Flying Tigers Curtiss Hawk 81-A2 - Finished

[Dpgsbody55]

I'd like to join this little party with a GWH Curtiss Hawk model 81-A2, or P-40 to many of us.  It looks like a really good kit, from what I've seen from people's postings.

 

 

I'll be adding a little after market with this build, in terms of a Quinta Studios 3D decal set, which I hope will add a little more to the model.

 

 

As I only started to look at this yesterday, I haven't got much done yet.  I've added a few of the parts that go inside the rear fuselage, put the pilot's pew together as well as the fuselage fuel tank.  I like to add what parts I can before paint goes on, so long as they don't create shadows behind.  There's a few more parts to go in, as well as ejector pin marks to sort out, but some already seem to be where they won't be seen, so less work.  And some thought by the kit designers.

 

 

Once I've finished this stage, I'll slop some paint about.  As I understand it, most of the inner surfaces should be yellow zinc chromate, and I think the the cockpit should be some shade of interior green.  Photos I've seen suggest this should be a darker colour than green ZC and with a slight bronze tint.  I do know that Curtiss were a little cavalier with their paint colours and didn't stick exactly to the specified paint.  If stock ran low, they'd get something close at the local hardware.  Whatever works, I guess.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[MikeMaben]

Will it be a flying tiger Mike ?  

[Dpgsbody55]

9 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Will it be a flying tiger Mike ?  

 

Yes.  I'm staying with the kit decals, but I haven't yet decided which flying tiger I'm building.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[BradG]

Nice one. I had looked at this kit at my LHS, although the asking price being in excess of 200 dollars and the fact that all the panels are molded open put me off it as I'm more of a closed up panels kinda builder. 

[Dpgsbody55]

20 hours ago, BradG said:

Nice one. I had looked at this kit at my LHS, although the asking price being in excess of 200 dollars and the fact that all the panels are molded open put me off it as I'm more of a closed up panels kinda builder. 

 

It's the best P-40 on the market.  The kit is very well detailed and you don't have to build it with the panels opened, which is mostly the fuselage.  You can build it with the engine displayed opened up, or build the closed up nose.  Both are held on by magnets so you have a choice.

 

It isn't cheap, but then if you want a quality project and you take your time building it, consider what else you can do for that money over that amount of time.  This will keep me busy for probably three months and so far has been nothing but a pleasure.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited April 2, 2023 by Dpgsbody55

[Dpgsbody55]

I slopped a bit of yellow zinc chromate paint about this model a few days ago and started building up the rear fuselage.  Then realised I needed to paint the cockpit in Curtiss's idea of interior green.  That called for a bit of extra masking... 

 

 

Thankfully I didn't manage to damage anything removing the masking.  The detail provided in this kit is great and it will be a pity to cover it all up but I've enjoyed working on it so far.  It's still a work in progress back there as the next picture shows.

 

 

There doesn't appear to be anywhere to run the control cables though.  I wonder how Curtiss did it??

 

As I've no painted the cockpit colours, I made a quick start on that part of the model.  The kit supplies a good set of decals with all the cockpit placards, so I've strated this part of the build bu applying these.

 

 

Lots more to go, but I hope to have the rear fuselage finished and more cockpit work done next time.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

Work on the fuselage and cockpit continues, but I'm not quite ready to put the fuselage together yet as the instrument panel assembly is still a work in progress.  However, I have finished the left and right rear fuselage halves, as well as the left and right cockpit sides.

 

After the last update, there was not a lot left to do on the fuselage halves.  The right side has very little detail in it, but what is there is now done.  Picture next time.  The left side needed a little tidying up as well as the hatch sorted.  Since I've done all the detail work, I decided to make the hatch open, so I made a hinge.  I used 1mm brass pipe and steel 0.5mm rod as brass isn't as good for this being brittle and prone to breaking.  The rod is a lot harder to work and took a few goes before testing showed it worked OK.  The hatch has a pocket on the inside, so this was painted up and a 3D decal attached.  Then holes drilled to receive the hinge ends and the whole lot glued in place with the hatch held closed using 18mm tape.  But after installation, although it does work and the hatch sits flat against the exterior, it doesn't work as well as I thought it was going to.  Not One Of My Better Ideas....  .

 

 

One thing I've found with this kit is that some of the colour call outs are missing.  I'm certain that some of the boxes in here should be a different colour, but there's no indication of this (eg; part E2 - should this be black???).  Another issue is that some of the colour call outs in the color chart don't always exist.  For example, the guns are supposed to be painted C28, but there's no mention of that colour in the supplied paint chart or what it might be.  Thankfully, I've built one or two models before, so I'm fairly certain that guns should be gunmetal black.  Just guessing though....  Another issue is that some parts seem to be mysteriously attached to other parts.  The cockpit back frame in step two shows the pilot's head rest attached, but I can't find anywhere in the instructions telling me what that head rest part number is (I think it's E14) and when to attach it.  Not helpful, Mr.GWH.  I will have more to rant about, but that's for next time.

 

The left side of the cockpit was finished first.  This is fairly straight forward, thankfully.  The kit decals were previously applied which left the throttle quadrant, trim controls, switch panel and some details to be picked out with paint. The throttle quadrant was first, which is in two parts to which I added another 3D decal on the top face.  However, I retained the kit throttle and mixture levers rather use than the 3D decal versions and the prop pitch knob was painted gloss black.  Incidentally, this was only used when the prop pitch switch was set in automatic.  This is the switch you can see at top left of the switch panel.  At start up, the pitch was set at "fixed" (middle position).  To use the pitch lever on the throttle quadrant the switch was flicked up to auto after start up.  If setting the pitch electrically, the pilot moved the switch down and back for coarse pitch or down and forward for fine pitch.  The switch would snap back to "fixed" when released and then had to be moved up to use the pitch lever in the throttle quadrant.  Remember, these planes used a Curtiss Electric prop - electric as in electric pitch adjustment.  As for the other levers, the mixture knob is red, and the throttle itself is white with a brass button on top.  I had thought of adding three rods to the quadrant, but I think space is an issue where it passes under the instrument panel so these are left off.  Next is that switch panel.  The detail on the kit part was filed off and a 3D decal set it it's place, then the panel was attached.  After this, I painted up the trim knobs with a grey bezel and black knob and added another 3d decal to each.  The elevator trim knob is the horizontally mounted knob and the vertically mounted knob is for rudder trim.  For takeoff, typical settings were 3 degrees nose up trim and 8 degrees right rudder.  These planes had a nasty swing on take off, so rudder trim settings were important.  Lastly, behind the trim knobs are the flap and undercarriage levers.  These were picked out in red, with a silver lever for the flaps lever.  The U/C lever is set to down in this model, which is incorrect.  These planes had a hydraulic system run by an electric pump operated from a button on top of the control column. If that button was touched accidentally, it would start the hydraulics working which could be disasterous if these levers weren't set at neutral.  To operate the flaps, the pilot sets, eg, flaps down then operates the pump until the desired flap angle was achieved, the  set the lever to neutral.  Repeat for further extension.  The undercarriage operation procedure was to select up or down as required, run the hydraulic pump via that button on the control column then use the hand pump on the pilot's right (lever with the brown knob) to check the undercarriage was actually full up or down, regardless of the IP indicator gauge, and once pumping this lever was difficult, select the neutral position on the undercarriage lever for safety's sake.  Similarly, the hand pump was used to ensure that the flaps were fully up.  The work load on the pilot is always high on take off and landing, but more so on P-40's.

 

 

Lastly, the right side is also complete.  Again, kit decals had been applied previously.  The radiator shutter mechanism went on first.  This is made up of a plastic part for the operating rod and ratchet and a very thin kit supplied etch part.  The handle was painted red and the rest in Curtiss's interior green.  I have read of some who have made up a thin plastic backer for the etch handle, but I'm not sure if this is authentic.  They don't look especially thick in the pictures.  Above this are the radio controls (on/off, volume, channel) which were enhanced with more 3D decals, the above that is the canopy handle picked out with paint.  At the back is the map pocket.  I think there should be an electrical junction box below the radio controls, but this is not included in the kit.  I'm presently toying with the idea of adding it, but I'll do a test assembly of all the cockpit components first to see if it fits or even if it's worthwhile.

 

 

That's it for now.  I'm presently trying to finish the instrument panel and pilot's seat, which is not helped by delicate parts breaking as I try to cut them off the sprue.  Other's have mentioned this issue, so I can take some comfort in that it's not my hamfisted modelling.   Hopefully by next time, I'll have the cockpit together, installed in the fuselage, then fuselage together.

 

Maybe.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

Some more progress worth reporting.  The right rear fuselage is finished, instrument panel is finished, cockpit put together, and the fuselage assembled.

 

Firstly, that rear fuselage, which this pic doesn't show that well, but also which didn't need a lot more from last time.  The pipe from the small black box to the larger black box is picked out in silver, and that larger black box fitted.

 

 

Next is the instrument panel which caused me a little grief as the instructions are a quite vague as to where it mounts to the gun mount.  There are two ribs on the back of the IP, and I thought that these slotted onto the the gun mount so I glued this together and left it to dry, then test fitted into the cockpit sides.  This was a disaster.  I initially chopped a few bits off but no better.  Then I realised I'd got it way wrong and applied a little Tamiya extra thin glue and managed to prise the assembly apart and repair my removed bits using various stock plastic.  So, rudder pedals mount below the bottom rib, and gun mount attaches to the IP above the top rib.  I hope we're clear on that.   The IP itself is a 3D decal, as is the fuel selector and a couple of other details.  The four central gun charging handles are picked out in gloss black.  Next I picked out some cabling on the gun mount in yellow and added the guns.  Then I made some gun charging handles from bent up 0.3mm black wire, dipped the handles themselves into some Microklear which was allowed to dry before painting them gloss black.  These were then attached to the inside of each gun.  You can just see them sticking up between panel and each gun.  Lastly there are two pieces of kit etch brass to attach to each rudder pedal.  These are very thin and very easily knocked off while handling the assembly.  I recommend doing this just before assembling the cockpit sides and rear.  Ask me how I know... 

 

 

So after gluing one of these etch pieces back into place, the four cockpit assemblies were put together.  Here's a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

This was set aside to dry yesterday, and this afternoon, the fuselage was assembled.  There's quite a lot of bits that need to slot exactly into place while doing this, so after a couple of test fits, I decided to glue the fuselage itself together then add cockpit.  One of the ribs in the rear fuselage didn't want to play ball, so glue was applied and the halves joined, then I opened up that hatch on the left side and poked a slim knife inside against the offending rib, which did the trick.  Then the fuselage was taped and clamped together.  Next, the cockpit had to go in.  You'll notice a raised square in the cockpit in the first photo, and there's a corresponding smaller square in the right cockpit which aid in locating the cockpit assembly.  Glue was applied to the front and back bulkheads as well as the corresponding slots for these squares, and the cockpit assembly eased up and back until these squares clicked into the slots.  Then some more tape wrapped around the front of the fuselage to clamp that together.

 

Here's a picture of the now complete fuselage, with the remaining bits needed.

 

 

On the left is the still incomplete pilot's seat and seat belts below.  These don't need to be finished yet as the seat can't go in until the wings are on.  On the right, is the windscreen mount and gun cover.  This also doesn't need to go on yet and needs some more gauges to go on too.  I may well put it in place also put the windscreen and bullet proof glass in place on this and assemble the lot onto the fuselage, probably after the wings are on.  I suspect this will be easier as the bullet proof glass mounts to the underside of this cover and has to align with a top mounting bar which goes inside the windscreen.

 

Here's a couple more shots of the cockpit, in place.  No armour plate behind the pilot on this very early P-40.

 

 

 

Wings next.  The instructions say to continue with the front gun cover/windscreen mount, then tail surfaces, but I don't like mounting the tail until the wings are on, to check dihedral on all surfaces.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[KUROK]

Looking good!

 

[dennismcc]

Taking notes as one dy I may build one of these.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[MikeMaben]

Nice work Mike.

[phasephantomphixer]

Looking nice - sure is some kit, hope your sensible assembly approach goes well.

[Troy Molitor]

Looking good Mike.  

[Dpgsbody55]

On 4/12/2023 at 1:05 AM, KUROK said:

Looking good!

 

 

Thanks.  Looking at the bits, I think the hardest part is done now, with the possible exception of the engine.

 

On 4/12/2023 at 2:30 AM, dennismcc said:

Taking notes as one dy I may build one of these.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Please do.  The kit itself is a joy to build.  Everything fits as it should.

 

20 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Nice work Mike.

 

Thank you. 

 

17 hours ago, phasephantomphixer said:

Looking nice - sure is some kit, hope your sensible assembly approach goes well.

 

That would be my hope too.

 

16 hours ago, Troy Molitor said:

Looking good Mike.  

 

Thanks.  So far, anyway.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

More progress on the P-40/Model 81 Hawk.  As I mentioned at the end of the last update, wings were next, but some work has also been done on the fuselage which I thought would be easier without wings getting in the way or vice versa.

 

First up is the wheel well.  Since I needed to paint some more interior green, I got the airbrush out and sprayed a number of items relating to the undercarriage, including the wheel well sides.  After that, some canvas colour was brush painted on the upper surface of the wells, kit decals added followed by pipes, again kit supplied.  Once done, this was mounted on the lower wings.  You can see holes for placement pins and that placement of these is exact.  One of the best things about this kit is the parts fit, much of which is idiot proof.  Nicely done, Mr GWH.

 

 

Once that was mounted and the front wall of the flaps enclosure was in place, the wings can go together.  Again, and excellent fit, but I take no chances and lots of clamps were used.

 

 

The ammo hatches were next.  I assembled the ammo boxes and glued them straight into the wings.  Also added at this time is the front of the landing gear fairings.  The covers are the kit etch brass and the entire fret is very thin, so these pieces need extreme care if they're to fit.  There is a rear hinged inner door and a front hinged outer door, so the inners were CA glued in first, followed by the outer doors over the top of the inner doors.  The ammo boxes provided another gluing surface, and they seem to be secure.  There's not much to glue these to.  Others have cut thin plastic backers for these etch bits and I can see why, but this seems to have worked for me.

 

 

While that was drying, I did a little more work on the fuselage, as I felt this bit would be easier if the wings weren't in the way.  Firstly, I painted the blue formation lights on each side of the fuselage in aluminium and once dry, this was followed by clear blue on both the aluminium and the clear piece.  Then the camouflage colours were painted on the rear view cutouts in the fuselage.  Next the fuel and oil caps were painted and added.

 

 

Then the perspex covers were added on each side, after having been masked using the kit supplied masks, and the clear blue lights added after also being masked.  These are all held in place using MikroKlear.

 

 

Back to the wings, and the upper gun covers were added.  These are small, so I masked off first to ensure no CA smudges on the wing.  At this time, I added the gauges for the wing and fuselage fuel contents, picked out some of the pipes molded into the top wing surface and scratched up the rudder tread plates a bit.

 

 

My attention now turned to mating the wings and fuselage, which involves the wings, fuselage, wing fillets and pilot's seat.  Test fitting all these pieces revealed that the easiest way is to fit the wing fillets to the fuselage first.  Again, there are pins and alignment holes which make the fit exact, but there are ejector pin marks inside of the fillets where they butt up against the fuselage.  As there's a slight raised edge to these marks, these were filed flat first before gluing and being allowed to dry (after again test fitting the wings to fuselage to test their fit).

 

 

While those fillets were drying, I added the control column, hydraulic hand pump and a hydraulic pipe that runs from the base of the control column to the floor.  This last piece is a kit supplied part which is almost guaranteed to break, as indeed mine did.  Others have had this problem, so it's not just my ham fistedness.  Mine is now made from wire, and painted. The instructions say to glue the wings and fuselage together, then lower the pilot's seat into the two holes in the wing top/fuselage floor, and the top mounts to the back frame of the cockpit.  I tried test fitting this way, but couldn't get the bottom seat mounts into the holes on the floor.

 

 

So I glued the seat to the floor, then the fuselage and fillets to the wing, and then gently pushed the seat back against the bulkhead and glued it in place with extra thin glue.  Much easier!!   Tape is used to hold the two component parts together and in proper alignment.  Note you can see the rear fuselage fuel tank, so whether or not you detail the rear fuselage as I have, paint and the tank in this area is a must.

 

 

I'm flitting backwards and forwards around the instructions at the moment.  This is step 21, so now I'll go back and add some of the bits that are supposed to be added earlier, like the pilot's head rest, tail surfaces, ailerons and flaps, as well as the top cowl above the fuselage guns.  I may well leave the rudder off, however, as the camo pattern on that is different to the tail area.  That will be for next time.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael