KUROK

Hi,
 
The cockpit floor in P-40s was the top of the wing.  So it should not be flat.
I see a piece of styrene in there now, maybe that's temporary?

afternoon all
 
 
 
Thanks Antonio - well this installment should have the answers
 
 
 
 
Thanks Kurok and yes, I am so glad I spotted it, and even more glad it was early enough to rip it out and start again. I trust Jumpei's drawings implicitly and have always used them, but no matter how God like the artist, I must learn to check with photo's!
 
 
 
Indeed Pat - thanks for the tips - I would never have thought of vacforming onto it, so thats a real bonus
 
In fact, that is where I started trying out this new material - there is a keel assembly that is underneath the P40 made of 3 or 4 sections, so I got the drawings and scaled a floor and three cross sections. From here I filled the blanks with foam and sanded it down.
 
I found a saw works best for main cuts, then a rasp for major shaping and then a sanding stick for finessing. One thing is it makes a lot of gritty dust which gets everywhere - it is hard stuff a bit like the stuff flower arrangers use
 

 
I used quite thick card in my dental vacformer to pull a couple of copies of keel parts - found they make for a great way to knock up moulds for these sorts of parts which previously I would have spent longer using P38 filler. It sands really easily and stuff like this can be made in minutes..
 

 
..In thinking about using it on the airframe itself - I wanted to be happy I could skin metal onto it so made up a test piece of foam with compound curves
 
..the first try just using it raw failed - the contact adhesive largely absorbed into the foam and the surface area of all the structure between what are essentially foam bubbles is not enough to get any adhesion
 
I tried a skin of P38 filler & primer like I would anyway and this fixed the adhesion - but care is needed in forming the sheets as its quite easy to scar the foam even with hard wood coffee stirrers
 
when i riveted the skin once its in place (which has to be done for compound curved areas), the distortion of the metal is more pronounced and there is a danger of going straight through it and puncturing the skin
 
a tried a wash with thin CA and that helped a little with rigidity so I am sure with a combo of filler and CA I can make it work..
 
with the test done it was time to start doing the airframe.. the pro's in being able to get a 'body' in a couple of hours vs being careful with skinning is too strong - as opposed to days of trying to plank or fill all the areas with balsa & P38..
 

 
..soon the airframe was done and the basic shaping complete - I will probably vacform the chin area and the area under the spinner will be P38 as there is a lot of scalloping and compound curves..
 

 

 

 

 
..the keel parts sit here..
 

 

 

 
..so now I need to give it a skim of P38 and do A LOT of refinement before its in a fit state to be skinned in metal later..
 
TTFN
Peter

Hi all,
The upper wing fitted,
 
Mike
 

Just joined for a ride along.  P-40 is a favorite of mine.  Jumpei's drawings are very good and I'm glad you have them.
Seems like he may have missed the shape of the intake diverter as he perhaps used a drawing reference that had an older prototype shape there.  Who knows but glad you caught it early!!!
 
Nice job so far.  That intake exit trunking is nicknamed the "nun's hat" for obvious reasons!

This is 1/32 Hasegawa P-40N Warhawk with the markings of 'Geronimo' 45th Fighter Squadron on Nanumea Airfield, Ellice Islands, Dec 1943.
Modifications are;
Eduard instrument panel and seat belts
Eduard exhausts
Paints : Gunze Sangyo and Tamiya acrylics.
Customized Nose art is from CustomHobby Decals (www. customhobbydecals.com)
Happy Modelling
 























 

Hi All, the rather time-consuming process of removal of molded kit parts from sub-assemblies and replacement with PE detail, drilling of lightening holes, and other various tweaks continues in preparation for painting.
 

 

 
There is still a fair bit more to be added after the first round of painting and assembly. It's all a bit disjointed at the moment but I like to get all my sub-assemblies ready for painting at the same time so I'll pull it all together with a better description of what has been done as we go along. 
 
I recently acquired the David Union D360 Elite router and D400 sander with the help of Troy here on LSP - more details of these tools can be found on Troy's vendor thread here. The main advantage of the router is that it is smaller and spins down to a much slower speed than a Dremel so allows precise work without melting the plastic. I've found both tools very useful so far in precisely cutting and grinding off molded kit parts and sanding in preparation for the addition of PE.
 

 

 
Moving on to the subject for this build, in addition to the kit schemes I have been considering some other schemes offered by Montex for the Tamiya kit. From the research I have been able to do, all of these aircraft except for tail code 8-13 are A6M5c Hei models, which is curious as the Tamiya kit is the first A6M5 variant. Although it would be cool to do in the future, I'm not up for a conversion for this particular build so the options are tail code 8-13 which was one of the aircraft captured at Aslito airfield on Saipan (wrecked at the time) or, more likely, tail code 210-105 of the 210 Kokutai based at Meiji air base from September 1944. I cannot find any reference photos or information (eg c/n) about the latter aircraft, so if anybody can help there it would be greatly appreciated...


 
Thanks for looking and until next time I'll continue to go cross-eyed on the PE work...
 

Thanks once again all!  Its nice to have somewhere to 'vent" as the term goes...............and I sometimes feel this build needs a LOT of venting!
 
 
Possibly............
I only say possibly, as I don't want to get too ahead of myself with SO much left to do before actual paint goes down. There have been so many rounds of priming, filling and sanding that there is a significant portion of the model that will need to be completely re-scribed, which I am NOT looking forward to, but its something that must be done before paint can even be thought of.
 
I had to jump around again a bit to keep my sanity, as these final rounds of sanding and filling have got me down a bit, even though it has made the surface of the model much better. 
 
Back to the gear...........this time its the nose gear not the MLG. I've been thinking a lot about stance and how I do NOT want the dreaded "California lift" that the T-Cat gets a lot when not fueled up, or lightly loaded with a very nose high attitude. 
My goal with the stance of the model is for neutral level or maybe just a slight tail down attitude as that is norm for the aircraft, but I just hate the drastic nose high look. With this in mind I made the nose gear oleo strut about as short as I'm comfy with on a flying example, and lengthened the MLG oleo struts to as long as as I've seen on a flying example, all to try to counteract the heavy nose up attitude.
 
I have also found 1 more thing that may help as I was delving over the nose gear and nose wheel recently. The nose wheel example is from our own Harold, and is quite nice, being about the same diameter as the OOB HpH example, just with better tread.
The difference between the two is that the OOB nose wheel is in two parts with the hub being separate and Harold's example being all 1 piece except for 1 half of the rim. 
 
There is also a 2nd nose wheel that was used on the F7F and it normally has the disk cover over it, and has a smaller overall diameter than the larger normally uncovered nose wheel.
You can see an example of the smaller covered nose wheel on an actual picture of 80405 here:
 

 
 
 
 
There is also a couple different versions for the paint scheme of 80405 as well. Here is pic of 80405 from a slightly later time frame (still at El Toro) where they have either painted the A-99 on the bottom port wing or it is prior to the above pic and they removed it for some reason. I would probably guess the former.
 

 
 
 
As the cover on the nose wheel is just bolted onto what is essentially a non-covered nose wheel, I got an Idea to gain a couple scale inches in the nose. Since Harold was gracious enough to send me an extra version of the smaller covered wheel I decided to try to hack it up and see if I could get the OOB HpH wheel to eventually fit inside it, and make a smaller un-covered nose wheel since no one can prove 80405 never had an uncovered nose wheel. 
If I'm being honest, for as nice as Harold's nose wheel is, the OOB HpH wheel is slightly more crisp in molding, but it remained to be seen if I could make it fit. Since I already had a nose wheel I planned on using, albeit a bit large, I decided to take a stab at it, since if I ruined it, I would loose nothing. 
 
I used consecutively larger drill bits until I got to 1/4", then I broke out my stepped hand reamer and bore it out the rest of the way VERY slowly.
In the end while not perfect I got there, and it turned out very decent indeed and is in fact closer to the diameter of the nose wheel pics I have. 
 
You can see the difference between Harold's un-covered nose wheel/tire VS his smaller nose tire with the HpH wheel inserted. Quite a difference I used a bit of Mr Surfacer 1500 black to smooth out the transition a bit prior to primer:
 

 

 

 
 
 
I got round 2 of primer down, and that included the main wheels/tires as well as both the larger and smaller finished nose wheel/tire combos. 
 

 
 
 
 
While not perfect the newly created smaller nose wheel seems a bit more crisp looking on both the tire and wheel, and after some finish sanding should be just fine.
 

 
 
 
 
Its a little hard to see, but I also completely stripped the paint and primer off of the turning brass nose wheel I made a few years ago, and revamped it to have the axle area be a bit more accurate.
 
Nose gear V2.0
 

 

 
 
 
 
All for now as I'm headed back down to see if I can finalize the finish today, which means I can start the re-scribe soon.
 
Cheers! 

Nicely done! I’m inspired to consider WWI subjects.

Luckily the Top Drawings Grumman F4F Wildcat book came with drawings in 1/32 scale which will help with making the tail taller.
First of all a blob of 20 thou plastic card was glued to the existing rudder with Tamiya White glue and reinforced with VMS Black supergoo.
Then it was out with the really harsh sanding sticks and slowly working back to a fine and finer grit until I was happy with the shape and finish.
 

 

 

 
The rudder looked the easiest part to convert to the taller tail until the shape was traced out and then the shape is very different from the original rudder, not wanting to make a completely new part a compromise was made here with original part being thinned in the cord as mush as possible without completely throwing out the shapes again the 20 thou stock came out and was glued to the top of the rudder after the tip had been removed lots and lots shaping later the rudder looks half descent.
 

 
Both sides well on the way to completion
 

 
The shape doesn't look too bad but there is still the need to fill the upper hinge point and then create a new one higher up, along with making a scallop shape to replicate the fabric at the rear of the rudder on the attached pieces. 
 

 

It always helps to have some reference material, as this is the second Wildcat I'm working on quite quickly the decision was made to do the cockpit almost out of the box you really don't see much at all once the fuselage halves are joined together  
A little help from a nice etched seat seat and a couple of left over bits from a resin set will always come in useful
 

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much for all the kind comments chaps, I am really enjoying this one
 
 
 
Well, it was progressing fine until I went to post last nights update - in doing so I was going to add a picture of the radiator area to show what I was doing - this one actually..
 

 
..it was then i noticed something and realised I had just learned (or re-learned as I have done this before) an important lesson...
 
..always check references...
 
I had used jumpeii Temma's plans as reference for the formers & layout around the nose and had spent all of yesterday buiding the intakes to those drawings
 
look at how they compare to the trace I took from a combination of photographs..
 
..look at where the vertical duct seperations are vs the blue overlay version.
 

 
I posted anyway and thought initially I could live with it - well you don't spend a thousand hours on a model and get the face wrong, so after sleeping on it, the whole lot was ripped out and another 6 hrs spent doing it all again today..
 

 

 
 
..you live and learn as they say...
 
Peter

hey everyone
 
Happy New Year!
 
 
 
thanks Jay - I have found everything I need in the library - I think the P40 is about 80% identified where the drawing title has been added to aid searching. in fact the biggest problem is seperating out the early & late versions - some components were shared, but for example I did the PE design for a full set of fuselage formers before I realised I had done the late P40 which is completely different!
 
I have been in there for hours and hours and the PE design has now grown to 2 huge sheets after I decided to add the flaps too..
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Many thanks Chad, and after our PM conversation, thanks so much for the pics - super helpful
 
..the first thing to set about was the nose - it's all very well having a solid perspex keel and solid formers, but there is a bit of work to do to open it all out for the chin intake and exhaust area..
 
I mocked up the PE radiator front so I could orient what needed to be done and set about grinding and cutting out the lower chin area..
 

 
..also the rear where the cowl flaps will go..
 

 
..added two ali plates that will give strength to this bifurcated area..
 
..you can also see the ali tube I let into the upper nose for the basis of the (carb?) air intake
 

 
..the inside of the cowl is lined with sheets that duct the air from the intake to the 3 round prestone radiators - I have no drawings of this area so all I know is the shape of each intake segment, and the round radiator diameter at the end of it. to form the shapes, I needed to make bucks on which to form the metal sheet intakes. I started by laying out blanks of the shapes at each end and building a simple frame that held them in the right position
 
Once the frame was removed from the model, a pole was added to lock that position and the frame cut away, resulting in these funny shapes..
 

 
..those shapes were then built out with scrap plastic & balsa and filled with P38 filler and ultimately refined into the bucks needed..
 
intake shapes at the front..
 

 
..radiator shapes at the back..
 

 
..then annealed litho can be formed on the bucks to form the trunking..
 

 
..these were then primed and painted as I won't be able to get to them once fitted..
 

 
..then a bit of jiggling and they are fitted..
 

 
..I slathered a bit of epoxy around them to help them keep their shape..
 

 
..and the process worked - I also added a tape ring where they meet the rads which is like a canvas boot but you can't really see it..
 

 
..the transition is quite smooth..
 

 
..and thats it for now, rear area next..
 

 
 
 
TTFN
Peter
 
 

hello everyone
 
No way of dressing it up, but I have changed subject again...
 
I will go back to the Fairey Firefly - this is it's second time of falling out of favour, but when you get the urge what do you do?
 
My new flame is the early longnose P40. I have always thought it would make a good subject for me and very nearly started one after my P51, but didn't fancy another American aircraft in quick succession.
 
It's easy to see why..
 

 
..beautiful lines, natural metal and technically interesting.
 
This is G-CIIO operated by The Fighter Collection who have said I can come and take at look at her once we are into the New Year and assuming there is no covid funny business preventing a visit...
 
I have spent the last month or so researching and finding out about the airframe and the differences with the later short nose P40s and the earlier P36 - of which there are many. I also liked the timing with the GWH 1/32 kit coming out as folks will be talking P40's for a bit
 
I had Jumpeii Temmas plans scaled and corresponded with Witold Jaworski who has digitally modelled the P40C and had done loads of research and analysis of factory drawings
 
One thing I really looked forward to was doing what I did with my P51 and getting stuck into those drawings to replicate everything part by part. This was always something that hindered the Firefly, I just don't like working in a vacuum, I like the research and knowing what I am making is accurate
 
An example like this - here is the tailwheel door in the parts manual..
 

 
..I can find the part number and in Aircorps Library, look up the drawings..
 

 
..then scale and copy the drawings to make up a set of photo-etch parts..
 

 
..I did this hundereds of times and now have the mother of all PE sheets at 28cm by 47cm with everything I thought I could do in PE represented..
 

 

 
i thought I would base the model on the 21st Century Toys 'model' as I did with their Fw190D -this was on the basis that while it is a toy, the 190 was dimensionally pretty accurate..
So a trip to ebay and £160 lighter, one turned up..
 
Once the 'model' arrived I set about destroying it into it's component parts - this involved sawing some of the nose elements in half so I ended up with effectively two fuselage halves..
 
cue the first plan comparison and a very deflated feeling...
 

 
..it's too short, too narrow, has what looks like the late chin profile and is generally all over the place..
 
..the rear fuselage is particularly out..
 

 
..now, I did toy with the idea of just getting on with reworking it, but the more I looked, the more work I found - in the end I was trying to justify it because I had spent the money..
 
In the end, I bit the bullet and decided to scratch build it - I have no excuse - I have great drawings and having just scratchbuilt a Hawker Fury so feeling pretty confident..
 
..first step was to get a sheet of perspex acrylic to trace out a 'keel'...
 

 
..I used a scalpel to score the perspex - you may juts be able to see some of the station lines here (on the red line)..
 

 
..once I had all the station points and outlines done, I used a jigsaw and a cutting disc to cut out the profile - with a big bit missing for where the cockpit is..
 

 
..this again told me how out of whack the 21st Century Toys model is..
 

 
..using Jumpeii's profiles I cut out all the fuselage station formers..
 

 
..and cemented them in place using a mini set square..
 

 

 
..then I soldered some square brass stock to get the dihedral right for wings to slide into - there is a little perspex jig holding it upright inbetween them..
 

 
..they were epoxied in place with the smaller sliding box sections in place so the angles and dangles can be seen and the positioning made correct..
 

 

 
..so there we are - thousands of hours of work to go, but it feels good to have something fresh on the bench and thats what it's all about right?
 
TTFN
Peter
 

I built the KH kit and enjoyed it immensely.  So much so, I bought another.  For the most part it goes together well, but check fit everything and see how it will fit against those parts yet to be added.  To that end, glue the forward fuselage to the main fuselage first, then build up the floor and check each part as you fit it  There's two areas to be careful of.  The first is how the instrument panel fits.  If you angle it forward too much, it fowls the canopy.  The second are is the armament in the nose.  There's a box that fits just in front of the cannon feed and you'll need to round off the forward corners to get the top part of the forward fuselage to fit.
 

 
I also had to thin down the insides of that part.
 

 
But it does all fit.
 

 
From memory, everything else was a breeze.  If it helps, check out my build here.
 
One other thing I did was NOT to add the nose wheel leg when suggested by the instructions as I'm quite sure I'd have broken it during construction.  During construction of the nose wheel well, I clipped the mounting peg out so that I could slide the leg into place around the prop drive shaft.  Then I glued some strips of 0.5mm flat stock into place in the wheel well just in front of where the leg mounts to give me something to glue the leg to.  Having attached the front nose wheel door onto the leg, I then glued the leg into place and manoeuvered the actuating links into place to get the right angles.  It all worked out fine, and to this day, the kit legs are bearing the weight of the model just fine.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

Does John Payne hang out at this forum?  He knows a lot about P-47.
My question is, do the Hamilton Standards ever show the "cuffs" on the P-47?

I believe the prop in the photographs is a symmetrical Curtiss Electric prop. I can clearly see the cuffs at the base of the blades which the H-S prop does not have.

Tolga, I just changed my mind.  ^

I have seen Curtiss Electric prop on P-47s all having the cuffs.  Also the early Curtiss prop is sharper at the tip.  Later version of the Curtiss props on the P-40 had a wider chord and a more rounded tip.  In your photo it appears that the blade tip is more rounded and seems to have the cuffs.  So I do think this might be the wide chord Curtiss Electric.  At least this is my humble opinion...

Hello everyone,
Here is my 2021 build list in chronological order.
In advance, Happy new year to all
 
1-     1/32 Hasegawa – Grey Matter  P-40L Warhawk
2-     1/32 Hasegawa Focke Wulf FW 190F-8
3-     1/32 PCM Spitfire Mk.XIVe
4-     1/48 Hasegawa TF-104G
5-     1/32 Hasegawa Spitfire MK.IIa
6-     1/32 Dragon Messerschmitt Bf 109E-7Trop
7-     1/32 Dragon Messerschmitt Bf-110D
8-     1/32 Hasegawa P-40N Warhawk
9-     1/32 Hasegawa Messerschmitt Bf-109G 6
10-  1/32 Special Hobby Hawker Tempest Mk.V
11-  1/32 Hasegawa P-40E Warhawk
12-  1/32 Special Hobby Westland Whirlwind  Mk.1
13-  1/32 Hasegawa P-40N Warhawk
 

The spine turned out ok, its not perfect but its actually a lot straighter than it appears in photos, partly I think due to the sanding fluctuations in the surrounding primer. I'm hoping after a good sanding and a few more rounds of blending primer it should look fine
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
I took this opportunity to unmask the cockpit. Although it was masked properly, it had been that way for almost a year and a half +, and I barely even remembered what the pit looked like anyway. After the unmasking I remembered that the pit did in fact have a lot of detail I put into it back in 2018 or 2019. A
However, at the time the only way I could think of to replicate toggle switches and knobs was to scratch them myself from styrene bits and stretched sprue. The toggles I made were ok, but no where near what the ANYZ products available today look like that were not available in 2018 (or at least I had not heard of them). I removed all of my old scratched dials, knobs and most of the toggle switches I could get to, then replaced them all with suitable ANYZ dials, knobs and toggle switches.
 

 

 
 
 
 
I had forgotten that I quite liked how the F7F pit turned out, and I like it even more with the more realistic looking ANYZ products.
 

 
 
 
 
I've decided rather than push forward with the gear witch is well on its way, but is going to require some detail work, and there is some broader airframe work that needs my attention first, which is the PE, which is also where the start on the spine came from. 
Before I can start applying the rest of the PE, I need to finish some rescribing on some parts of the airframe, and that may require another round of primer to accurately see what is gong on, and what needs marked for attention before paint. 
However, before any of that can start I needed to get the IP hood figured out so I could attach the windscreen, as it is going to be integral to the overall scheme and needs to be smooth. 
So on with the windscreen and canopy work!
I know I've fettled with this part before but now is the hour to get it finalized, so I dived in and smoothed out both the windscreen and canopy to a more refined standard than I found them.
 
The fit was surprisingly good!  She is SUCH a looker though with her clear parts on, even with just her "crappy clothes" on! 
 

 

 
 
 
 
I'm currently working the the IP hood to cover the PE IP once the windscreen is in place. Its a tricky fit, as the windscreen has a tiny part that goes under the upper forward fuselage where it meets the base of the windscreen if that makes sense. 
Tomorrow I hope to glue the IP hood in and get the windscreen and canopy polished and possibly Futured. 
 
Cheers! 

Brian. look! They have made a video of you tackling this kit!
 
 
At least in my imagination you are looking like this when you are building that model. You stare it down and force it under your will
 
Keep rollig!
- dutik
 

The model was designed in such a way that it can be built with one side complete and one side without “skins” in order to show the skeleton. The interior (as well as the exterior) was designed as accurately as possible, using factory drawings and measurements of the real thing, of course all within the tooling limitations. The internal structure is not superfluous, it is still very visible from outside. For example the wing structure, apart from giving extra strength, also contains the wheel wells, radiators, the operating mechanism for the leading edge slats. If built carefully, the leading edge slats will be “operational/movable” and can be set in either position, which should please all “purists” who insist that they were always open/closed. 
The interior of the fuselage is very visible if the radio hatch is open and the model was designed in such a way that you do not need to glue the radio hatch, you can easily remove it to show the interior. 
The Zoukei Mura approach to models should be well-known by now. In a world of pop, they produce symphonies. It may not please everyone, but their models always sell out.
This is not “yet another 109” because there has never been a 109 like this before. 
Radu

Confession time. I have NEVER, no not NEVER!, built a 109. This kit I feel will change that particular status as far as i'm concerned. It looks lovely. 

The beast is complete.
I'll do better pictures another day. It's too dark for that now.