Speed build: Hasegawa P-40E

[Neo]

Dam fast and amazing... So unfair

[ChuckD]

Edit:  I'm deleting this comment because I realize in retrospect that it did not come off as I intended it to.  I had intended for it to be light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek and it came off as whiny.  Despite being in the tech field and relying on email as a primary form of communications, I sometimes forget that it is tough to derive tone from text.  So, if I put anyone off by complaining about being sick, please disregard.  

Edited December 26, 2018 by Gewehr 43

[ChuckD]

Content dump ahead...

 

Boy oh boy, what a heck of a few days it's been.  Stomach flu ravaged the house, canceled Christmas plans, ruined bathroom rugs, etc, etc, etc.  In that time, I was so wasted, I only managed a few hours at the bench.  Fortunately, I'm feeling much better today and should be able to press on.  

 

Here is a compendium of the things I was able to accomplish while half-withered from dehydration and nausea.  

 

Started gluing the wing roots.  I used a small bit of sprue and tape to help press the lower wing root tighter into the fuselage piece.  It helped the root fit more flush, but I still had to scrape and sand a bit for a smoother join.

 

This shows the final product for the gun inserts on the wing.  Pretty happy with how these came out.  The process was greatly aided by the fact that all the nearby panel lines were far enough away from the sanding area so as not to need rescribing.

 

Left wing root after cleanup.

 

Right wing root after cleanup.

 

Lower wing/fuselage join after cleanup and rescribe.  I need some more scribing templates and tools.  Some of the lines here had to be done by hand aren't quite as clean as I'd like.  Though, once they're painted, I suspect any roughness will be all but invisible.

 

The stabilizer join cleaned up,  The upper surface joined flawlessly, but left a hairline gap in the lower surface join.  I filled this with dissolved sprue, sanded, and lightly rescribed.

 

On to the exhaust.  These were finicky little SOBs so I taped them down to glue the halves together.

 

Th end product looks pretty nice.  Way better than dealing with drilling out solid tips, in my opinion.  I cleaned up the seam lines a bit after these pictures, but as there was a visible weld line there on the real thing, I didn't go too nuts cleaning the join line.

 

[ChuckD]

I then moved on to the part of the build I was dreading most.  Joining the two clear panels aft of the cockpit and cleaning them up was a bit of a pain.  For whatever reason, Hasegawa didn't put these on any kind of panel line (insofar as I can tell anyway), so cleanup is required.  I'm glad I dipped these in future (this is why I did that, actually), as I had to use liquid superglue to lock these in place.

 

The pre-glue setup.  I did this to ensure that it aligned correctly with the rest of the rear fuselage.  I then used a glue looper (an amazing tool - highly recommended!) to feed liquid superglue into the seams.

 

 

 

After gluing, I cleaned up visible gaps, then shot a quick mist of gray primer to see how the seams looked.  Using a bit of brush-applied Mr. Surfacer 500, I filled the remaining gaps.

 

After quite a bit of sanding, some additional sanding, and rescribing, I believe I have the join smoothed out.  It may not end up perfect, but it should be pretty close.

 

So, that's where it currently stands.  Next stop: Paint shop!  

 

[ChuckD]

Midday update!

 

A little bit of time at the bench this morning means I was able to get a primer coat down.  I started by painting the outside of the canopy interior green.  I didn't mask the internals, so this will be a close approximation of the interior color when viewed from the inside.

 

I've settled on this paint scheme from the 7th FS/49th FG in mid 1942.  This is from the Montex mask set that I'll be using.  Never used masks for insignia before, so this should be very interesting.

 

Paint modulation starts now, so I deliberately mottled the primer coat.  This is Mr. Surfacer 1500 black, thinned 1:1 w/Mr Color Self Leveling thinner shot at 15psi.  

 

 

Next, I'll paint the neutral gray bottom, mask out a few places and paint the OD top.  Should be able to bang that out later tonight.  Then it's on to masking and painting the markings.  

 

Question: I'm guessing this aircraft had the tail-to-each-wingtip aerial wire configuration, where do the radio wires attach to the wingtip?  My googling isn't getting me far in this regard and I'd like to drill the appropriate holes before I get too far in the paint.  

Edited December 26, 2018 by Gewehr 43

[MikeMaben]

Some did , some didn't.

 

[LSP_Ray]

Nice work, gewehr, look forward to seeing color on it.

[ChuckD]

12 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Some did , some didn't.

 

 

Mike,

 

That is perfect.  Thank you so much for the image.  I'll go ahead and say that this aircraft had the wires as I'm not finding any evidence to the contrary and I like the look.  Googling only found one image with the aircraft in the background and you can't tell if the wires are present.  I'm going to drill the pilot holes in the wing before I move any further on with the paint.  Much appreciated.

[ChuckD]

I'm sitting here waiting for the decals to dry, so it's time for a content dump.  It's been a busy couple days and I think I may still be on track to finish this build before the end of the year.  

 

When last we left, I was ready to start shooting paint.  Not surprisingly, that's what I've been doing a lot of the last couple days.  On both the upper and lower surfaces, I built up several thin coats of varying tones.  The bottom was several custom mixes of Tamiya grays and a little olive drab thrown in for tonality's sake.  I mottled the whole thing heavily and built up the coats unevenly to help with the paint modulation effect. 

 

First mottle done, very dark.

 

Part way through the second mottling coat, this time with a lighter mix.

 

Done with the 2nd coat.

 

Aaaand done with the 3rd and final coat.  I believe this was a ~50/50 mix of Tamiya light gray and white.  I thinned it pretty heavily so the darker coats would still come through a bit.

 

Then, it's on to masking the demarcations between the upper and lower surfaces.  According to the paint guide, the chin had a hard line between the two colors and the tail had a softer demarcation.  So, I used a mix of straight-up tape and a tape+silly putty.  Silly putty is one of my absolute most favorite masking tools.  Quick, easy, no residue, cleans up nicely, and cheap.  Pretty perfect.  You'll see a lot of it throughout my posts.

 

Roll the putty into a rope and gently stick it to the surface of the model.  Spray indirectly over the putty and you have a nice soft demarcation.

 

Fortunately, the cowl masking followed a panel line.

 

 

[ChuckD]

The upper surface started with Tamiya Deep Green.

 

Moved on to Olive Green:

 

And continued with Olive Drab which seemed too dark when I got done, so I thinned a mix of Olive Drab and White and oversprayed the whole upper surface.  I forgot to capture a pic of that process in finality.  Whoops.  Suffice to say, that final coat tied it all together nicely as you'll see.

 

(NYYYYYYAAAAAAAARRRRRROOOWWWWWWWWWW)

 

I then masked and painted the wheel wells.  I'm a bit paranoid about overspray, even though I'm only shooting at ~12-15psi.  There were some odd nooks and crannies here that I had to get to and I didn't want to risk it.

 

The results speak for themselves:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2018 by Gewehr 43

[ChuckD]

Next, I moved on to spraying the national insignias via a Montex mask.  I've never done that before, so I learned some interesting lessons along the way.  In the end, I'm pretty pleased with the result.  This aircraft had the pre-war star-with-red-circle insignia which was painted over mid-1942, so I tried to replicate that.

 

 

Masking for the wing-leader's stripe.

 

Wing leader and unit number markings complete.  The tail number is apparently supposed to be crooked.  

 

 

After spraying a quick shot of Vallejo clear gloss on the appropriate areas, I applied the decals to the aircraft.  And here's how she sits now.

 

 

Next is a mist of base coat to dull down & blend some of the decals, then clear coat them to protect them.  After that I've got some brushwork to do on the tailwheel canvas boot, the guns, ejection slots, light bulbs, and a few other places, then it's on to filters, washes, a little bit of chipping and hopefully the finish line by Monday. 

[Out2gtcha]

Wow, that looks excellent!!  I'm sure you may have already found out, but you can use some clear transfer tabs made out of in my case clear frisket film, can be applied over the whole of the mask so you can transfer the insignia mask to the model at one time keeping all parts of the mask together fully in the same exact position they were on the sheet.

 

I really dont need to say anything, as whatever you did worked, cause the paint turned out wonderfully!

[MikeMaben]

 

  Very nice 

 

 

[Daniel460]

Beautiful work! 

 

Dan

[Fvdm]

That is a real nice paintjob