Curtiss P-40B Tomahawk

[Dpgsbody55]

Anyone who has followed my last build of the Trumpeter P-47D Razorback may be a little surprised that my next project will be another Trumpeter kit.  Now, you may be questioning my sanity but hey, I build models, so that question has already been answered.    However, there is method in my madness.  I like P-40's and so when this kit was released, it was a must have so I bought it very soon after.  Then I started to read about the shallow cockpit so I left it in my stash, but bought the CMK resin cockpit and some Eduard photoetch and had every intention of building it, but work got in the way.  I hadn't built a model since 2001 as work got busier and busier, when had I completed the old Revell kit which also benefitted from some Eduard additions and A/M decals.  It's all brush painted, as I didn't have an airbrush at that time.

 

 

As you can see from the cracked decals, it's getting on a bit.  But the new Trumpy kit went into the stash where it has languished ever since, despite my completing a Hasegawa P-40M in 2013, the idea being that I'd have a shelf of P-40's. 

 

 

This kit was my first attempt at airbrushing and I was reasonably pleased with it, despite my mess around the undercarriage fairing.  I did it all freehand and only masked the canopy.  But still the Tomahawk remained in the stash until I completed my last build, until now.  So without any more waffle, here is the project.

 

 

 

As you can see, I intend using the CMK cockpit kit, which may be enhanced with the Eduard interior set, together with the Eduard exterior kit.  I also have some AVG markings coming from Hannants.  I've not made much progress so far, having spent most of my time in the last week researching colours, which is something I should have done before I started the P-47.  The best references I've found so far are these:

 

https://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/01/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us.htm

https://www.flickr.com/photos/35963591@N00/sets/72157622864527612/

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/24956-what-color-for-flying-tigers-p-40/

 

So here's what I have done, which has taken about six hours or so.

 

 

For the moment, I'm concentrating on the engine, but I've been considering how the cockpit will be built too, as I'm a little disappointed with the only slightly deeper CMK kit, given that the cockpit floor was the wingtop centre section.  I'm still not sure if I'll use it in it's entirety together with some Eduard enhancement or kitbash the stock cockpit, CMK resin kit and Eduard etch to see what comes out.  I suspect this is not going to be a quick build, so please bear with me.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[MikeMaben]

Hurry up Mike , get going !!!  

 

 

[dennismcc]

This should be good, the Trumpeter P40B was the first Trumpeter kit that I built many many years ago and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I used it as a test horse for using Xtracrylix paints, which I was not impressed with and have never used since.

I have another one in the stash waiting so so will follow looking for tips to make a better job of it.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Alex]

It will be great to see how you get on with the Trumpeter/Eduard cockpit kitbash.  I built this kit a while back and at that time I just punted and left the cockpit a la Trumpeter - visibly too shallow.  I did use the Eduard exterior stuff and thought it was worthwhile enhancement.  My old build thread is not useful to anyone, unfortunately, because I was using an impermanent image hosting approach back then.  But following this one with interest.

[Sabre F-86]

I've got 3 of those puppies in my stash. One of the first models I ever built was the Monogram P-40. Had that old girl follow  me through college and a couple of moves afterwards before she bit the big one. My favourite schemes are RAF North Africa and USSR. I'll be watching this with an eye to learning how to fix or improve things.

[Dpgsbody55]

Thanks guys.  Unfortunately, progress has been painfully slow, literally, as I've somehow hurt my left arm.  The joys of getting older, I suppose, though it beats the alternative hands down...  I'm typing this one handed, slowly .

 

I'm still working on the spark plug wiring, which is proving difficult with only one functioning arm.  Still, I've got one set of six in place and I'm working on the second, then it's just the top sets.  I'm not using the kit pieces here as they're too fine to drill into for the wires, and I've broken a couple of pieces that I have made, so have to start again.  I've also corrected one piece of detail in that these engines have a cooling gallery or pipe mounted just between the spark plug wire gallery and the exhausts.  No pictures yet, but hopefully a better update soon.  I'm still waiting on the decals I want to arrive too.  This week, if the postal pixies smile on me??

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

 

[MikeMaben]

2 hours ago, Dpgsbody55 said:

...  I'm typing this one handed, slowly .

 which is proving difficult with only one functioning arm. 

 

...and I thot it was hard modeling with one eye !!

                 

 

Take it easy Mike 

[Dpgsbody55]

Arm still hurts, but not as badly, thankfully.  Both hands, and eyes , are at varying stages of operational capability, so back to the model.

 

I've not got the engine to a point at which I need to mount it in the engine mountings, but one set of ignition wires have repeatedly eluded completion, so rats to them.  I just won't display that side of the engine.  As you can see, eighteen plugs have wires, which I think will be visible after the kit is finished.  The kit inlet manifold is very poor, but I've gone with it as I think it's likely better than my scratch building might be.  This part is complex as the manifolds then to snake all over the place.

 

 

I've also modified the engine mountings and added detail to the firewall.  The top mount is, I think, mounted too low, so I've modified them, moving the top part of the mountings about 3mm up on the firewall.  If I go any higher, I'm sure they will fowl the exhausts.  Here it is with one side done, so you can see the difference.  You can also see that I've added a cross brace to the firewall itself.

 

 

After doing the same to the other side, I've also added a brace to the left side, but not the right as I won't be opening that side of the cowling thanks to the problems encountered making the right side outer plug wires and harness tube.  Next, I've added some plumbing and a bottle made from scrap resin to the left side.

 

 

 

The left side mounting tab has been removed too as that mount is now redundant thanks to cutting way the left side cowling.

 

Next up, I've added some more plumbing and photo etch to the wheel wells, as well as opened up the front of the wheel well walls.  There will be a little more plumbing to add before I close up the wings.

 

 

 

 

However, most of my work since the last update has been on the cockpit.  After some head scratching (must stop doing that as one day, I'll go through, then both brain cells might escape ) I've decided to use the CMK resin allied to some of the Eduard etch.  I may use some kit parts, or not.  I'm making this up as I go.  After looking at all the bits, I've worked out that both the kit cockpit, as we know, but also the CMK resin is not up to standard.  The issue with the CMK kit is that the cockpit sides are wrongly shaped.  It's almost like someone did the shape or outline, then someone else added the details to the wrong side, because the forward edge of the sides doesn't match the forward end wall of the cockpit.  For the purposes of all current LSP kits available, P-40 cockpits were deeper at the rear than at the front because of the profile and mounting of the wing.  Alas, CMK's side walls were the other way around, and when you put it together, you get something very odd as the front wall and instrument panel will be too low once mounted.  Here's the cockpit sides as they come out of the box.

 

 

I could make my own from scratch, and this I almost did until I decided on a better and easier solution.  New sides were cut from 0.5mm stock plastic, which is the thinnest I've got.  Then I took each of these parts and thinned them down as much as I could to maintain the detail, and glued each side to the correctly shaped home made walls.  The protruding lower front edge was filed off, and more stock plastic was used to build up the lower rear part of each wall, and the resin cast ribs extended to suit.  The right side turned out better than the left, as I went through when sanding the resin side wall, hence the filler.  Here's the result.

 

 

This now means that the cockpit is deeper still than the CMK kit and closer to the actual thing.  I've also added depth to the rear wall.

 

 

I've now started adding some Eduard etch to this lot to try and improve it further.  Some of the resin detail has been removed and etch replaced these bits, and I've also added the Eduard floor to the resin to improve this.  The part needed some severe modification, but once it's all painted, I think it should look good.  Here's the various components of the cockpit as they are at present.  More etch will be added before final assembly after painting.

 

 

The rudder pedals will also need modification, and I may use the kit parts here as the resin part has broken in the package.  Here's the parts taped together to give me an idea of where I'm up to, and what still needs doing before painting.

 

 

 

The next shot is also to help me collect my scattered thoughts.  You'll see where I'm headed, I hope.

 

 

Because of the problems with forever breaking right side spark plug harness tube and wires, I've now decided not to cut off the right side cowling from the fuselage.  This should also make alignment of the engine with the plane easier, as well as alignment of the lower nose.  My thinking is that once I've painted the interior, firewall and cockpit, I can finish the engine and mount it to the firewall assembly, glue that to the fuselage and glue the fuselage halves together.  The completed cockpit will then slide in from below and I'll fab a new mounting for it for added strength.  I'm hopeful that I'll be able to have the interior painting done before the weekend is over.

 

So that's it for the moment.  Not sure when I'll be back with an update as this computer needs repair.  RAM usage keeps maxing out causing it to crash after about an hour, so while it's in, I'm getting another 16GB of RAM installed so that I can run Microsoft's new flightsim better.  In the mean time, work will continue.

 

 

Cheers, and stay well,

Michael

[Alex]

SOLID mix-n-match work on that cockpit!  Glad to see someone working on a way to correct this major flaw in Trumpeter's kit.  

[MikeMaben]

Nice fix Michael, go easy 

[Dpgsbody55]

Got my computer back from repair much quicker than expected and it looks like it's working well.  Thankfully, I can put that old laptop away.  I hate laptops almost as much as I hate mongrel idiots who have nothing better to do than write virus's for unsuspecting innocents like me.    I'd expected to have more to show for the next update, but then I also expected it would be longer until I was able to make said update. 

 

 

Next job was to paint all the interior bits.  I like to do this all in one hit, though something usually gets forgotten .  So all the small bits were sticky taped down to a piece of paper and sprayed with Curtiss's idea of interior green which appears to be applicable to P-40B's in 1940 and '41.  As I have three pots of chromate green, I added some raw umber and yellow to one of them and came up with what I think is a reasonable facsimile.  From my research, it seems that Curtiss colours varied because they bought from the cheapest supplier, hence the variation between aircraft batches.

 

 

 

Incidentally, you can see the exhausts in the picture above.  These come in two halves, to be glued together.  For one side, each half seems to fit well, but the other needed some adjustment with files before they fitted properly.  As with my Trumpter P-47 build, the parts fit is very inconsistent.

 

The engine was then mounted into the engine mounts and the radiator attached and allowed to dry.  Next, the coolant piped between the engine and radiators were attached and allowed to dry before the next one was added.  They're a bit fiddly, especially the ones that come off the cylinder heads which need to go on first.  In all cases, the locating lugs need to be thinned down as they don't fit into the slot provided on each radiator.  The last of the kit piping was added next, but one broke so I made a replacement from electrical wire.  This is the long one at the bottom.  Lastly, a little more piping was added from copper wire between the top of the reduction gear to the tank on the top of the bulkhead, and a second larger pipe from the same place to the oil cooler was made from 1.0mm brass wire, painted flat aluminium.  These pipes were located with strips of wine bottle lead.  I'm presently adding the exhausts, and have done one side.

 

 

 

 

The exhausts were painted before adding them carefully.  Like the radiator pipes in the kit, the locating tabs also needed to be thinned down before they'd fit.  I painted them a base of burnt iron, then toned that down a little with a dry brush of aluminium.  I'll do a bit more on them once the model is painted.  Once the other bank of exhausts are fitted, I'll fit this into the fuselage.  The removal of the cowling on one side means that only one of the kit locating tabs is still in place, so I have added ribs to the fuselage to help with the location of this assembly.  I've also added the rudder and tail wheel mount on one side.  On the other, I've added radiator intakes and front fuselage closing panel.  This will further help with locating the engine.

 

 

The cockpit is a long way off finished, but here's a few progress pictures.  The rudder pedals have been attached to the CMK resin front bulkhead.  I've used the Trumpy kit rudder pedals as they seem to fit properly and in correct proportions to the floor.  Also, the CMK resin bit was in pieces in that box, so NBG anyway.

 

 

A little touch up and scratching with a dry brush of aluminium will see that finished, after which it will be attached to the floor.  The cockpit floor is finished.  After paint, I scratched them up a bit to reveal the Eduard steel etch below and added the reserve and wing tank gauges.  The left and right sides are very much a work in progress, however, I've added the etch switch panel to the left side and painted the elevator and rudder trim knobs.  On the right side, I removed the radiator lever from the resin and added the etch rad lever before painting, and have painted some of the detail such as the pilot's oxygen hose and rad lever handle.

 

 

That's it for now.  Hopefully, for the next update, I'll have the cockpit finished and in place and the fuselage buttoned up.  Don't ask me why, but I seem to be enjoying this one more than the previous Trumpeter P-47 build, which is a bit wierd considering the kits are about the same in terms of quality, fit and errors.  The things we get used to... 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

Thanks.  I hope to do a proper update soon, before I forget what I've done .  I'm presently working on the pilot's pew and seat belts.  The cockpit floor is finished, as is both sides and the rear.  The instrument panel is coming along well, but I'm taking my time with this as it's too easy to mess up. 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

Update time again, and I've got lots of pictures, so this is a bit long.

 

After the last update, the first thing I did was to glue the completed engine and firewall assembly into the plane, then glue the fuselage halves together.  I did do a couple of test runs to make sure that I could fit the complete cockpit tub in from below, and I decided this would be the best way to go so that I could use the fuselage as an alignment tool for the various cockpit parts.  Bear in mind that I wasn't using the standard kit mounts for the cockpit or the engine, with one exception on the engine bulkhead right side.  All other mounts have been cut away.  I'd previously made the rudder assembly and tail wheel mount.  I'd have preferred to have left the tail wheel leg out at this point, but testing revealed that there was no way I was going to get this in place later.  Here is that assembly all dried and tidying up started.

 

 

The rest of this is not chronological, as I had the various cockpit parts in various stages of completion simultaneously.  However, for simplictity, I'll cover each part on it's own.  The next pictures are of the cockpit sides.  These are a mixture of CMK resin and Eduard etch.  No kit parts are used, except for the elevator and rudder trim knobs, kit parts C41 & 42.  You've seen how I modified the side panels in my previous update and here they are complete.

 

 

The left side carries the switch panel trim knobs, undercarriage and flap selector levers, switch panel, throttle quadrant and a couple of placards.  The red/brown box is a harness holder, the silver lever with yellow handle is resin cast into the resin side and picked out with paint.  The adjacent red lever is the undercarriage selector lever, in CMK resin.  In the P-40, the pilot selected the flaps or undercarriage position with these levers, then pressed a button on the top of the control column to activate the electric motor that drove the hydraulics.  If that motor failed for whatever reason, the brown topped lever next (later picture) to the pilot's seat was the manual back up pump.  However, pilots were advised to give the manual pump handle a few tugs to manually check that the hydraulics had pressure and ensure the U/C was down and locked.  Once the flaps or U/C was in position, the pilot then moved these selector levers back to the neutral position.  The throttle quadrant was the one cast into the CMK resin, to which I added the Eduard etch throttle gate on top, together with the levers.  You can also see the control rods at the base of the quadrant, which is more etch.  Here is the left side alone.

 

 

The right side is a little simpler.  The only etch here is the red handled radiator flap lever, and the white switch panel.  The rest is picked out in paint, with a piece of 0.4mm wire used as the winding handle for the sliding canopy.  I've tried picking out the wiring in black paint, but I'm not steady enough, so this is rather poor in my opinion.

 

 

The resin front and rear bulkheads were fitted to the cockpit floor next, starting with the front bulkhead/rudder pedal assembly, a picture of which is in a previous update.  I had previously dry brushed some aluminium paint to the pedals to simulate wear. This was allowed to dry thoroughly before CA gluing the rear bulkhead to the floor.  I used the fuselage as a jig  and one of the sides to get the angles correct, and let this set before adding a plastic card reinforcement to the join, as it's just a simple butt joint and likely to break during construction.  Here's a picture of the completed assembly.

 

 

You may recall in my previous update that I'd lengthened the rear bulkhead with stock plastic to match my now deep cockpit sides.  This meant I needed to make my own seat mount, as both the kit part (C26) and the CMK resin mounts were now too short.  I made my own using 1.0mm stock rod, heated and bent to shape.  You can see the difference in the photo below.

 

 

Before earlier covering the CMK resin floor with cut down Eduard etch, I had measured the placement of the holes for the lower seat mounts on the floor.  New holes were drilled, and my bent rods were glued into place against the floor and rear bulkhead, and the etch tie piece between the two was supplied from the CMK resin kit.  Here's the result, together with the painted seat, also dry brushed in aluminium, and it's cushion.  These were painted later.

 

 

Seat belt time; not my favourite as I'm never happy with the results, and this is no exception.  I started off using the etch belts provided in the CMK kit, as these were simpler, but the result had me thinking thoughts of excrement and residences.    So I used the more complex Eduard etch belts in the end, which are OK, but a bit long.  So here's the completed seat, cushion and belts photographed against my rule with millimetres showing.  All 25 parts of it.

 

 

Busy, ain't it???    Once this was completed, I mounted it to the base and mounts.  I decided that only gluing it to the home made mount was possibly not secure enough, so I added some 1.0mm rod supports underneath.  These were painted before final assembly, though I can't see how anyone could see them.  Holes at each end were drilled into the seats and floor for added strength.

 

 

The instrument panel is based on the stock kit part, C10.  It is almost identical to the CMK resin part, except it's too wide for the rest of the CMK kit, so I cut the ends off to match the resin part.  I decided to use the Trumpy part, as it has the mounts for the wing gun charging handles integral to the rest of the part.  These would have needed to be glued on to the resin  part, probably repeatedly... .  The sub panel at the right of the Trumpy part C10 is for the engine primer, and there should be a gauge to the right of that which displayed the oxygen levels and pressure but this being cut off due to lack of space makes my rendition of the cockpit less than totally real.  Yer pays yer money and yer makes yer choice.  I did think of installing this gauge below the IP, to the cockpit wall, but I wasn't sure of the available placement, so as I said, it was ignored.  Incidentally, either part would take the Eduard etch instrument panel or the CMK etch IP.  I've also added the fuel tank selector at the left of the IP.

 

 

Here's the panel, completed, using the Eduard etch panel, which I preferred, and other Eduard details.  The gauges have been further picked out with a drop of clear gloss in each.  The wing gun charging handles in the Eduard kit are way too small in scale, very fiddly, and my results look a little haphazard.  But they're all there, which is surprising, given my eyesight and I'm leaving well enough alone.  It's also a crap picture too, and looks better in the plastic.

 

 

This was then added carefully to the cockpit assembly, together with the brown topped manual hydraulic pump handle and the pilot's control column.

 

 

So here's the bits, all ready for final assembly, which I did tonight.

 

 

The next pictures are of the completed tub, but the sides are not yet glued into place.  I've painted the edge of the instrument panel now, as this would be impossible once it's all glued together.

 

 

 

At this point, I did a dummy run mounting the whole piece into the fuselage.  The sides have still not been glued into place.  I also fashioned mounts for the assembly as the only place to glue it positively to the fuselage is at the pilot's head rest, and this is not very strong.  I also checked for clearance against the wings as there's not much point doing all this then not being able to attach said wings.  Both halves of the wings, and the guns, are assembled, but I'll come back to that in the next update  Let's just say Mr Trumpeter strikes again.....

 

So finally, the cockpit tub is installed.  I glued the sides on with ordinary CA, then installed the lot into position while the CA was still wet, and clamped the cockpit sides to the fuselage sides to properly position them as best as is possible.  Lastly, the lower mounts were glued into place.  Here's the results from earlier this evening, taken very quickly before adding clamps to the sides.

 

 

 

The front cover is only taped into place, to help both with gluing the IP to the front cockpit bulkhead and vertical height alignment, and also for the same vertical height adjustment of the front of the cockpit tub.

 

Next update should be with the wings on, hopefully in a few days.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited October 16, 2020 by Dpgsbody55

[Sabre F-86]

Coming along nicely. What scheme are you going to paint? I've been reading about a Soviet pilot name Boris Safonov, and am collecting aircraft he flew. I have the P-40B and E models, an I-16 type 29 is on the way. Still need to find a Hurricane B.

[Dpgsbody55]

Thanks, Sabre F-86.  I'm still thinking about the paint scheme, but I won't be doing it in a Soviet or early USAAF scheme.  My last two models have been olive drab/neutral grey so I've had enough of that for now, and the three before those were VVS planes, so I have enough of them for now too.  I'm leaning towards Flying Tigers colours at the moment, but an RAF Western Desert plane might also be modeled.  I'm definitely making this up as I go.

 

And on that last point, here's another smaller update, and not the one on wings that I mentioned last time.  I'm passably happy with the engine bay, but one thing that bugs me is the radiator ducting.  The kit ducting only covers the area into the radiators and it fits pretty well, but air exiting is left to go nowhere.  And this problem will be visible on my finished model, so I have to try to fix that somehow.

 

 

 

The ducting aft of the radiators is a fairly complex shape to make in plastic, so it needs to be made from thin sheet metal.  It needs to fit both around the rear of the coolant radiators, then also clear the pipes behind them.  I've never tried anything like this before, but recently I bought a sheet of 0.4mm brass while on a supply run to my nearest hobby shop.  So I thought, "nothing ventured; nothing gained" and so after a little measuring, I cut out a piece of paper 30mm x 40mm and started bending and folding to shape.  I've been watching too many car restoration shows where they always use cardboard as a template before cutting metal.  Who knew reality TV was actually useful and informative??    Once I had the rough shape, I cut a piece of brass sheet to match and here's the result.

 

 

Firstly, I folded one long side 90 degrees, then folded either side around a modelling knife.   After test fitting, I marked out some cut aways where it would interfere with wing fitment, and so you see the result above.  Here it is in place.

 

 

 

I can't quite duplicate the same curvature on both sides because of the existing engine plumbing, so this will have to do.  It's a big improvement on the stock kit, I think.  One small adjustment was made to the wings, where the centre disappears into the fuselage.  I have filed this area back about 1.5mm deeper where the wing joins the fuselage, but only at the fuselage/wing joint.  Hopefully, the picture shows it better than my words explain.  It needs a little tidying, but with this duct in place, my wings still fit properly.

 

 

I still have to paint this, for which I need rattle can primer first, and as it's almost 1.00am here, that will have to wait until tomorrow.  So the next update should show this finished and in place, and the wings on.

 

I think..... 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited October 18, 2020 by Dpgsbody55