Valleyforge Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Seeing I am having a little trouble with the decals on the Sea-fury, after they disintegrated, and Ive now finished the American Spitfire VF - D ER 120, Ive decided to move along with a Curtiss Tomahawk; that I have in my stash. As this is the second P 40 Ive made, the other one beginning the painted one that I did back September of last year, and this one will be airbrushed, it will be interesting to see how far I have come in the last few month's with my modelling. I did start this a while ago, just doing the interior, and then went back to the other kits I was building. Started with a little research into the aircraft and its pilot and found this. Tomahawk Mk.IIb, AK402 GA-F (US designation P-40C) 112 Squadron RAF. Flown by Pilot Officer Neville Duke. Based at Fort Maddelena, Libya. November, 1941.Neville Duke was one of the highest scoring Allied aces, with 27 kills by the war’s end. While flying AK402, Duke was shot down on Nov 30, 1941 by Otto Schulz of 4/JG27. He belly landed safely. AK402 was delivered in factory scheme of Dark Green/Dark Earth and DuPont Light Grey. Dark Green was overpainted in the field with Middle Stone applied freehand with a spray gun. Camouflage demarcations are a little wider than normal, probably 2”. Undersides were repainted Azure Blue. No wing leading edge stripes. Wheel hubs azure. Note repainted patch behind code letter F. Hopefully will find out a little bit more about this aircraft and its rather interesting pilot; that went on to have a very full career in testing aircraft. Started by assembling the seat and interior to the cockpit. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted February 25, 2022 Author Share Posted February 25, 2022 Made a little further advances on the P 40 today. Ive assembled the wing section to the fuselage and given it a coat of Humbrol 29 "Dark Earth" which came in a small pot with the kit. I had to thin the paint 50/50 as it was so thick. After painting it was time to fix the wings. Was a bit annoyed that some how I clipped the wing surface with a little glue. Ive got used to putting very little glue on; compared to what I used to be like. However, on this occasion it caught me out. Both wings fitted. Made the same mistake I did with the first Airfix P 40 I made. Yes I forgot to under coat the vertical stabilizer. Time to turn my attention to the under neath of the kit. Yet again another bit of the kit got the wrong coating. Still no sweat, easily rectified. i little clean up on the bottom and a few coats of Vallejo "Azure Blue 71.108" and all will be good. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted February 25, 2022 Author Share Posted February 25, 2022 Horizontal and vertical stabilizers fitted into place. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted February 25, 2022 Author Share Posted February 25, 2022 Thats all the bottom of the Tomahawk done Vallejo Azure Blue. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted February 26, 2022 Author Share Posted February 26, 2022 Spent a little time masking off the areas ready for airbrushing the Humbrol 93 Desert Yellow. I took some masking tape, which I put sticky side down on to a cutting board, and drew round the wings. Afterwards, I took my time to copy the colour scheme from the back of the box. I cut out the masking sections for the darker brown areas and placed them on the model. Not prefect and I had to improvise in a few places. However, a little more closer to the original colour scheme and the P 40 that Pilot Officer Neville Duke flew; and also that Ive done on most other kits. Really pleased with the masking and cant wait to get some paint on a little later. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 Your're not hanging around with this. Coming along nicely though. Couple days & it'll be a good un eh? I love that post card. Only mildly envious. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 (edited) The Humbrol 93 Desert Yellow seems to have gone on really well. I think Iam getting the knack of watering down these Humbrol paints; that you get with the kit. Iam still think Iam going to have to invest in another tin of Humbrol 29 Dark Earth though. Some one at the factory put two pots of 93 into kit and Ive just run out. I think it will be a visit to the local hobby shop for a pot of paint. Edited February 27, 2022 by Valleyforge 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 Peeled back the masking tape and these are the results . 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 The exhaust stacks are in place and the undercarriage is coming together. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 Got round to the propeller. here I have found out there are some differences in the kit and the real aircraft. The kit says that the prop and nose cone are black, whereas, most pictures I have seen, of the real aircraft, say that the nose cone is red. Ive left this with black primer for the moment with the idea of checking this info out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted February 28, 2022 Author Share Posted February 28, 2022 (edited) Well Ive checked out a few places and despite Airfix saying that the nose cone is black on this kit, most pictures Ive looked at say its red. I suppose that Airfix have gone with the black colour as it is included in the starter kit and probably looks a lot better than painting it brown or sand; which would look odd. Ive not got any acrylic red colours so will have to do with stripping the under coat off and putting a coat of Humbrol Enamel 60 Scarlet on the nose cone. At least look more original. All of these sorts of things will get sorted before I start any of the bigger kits. For now Iam more than happy with the little ones. The painting instructions with the kit. Even on this Corgi model looks a bit strange with its crimson colored nose cone. Still better than black. I really do think these pictures from the actionfiguren shop shows the aircraft in its best possible way and clears this little problem up. Edited March 1, 2022 by Valleyforge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 The red spinner was an identification feature for Allied fighters in North Africa. I think you can guarantee it was red on Tomahawks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted March 1, 2022 Author Share Posted March 1, 2022 19 hours ago, Graham Boak said: I think you can guarantee it was red on Tomahawks. Fantastic, thanks for the input Graham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Swindell Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 21 hours ago, Valleyforge said: Well Ive checked out a few places and despite Airfix saying that the nose cone is black on this kit, most pictures Ive looked at say its red. Any Airfix kits issued with paints as starter sets only ever use the colours supplied as paints, so the main colours are probably correct, but detail painting can often be incorrect as the correct colours aren't supplied in the starter set. In this case Airfix have chosen to suggest black as supplied in the kit for the spinner rather than the correct red, which isn't supplied. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted March 1, 2022 Author Share Posted March 1, 2022 1 hour ago, Dave Swindell said: Airfix have chosen to suggest black as supplied in the kit for the spinner Thanks Dave. I was beginning to get the grip of what they have done. Just check out a thread I wrote a little earlier. Thanks anyways. I suppose that Airfix have gone with the black colour as it is included in the starter kit and probably looks a lot better than painting it brown or sand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted March 1, 2022 Author Share Posted March 1, 2022 First chance to fit the undercarriage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted March 2, 2022 Author Share Posted March 2, 2022 I think the pilot is sitting comfortably. Going to put a little wash on to emphasis the dark areas. Thats the very distinctive prop done And started work on the base layer of the canopy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted March 2, 2022 Author Share Posted March 2, 2022 Canopy test fit and propeller. Coming together pretty well now. hopefully will have some decals on it soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted March 3, 2022 Author Share Posted March 3, 2022 Gloss coat applied to the kit And the first of the decals have been applied. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valleyforge Posted March 29, 2022 Author Share Posted March 29, 2022 A long wait but finally finished. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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