Hobbycraft 1/48 P-40B warhawk
Flown by Lt geroge Welch 15th persuit group, Oahu Hawaii December 7th, 1941.
Welch shot down 4 Val Dive bombers during the attack
Nice job with your build! That particular aircraft is one that I need to build one of these days. I was just reading in “F-100 in Detail and Scale” that George Welch was killed test flying the F-100, and didn’t realize that this P-40 was the aircraft that he got those kills in.
Looks great to me! Where did you get the markings?
Welch also had a number of Mig 15 kills in Korea that were disavowed as he was supposed to be a non combat instructor, the ‘kills’ were asssigned to his students.
Rhe decals are part of a Starfighter decal sheet called ‘Pearl Harbor defenders’ which is available in both 1/48 and 1/72 scale. The sheet includes markings for a F4f and SBD from the USS Enterprise that got caught in the attack, as well as PBY catalina, Lt Taylor’s P-40 and 2 P-36s that also got kills in the attack.
Thanks for the decal info. I will have to look for them.
A really good job on that P-40, Chris.
Lee
very nice!
Nice to see a non AVG B for a change. Welch’s P-40 is on my to do list as well. Nice work and thanks for sharing.
Joe
Nice job. I second Starfighter Decals, some of the best out there.
Nice job on the p-40. Its a aircraft that definitely dose not get its dew bye historians. It was in in construction from the beginning to the end of the war.
Nice work and great selection of your subject. Interesting way the antenna wires were run on some of those early A/C. What a way for a pilot to be introduced to war…….assuming there is a “good” way.
You did a nice job on that P-40! However, it looks like Hobbycraft might’ve gotten the shape a bit wrong. Is it just me, or does the front end look sort of “droopy”? At any rate, your work looks great.
Gary
Great job on the P-40.
I like how the panel lines came out.
Just saw “Tora Tora Tora” yesterday and assume one of the 2 pilots shown in P-40’s taking off to shoot down some of the Japs was a “Lt. Welch” character.
Thanks again for the kind words guys.
Reasoned, that is the depiction of the same guy who flew this plane!
Taylor also said that they had been out all night and took off wearing tuxedos!
Good catch Gary. Its true, the Hobbycraft kit is notoriously wrong. The lower fuselage behind the engine is too shallow and more conducive to a later variant. Also, the wing root fillets are too narrow as well which give it that squat appearance. The Trumpeter kit has some issues as well. The only truly “accurate” 1/48 P-40B/C is still the Monogram one. Someone over at Hyperscale did an article on how fix the Hobbycraft P-40’s issues. I think they spliced this kit with the Monogram one. Maybe Eduard will step up and give us the “definitive” early Tomahawk someday.
Again…still a beautiful build here…
Joe
I saw a P-40C in those markings at Oshkosh AirAdventure 2012. Sure looked good! Stuck out like a sore thumb among all the P-51’s. I need get a set of those decals.