Hello, well…this is a case of me letting my 6 year old daughter dictate my next build. A few weeks ago my daughter was looking at my kit stash and she said “build the shark-mouth plane daddy”. So once finished with the Bf 109 G-2, out came Trumpeter’s P-40 B which I got off E-bay relatively cheap a few years ago. This is my first Trumpter kit and from what I’ve read, they’re hit and miss. It does look nice in the box, althought the rivet detail seems a bit much. Now I understand where the term “Trumpeter’s Mad Riveter” came from. I’m sure it will be toned down under paint.
I’ve read the cockpit on this kit is badly undersized. Fortunately I already had the defunked Cutting Edge pit on hand in the resin stash…
On looking at the kit cockpit parts, I’d say that "under"sized is an "under"statement. It seems that Trumpeter replaced the normal P-40 seat with my daughter’s car seat. The kit seat is on the left and the Cutting Edge one is on the right.
I followed the instructions provided by Cutting Edge by means of sanding down the kit walls (I used elbow grease…I have no Dremel as of yet) so the CE replacement side walls may be added. These are beautifully done, some of the nicest I’ve ever seen. What a shame CE closed up shop and “stole our Joy” (some may get this reference). I attached the CE side walls with Gorilla super glue (I’m still tryng to figure out why the resin is two different shades of grey).
CE recommends Bronze Green for early P-40s. I had no reason to object so I sought the Tamiya equivalent online. The forum I found recommended one part XF-81 RAF Green, one part XF-5 Flat Green, and two parts XF-8 Flat Blue. It seemed too blue to me so I cut it back a bit on the blue. I sprayed XF-1 Flat Black as a shadow then sprayed down my concoction. I painted the seat Alclad Duraluminum since I’ve never seen an early P-40 seat that was painted. I did my usual painting and weathering process which was then sealed with Testor’s dull coat. I have one gripe about the CE instrument panel. Its nicely detailed but a set this costly should have film dials. I supposed they wanted to test our painting skills. I started assembly and heres where I’m at so far
That’s a great start! I love the P-40. It just has a great look to it. When you get to the painting stage, Steel Beach has a mask set for the camo scheme that’s quite handy.
Nice green shade Joe, and nice choice for a kit. Those old Cutting Edge resin parts are sure missed by me as well, although you can find a lot on ebay but for ridiculous prices. I like that green shade. I’ve read the area behind the seat that shows through the rear windows is the same color as the exterior, and not always interior green. But I’ll leave that call up to you.
Also looking forward to watching your build progress. I’ve also never built a Trumpeter (had never heard of them recently), so you are my official Trumpeter tester now.
Can’t believe that kit seat. Didn’t realise things could be that far out of scale in any kit. I guess I have a lot to learn.
Looking good as usual Joe, remarkable work on the office, never use much AM stuff but I can see why it makes a huge difference. Even though the P-40 is not my favorite plane if it is of interest to your daughter, THAT is what’s important. Great to keep the kids curiosity of these magnificent machines and history surrounding them. I have a B-36 (my only non WWII kit) waiting to be finished for my 8 yr old so it can hang from his ceiling.
I agree with “Reasoned”, keep the kids involved! My daughter picked out a 1/48 P-51D, so naturally, I finished it in the markings of “Daddy’s Girl”! Her next selection is also a “shark mouth”, a 1/48 F6F from VF-27 aboard USS Princeton.
lawdog I do believe bronze green was used on early US P-40’s(probably up to Pearl Harbor). But seeing as the Kittyhawk II was built for the RAF it would have been painted to the stringent RAF painting guidelines which would have included RAF interior green for the cockpit. And the P-40’s the flying tigers recieved were Kittyhawk II’s and would have been recieved with the RAF interior green cockpits. But seeing as you did the bronze green interior you can paint it as a US P-40 in Olive Drab over Neutral Gray but your dorsal spine behind the cockpit would need to be fuselage color not bronze green.
Oh BTW I have the same kit but I got the Eduard Big ED set.
Also Flying Tiger KittyHawk II’s had the RAF Roundels painted over before the ROC national insignia was painted on. There are reference pics online to back this up.
This is looking very nice so far. I hope to one day get around to doing Pap Boyington’s Flying Tiger from this time. I’m interested to see how Trumpter’s kit adds up. I’ve heard the same about their riveting. =]
Interesting and thanks for the information. I’m surprised CE did not mention this, since it seemed they were thorough in their research. Oh well. I’m doing an AVG P-40 (still unkown which) but unfortunately Its too late for me to correct the cockpit color. I should however be able to fix the dorsal window area when the time comes. I shall endeavor to get the color scheme right. With this said, I wonder why so many people paint their pits on early AVG P-40s interior green or the like? Actually, I’ve never seen one in RAF interior grey green yet (not to say they are not out there)…
…and thank you all of the compliments so far. I’m diligently getting the frame together and should have pics soon…
Thanks again for all the compiments. As I said, I have been working fairly diligently on getting the air frame together. This kit has been no walk in the park for me thus far. I’ve had some trouble getting the CE cockpit to fit right, specifically the instrument panel and the piece of the fuselage that attaches above it. Your supposed to glue the 50 cal breaches to the bottom of this piece and attach the top engine cover to the front of it, while fishing the gun barrel through the respective holes up front. Perhaps it was operator error but I had trouble getting this area to fit right. I used Evergreen shims inside to keep everything aligned. After a bit of sanding here and there I think its passible.
I then turned my attention to the wings and landing gear bays. I assembled the gear bay which reminded me of a Eduard kit with the separate piece. The flap roof detail was nice but are marred with sink holes (so were the flaps). Trumpeter supplied photoetch to blank off the center fuselage at the flaps which looks cool. I sprayed everything XF-1 Flat Black as a pre shade. I mixed up my own version of zinc chromate with Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green and XF-58 Olive Green then sprayed it down to a nice weathered appearance. Everything then got a post shade. Due to the aforementioned sink holes everywhere, which are in tough spots to fix, I will probably only open the flaps up enough so you know they are there.
I got the frame together without issue. I like how you have the option to drop the rear stabilizers. I will probably do this. I have a bit of sanding and filling to do at the wing root, nothing serious, then it should be ready for primer. Here’s where I left off.
I’ve found personally that XF-4 Yellow Green is a pretty good match for Yellow Zinc Chromate. This build will be a great test of how you will be able to get the RAF Camo scheme done. Don’t forget that with these AVG P-40B’s the RAF Roundels were painted out.
Good work Joe. How did the main parts fit? (wings and fuselage)? Another little thing trumpy got wrong was the port side radio access hatch. They molded it raised and it should be flush with the fuselage. So if you feel like sanding… I have the U.S. equivalent colors for the RAF in Gunze matches if your interested.
Mikeym…I agree, I just prefer a bit more olive green in my ZC. I rarely paint straight from the bottle. Reference the roundels I intent to cut out some old British roundels and blue tac them down to serve as masks after the Dark Earth is applied. Interestingly, I’ve seem pics of AVG P-40s with both the British roundels and Chinese markings on top of the wings at the same time. That looks a bit silly to me though so I’ll probably built a subject sans this feature.
Rich…thanks for the reference photo. Nice color too. I wasn’t convinced that dorsal area was not the interior color on AVG birds until now. This certainly proves it.
Nathan…thanks, the fit was was good, not great as mentioned earlier in the upper cowl area. I needed a tad of putty at wing root areas but I suppose I could have eliminated that by attaching the top wings to the fuselage first. I’m still scratching my head about the radio hatch…what were they thinking? If I should suddenly feel ambitious, I may scribe around it to make new panel lines and then sand it flush. Thanks for the Gunze offer, but the only colors in Gunze line that I have are the main RLM shades and US Olive Drab. Perhaps you have the Dupont equivalent for Tamiya paints?
If you want good reference for the interior color of the AVG P-40’s watch the movie God is my Co-Pilot the true story of AVG pilot Robert “Scotty” Scott. Oh and if you get ahold of any P-40E’s the AVG used those too.
BTW those members from Macon will know who I am talking about.
