Has. P-40

[stevegallacci]

Not as much as the second shot would suggest. Even though the washes are not all that heavy, in sunlight, the high albedo of the pigment is over-emphasised by the camera.

[Guest Rigor]

wow talk about quick! look's great

[TimW]

I just picked one of these up---Father's Day Gift!

 

Looks excellent!

 

Tim W.

[LSP_Ron]

Looking great

 

Ron

[stevegallacci]

I've been doing some searching, both in all the reference pubs I've got and on-line sources, and it appears the Has. kit's mystery canopy frames are a fiction. While any number of marks had the "N" style vented left section canopy installed as a refit(?) the right side section remained frameless. And there were no photos I could find that had an otherwise standard canopy with extra frames(as in the kit) at all, especially nothing with frames on the right side. Further, the little corner gusset that intrudes into the canopy open section appears to be an odd little thing that appears on only some machines, seemingly without an obvious pattern of application, but appears to be reliably absent on all 'E machines.

 

Overall, compared to other recent Hasegawa releases, this kit has some odd little issues and lapses that I would not have expected from them. BUT, even with that, the kit is so much better than the earlier Revell or Trumpeter kits, that it is still totally the only real P-40 available.

[stevegallacci]

Here's another shot, nearly done.

[maverick728470]

Steve,

As to seeing what u'er doing with this kit of the P-40 from hasegawa.Most Excellent work and especially the debarcation lines bewteen the colors.Larry

[stevegallacci]

A warning about the Hasegawa decals versus Mr. Mark Softner. Heretofore the stuff merely helped decals settle onto surfaces but didn't seem all that aggressive. But on this build, the decals literally melt with the stuff applied, to the point of smearing like wet paint if touched. I've already boogered a couple of the decals while trying to ever so carefully work bubbles out from underneath.

 

Oops, found out that such a reaction is common with Mr. Mark. I guess I'd been using particularly resistant decals before.

[mungo1974]

Excellent work on your P-40. I'm so out of the loop,i didnt know this kit even existed till today and folks are already building it. I do hope we'll get some RAF 112Sqn decals for it!.

[Spads57]

Steve,

Excellent work as always.Fantastic paint job,I'm really looking forward to seeing this wonderful build completed.After reading over this thread I may just rethink my position on sticking with my beloved old Revell P-40E kits.Keep up the good work Steve.

Regards,

Gregory Jouette

[stevegallacci]

I've got a Revell in the works as a nostalgia build, though it will have some upgrades. I love that old kit, built one when it first came out in the Sixties.

 

The Has. kit IS wonderful as a representation of the original machine though.

[stevegallacci]

The decals look very good, but as they are very thin, and fairly large, can be tricky to lay down. And as they are particularly sensitive to Mr. Mark Softener, they can be easily damaged or pocked by any standing drops of the solution.

[bcauchi]

Beautiful Steve, looking really good.

[Silver Dollar]

Great work Steve. I just picked mine up today and I already have one question. I noticed that the kit comes with two decal schemes, the Texas Longhorn and Ed Rector's P40 in the CBI. I just need to know if Rector's planes has an accurate scheme with US national insignia on the wings instead of the Chinese markings. I know for a fact that the AVG had some P40Es later in their tour with numbers above 100 at (least 107) with Chinese markings. Was this one changed? Thanks in advance.

[stevegallacci]

I don't know spit about operational users or markings, just the machines themselves. But in looking through some refs, it may be that the particular machine might have started off with Chinese markings then changed to US marks when it was turned over to the USAAF 23FG?