P-40 Comparison Builds

[Ventora3300]

I love the Curtiss P-40 and was brought up on the Airfix P-40E with all its inaccuracies. I had the idea that I would like to build that one again for a bit of dewy-eyed nostalgia but continue on and build a newer tooled version if it was available and any other variants from any other kit manufacturers that were around - and there seem to be plenty. 

 

I first started this last year and was 'interrupted' by the start of the Matchbox GB - having got that over and survived the Airfix 'Golden Years' GB, I'm going to knock away at some comparison builds of the P-40's I have as some light relief from GB deadlines.

 

Firstly, here is the venerable Airfix P40E Kittyhawk from 1964 and I was delighted to see that they had issued other boxings - I got the 'Starter Kit' version from 2011 but also a new tooling of a Tomahawk IIB issued around the same time.

 

 

 

Looking at the P-40E Kittyhawk first, I did a side by side comparison of the parts:

 

 

Actually, everything is the same except for a much better pilot and better detailing on the wheels. I see in the later boxing that more sprue plastic was left on and there may be a suspicion of flash creeping in. Plastic colour has changed from silver grey to light grey and transfers have now become decals!

 

If you compare the original kit with the new tool Tomahawk, you can see that it's a new kit altogether.

 

 

However, I took on the 'nostalgia build first so here goes - Airfix P-40E Kittyhawk from 1964.

 

The basic tools and cement are out....but also an new edition magnifying glass to aid the eyesight...

 

The seat is in, the radiator detail added and the prop mounted on the boss spindle. Lovely rivet detail...

 

Fuselage together with prop fitted and spinner dry-fitted - couldn't resist starting the red on it. The prop does spin well at this early stage - hope I can keep that going.

 

Stabilisers on and wing uppers and lowers assembled, the alignment needs to be carefully checked to avoid a step, particularly at the 'nose' of the undercarriage leg bays. Aux fuel tank with legs is assembled - I read somewhere that this is a bit undersized on this kit.

 

 

As usual with these old Airfix kits, I find the fuselage seams to be a problem - seems to be a mismatch at the tailwheel well. That will need trimming to get the tailwheel door(s) to fit as I'm doing this one 'wheels up'.

 

 

Fitting the main undercarriage doors as per the instructions for wheels up - that can't be right, the doors fall in to the space and even if I pack out with some blu-tac, they don't line up with the curve of the 'nose' of the wheel wells. I need to have a look at some real examples here.

 

Edited November 16, 2018 by Ventora3300

[GREG DESTEC]

Hi Mike,

 

That's looking good!

 

The old Airfix kit was one of my favourites from the old days son its good to see it getting built again. 

 

I look forward to your progress.

 

Cheers Greg 😁

[Ventora3300]

On 16/11/2018 at 19:10, GREG DESTEC said:

Hi Mike,

 

That's looking good!

 

The old Airfix kit was one of my favourites from the old days so its good to see it getting built again. 

 

I look forward to your progress.

 

Cheers Greg 😁

Thanks, Greg. This is definitely a 'golden oldie'.

[Ventora3300]

Anyway, while I was thinking about how to close up the wheel wells, I got the stabilisers and wings on, setting the dihedral with the aid of blutac. Fuselage and wing joints will need a bit of attention.

 

 

 

The kit Instructions would have you just place the wheels onto the pins in the wheel wells but that actually gives you the wrong side of the wheels facing outwards.

 

 

I decided to cut away the pins, mount the wheels on the undercarriage legs, file a bit off the back of the wheels and lay them in the undercarriage bays, correct sides outwards.

 

 

Once the wheel bays had been painted and the wheels and tyres also, these were glued in place and the undercarriage doors mounted either side in line with the front 'nose' profile. The doors were then completed with filler and sanded back to represent fully closed bay doors. 

 

'Light Blue' undersides are on - I used Hu65.

 

 

Edited November 19, 2018 by Ventora3300

[HAMP man]

Serious nostalgia!

First kit ever, bought for me to get over a nasty experience in the dentist, must have been 1967, and I think it was 2s11d., for those born after 1972 that is 14 1/2 p.

I wanted to paint it but the man in the shop didn't know what colour middle stone was, and being 8 neither did I.

Just got the Special Hobby kitting of this so will be watching through my rose tinted glasses

 

Box On 

 

Strickers

[neil5208]

Just started the new tool one, builds up very quickly. Just needs a bit of fettling on the top engine cowl to fit right.

[GREG DESTEC]

Great progress Mike,

 

The Kittyhawk is really taking shape now.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Cheers Greg

[Spookytooth]

Nice to see some one doing a comparison between the Airfix offerings.

true nostalgia looking at those written instructions sir.

 

Simon. 

[dogsbody]

Ah, the memories! My first P-40, about 1968, I think.

 

 

Chris

[Ventora3300]

15 hours ago, GREG DESTEC said:

Great progress Mike,

 

The Kittyhawk is really taking shape now.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Cheers Greg

Thanks again, Greg. You may remember the P-40 thread below which I will work into my Comparison somehow. I ended up re-doing the stars n' bars so can give an update.

 

 

[Ventora3300]

On 19/11/2018 at 13:57, HAMP man said:

Serious nostalgia!

First kit ever, bought for me to get over a nasty experience in the dentist, must have been 1967, and I think it was 2s11d., for those born after 1972 that is 14 1/2 p.

I wanted to paint it but the man in the shop didn't know what colour middle stone was, and being 8 neither did I.

Just got the Special Hobby kitting of this so will be watching through my rose tinted glasses

 

Box On 

 

Strickers

Hope this build lives up to our memories, Strickers. I must have been a much better modeller back then because I can't remember having all this trouble over misaligned seams and wide joints etc.! I've never built a Special Hobby kit so I'll keep an eye out for your build.

On 19/11/2018 at 13:58, neil5208 said:

Just started the new tool one, builds up very quickly. Just needs a bit of fettling on the top engine cowl to fit right.

Yes, I'm looking forward to doing the new tool version as well.

21 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Nice to see some one doing a comparison between the Airfix offerings.

true nostalgia looking at those written instructions sir.

 

Simon. 

Thanks, Simon. The Instructions are worth a read over a relaxed cup of coffee or similar. I've actually found good fitting hints in the written Instructions for another kit which couldn't be expressed in the 'picture' version.

18 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Ah, the memories! My first P-40, about 1968, I think.

 

 

Chris

Same here. I wonder how many Airfix Kittyhawks got sold back then. It's amazing to think how many vintage P-40E kits could still be circulating out there, awaiting a build!

 

Pianted the cockpit interior in grey-green and mounted the gunsight. The pilot is painted and in but obviously the scale is way off - looks like me as a 10 year old flying that Kittyhawk!

 

The Middle Stone (H84) is going on.

 

 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

I still think it's a smashing little kit but I suspect the propeller blades are a little on the short side. Nice going on yours!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Ventora3300]

2 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I still think it's a smashing little kit but I suspect the propeller blades are a little on the short side. Nice going on yours!

 

Regards,

Adrian

I think you are right about the prop blades, Adrian. It will be interesting to see the comparison with the newer boxed and tooled kits. All the best. Mike.

[Ventora3300]

Dark Earth Humbrol H29 is going on, two coats required as usual.

 

 

 

I was checking up on the length of prop blades and references say the blades have an 11ft diameter, so I am assuming each blade has a radius of 5ft 5ins, that's 1651mm. At 1/72 scale, that is 23mm so I'll measure at the next opportunity.

 

Second coat is on. At this point, the pitot tube supplied with the kit pinged off into oblivion so I'll have to make a replacement from suitable spares.

 

Masked the canopies and painted. Made up a replacement pitot tube from similar from a Novo Tupolev SB.2 'Katyuska' that I have handy for spares. 

 

Zooming along now.

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2018 by Ventora3300

[HAMP man]

On 11/20/2018 at 4:07 PM, Ventora3300 said:

Hope this build lives up to our memories, Strickers. I must have been a much better modeller back then because I can't remember having all this trouble over misaligned seams and wide joints etc.! I've never built a Special Hobby kit so I'll keep an eye out for your build.

Where I work, we call it Service Level Creep,

 

I seem to recall that mine had only one camo colour a red nose, 'stickers' that were applied free form and a frosted glass fingerprint pattern canopy, only took an afternoon to build ...and paint., now it takes about 3 months, if at all to complete one!

 

Progress eh?

 

Nice rendition of a fav kit

 

Box On

 

Strickers

Edited November 23, 2018 by HAMP man

[Ventora3300]

Rear quarter canopies are painted and on and the main canopy painting is in progress. Gloss cote on ready for transfers.

 

 

Main canopy on and transfers completed. Finished off with a matt cote.

 

 

 

 

Most of the decals were OK but one of the tail flashes and one of the letters 'G' broke up a bit so I have gone looking on e-bay for some vintage replacements. Also, I have noticed that even though the artwork on the header card shows the red side of the mouth to be at the top, colour references show this to be at the bottom and that makes sense because I think it is supposed to be the tonque in the shark's mouth! I'll have a go at correcting that with the replacement decals.

 

 

[GREG DESTEC]

Looks great 

 

Well done,

 

cheers Greg

[Ventora3300]

I did manage to source some replacement decals for the vintage Airfix Kittyhawk P-40E and managed to replace the broken 'G' code. However, the 'teeth' just broke up when removed from the backing (despite a coating of decalfilm) so I'll just have to leave this 'sharkmouth' with his tongue at the top. Time to put this little beauty down now and move on to one of the 'new tool' P-40's - looking forward to more internal detail, better fitting seams and modern decals!

 

[Ventora3300]

Continuing on.........with the new tool Airfix Tomahawk IIB. This is a welcome respite from all the old Airfix and Frog kits I have been completing recently for the various GB's..

 

 

 

Lovely soft 'new Airfix' plastic and I like the fact that the cockpit is assembled on top of the lower wing so the fuselage halves can go together immediately, with rudder and stabilisers on.

 

The radiator intake pops in below the nose and the engine cowling is ready to go on once the prop and spinner are painted and installed. The rear wheel doors are on as 'open' since I am doing wheels down. I've gone for the 'open cooling gills' option which is a good feature.

 

The top surfaces of the wings go on easily with just a dry fit check with the fuselage. Pitot tube is on.

 

Everything is coming off the sprues very easily but the plastic is so soft that trimming/sanding need to be done really lightly and carefully. The control stick actually snapped in my fingers as I was handling and when trying to glue the pieces back together, the top half pinged off into the distance - still to find it. Main undercarriage doors are on as open and it is quite difficult to decide the orientation of the smaller inner doors, since they curve outwards rather than inwards.

 

Part 24 seems to be  a straight version of a pitot tube (part 25 is the 'cranked' version) so since not being used, I will use a section of it to replace the lost control stick top.

 

All other parts remain on the sprues for painting. Lovely kit, this.

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by Ventora3300

[Ventora3300]

Got a bit of painting done now.

 

 

Cockpit interior in Humbrol 78 and spinner, backplate and wheel centres in  Humbrol 90 Sky. The transfer for the IP is on.

 

I spent a little time polishing the spinner backplate and fuselage front to see if I can get this prop to spin. Very careful with glue on the retaining collar. I quite like this engineering - lets you get the fuselage together early.

 

I touched in the canvas wheel bay liners in Humbrol 26 Khaki just to highlight this detail. Wing is dry fitted for now. This pic highlights that i made a mess of cutting the rear wheel open doors piece off the sprue and left a bit behind - I'll correct that.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Ventora3300

[Ventora3300]

Main wing is cemented to the fuselage now and a good fit all round, I found. Had to squeeze up the wings to the top joints to eliminate any gaps and keep the dihedral. I used some putty on various seams around the cowling and needed a small bit of filler on the blemishes on the fuselage from the sprue gates. All filled though and ready for painting.

 

Wheels are fitted on the legs and centres pushed in - a tight fit and I had to make sure no paint present on the mating surfaces.

 

 

First coat of Humbrol 90 Sky is on the undersides. It's an old crusty tin and I hope it lasts out!

 

[Ventora3300]

Also made a start on the more modern re-box of the original P-40E kit, everything assembled that can be at this stage and painting of the insides commenced in preparation for closing up the fuselage.

 

I cut off the large pins inside the wheel bays since I'm doing wheels down and there is a gap to the inside of the wing which I will look at filling with something to represent the canvas liners. The wing halves fitted together better than I remember the original version doing but I still had to put filler on the joint at the undercarriage leg 'noses' on the leading edges since the mismatch is still there. The pilot is much more to scale in this kit. There is also a large gunsight, which isn't there on the new tool Tomahawk - must check that out.

 

This has the same transfers as the original kit but is a 'Starter Kit' with a different suggested paint scheme - no red spinner this time! The underside is called out as '96' (RAF Blue), same colour as the pilot's flying kit, so I'm thinking twice before applying that. The upper surfaces camouflage is 29 Dark Earth and 93 Desert Yellow, instead of the 84 Mid Stone of the original scheme.

 

[Ventora3300]

Managed to save the crusty old tin of Humbrol 90 Sky with enamel thinners and so a second coat is on. Underwing light lens dotted in in 151 Chrome. A couple of bits of  flakes in the paint to remove. Pilot has his Mae West.

 

 

More paint on the re-boxed old tool P-40E - the prop is markedly different and looks to be paddle blades (and we have the suspicion they are too short) as opposed to what looks more like the needle type on the Tomahawk.

 

[Ventora3300]

Looking back at the original Airfix P-40 kit painting instructions from 1964 'Pale Blue' undersides are advised - I used Humbrol 65 as that would have been around at the time.

 

For the re-boxing of this kit, remember that statement I made above? 'The underside is called out as '96' (RAF Blue), same colour as the pilot's flying kit, so I'm thinking twice before applying that'.

 

Well, what about this excellent thread on the subject initiated by @John ?

 

 This will take some reading.....

Edited December 13, 2019 by Ventora3300

[Ventora3300]

Humbrol 29 Dark Earth going on the Tomahawk IIB now. This was another old tin with a 'skin' inside - managed to re-invigorate with some enamel thinners but fairly thin now. Two coats on and perhaps a third required.