THE SHARK HAS LANDED! Curtiss Tomahawk 112sqn RAF

[dennismcc]

Looking good, will keep his as a reference for when I start mine.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[jeroen_R90S]

As I wrote in Tolga's topic, I don't have a particular interest in (early P-40s, but builds like this really pique my interest.

The Airfix one looks great, too!

 

Jeroen

[quang]

Thank you Dennis and Jeroen for your interest.

I have to admit that this kit is one of the most enjoyable builds I’ve done in my 55+ modelling years. Got to hurry before arthritis gets me 

[quang]

I KNEW IT! I had it too good for too long … for yesterday Murphy showed his pesky head.

As my desk grows more and more cluttered, I’ve finally succeeded to lay my half-completed fuselage on a puddle of tube cement.

This is how I found it:

 

Milliput, files, micromesh… and a few hours later, got this:

 

The odd panel line still needs to be restored but life goes on!

Until next time,

Cheers,

Quang

[Tolga ULGUR]

11 minutes ago, quang said:

I KNEW IT! I had it too good for too long … for yesterday Murphy showed his pesky head.

As my desk grows more and more cluttered, I’ve finally succeeded to lay my half-completed fuselage on a puddle of tube cement.

This is how I found it:

 

Milliput, files, micromesh… and a few hours later, got this:

 

The odd panel line still needs to be restored but life goes on!

Until next time,

Cheers,

Quang

 

Oh no..

The same thing happened to me in previous projects. It's very frustrating, but I'm sure you'll get over it. You've already saved most of it. good luck.
I am researching anti Murphy spells while painting.

[dennismcc]

Know the feeling but in my case it's usually a CA fingerprint, nice recovery though.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[quang]

6 hours ago, dennismcc said:

Know the feeling but in my case it's usually a CA fingerprint

Strangely enough, it’s much easier to remove CA with specialized glue removers than styrene cement which literally eats the plastic. The only remedy is to treat the blemish like if it was a dent or a hole in the plastic.

Thank you all for your kind words. The show must go on! 

Edited March 31, 2022 by quang

[IainM]

Well recovered!!!

[quang]

The P-40B/C nose is notoriously a fairly complicated affair which some modellers would call ‘over-engineered’.

In my opinion, GWH did a very good job at giving us an accurate reproduction of the real thing inside AND out. 
And of course, that entails a great number of parts which would need a great deal of forethought to achieve a spotless assembly.

 

My method is to assemble the parts two by two making sure at each step that they are correctly cleaned up and adjusted. 

 

Some parts need to be painted during the building sequence.

 

Photo-etched gills added

The nearly finished nose.
The building is fairly complex because it would need at least three hands to complete the assembly.
The trick is to cement ONE joint at a time and waiting for the glue to harden before going to the next.

 

Note how the joints are precise and located like the panels on the actual a/c. Zero need for putty.

 

 

The last joint is not as tidy as the others.

After restoring with AC glue and talcum powder. Please note that the seam is present on the real a/c.

 

That’s it, folks!

Until next time, have a Happy Easter!

Quang

Edited April 1, 2022 by quang

[Alex]

Nice work!  This is getting me excited about building this kit!

[quang]

Welcome back ye traveler

At this point in the building sequence, let’s take a pause and talk about the subject of this build: converting the AVG Flying Tigers plane into a British Tomahawk IIB.

 

As you already know, my aim is to convert this Flying Tigers plane into a Tomahawk of the No.112 squadron RAF.

The No.112 sqn was reportedly famous for introducing the shark mouth design on their machines and creating a trend for the many P-40s which followed including the much more publicized Flying Tigers.

The main source for my conversion is a 1941 British Pathe newsreel .
The plane I chose to model is a Tomahawk singled-coded C in early temperate camouflage and sporting a red Indian head insignia below the cockpit.

 

Screenshots from the video

 

The conversion is fairly easy considering that the AVG and the RAF planes were basically the same machine with the same camouflage. The only difference being the national insignia and the codes which can be easily reproduced with paint.

 

More difficult is… the shark mouth  which will have to be painted since no decal exists for the plane I’m modelling.

Note that these early shark mouths were one-offs and differed from one another unlike the Flying Tigers/AVG design which used templates.
Also on the few first mouths (like in this case), the brushworks were often crude and by no way mirror- imaged (left side NOT obligatory identical to right side).

Add to that the fact that these original documents didn’t possess the super clarity we’re accustomed to in our digital age, so a certain degree of interpretation and artistic license is mandatory.

 

With these caveats in mind, LET’S ROLL.

 

First, we’d have to create the masks for airbrushing.

Since I don’t have access to the Silhouette system, I’ll do it the hard (manual) way.
In them old days, we used frisket film for airbrush to make the masks. Since it’s not generally available anymore, I tried using Tamiya masking film. Not the best material for it since it’s not transparent.

 

The film is applied to the nose and the contours of the mouth roughly defined.

 

The shape of the mouth is cut off and the inside removed.

 

Red paint applied

 

Next the red parts are masked and black mouth contour applied. Sorry I forgot to take picture!

Masks for teeth cut out.

 

To make a long story short, this is what we should have in the end.

I reckon this first try is far from perfect.
Yet we can learn much from it. What I’ll be looking for next time: avoid overspray, more precise cut, keeping lines parallel , …

Let’s also say that the Tamiya tape is not ideal for this job. Maybe it’s best that I find a more suitable material before going on.

 

In the mean time, let’s call it a day.

See ya all next time on this long and winding road.

Cheers,

Quang

 

[Tolga ULGUR]

 

Once upon a time Barracuda decals released a 1/48 decal set of this aircraft. Maybe you can produce a mask template from the decal image.

Cheers

[quang]

Oh yes! The plane coded C is indeed the one I want to model.
I’ve done it already on the 1/48 Airfix but was none too happy with the result.

 

Hopefully it would be easier in a bigger scale.

Thank you for your tip, Tolga. I’ll try to make a template out of the decal.
But first I’ll have to find a more suitable film for the masking. In the meantime, I’ve ordered THIS. We’ll see how it goes.

 

Cheers,

Quang

[dennismcc]

This is great work, I am really impressed with the effort you are putting into the shark mouth, I would struggle with store bought masks never mind making the masks myself But as you have mentioned the original painting on the aircraft was not perfect so I think that you should be happy with what you have produced, I think that a lot of the time we modellers try to make stuff too perfect.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[quang]

5 minutes ago, dennismcc said:

I think that a lot of the time we modellers try to make stuff too perfect.

Unfortunately that’s our true nature!