Jump to content

1:48 Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk RAF 1942 Neville Duke


Recommended Posts

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.

FB_IMG_1461490331948_zpssr2frkgd.jpg

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.

FB_IMG_1461490268720_zpsfwmz8ihb.jpg

FB_IMG_1461490277319_zpsnltrkvyy.jpg

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).

FB_IMG_1461490283890_zpscgxlcspo.jpg

FB_IMG_1461490287672_zpsxzayzqpd.jpg

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.

FB_IMG_1461490349911_zpseoztkzkh.jpg

FB_IMG_1461490304346_zpsjrtczp8a.jpg

FB_IMG_1461490260314_zpszll1jpbt.jpg

  • Like 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Top work Richard, that's a cracking Kittyhawk!! :Tasty::thumbsup:

I'm not a fan of heavily weathered models normally, especially when they are just to be displayed 'stand alone' fashion in a display cabinet, as I feel it just looks plain wrong .... but when the model is to be part of a diorama, where a story is to be told, as with your model here, then that is a different story but even then it still has to be done sympathetically towards the scene to look right in my view? In your case it is perfectly done and I like it very much, it really looks like it's spent many days under the hot Libyan sun and had some very hard use in desert warfare - perfect!!

Very well done Richard!! :Tasty: :tasty: :thumbsup:

Kev :)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...