Airfix P-40 in 1:48

[SoftScience]

My Airfix P-40 in 1:48. Added some lead foil belts, and built the ring and bead sites from thin wire and stretched sprue, but otherwise done as Airfix intended. Paints are Vallejo and Tamiya, with the camouflage colors brush painted. I added some very light weathering with oils on select panel lines, and chips with a silver pencil. That's about it. The kit is simple, sturdy, fits well, and has great detail. It would be a great project for a first-time modeler. 

The aircraft is built as Robert Smith's (not from The Cure) machine, when he flew with the AVG in 1942. Oh, I did change one other thing. I backdated the kill markings by a few. Done out of necessity as I somehow lost the Airfix decal, and this was the closest thing I had. 

 

[Buzby061]

Very nice, I like the restrained weathering.

 

I've got one in the stash but plan to do it in a Soviet scheme.

 

Pete

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Excellent Flying Tiger 👍

[polo1112]

A really beautiful Warhawk.

I love it very much.

Great job !

[zebra]

Very nice but you've got me thinking about what Robert Smith from The Cure would look like in the cockpit of a P-40 now!

[YakkityYak]

What was your technique to do the brush painted camouflage? Was it just highly thinned?

[SoftScience]

14 minutes ago, zebra said:

Very nice but you've got me thinking about what Robert Smith from The Cure would look like in the cockpit of a P-40 now!

Just a wild shock of black hair sticking out.

 

And smeared lipstick on the shark-mouth

[SoftScience]

15 minutes ago, YakkityYak said:

What was your technique to do the brush painted camouflage? Was it just highly thinned?

 

Pretty much. I use liquitex flow enhancement medium. You can find it at most arts and craft stores.

 

I then airbrushed on the clear coats to minimize any errant  brush strokes.

[zebra]

2 minutes ago, SoftScience said:

Just a wild shock of black hair sticking out.

 

And smeared lipstick on the shark-mouth

and mascara round the eyes!

[Spitfire31]

Very nice P-40 indeed! The brushwork is just fabulous and the weathering close to ideal – hardly noticeable, it's just there.

 

The only thing I don't understand is that blotchy metal scuffing on the prop blades. Props, in normal use, may show a thin, continuous hint of worn down paint on the extreme leading blade edge and, for instance on VDM props in sandy conditions (North African TOW, for example), sometimes a 'sanding down' of the paint of the rear of the blade near the tip. But large, irregular blotches? IMHO, just an apparently fashionable quirk of some modellers' imagination; nothing to do with reality. 😉

 

Lovely model, though!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[SoftScience]

47 minutes ago, Spitfire31 said:

Very nice P-40 indeed! The brushwork is just fabulous and the weathering close to ideal – hardly noticeable, it's just there.

 

The only thing I don't understand is that blotchy metal scuffing on the prop blades. Props, in normal use, may show a thin, continuous hint of worn down paint on the extreme leading blade edge and, for instance on VDM props in sandy conditions (North African TOW, for example), sometimes a 'sanding down' of the paint of the rear of the blade near the tip. But large, irregular blotches? IMHO, just an apparently fashionable quirk of some modellers' imagination; nothing to do with reality. 😉

 

Lovely model, though!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

 

 

You know, I never really thought about it. Not thinking about it is a problem with most weathering, and I guess I was part of the problem here.

 

Thanks for the heads up. It should be easy to fix, and even easier to avoid in the future.

[Hairtrigger]

Very nice build.

[72modeler]

Very nice build and I agree with the others regarding the restrained weathering and scuffing. RT Smith's P-40 is my very favorite AVG kite, so you get bonus points for making that choice! I think I see what Spitfire31 meant by the scuffing of your prop blades, and the erosion does usually occur along the leading edge of each blade and also on the back side of each blade, more towards the tip than the root. In some period photos, you can see the paint has been scoured off of the back side of the prop blades until they almost look like bare metal, due to the vacuum effect of the prop pulling air behind it. Running a dry brush of silver paint along the leading edge of the prop blades might be more realistic in appearance- a real easy fix, to be sure, that would make a very good model even better. Good job on the colors, BTW. 

Mike

[IanC]

Lovely model. The paintwork and weathering is especially good.

 

I must do one of these in 1/72..

[SoftScience]

11 minutes ago, IanC said:

Lovely model. The paintwork and weathering is especially good.

 

I must do one of these in 1/72..

Thanks.

 

The 72 kit is nice too. I built one a few years ago.