Hasegawa P-40 kits.

[ade rowlands]

So, I took delivery this morning of one of the Eduard Bunny Fighter kits of the P-40E, I bought it when they last had some offers on as I fancied another P-40 to go with the E in the stash, this has also solved the problem I had in that the one in the stash had the early Hasegawa faux pas with the windscreen frames, not the later corrected one so Now have a correct screen for that one, I was already a member so got it for a nice price. Now, it’s arrived just like the P-40N I got a while back and sold on and regretted it, Eduard seem to have bought a generic P-40 pressing from Hasegawa. The P-40N clear parts are there as is the longer tail. But say I wanted to build a P-40K or M what bits would I need? Was the Kittyhawk Allison engined or Merlin? I’m not up on what P-40 had what tail and all that kind of detail. I know the Merlin engined versions weren’t different up front to that option is out. Only ever seen the P-40E and N kits on he shelves so the possibility of being able to make any of the Alison engined variants from this box would be nice. Here is a majority of the sprues. Any help appreciated. 
 

 

[thierry laurent]

You can build all of them except the K that used a different tail fillet. No Merlin-engined P-40 was ever released by Hasegawa. Grey Matter released a quite accurate P-40F resin conversion. There is also the Trumpeter P-40F but I would not recommend it when there's a better option. 

[ade rowlands]

Thanks Thierry. I need to look more into the M variant. I’ve seen some nice Ventura decals for Geoff Frisken’s Wairarapa Wildcat. I know there was a boxing of this a while back but Even if I could track one down the decals would likely need to be replaced anyway. Then there’s Fundekals for Lulu Bell. I think from what I can see though the M had the same style windscreen as the E which gives me a problem again in having the original erroneous windscreen in my E kit. So it’s looking like an N will be built from the spare parts in the Eduard kit. Was a pleasant surprise to have all parts in the Eduard box though. Might order another next time they have an offer on as I got it for around the same price the E cost here anyway by the time I add the price of masks and resin wheels and exhausts and replace the Hasegawa decals. 

[BiggTim]

You could always convert it to a Russian P-40E Klimov M-105 engine version!! (shameless plug for my conversion set)   There's only been one built so far, ever, so it would be very unique!

 

Tim

Edited June 15, 2020 by BiggTim

[ade rowlands]

25 minutes ago, BiggTim said:

You could always convert it to a Russian P-40E Klimov M-105 engine version!! (shameless plug for my conversion set)   There's only been one built so far, ever, so it would be very unique!

 

Tim

I remember the build. It’s an option for sure. I kinda like the decal options that come in the Eduard kit. I remember the N tail plug being a pig so might avoid doing an N version. Depends on if I can get a corrected windscreen for the E kit in the stash. I have a request in to the U.K. importer who has contacted Hasegawa. So we shall see. 

[LSP_Ray]

You can do an F or L with the Grey Matter Merlin F/L conversion; the only difference is the tail. F had short, L had long. I think the only one you can't do is the K as Thierry mentioned.

The N requires a lot of different parts with the extended canopy and revised fuselage required, but it sounds like you have the covered.

[LSP_Ron]

I fudged a K out of the E kit a few years ago by reshaping the tail with plastic card and Miliput. 

[ade rowlands]

18 minutes ago, LSP_Ray said:

You can do an F or L with the Grey Matter Merlin F/L conversion; the only difference is the tail. F had short, L had long. I think the only one you can't do is the K as Thierry mentioned.

The N requires a lot of different parts with the extended canopy and revised fuselage required, but it sounds like you have the covered.

Yeah. All the parts for an N are in the box Eduard released as an E. I think they just bought a load of sprues from Hasegawa for all versions but the K. It’s the same bag of sprues as came in the earlier N limited edition kit from Eduard, just different decals and resin. My choices all hinge on getting the replacement windscreen from Hasegawa without the extra frames they added for some reason. If nothing comes of the request the UK importers put in to Hasegawa for me then I may have a go at sanding the extra frames out and polishing what’s left up. It’s a useless part as is anyway so I’m nit at a loss if I break it in my attempt. 

[LSP_Ron]

I sanded mine out with a find nail file then polished it out with progressively finer Tamiya sand paper then polished with white tooth paste.  A final dip in future and it turned out great.

 

It's easy to do and like you say, the part is garbage anyway so nothing to loose.