Burma Banshee -- P-40M, 1/72 Hobby Boss

[opus999]

P-40M Warhawk

"Ruth Marie", 90th FS, 80th FG, Moran, Assam, India, April 1944

 

 

I finished this on 9/21/2019.  It is the Hobby Boss easy assembly kit. 

 

The P-40 was, for some reason, my favorite US plane when I was a kid.  I don't know if it was the mystique of the Flying Tigers, or the fact that the first kit I finished by myself was a Revell snap-together P-40E. More recently I started learning about all the different P-40 variants and how to tell them apart and decided I'd like to do a kit of each of the "major" variants (no 'D' or 'G' models for me). About that snap-together... it had a skull on the front that was very dramatic, so I thought I'd make a new version of it and as a bonus, the decal sheet I found was for 'N's and 'M's (well, N-1's and N-5's, more on that later). There were only 2 P-40M kits readily available, this one and the Academy boxing, but looking at finished Academy models, it appeared to have some serious shape issues, so this kit it was!

 

Hobby Boss easy assembly is a love/hate thing for me. They are inexpensive and often have very nice surface detail, but... the cockpits have little or sometimes no detail and there seems to always be one major flaw that need fixing to get it to look right.  And, that was the case here too.

 

There are lots of great photos, many close up, of the Burma Banshee P-40s so I was able to match the wear of the P-40s in a couple close up photos.  Also, the Banshees flew P-40N-1s.  A book I have said that the N-1 was basically an 'M' model with 2 wing guns removed and a lighter landing gear (which somewhere I read was a P-51 gear, but I can't confirm that).  This book said that in the field they would re-install the two guns in the wing, and put the older, heavier and more robust gear on, which effectively brought it back to the 'M' standard.  So I think I'm justified in calling this an 'M'.  

 

WIP is here

 

Finishing: Seams filled with CA (superglue)

Paints: Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black primer >  Mr. Color 303 (green)/Testors Olive Drab/Mr. Color 22 (Brown) marbled on top / Mr. Color FS36270 marbled on bottom > Testors Model Master Olive Green (Top) / Testors white/black mixed to match FS36270 (bottom) > Alclad Aqua Gloss clear coat > Decals > Testors dull coat for sealing in the decals > Testors zinc chromate for the wheel wells > Decanted Tamiya Silver Leaf spray for the landing gears > Tamiya acrylic NATO Black for the tires > Testors Chrome silver for paint chipping > Tamiya Royal Blue for spinner

Decals: Rising Decals RD 72084 "The Burma Banshees Pt. II"

Weathering/Wear: Oil wash on the landing gears, thinned watercolor and Tamiya pastels for various dirt and oil streaks, 0.2 mm Pencil for panel lines, sun fading by dot filtering with oil paints

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The grill behind the spinner is very prominent and the molding for it was shallow and wouldn't take wash well.  The holes in the grill are very prominent, and this grill is the defining feature that AFAIK is the only way to tell a 'M' model from a late model 'K', so I had to paint the holes on.

 

  

 

About the big fix I had to make in the Hobby Boss kit:  They made an insert for the canopy behind the cockpit so they could make an 'N' or 'M' just by swapping out inserts.  Problem is, it didn't fit well at all:

 

 

I thought I'd sand the bottom of it to drop it down, but luckily I dry-fit it first and found that the canopy would hold it in place, so any sanding on the bottom would just make a bigger gap.  So I had to sand down from the top.  I cut off the antenna mast (to be reattached later) and sanded away. then glued it in, filled the gaps and filled/rescribed the mis-matched panel lines.

 

Build notes:

 

• The sun fading came out pretty subtle, so I still have some to learn about that technique, especially how the dull coat changes it.  So I'll be doing more experimenting!
• I was at the hobby store yesterday, and on a whim bought Testors burnt iron metallizer for the exhaust.  It came out looking just as good as the more cumbersome methods I've been using, so I may be using more of it in the future
• This was the first time I used a 0.2 mm mechanical pencil to go over the panel lines.  Where the panel lines were deep enough, it was really easy to run the pencil lead through them, where they were more shallow, I used 3 layers of Tamiya masking tape stacked on each other as a guide.  The nice thing about the pencil is any goofs can be removed with the eraser.  I find this to be an easier and more reliable method for panel lines than a wash.

 

For fun, this was the first kit I finished by myself and inspired this build:

 

 

Thanks for looking! Questions, comments and constructive criticism always welcome!

 

Edited September 21, 2019 by opus999
spelling

[stevej60]

Excellent job all round,I agree with your sentiments regarding these easy kits I also find the often beautiful recessed lines

tend to  get lost even below sprayed coats of paint,that said I have four on the go in the P-40 GB here on BM.

[opus999]

Thanks! Which P-40s variants are you building?  I confess I don't know anything about Group Builds -- do they have their own section (I obviously haven't looked yet)?

[RMCS]

Lovley 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Wonderful Banshee ! 

[stevehnz]

I'm liking that. I was interested by your comment re the cockpit insert, It makes me wonder if after the remedial work you did, a vac formed canopy of better profile might have fitted OK & improved what I see as these (& the Academy kits they're copied from influenced by) kits biggest short coming. Your paint finish is spot on to my eye.

Steve.

Edited September 22, 2019 by stevehnz

[opus999]

12 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I'm liking that. I was interested by your comment re the cockpit insert, It makes me wonder if after the remedial work you did, a vac formed canopy of better profile might have fitted OK & improved what I see as these (& the Academy kits they're copied from influenced by) kits biggest short coming. Your paint finish is spot on to my eye.

Steve.

Thanks Steve! I am proud of the paint.  Placing it next to the Hasegawa P-40E I did shortly after college really showed how far I've come learning from a lot of folks here because the paint finish on the 'E' was so uniform and monotonous!

 

So, the Hobby Boss and Academy kits are that close in shape? I'd looked at a couple finished Academy kits on-line and they looked worse, shape-wise, to me... but maybe it was an optical illusion of the photography.

 

Yeah... about that insert... it was definitely a case of seeming like it was going to be a lot less work than it turned out to be.  And as usual, it only became apparent when I was halfway done working on it!  I'm curious to see what is available -- the decal sheet came with complete decals for 7 or 8 aircraft.  Might be fun to do another and fix the canopy area at the same time. 🤔

[Hairtrigger]

Very nicely done...

[stevehnz]

11 minutes ago, opus999 said:

I'd looked at a couple finished Academy kits on-line and they looked worse, shape-wise, to me...

I've not compared them side by side & there could be differences, the Academy one is over sized (I think) in the spinner & shares a similar too steep  & too high screen angle. Trying a Falcon -N canopy on one showed there was promise  the  -M looked as though it would be harder but assuming they're similar to the HB ones, what you've done looks promising in that direction, I think I might need one or two of these to try it out.

Steve.

[opus999]

39 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

I've not compared them side by side & there could be differences, the Academy one is over sized (I think) in the spinner & shares a similar too steep  & too high screen angle. Trying a Falcon -N canopy on one showed there was promise  the  -M looked as though it would be harder but assuming they're similar to the HB ones, what you've done looks promising in that direction, I think I might need one or two of these to try it out.

Steve.

 

I agree, the spinner is definitely the wrong size and shape.  I see what you mean about the screen angle. I seem to remember thinking that the Academy models' sliding canopies were oversized, but I just did a search on line and looked at some finished examples and I don't see it now. 

 

You should give it a try...

[Mig88]

Simply superb!!

 

Miguel

[Kitchen Modeller]

Looks like I missed this one aswell Opus This is great - really like the weathering you did and the chipping looks great - it's not too much and very convincing - did you do this with a brush? 

[opus999]

8 hours ago, Kitchen Modeller said:

Looks like I missed this one aswell Opus This is great - really like the weathering you did and the chipping looks great - it's not too much and very convincing - did you do this with a brush? 

Thank you!  I did use a brush... I found that if you take Testors Chrome silver and thin it a little bit with Mr. Levelling Surfacer and use the finest brush, it's easier to make tiny chips.  Some of this chipping is bigger than I achieved on some past models, but I was trying to match historical close up photos I found, and some of those Banshees were very beat up.

 

I read somewhere that with modelling "no paint chip is too small", and I completely agree.

[kapam]

That looks extremely good, especially as it's a Hobbyboss Ezi-kit!

Your hard work really paid off.

Great finishing and weathering too!

[binbrook87]

Great result there. Looks fantastic in that finish. I've got one of these in the stash. I do love the Hobbyboss Easy kits, great for experimenting or just a weekend project 

[opus999]

21 hours ago, kapam said:

That looks extremely good, especially as it's a Hobbyboss Ezi-kit!

 

5 hours ago, binbrook87 said:

I do love the Hobbyboss Easy kits, great for experimenting or just a weekend project 

 

Thanks! I have to say, as far as the Hobby Boss easy builds go, this one was one of the better ones in term of detail -- it actually had a cockpit, and a decent one at that! It was a bit of work, but I've come to expect that from these kits, so there's no ugly surprises there.