THE SHARK HAS LANDED! Curtiss Tomahawk 112sqn RAF

[quang]

Quote

 

Hi all,

Some say that a modeller‘s life is like city buses. One can wait for a bus for hours, and when one finally comes along, they come in 3 or 4 

I’ve been anticipating for the GWH P-40 B/C since it was announced last year. I thought that given the enthusiastic reception, there would sooner or later be a WIP thread dedicated to the subject on this here forum.

I waited and waited …until three weeks ago, I took the plunge and ordered my kit from a Czech shop. Five days later, it arrived. I ripped open the box and started right away… only to find that @Tolga ULGUR beat me to it.

To tell you the truth, I’m not entirely unfamilar with the early Hawk. I scoured the internet for my build of the 1/48 Airfix kit, and learned a lot from the various Curtiss experts. Furthermore I’m currently building a 1/32 French H75, the forefather of the H81. So I felt I was somewhat ready for the GWH.

 

My intention is to build a 112 sqn RAF Tomahawk in early temperate camouflage and sporting one of the original sharkmouths. I’ve studied this scheme for my 1/48 model and will take the opportunity to implement it to the larger scale. Since no decals exist, the markings will be hand-painted à la old-school (no Silhouette).

 

Some views of my 1/48 Airfix. I’ll use the same color scheme for the GWH. Hopefully, with cleaner teeth 

 

This thread is not meant to be a step-by-step WIP per se but rather a log where I’d be gathering notes and impressions (and rants) during the building of this promising kit! I hope some of you will find it at least entertaining and I also welcome your comments and input. The more the merrier.

 

 A VERY brief preview of the kit as all of you know already about it. 

THE PROS: very clean mouldings, realistic surface textures with intricate, accurate details, very precise fit with super-tight tolerance. Very comprehensive decals, thin and well-printed.

THE CONS: the photo-etchings are useless and primitive at best. Paper-thin, easily deformed, devoid of noticeable details. Some etched parts would better be in moulded plastic. The etched radiator grills are commendably thin and subtle if only they can be seen once the kit is completed.

Furthermore the special edition ‘bonus’ -apart from the 3d-printed .303 barrels- are completely useless: a bogus patch (if only had they use a genuine Flying Tigers breast patch), a ‘collector’s card (tell me how many collect 150euro kits), and 2 posters profiles(meh).

I would prefer GWH replace these ‘bonus’ with some etched seat belts and optional US seats and windscreens.

 

Rants aside. Let’s cut plastic.

 

Starting with the cockpit. I prefer to do it the ‘normal’ way. Instead of building a pilot’s cage as GWH proposed, I’d be gluing the right and left sides to their respective fuselage halves. This method would give me a complete view of what’s in store, especially giving the adequate contrast when detailing and painting the cockpit.

 

I added an armour plate ( plasticard) to the bulkhead behind the seat

 

The original cockpit was painted in an equivalent of RAF Grey-green. I used AK grey-green slightly modified with a touch of blue.
The aft fuselage is painted in a yellow Zinc Chromate. This part is not visible on the completed airframe. I only painted it to give some contrast to the cockpit color.

 

Cockpit floor (in fact, the top of the wing) painted. Note ‘halo’ effect. Supposed to give some depth to the cockpit. Hopefully 

 

 

Seat is painted in a slightly darker green than the rest. As this is a RAF bird, I added a Sutton harness (Eduard p.e.)

 

Instrument panel waiting for bezel decals.

 

That’s it, folks.

Questions and comments are heartily welcome!

Cheers,

Quang

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2022 by quang

[Tolga ULGUR]

Great start 

[Kagemusha]

Very nice work, great choice of scheme.

[Alex]

Great to see you starting this.  I will be following with interest. My kit’s in the mail, and when I get around to it I’m doing a flying tiger straight up - decked out with Chinese nationalist insignia and thoroughly worn out from operating off of primitive airfields with minimal repair parts available.  Glad to see that they did the cockpit floor correctly on this one - that was one of the glaring mistakes with the Trumpeter kit…

[James Rademaker]

Great build thus far, looking forward to seeing the rest of the WIP. A quick question? The model looks very detailed. Could you tell me how much the kits cost in US dollars?

Thanks,

Jim

[quang]

20 hours ago, Tolga ULGUR said:

Great start 

Thank you Tolga. Yours was not half bad either! 

11 hours ago, Kagemusha said:

great choice of scheme.

I like the ferocious look. Mind you some of the sharkmouths were actually smiling 

 

10 hours ago, Alex said:

Glad to see that they did the cockpit floor correctly on this one - that was one of the glaring mistakes with the Trumpeter kit…

Forget the Trumpeter. According to the experts, GWH ticked all the boxes on this one.

 

9 hours ago, James Rademaker said:

Could you tell me how much the kits cost in US dollars?

I paid the equivalent of 160 USD. Most expensive kit I ever bought but then… you only live twice. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by quang

[quang]

Thin and well-printed decals are provided for the instruments. A drop of epoxy glue on each bezel finishes off the IP.

 

I added a recharging lever handle on the side of each machine gun. But I reckon much of them won’t be visible in the finished cockpit.

 

The export seat provided is a faithful reproduction of the original.

picture for info only

 

I just added the leather patch typical of the RAF issue.

 

The cockpit sides and instrument panel in situ. OOB except for a few wires and odd bits.

 

 

 

Next time we’ll finish the cockpit floor and the wing.

Until then, have a nice week-end!

Cheers,

Quang

 

 

 

 

 

[zaxos345]

Great work so far Quang!! Really love this ip

 

John

[quang]

@xaxos345 We’re all waiting for you to start yours, John 

[Daywalker]

Excellent work, like the subtle worn effects on the flight deck.  Hope to start mine soon, still going through and cleaning up the gazillion parts!

[zaxos345]

1 hour ago, quang said:

@xaxos345 We’re all waiting for you to start yours, John 

It will take some time 

[quang]

TACKLING THE WING presents no problem.
The fit is excellent, the dihedral perfect and the completed assembly rock-hard rigid.  
I have no issue with GWH opening up the gun loading doors but why, oh why make those doors from the flimsy, bendy photo-etched brass.
GWH could have easily done them in plastic and save us the time and effort to back up the brass with plasticard and make them sit FLAT. 

 

 

 

Additional work will require to open up the shell ejection chutes … 

On the other hand, don’t be over-enthusiastic and fill in the trailing edge of the wing.
There needs to be a slight gap between the landing flap and the upper surface of the wing

 

There’s also a hole (camera gun?) in the right wing root which needs to be opened.

 

The underwing  light also needs to be improved somewhat.

The completed wing.

That was the easy part. 

Next time, we’ll tackle something more complex: the nose

 

Until then, keep well,

Cheers,

Quang

Edited March 28, 2022 by quang

[MikeMaben]

[quang]

Thanks Mike!

[Tolga ULGUR]

Good job

In this case, I'm drilling the same place.