Moving on, the cowl panels come up a touch short, had the same problem with the last three AMT P-40 kits as well. I added a sheet styrene shim to make the nose good and flat.
You can see the fix on the top fuse half, I taped a piece of styrene acroos the nose of the lower fuse half to show the gap.
I removed the rudder and before assembling the fuse halves, I bevelled the inside edges, so that it could accept the addition to the rudder, so that it could be deflected without leaving a gap to one side.
Some sheet stryene bit CAed to the rudder, sanded to shape, fit the tail perfectly.
I used thread to saw through the outermost corners of the elevator. For the long, straight cut, I just used the back of a #11 blade.
The cut results in a sizable gap around the forward tab. Thin styrene shims are a simple fix.
Looking great fermis, already picked up a few ideas and grabbed a copy of the certificate [:P]. I wonder if we can get one of those for manny and his pot stirring
Short of having the canopy masked and in place, she’s ready for paint. I got a helluva fight on my hands here with this canopy though. Not only is the right side of the canopy warped inwards(not too big a deal), but the left side of the fuse is warped, WAY out.
Hmmmm…looks like there is enough plastic on the left side so that you could sand it flush (or get it thinned down and manhandle it) with the canopy…right side isn’t as bad…
So can i get one, i haven’t quite finished my F-82 but i have built most of it. even got another (OK so its going to be used to fix the first one, but in the end i’ll have two)
Yeah, right—this P-40 and the Tony have kicked your butt…you’ll be so stuffed with deer and beer in an hour that the only progress you’ll make on those a/c is a passing glance at your bench as you head off to bed at 9pm on a Friday night…
I solved the problems by rolling up the middle part of some tape (like sting-ish), sticking one end to the side of the nacelle and wrapping it around the offending area (just below were the canopy attaches) across to the other side, where the other end was stuck to the nacelle. I also stuck tape to the top of the canopy, pulling down hard, to spread out the bottom of the canopy piece. Once the cement was set, I ground down and sanded the fuse area, just below the canopy. The attachment point is quite small and the canopy “frame”, is about twice as wide as the fuse part. Easily fixed later!!!
The rear windows were quite thick and sat quite proud of the fuse. These had to be ground down around the edges, sanded and polished. We’ll see that later!
She’s a bluebelly!!! A couple thin coats of slightly lightened Azure Blue (MM enamel)
Thanks [t$t] (the IP is from Eduard, can’t claim that one as my own!)
Spent yesterday masking and painting. MM enamels, RAF Middlestone and Dark Earth. Both lightened slightly, sprayed, then lightened a touch again and sprayed randomly to break up the monotony. I use poster tack to mask the edges of the camo pattern then cover up the blank spots with masking tape.
