Visited the LHS this morning & picked up the long awaited, by me anyway, brand new release of the 1/48 P-40B from Trumpeter. Having now had a chance to examine it, I have to say there are mixed emotions. The kit is not strictly a scaled down version of the previous 1/32 kit. Missing is the engine & many of the finer detail parts included in it’s big brother. On the plus side, the main components are crisply molded with minimal flash. The fuselage, wings & tailplane feature nice recessed detail panel lines & rivets. Accuracy of the lines & rivet patterns I’ll leave to the experts, but it looks good. Provision is made for poseable flaps & Aerolons, but the cowl flaps only come closed. The clear parts are reasonably thin, although the framing detail is quite heavy in thickness. Makes for easier masking & painting but at the cost of scale realism. Rather bland decals for an RAF Tomahawk & a USAAF aircraft are included. AVG fans will have to find AM decals. Now the really bad part, the cockpit & in particular the instrument panel are, how to say this, LOUSY. The IP is molded in clear, ala Accurate Miniatures & other Trumpeter kits, but the individual dial positions are open holes. Why?? What were they thinking??There is absolutely no provision for dial faces!! The 1/32 kit provided a mylar sheet for the instruments, but there is none included in this kit. And no, I didn’t get a defective kit, there is nothing shown in the instruction sheet and nothing included in the kit.
Sadly, this one will set on my shelf until the Aftermarket boys come to the rescue with a decent cockpit & Instrument panel. Are you listening Aires, True Details, CMK, Verlinden, Black Box, Cutting Edge, Eduard, etal?
Regards, Rick