (for old people like me and/or old screens) or half this if you don't need to be able to see much details.

Hope this helps thumper and looking forward to the builds!

[dazdot]

Looking forward to this welcome and anyway I was playing elite in 1984 and still have it running on my pc now

[wyverns4]

Welcome to the group build and it is never too late!

1984; yup playing D & D and doing FT1 at Catterick, (depot, not barracks!).

Christian the Married and exiled to africa...

[old thumper]

Take it from me, you don't have to be very brainy to play Dungeons and Dragons, although they may have broadened the franchise by the mid-1990s.

Those kids were the brainy ones, you should have seen the rest of us. I went to a very poor school, we had to climb up and borrow the slates off the roof every morning, we used to slide off like flys when it was raining.

[old thumper]

Progress so far, I have now joined the fuselage halves of both P40's and the Revell Hurricane that I am also building together. Both the Tomahewk and Hurricane went together very easily. The Kittyhawk was a very different matter, this is a very old kit that calls for a lot of attention. Most of my time so far has been spent building up the fuselage area around the cockpit to take the canopy, this has required plastic card to be glued and shaped along almost the whole outline of the canopy. As would be expected the Kityhawk fuselage has also required a lot of filling and rubbing down, it's wing halves are also now together after a lot of cutting and fileing down.

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Edited March 20, 2015 by old thumper

[dazdot]

Good stuff mate nice one

[old thumper]

Until now most of my time has been spent on the Airfix Kittyhawk, the other two kits having gone together easily with very little filler or fitting. I remember the Kittyhawk as being one of those iconic Airfix kits that everyone seemed to have during the 70's and 80's and just wanted a nicely made example for my Airfix collection. I made at least two myself back in my youth and childhood and for some reason I was still able to recall the fitting problems this old kit has, unfortunately though I had underestimated the work envolved.

With the Kittyhawk fuselage having been joined successfully together with its seam filled and sanded I then joined the wing halves together and began my struggle with hiding the wing / fuselage joint, which predictably required repeated filling and sanding until the joint disappeared. I then moved to fitting the canopy which was an even more agonising business.

My last task on the Kittyhawk was to sand down it's rivets until only a faint outline was still showing. What I am hoping for by doing this is to create a surface where I can bring the rivets back by buffing the surface with a light abrasive after painting is complete.

Edited March 26, 2015 by old thumper

[dazdot]

Good stuff there

[wellzy]

Nice build keep it going

Les

[old thumper]

It turned out that I needed to put even more filler around the Kittyhawk canopy and rear windows, what a job. As it looked like I had rubbed too much of the original rivet work off I also scribed a few panel lines on the wings. I wasn't to fussy where the lines went, just made a quick copy of the Tomahawk panel lines and that was it.

Just had a look on Britmodeller to see how many other people have made the old Airfix Kittyhawk on here, turns out it is only two, I think that says it all really. The thing with old Airfix stuff like this is knowing where to draw the line, otherwise you can spend the rest of your life doing this and that on them.

Both the other two Britmodellers had the same problems as I, perhaps I should have made my own rear windows like one of them did.

Anyway, finished spraying the final coat, or at least what I hope is going to be the final coat of Humbol 93 Desert Yellow, all three models are now in the airing cupboard drying off. I have also finishing spraying the props, spinners and undercarriage legs.

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[dazdot]

Good work

[old thumper]

As you can see I have now completed the camouflage on all three kits with the addition of dark earth, also the undersides have now been sprayed. The sausage method was used for masking the camouflage which was later masked off using yellow frog tape in order to add the blue.

The Kittyhawk canopy turned out ok once the tape was removed, not great just ok. Not sure about the humbrol 93 desert yellow, it looks a bit wrong somehow. Used humbrol 83 middle blue for the undersides, as the recommended paints looked to dark.

While the Airfix Tomahawk is a pretty good kit it would have been better if the guns and aerial hadnt been moulded on to the wings and fuselage, they always seem to break off.

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Edited March 29, 2015 by old thumper

[dazdot]

Nice mate very nice

[vppelt68]

Looking very good indeed! V-P

[old thumper]

Just finished them.
The old Kittyhawk kit was a proper pig to build, but at least now I have a reasonably decent looking example for my collection of old Airfix kits, which is all I really wanted. The Kittyhawk was coated with three coats of klear before applying the transfers with micro sol, it was then finished with a mixture of white and earth humbrol weathering powders suspended in decalfix. Would I build another Airfix P 40E Kittyhawk kit? no! This kit is just far to much hassle, I know that I could have built a far nicer model in a fraction of the time using a kit from a rival manufacturer, it was just that I needed this one for the collection.

The Tomahawk kit on the other hand was an easy build, I don't think it is the best of the new Airfix kits but it is a nice kit that goes together well with just a small amount of filling and sanding etc. It is a shame that Airfix moulded the aerial and guns on to the wing and fuselage, I hate this as I always brake them off. The kit was first sprayed with humbrol gloss cote before applying the transfers with decalfix and finishing with off humbrol mattcote.
Would I build another? potentially yes although I don't feel my collection needs another Tomahawk.

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Edited April 4, 2015 by old thumper

[dazdot]

Nice work thumper

[Cookenbacher]

Yes indeed, I like them both.

Edit: Any chance we can see the Hurricane?

Edited April 4, 2015 by Cookenbacher

[old thumper]

Yes indeed, I like them both.

Edit: Any chance we can see the Hurricane?

Just finished the Hurricane. Out of the three kits this was the one I enjoyed building the most, but then as an aircraft I much prefer the Hurricane over the P40. While this Revell Hurricane MkII kit may not please the rivet counters it certainly pleases me, so much so I probably build one or two more of these lovely little kits. Incendentally while I was building this Hurricane it did cross my mind to perhaps adapt it into a Mk IId with 40mm anti-tank guns. I had the guns in my spares bin left over from an old Airfix Hurricane I built years back but decided against it as it would have been wrong to put the Greek Sqn markings supplied on Mk IId, plus I wanted a model of a canon armed Greek Hurricane anyway. Then by coincidence I just happened to be in Portsmouth, as I was aware of a good model shop there I popped in and found an Airfix collectors special edition Mk IId, lucky or what!

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Edited April 5, 2015 by old thumper

[Cookenbacher]

Thanks for posting your Hurricane too - that's a beauty.

[old thumper]

Thanks very much.