yeehah1 Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 01.01.2017 Hi All, I'm using the Academy 1/48 P-40C to buld a Russian machine and I noticed that the pilot's seat seems to sit a little far forward of the rear bulkhead of the cockpit and seems to leave a gap. Not sure if that's correct? If you look down into the cockpit you can see down behind the pilot's seat and thru to the rear of the aircraft. Any advice? Thanks in advance Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDSModeller Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 11 hours ago, yeehah1 said: 01.01.2017 Hi All, I'm using the Academy 1/48 P-40C to buld a Russian machine and I noticed that the pilot's seat seems to sit a little far forward of the rear bulkhead of the cockpit and seems to leave a gap. Not sure if that's correct? If you look down into the cockpit you can see down behind the pilot's seat and thru to the rear of the aircraft. Any advice? Thanks in advance Liam Hi Liam, Having looked at pictures of the Academy Kit, it has "Two Poles" to mount the seat on which stands out out from the rear cockpit bulkhead (hence gap)? The early P40's (from my research) had a "frame" which attached to the rear cockpit bulkhead per attached photo link (which by the way is a E-1) to which the seat attached to - Yes I know it's the Saharan one but shows the seat/frame attachment well enough. P 40 Seat Frame With that, the Academy frame is missing the upper curved ends, and I'm picking the gap is reference to that, and how Academy decided to depict the seat/frame. - Of Course Academy could have exaggerated the gap slightly Hope that helps you? Regards Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeehah1 Posted January 2, 2018 Author Share Posted January 2, 2018 Hi Alan, thanks for the response and the photo. Yup, that makes sense. I also bought a photo-etch set from Eduard and their illustrations of the seat/bulkhead arrangement (which was depicting the placement of the seat belts) also shows the wide gap and nothing joining the the 'poles' to the bulkhead. Okay, I haven't joined the fuselage halves yet, so I'll fashion something to join the frame behind the seat to the bulkhead, We won't mention the fact that I painted the seat interior green. Looks like an aluminium seat in the photo Thanks again Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 (edited) Basically, you should see the fuel tank behind the seat, when looking through that "hole" , so no rear fuselaje should be seen when looking at that area. What I did when building mine was: -New cockpit floor, using a properly curved plastic piece. The real one used the top of the wing (hence the curved surface) as cockpit floor. -Scratch built a fuel tank "look alike", to be placed behind the kit supplied rear bulkhead. -Discarded the kit supplied seat, using an Hasegawa leftover, fitted to a new, scratch built rear frame, made of copper wire. -Reshaped the under fuselage "bump". Some filler and elbow grease, but nothing too dificult... Then, I was told about the kit's inaccuracies (wich, to be honest, didn't worry me), and finished it as a Flying Tiger machine. Next setep: got myself two Airfix kits, and kept for further troubles.... Slán leat....!!!!! Edited January 2, 2018 by Artie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeehah1 Posted January 2, 2018 Author Share Posted January 2, 2018 Hey Artie, Thanks for the great information! I didn't know about the fuel tank so thanks again. I was wondering about the floor of the kit being straight and level as reference I had seen online suggested otherwise. I have the cockpit (such as it is) assembled and painted but the fuel tank idea sounds like a good one. Just need to Google a good reference pic What do you mean by 'under fuselage bump' ? Nice touch of the Irish there Slan abhaile...! Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 (edited) 34 minutes ago, yeehah1 said: What do you mean by 'under fuselage bump' ? Hi, Liam.....The ventral fairing is what I mean... There's an online reference that I used a a guideline to correct mine...except for the wing fillets issue, that was far beyond my skills....In fact, the article talks about the oldest Hobbycraft kit, wich is the same kit later boxed by Academy (some sources say it was copied without their permission)... Hope you'll find it as useful as I did..... Best regards from Tenerife... http://www.hyperscale.com/features/2000/p40brb_1.htm Edited January 2, 2018 by Artie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 (edited) The P-40B’s & C’s had cutouts in the port side rear windows, so you wouldnt have to remove the window to refuel the tank. When i built my early -40’s I just drilled the two holes out. If you look at Figures 3 & 4, in the above Hyper-scale link you’ll see what I’m talking about. Dennis Edited January 2, 2018 by Corsairfoxfouruncle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS_w Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 the seat is slightly forward the bulkhead because there was the seat mount between. The hole in the frame, behind the seat, was closed by a curtain (P40, P40G)* or the armor plate(same shape as the hole) on P40B & C*, so the fuselage fuel tank was not visible from exterior *Handbook service instructions of these airplanes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Posted January 3, 2018 Share Posted January 3, 2018 3 hours ago, BS_w said: so the fuselage fuel tank was not visible from exterior And what about the new Airfix kit...????? The kit depicts the fuel tank right behind the seat, with no courtain or armour plate covering that opening in the bulkhead.... Cheers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS_w Posted January 3, 2018 Share Posted January 3, 2018 Airfix copie the restored aircraft which had some inaccurate or missed details. the long horizontal line recessed just above the wing fillet is normally a overlap joint, many other panel lines are wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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