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PK-31 Matchbox Curtiss P-40N Warhawk


Ventora3300

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During the course of the Matchbox GB, I got so excited that I started to pick up other kits. Still a week to go before this GB finishes so there is time to squeeze in one of the kits not covered yet - a favourite aircraft of mine, the Curtiss P-40.

 

Such a pugnacious-looking piece of US heavy metal and much has been written about the instant appeal of painting shark's teeth on the big jawline!

Matchbox offered the P-40N Warhawk version with a skull motif so here we go....

 

Surprise...when I bought the 'unstarted' kit, I noticed that someone had already applied some paint to the spinner.

 

100_1882

 

Got going on the first few stages of the build - as usual, a very good fit of parts and next to no flash (just a little at the rear of the fuselage pieces).

 

I'll leave the pilot out for now until he is painted but cracking on with assembling the fuselage and the prop.

 

100_1944

 

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11 hours ago, GREG DESTEC said:

Nice one Mike,

 

I am a big fan of the P_40,so I will be watching with interest to see how the Matchbox one turns out. 

 

Best of luck, 

 

Greg :yes:

Thank you Greg and I hope this one is of interest. (You will be glad to hear that I started a comparison build of P-40's across Airfix and Frog just as the Matchbox GB kicked off so doing this Matchbox version really fits in well).

Looking at this kit, I see on the sprues that it is 'Made in XXXXXXXX' - the 'England' has been blanked out so is this one of the Revell produced items in a Matchbox box? I forgot to look for a date inside the fuselage halves.

Certainly, flash has started to creep in - as well as a bit on the fuselage tail ends, I had to open out the prop retaining ring as well to get a fit. Prop has been tested for spin! The instructions show a hole beneath the front edge of the seat to take the joystick but there isn't one there - just a couple of very small raised tabs to mark the spot.

The sloping section in the fuselage which goes behind the seat and helps with the pilot's rear view doesn't quite fill the space completely so a more conscientious modeller would probably have to fill the gaps with plastic card.

Paint plan gives the upper surfaces colour as 'NATO Olive' - what? NATO was formed in 1949 so I hope they adopted the Olive Drab that the USAAF was using in 1944...

Anyway, I am especially interested in how the undercarriage doors go together as my previous experience with the vintage Airfix kit showed that they had over-simplified. There was no stand provided with this kit so I will be doing 'wheels down'.

Catch you later.

Mike

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Quote

 

Hi Mike,

 

I always thought the old Airfix P-40 looked good in outline although it's quite soft details wise. 

 

The CBI Warhawks were painted olive drab but in a slightly darker shade than the ETO machines I think.

 

The skull nose art depicts a 80th Fighter group aircraft and were known as the Burma Banshees. Apparently each skull was individual to each machine.

 

Good luck with your build.

 

Cheers Greg😉

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More progress on the P-40. Wing halves together and undercarriage doors assembled to the underside. There are separate pieces provided for the wheels up and wheels down options and some pieces look very similar so you really need to check the numbers of the bits as you remove them from the sprues and check where they go on the Instructions.

100_1889

It took me a bit of time to get the orientation right as the pieces forming the inside doors actually attach to the underside of the top wing piece - they don't really seem to come up to the level of the underside of the wing root. The Instructions also say that a piece of the underside of the wing top needs removed if wheels are to be 'up', to let the wheels go fully into the wheel wells.

 

 When putting the wings on, I noticed that there appeared to be raised portions on the wing root mating surface - did these make sure the right dihedral was reached? Not sure but when slotting in the wings to the fuselage, these raised portions didn't let the wing tabs slot fully home and it looked to me like a gap was left. I ended up sanding these raised portions off and the fit of wings to fuselage seemed a lot better.

100_1946100_1947

Sat the fuselage down with wing dihedral set with bluetac and painted Liquid Poly across the joints just to make sure they stayed tight.Stabilisers were a bit of a loose fit too so kept an eye on them as they dried.

100_1949

Front of fuselage and prop on. The paint plan shows 'Iron Colour' on the prop boss area so I am assuming that this is to represent the prop blade pitch mechanism?

100_1950

 

Interior of cockpit and wheel wells done with H86 for 'Light Olive' - a bit of research told me that it was canvas liners in the wheel wells, zipped and fastened in, so would they also have been coloured olive or maybe just remained as cream/brown?

100_1952

 

Put on the piece for the rear wheel 'down' option - again, the fit of the piece to the fuselage wasn't particularly good and I did a bit of trimming to get it in - been left at an angle so I think I'll pull it off and have another go. (Bit of an out of focus picture but you get the idea).

100_1953

 

Coming together but need to get on with the light grey undersides and will use H64 for that.

100_1955100_1954

 

 

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Some more progress on the P-40 Warhawk - pulled off the 'squint' tailwheel doors assembly and cut a slightly deeper recess in the rear fuselage to accommodate - it looks to me not to be sitting deep enough within the rear fuselage to allow the tailwheel to retract and the doors to close. I still think that I may have put it in upside down but the piece doesn't seem to fit the other way - that way, it would mean the tailwheel doors would be a snug fit to the tailwheel itself rather than being swung up out of the way. I'll do a bit of research but meantime, the assembly is back on (straight this time) with a bit of filler to smooth out the profile and painted.

 

Painting of exhaust stubs, wheels, legs, tailwheel, pilot and bomb on the sprues is complete - for some reason, I've left the pitot tube to last. The carpet monster and I have a bad record with pitot tubes.

 

The two shackles for the bomb have been glued on - no particular locating slots or anything so made a best guess. The canopy looked a bit grubby so got a wash with detergent and a couple of coats of 'Future' equivalent. Masking of canopy frames has been completed (during yesterday's lunch break, no pressure!).

 

First coat of Light Grey H64 is on!

 

100_1961100_1962

 

A landing light (I think) is provided to put in that hole in the lower port wing but it is a piece of grey rather than clear plastic. I'm wondering if I might reduce the thickness of the plastic piece and put a CA blob on top as a clear lens...

 

Second coat of Light Grey is on - managed to do that before leaving for work this morning! Feeling the pressure!

100_1963

 

Also, thinking ahead, I'm going to try to put on the upper surface colour without masking the line where it meets the lower colour - try to avoid a 'ridge' and go for the 'soft boundary' look. Taking on board the input from Greg and John above with regards to the top surface 'Olive' colour and had a read up on the 'Burma Banshees' as noted by Greg. I'm sure I have a fairly recent edition of 'Aeroplane' or 'Flypast' which did an article on them - must find it. 

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Good work Mike,

 

I like your work ethic on this build, I am confident you will finish in time. I am colour blind so not the best person to advice you on the upper surface colours. I used Humbrol 117 US light green on the B-25 and it is an example that operated in the same theatre as the Banshees going by the box top artwork it looks ok.

 

All the best Greg

Edited by GREG DESTEC
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Yes, Greg, it does look OK. Apparently, Revell colour 46 'Nato Olive' translated to Humbrol H108 which was discontinued. I found a reference that said use H155 or H66, H66 being the darker/greener of the two. I have a tin of both and the tin lid of the H66 looks darker and more 'drab'. I was going to try that as a first hit. If it doesn't look the part then I'll put on a layer of H155. Thanks for your help and I'm looking forward to your B25 taking to the air. Cheers. Mike

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2 hours ago, Ventora3300 said:

Yes, Greg, it does look OK. Apparently, Revell colour 46 'Nato Olive' translated to Humbrol H108 which was discontinued. I found a reference that said use H155 or H66, H66 being the darker/greener of the two. I have a tin of both and the tin lid of the H66 looks darker and more 'drab'. I was going to try that as a first hit. If it doesn't look the part then I'll put on a layer of H155. Thanks for your help and I'm looking forward to your B25 taking to the air. Cheers. Mike

No probs Mike,

 

You could do worse than check out the 1/32 P-40N in the RFI section which is the same as yours markings and coloured.

 

Cheers GregB)

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First coat of Olive H66 is on - no masking and I did manage to get a nice curve on the front fuselage. The colour is definitely greenish and dark....Pilot is in and I tried a different brown on his flying helmet to distinguish between it and the brown of the flying suit - next time, I'll reverse the colours, I think... Yellow tips now on the prop blades and a bit of touch up required.

100_1966

 

Canopy is on and I'll catch the framework on the second coat of Olive. 

100_1967

 

Thinking about the timing for the pitot tube to go on - I know that I'll knock it off again at least once!

 

Edited by Ventora3300
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Second coat of Olive is on and painted the canopy frames. This colour is looking right to me.

I took the opportunity to do general touch-ups around the pieces still on the sprue and the pilot did briefly get a visit under the canopy to replace his 'faded' flying helmet with a new leather one. That's when I noticed that the canopy is not really fitting well and I think it is the height of the seat underneath - needs a slight adjustment.

 

The spinner also got a new coat of red.

 

100_1969

 

Two coats of gloss are on (but not on the upper starboard wing) in preparation for the transfers.

 

100_1973

The decal sheet doesn't look in very good condition - will it be a Revell one rather than a Matchbox original? Keeping my fingers crossed.....

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3 hours ago, GREG DESTEC said:

Great progress Mike :yes:

 

Fingers crossed for the transfers. All mine were the original Matchbox ones and performed really well. 

 

Olive green looks good too.

 

Cheers Greg

Thanks, well, it was another fraught lunchtime session today and the transfers went on OK, although it looks like they are A Revell print. Unfortunately, some of the stars'n'bars had white lines on one side I.e. were printed a bit off centre. The skulls came out OK though and that is the main thing. All the bits are on now and touch ups and Matt Cote drying so need to get some pics at the weekend and update to the Gallery before time up. Congratulations on getting your B-25 build completed on time and the final colour looked to be the same but more drab, if that makes sense. Boy, I'll need a beer and a rubdown with a wet National Geographic after this (don't ask!!). All the best. Mike

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11 hours ago, Ventora3300 said:

Thanks, well, it was another fraught lunchtime session today and the transfers went on OK, although it looks like they are A Revell print. Unfortunately, some of the stars'n'bars had white lines on one side I.e. were printed a bit off centre. The skulls came out OK though and that is the main thing. All the bits are on now and touch ups and Matt Cote drying so need to get some pics at the weekend and update to the Gallery before time up. Congratulations on getting your B-25 build completed on time and the final colour looked to be the same but more drab, if that makes sense. Boy, I'll need a beer and a rubdown with a wet National Geographic after this (don't ask!!). All the best. Mike

Well done Mike,

 

I look forward to the final pics,

 

Cheers Greg :D

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Transfers are printed by Revell rather than by Matchbox but went on pretty well. Unfortunately, some of the stars'n'bars had white lines on one side i.e. were printed a bit off centre.

The skulls came out well -they are one piece which fits over the grooves for the exhaust stubs. Once the transfers were dry, I slit through to the grooves and pushed in the exhaust stacks - a good fit, thank goodness.

 

 

100_1981

 

Undercarriage, tailwheel and bomb is on as is the pitot tube. The landing light is in - pre-painted in 'chrome'.

 

 

100_1978

Matt Cote drying. 

100_1986

Aerial wire is on - green cotton thread this time as the fishing line was proving to be difficult.

 

100_1985

 

If I had more time, I may have added in some detailing on the machine gun undercover pans (I think) from the mini paint plan and the wing walkways in black. Next time..

 

The P-40 'Burma Banshee' is finished and a very enjoyable build it was too. The whole Matchbox GB experience has been fantastic and thanks to all you BM modellers out there who were there too - I'm going to take the time next week to read through all the builds again...

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Well done Mike, another one done and in the gallery. 

The P-40 is a long held favourite of mine, however I see you've taken the hard road by building both this Matchbox 'N' and the old Airfix 'E'. 

These are hard kits to get right, however thankfully two new tool kits are on there way courtesy of Special Hobby.

Do not discount the old Hasegawa 1/72 kits either. They've been around for ages, however are still much better shape-wise than the newer Academy kits.

 

Thanks for taking part in what has been a great GB. I truly appreciate all the 'likes' and encouraging comments on the way and am glad that the Build List proved to be a great success.

Enjoy reading through all these Matchbox kit builds and I recommend you put the kettle on, as you might be up for a while yet.

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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