P40 American Volunteer Group, No. 99 (Trumpeter 1/32)

[Chief Cohiba]

Ok, on for something new.

 

Or, to be a bit more precise: on with something old and start a new WIP thread here. As stated here I was not sure what to do next, and among the various options I felt like continuing with a 1/32 Trumpeter P40 is a good thing. So, @Corsairfoxfouruncle here's the invitation to follow this one. 😉

 

The topic of building Arvid Olsen's P40B, Leader of the 3rd Squadron of the AVG, named "Hell's Angels" came to me quite a while ago, when I read that it was him that suggested the name of the  Motorcycle Club, based on the name of his Squadron, which then was named based on the famous Howard hughes Film. Not that I am in any way associated with the club, I found the topic interesting. And the early P40 with the slimmer and pointy shape, with the shark mouth and the Chinese marking has always been an iconic aircraft to me - and as I don't like this term in generell, here it seems just fitting.

 

I started this some very long time ago, bought the kit way back then in 2013 and bought stuff, more stuff and some more on top. Stuff included various set of decals, Eduard inner and outer brass, and some metal gun rods. And, most importand, a good piece of literature:

 

 

So, when I started this I'd say something around 2015, I felt prepared. Wasn't. When I did the engine, which went well together well until mounting the exhausts, I felt these are simply unbuildable. So, bought some exhausts from Graham at Noblekraft and these saved me from turning mad and this kit into trash. Then: went fine. Sometimes it's just the little parts that do the work.

 

Here's some pics from my attempt, to build the exhausts provided with the kit:

 

 

And here's the resin exhausts:

 

 

 

Painted:

 

 

And here's an early picture of the entire engine:

 

 

[Chief Cohiba]

Then, I tinkered together the cockpit parts, including the Eduard PE, without any mayor problems apart from the usual mismatch between tiny brass parts and old eyes and hands... 😉

This was about the end of 2016, I then did some base painting, some preshading, and - stored it away. There it rest from that on, until last week, when I threw my question in this round. 

 

And here's what we are right now, when I opened the drawer:

 

 

and moved it to my workbench:

 

 

The engine:

 

 

 

 

And the cockpit parts:

 

 

 

 

[Chief Cohiba]

Also, I did a bit of dryfitting, which looks ok by now.

But I expect some troubles and work to do on fitting bottom part of the cockpit under the side parts, but let's see.

Before I try and put this together I might think of adding some more cable work in the cabin, or might as well leave it like that. Havent decided yet.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Good Progress on this even if its been 5 + years. I hope to see you finish it off beforr the next five have happened. 😉

[RichieW]

Looking great, I've loved the P40 since seeing The Duke, John Wayne star in Flying Tigers. 

 

Hope you see it through this time, you made such a fine start!

[SAT69]

Looking at the closeup of the finished engine, I'd almost swear it wasn't a model but the real thing. Very beautiful work!

[Chief Cohiba]

3 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Good Progress on this even if its been 5 + years. I hope to see you finish it off beforr the next five have happened. 😉

That's the plan, but as always don't take this as a promise. Btw; it's almost 7 years now, just for the files... 😉

 

1 hour ago, SAT69 said:

Looking at the closeup of the finished engine, I'd almost swear it wasn't a model but the real thing. Very beautiful work!

 

Many thanks, but in this case my lazyness helped: there's quite an amount of real dust in that. Let's discuss the oldest weathering method of them all: it's called - time! 😄

2 hours ago, RichieW said:

Looking great, I've loved the P40 since seeing The Duke, John Wayne star in Flying Tigers.

Thanks, but there's quite a bit of me admiring Peter Fonda and Marlon Brando in this as well. 😉

 

[Chief Cohiba]

Completed the interiour, which took some serious sanding, and rearrangement of some of the PE bits...

 

 

And then nailed the thing together.

 

 

Fitting, well - let's see. Hope this will not take too much sanding afterwards, as this did take some gentle persuasion, as someone said... 😉

 

[Chief Cohiba]

Used my lunchbreak (selforganisation is key in those time from home-working-lockdown) to remove the clamps and tapes. The first attempt of glueing it with your usual poly cement seemed to hold at first glance, but then there have been a few gaps here and there, and while pressing on one end, it did open up at another.

 

So I used the help of a bit of friendly CA, and especially at the back it holds now quite firm. It tightened so fast and firm, that I couldn't correct the misalignment I produced in one second of bad grip, while pressing the halves. poo-poo, but it happens...

 

But see for yourself:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there's nothing that can't be fixed, I was just hoping for a bit lesser of sanding hours. So, expect the next photos with workplace covered in this usual dust...

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Its looking very good so far Chief, what would model building be without sanding/dust. 😉

[Chief Cohiba]

Talking out of a cloud...

*cough* *cough*

[Chief Cohiba]

Many thanks for your support, guys, and I feel a bit like Lawrence of Arabia after a sandstorm, only in Poly dust.

 

After the first evening of sanding - I don't dare to say I'm even close to finished. But let's have this dryed overnight and see if we can sand this a bit more into shape tomorrow. Here's some pics:

 

 

 

 

[RichieW]

Argh, the dreaded modeller's dust storm strikes. Good work though, looks like the job will be done soon from the photos. 

 

I've found Tamiya rattle can primer to be my best friend when things get really tough. Nothing encourages me to go out for a walk more than filling the air with solvent fumes and dust.

[Chief Cohiba]

On 4/15/2020 at 12:15 AM, RichieW said:

Argh, the dreaded modeller's dust storm strikes. Good work though, looks like the job will be done soon from the photos. 

 

I've found Tamiya rattle can primer to be my best friend when things get really tough. Nothing encourages me to go out for a walk more than filling the air with solvent fumes and dust.

Well, not much of some dust, and due to some other obligations (one includes bingeing our current series with my wife) the job's not yet done. 

 

You mean this?

 

 

I just took some deep sniff on the aforementioned rattle tin, but not to fill some blemishes (I'm afraid I've sanded away enough surface structure) but to prime Eduard's exterior sheet:

 

 

Ok, true; almost nothing has been done on the subject of this, and I just wanted to bluff my way with some random pictures. 😉

 

Will post more soon (If only I could remember which was the brown I used for priming...)

[Chief Cohiba]

Sorry for not posting in a while, I did some tinkering on smaller parts, especially started eduardising a bit of the plastic and other sheet metal things, but no larger steps onward to justify an entire post. Or at least said to myself and usually went to sleep without posting any pics. Sorry, guys...

 

But at least got the body in a state where I can let it for a bit and move on. Here's some pics...

 

 

 

 

[Chief Cohiba]

I started to work on the wings as a next step, with mounting some of the PE parts, and doing general preparation work, including the pre-moulded wirelines, for which I will add some copper wires or EZ cables.

 

 

 

Next step is painting the wheelsbays and visible pieces green, prime and paint the brass guns and mount them and include the cables. 

 

And then, I think it's time to spent some time having some more indepth thoughts about the painting of this one, as this is kind of an issue with the AVG P40.

 

[Chief Cohiba]

Before I went to the paint scheme, there's a bit of detailling on the wing section. I added a bit of wiring, to give this some live in wiring.

 

 

 

 

 

There is no claim of any kind of accuracy on this, mainly for two reasons:

 

1.) I did this based on a P40E, and I don't have any idea (or was to lazy to research) what's the difference in the wheelbays between the B and the E version

 

2.) I simply did mount some parts wrong, upside down or left/right. One could claim that this might happen under the very provisional conditions the AVG ground crews were operating, but anyway: let's say these are just randomly glued in wires and pieces of guitar strings. 😉

Painted in interiour green, and mounted the gun pieces

 

 

 

On to the Browning barrels:

 

 

Let's see if the primer sticks better to these than to the other PE pieces...

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

3 hours ago, Chief Cohiba said:

1.) I did this based on a P40E, and I don't have any idea (or was to lazy to research) what's the difference in the wheelbays between the B and the E version

Heres a great link in original color from Life magazine. It was taken pre-war at Curtiss’s factory. Photo’s 4,5,& 6 are landing gear for the P-40B
 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/35963591@N00/sets/72157622864527612/

Dennis

[Chief Cohiba]

3 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Heres a great link in original color from Life magazine. It was taken pre-war at Curtiss’s factory. Photo’s 4,5,& 6 are landing gear for the P-40B
 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/35963591@N00/sets/72157622864527612/

Dennis

Many thanks, Dennis, that's helpful and great pictures in any case.

 

I'm almost done with the wings, just about to install the gun barrels and let's see, maybe can mount these together, or tomorrow for the latest.

[Chief Cohiba]

And, managed to fix the guns barrels, here's some more pictures from this section.

 

 

 

 

 

Seems as if i can close the wings tomorrow and then the really interesting things might start. 😉

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

43 minutes ago, Chief Cohiba said:

Many thanks, Dennis, that's helpful and great pictures in any case.

Im always happy to help a fellow modeler, being disabled I build and do research all the time. If I cant find anything, I can at least point you towards someone who may be able to. 

[RichieW]

Accurate or not it's looking good Chief. Looking forward to seeing the wings come together.

[Chief Cohiba]

14 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Im always happy to help a fellow modeler, being disabled I build and do research all the time. If I cant find anything, I can at least point you towards someone who may be able to. 

Once again, many thanks, your support is very much appreciated, as well as your comments. Not only the helpful suggestions, that you usually throw in, but also the communication about the inbetween chat about modelling we all know, including the minor or mayor misfortunes we all face from time to time. At least that's a bit why I lurk around here as well, to share my frustration when the carpet monster and other modelling demons have once more called for sacrifice. 😉

 

Sad to read about your situation, but it's definitely great to have you here in this forum and my thread!

5 hours ago, RichieW said:

Accurate or not it's looking good Chief. Looking forward to seeing the wings come together.

That's the attidude! Many thanks!

I'm working on the wings, over there in my forge the hammer, anvil and welding unit have already been heated up! 😏

[Chief Cohiba]

The thing is coming together!

 

[Chief Cohiba]

Wings seem to hold, and a dry fitting seems promising. It holds it's own weight just snapped together, like these old snap-on models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there will be some force necessary to make these ends meet:

 

I think on this CA is your friend, I don't want to fill this up with putty and sand it down again.

So, wish me luck, but not for today. 't night, folks, and tune in again tomorrow...