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DONE AT LAST! 1:48 Mauve P-40N "Lope's Hope"


KUROK

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Nice work. That prop jig is pretty clever!

 

Kev

Thanks!

 

Second that!

 

Jim

Thanks!

 

BTW the yellow data stencil decals are from an old "Tally Ho!" 1:72 scale P-40 sheet.

All the 1:48 versions I could find seemed to large to fit and these smaller ones looked acceptable to me.

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  • 1 month later...

Well, I have my first set ever of the MASTER models brass machine guns and they are wonderful.

I just had to figure out how to install them.

The very terse instructions said I needed 2mm holes drilled.

So, I ordered up  some  metric drill bits.

Turns out they were right and 2mm is perfect but I think I could have gotten away with 5/64 so I'm kicking myself for not trying that first.

Oh well, tools are always a good idea, eh?

 

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So I used this set up and lucky I have a drill press in the garage; otherwise I think this would have been hard to do right.

 

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This was a stressful job but the first one was a little bit off but not too bad.  I think I got the other five pretty much right on it.

 

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Here's another view:

 

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Edited by KUROK
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The Mauve kit is really nice but it is not the mojo builder I needed.

I'm getting bogged down in AMS with the fixes and aftermarket stuff.

I'm loving it but with limited time, it's dragging out.

The Atlanta model show is in February so now I have a schedule to finish it!

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  • 2 weeks later...

One more shot of the super nice guns from Master.

Here I have them temporarily installed with just a dab of white glue.

Then I gently cemented these "back stops" at the rear end of them.

The plan is to assemble the wings and sand the leading edge completely before pushing these in... and I do not want to lose them inside the wing.

Note the wheel well openings.  They should be round.  Why did Mauve do that?  Oh well, more work for me...

 

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Edited by KUROK
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  • 1 month later...

Work has stalled a bit on this project.  Busy with some renovations on the house.

Here is a photo of the finished prop.  I clear coated it with Future with Tamiya Flat Base (25 %)

Too much flat base was used and it came out a little "chalky"; however I rubbed it down with a polishing cloth and I kind of like the weathered look!

In other news, I'm starting up an actual LSP project and I need to get that one done by April!

I'll post photos soon on a new thread.

 

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  • 6 months later...

Long time, no see!

 

Well my wife was on my butt to get the basement finished and boy was that a long drawn out process.

I will say it's nice to have a better basement and a nicer area to work.  Someday I will sheetrock the hobby room but the rest of the basement is done!

 

P-40N:

This kit was supposed to help restore my mojo and by that I mean to just relax and no more AMS to bog me down.

Well...the Mauve kit is really beautiful.  It has nice panel lines and good accurate shapes, but...

They compromised in a few key areas that I cannot ignore.  So, I think from now on it will be exclusively Hasegawa for P-40s.

One area toaddress is the intake grill which is pretty frickin' prominent on a P-40.  It HAS to look right.

 

The pieces in the kit are awful and have almost no alignment capability.  It can drive you crazy just dry fitting.

 

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So I had to come up with my own way to achieve solid, repeatable alignment:

 

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The leading edge shape needed good ol' styrene, files, and patience to reshape:

 

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Here it is with a coat of Mr. Surfacer White out of the spray can.  Wonderful stuff!

 

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I also worked on the instrument panel which is from the Eduard photoetch set made for the "Eduard" kit (they did a Profipack version of the Mauve kit).

Here you see it with a piece of clear acetate epoxied onto the instrument faces.

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And here assembled with a little Micro Crystal Clear around the edge of the "sandwich" of parts:

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One more photo.

This is a resin part from the True Details cockpit set.  It is a marvelous fit and worth every penny.

Not much going on here but I experimented with cheap craft store acrylic satin black paint, as a primer.

I wanted to see if I could airbrush it and it did fine (although it didn't cover well in one coat).

I must say it snuggled down and did not hide even one bit of surface detail! 

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Interesting project. I have four of the AMtech kits here, that I swapped for some other stuff, and they're not bad models at all. Your P-40 is making me want to drag one out and start it,... but I'm resisting.

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16 hours ago, LSP_Typhoonattack said:

Interesting project. I have four of the AMtech kits here, that I swapped for some other stuff, and they're not bad models at all. Your P-40 is making me want to drag one out and start it,... but I'm resisting.

 

I have built the AMT kit as well and it is not bad at all.  It builds nicely but I did not like the engine panels that have to be carefully glued on.

I would say the Mauve kit has more refined surface (panel lines) and the shapes are bit more correct.  Drawback of Mauve is the open holes at the intakes and wheel well detail sucks.  Cockpit is no good but the inexpensive True Details resin cockpit fits like a glove and is a no-brainer for Mauve.

 

Although I have never actually built the hasegawa version, I see that there are just fewer things to fix.

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  • 2 months later...

Hello my friends!

Work has been progressing, slowly but surely.

I must say that being at the bench is where I like to be, to relieve stress.

 

Another weakness in the Mauve kit is the wheel wells...they are pathetic.

So I have tried to add some structure but decided to simulate the canvas liners with metal tape that you can get at the hardware store:

 

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Here's one reason this project drags on, I'm a rivet maker (not a counter).  LOL

Actually, I got the rivet tools from UMM and just could not help myself!

 

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