Here is one of my latest builds, AMT-Ertl’s P-40F Warhawk. I explained on my post on the Squadron Products P-40E build that the kit fuselage was incorrect on both that one and this one. This one came with a short fuselage, inappropriate for the “F” but perfect for the “E”. One little switcheroo and voila, I have an “F” variant.
This kit was actually worse that the Squadron Products release. This one had a whole lot of flash on many of the parts. Fit was equally problematic, although I was able to establish the dihedral on this build unlike on the “E”.
This kit did not come with decals necessary to build a checkertail clan Warhawk, so I was left with either painting them myself or sourcing decals elsewhere. The Checkertail Clan is the 325th Fighter Group that operated out of North Africa before moving on to the P-47 and Italy. They were painted with a distinctive yellow-and-black checkertail pattern on the tail.
I opted to paint the checkertail. Turned out to be far easier than I thought it would be. I also needed to paint the insignia and the “55” code. That turned out to be more difficult than I thought and after a bunch of impatient swearing, I eventually found some numeral decals and used the kit insignia applied atop a painted yellow circle to replicate the US insignia that was in use at the time.
Build Photos
This is the ride of Flight Officer Bill H. Slattery of the 318th Fighter Squadron, North Africa 1942. The paints are a mix of Vallejo and Model Master with Tamiya weathering compound and Flory wash. The nose art, “Sweet Laurie I”, I put on by hand with a fine-tipped marker.
Thanks. I studied various photos of this aircraft, determined a starting point on each piece (rudder, both stabilizers), then drew out a very light alignment line. Then cut out each square to the same measurement and just, with as much patience as I could muster, applied each mask over what would be the yellow squares. Followed that up with a good coat of flat black. Used the Tamiya tape for this, as I’ve found that it’s the best masking tape for this kind of thing.
Thanks Stik! Aside from the tail painting, which I thought I pretty much knocked out of the park, I am not terribly pleased with this particular effort given the kit’s many shortcomings. It’s presentable I suppose, though.
The P-40F “short tail” is representive of the the first batch of 699 built. The “long tail” was not introduced until the P-40F-5-CU. So it all depends on what particular aircraft you are modeling if you need to do the surgery to make it a “long tail”. Info from Scale and Detail P40 Warkhawk Part 2, Vol 62.
