Airfix P-40B Tomahawk 1/48th - It's Arrived!!!!!

[BS_w]

Originally, on P40 B, C & G, the two 9mm thick  armor plates were at sta 1(fire wall) and behind head rest(sta 5),
7mm armor plate behind the seat back in the cutout on the bulkhead sta 5

 

Quote

7mm thickness from lower windscreen to top of engine

On the P40D and up

Edited November 8, 2016 by BS_w

[Nick Millman]

Both the RAF Tomahawk pilot's manual and AVG crew chief Frank Losonsky describe the armour plate as per my previous post above. Losonsky described the installation on Tomahawk # 74 (Chinese s/n P-8193 RAF s/n AM512, Curtiss # 15965) in his diary of 21 October 1941, an aircraft from the third (March) allotment to the AVG which had arrived in Rangoon in July 1941 and which was broken up for spares after a belly landing on 31 October. The AVG had no P-40Ds on strength at that time!

 

Nick 

[BS_w]

According the two handbooks operation and flight instructions of P40& P40G(nov 41) and P40B(mar 41), the T.O. "Curtiss- installation armor plate-fuselage station 1 and 5 (jun 41)" , the armor plates were as I wrote.

[Nick Millman]

Maybe so, but you can never treat those as absolute gospel because there were all sorts of additional modification sheets issued that may or not have been included or updated in those copies that exist today. 

 

Besides the AVG aircraft were intended for delivery to RAF specs, although with several non-standard or hybrid fit outs. For example the Curtiss pre-packing photos show several hand annotated cockpit modifications for the aircraft destined for China.

 

Nick 

[Brad-M]

I'm surprised no one has caught the flaw in the box art. 2nd Lt Welch did not take off from Wheeler field, of which the box art depicts. He and his winger, 2nd Lt Taylor drove to Haleiwa airstrip, where two P-40's were waiting for their arrival. Unless of course Airfix is depicting their second sortie, in which they re-armed and launched from Wheeler.

 

Cheers

Brad

Edited November 14, 2016 by Brad-M

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Just a note to say that if you want to use the canopy in its opened version, and you are fastidious, you'll need to add the canopy runner guides to just below the sills. The rear parts are moulded in place, for a closed canopy, but not the front parts.  2 strips of thin stretch sprue or plastic rod will do the job.

 

I only noticed on mine after painting - and the entire sprue fix took about 10 mins, including painting them once in situ.

 

Cheers

 

Jonners

[BS_w]

On 18/11/2016 at 11:51 AM, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

Just a note to say that if you want to use the canopy in its opened version, and you are fastidious, you'll need to add the canopy runner guides to just below the sills. The rear parts are moulded in place, for a closed canopy, but not the front parts.  2 strips of thin stretch sprue or plastic rod will do the job.

 

 forward; the runner guide are recessed in the fuselage, and progressive raised at their end . This is because the width of fuselage is larger forward (at windshield frame) than at rear , however the runners are parallel.

 

EDIT:

 

I'm wrong I describe H75.....

For P40/H81 you're right; the runner guide go from windshield to rear.

 

Sorry!!!!!

Edited November 19, 2016 by BS_w

[BS_w]

Edit my post above.

[Paul J]

I have just got myself one of these kits and adore it. Lots of fors and againsts have been talked about here but for me it is FAR superior than Trumpeters shallow cockpit etc ( Look at Academy Hunter... undersized seat, oversized this, wrong shape that...)

Talking of Academy, their P-40B had a pitot tube/head that looks more like 1/24th scale ... in a 48th kit....

A majority of the remedies are all very easily sorted evn the lack of aileron trim tab which has the actuator but not recessed outline.. And I don t worry about displaced ailerons rudders, flaps etc. More things to break when transporting to model shows.

 

By the way, how many people have noticed the less shiny box and the Union flag boasting Made in the UK logo  at bottom right corner of the lid

[TOMMO-01]

 Anyone know what the differences are between the open and closed canopys ? - cos after comparing them against each other ,they look exactly the same 😨

[TOMMO-01]

On 27/10/2016 at 21:54, HBBates said:

I put this post on Hyperscale because as we talk of tweeks and fixes on this kit I want people to understand .. this kit does have thing to fix....But.... I can honestly ask this question 

===============================================================================

 

Is Airfix or Hasegawa the Best 1/48 P-40 now in the market? 

Truth is.. looking at the photo with the new plastic and tighter tooling the Airfix kit looks very much like a Hasegawa kit.. 

And Yes Airfix's P-40 and Hasegawa P-40 are way different versions... but as any version P-40 go..... 

The Airfix might just be the best 1/48 any version P-40 .. 

The cockpit is better that for sure.. and then what you need to tweek / fix on Airfix vs Hasegawa silly inserts that are a pain 

then the price point..Airfix vs Hasegawa?.....Airfix wins that 

Airfix might just be the new best 1/48 any version P-40 

And that not saying it has nothing to fix.. it does..it has some really silly errors.... but so does the Hasegawa kit 

So look at is as if the Airfix or Hasegawa were the same version 1/48 P-40?.. which on would you chose..even if then were the same price 

The Airfix and Hasegawa P-40 kits look to very much complement each other 
 

i didnt know Hasegawa done a 1/48  P40b/c .

[TOMMO-01]

On 02/11/2016 at 19:57, Raven Morpheus said:

When Airfix have given us a kit that doesn't have options their other more recent new tool kits have, let alone a competitors kit that was made 12 years ago, and people start deriding and mocking me for having an opinion about that - what do you expect me to call such people?!

 

And please - show me where I have explicitly said or implied it is a worse kit?  Actually don't bother, you won't be able to, because I haven't.

 

I have said however that it lacks features a kit made 12 years ago gave us and that their own recent new tool kits have, and that to the non-rivet counter both kits look like a P-40 when built.

 

 

And are you seriously going to sit there and tell me that a kit that doesn't have the features a kit 12 years ago had, that previous new kits in the last 5 years by the same company had, is progress?  Seriously?  Really?

 

You're telling me the Trumpeter kit lacks a good cockpit, well the Airfix kit lacks positionable ailerons and flaps.

 

As for building the model I want to build - I can't really, because the model I would love to build in 1/48 of a P-40B doesn't exist yet.

 

And as I said, I don't build planes in a parked on the ground state.

 

And I guess you've never seen a P-40B take off, if you did you'd see (although not always) the flaps down, on the run down the runway - oh wait a minute, that's on the ground isn't it!  They're also used in landings.

 

Again - we don't all build planes as though they're parked on the ground.

 

 

Sheesh, you make 1 comment about a couple of things you find unsatisfactory with a kit and the fanboys come out to rip you to pieces.

 

I could just as easily point out that none of what you lot have mentioned, getting out your scale drawings and all, matters, because the kit is so accurate, and deride and mock you all for pointing out the issues you have...

 

[TOMMO-01]

2 minutes ago, TOMMO-01 said:

😨😨😨😨