Trumpeter P-40N - Samuel E Hammer

[Loic]

Hello all,

 

it is with a great pleasure and a bit of exitment that I am going to enter this group build. 

 

I have always liked the P-40, I think it looks agressive and mean but lately, I have litterally had some sort of P-40 fever after reading a few articles and so decided to build one.

 

Amazingly, it has not been that easy to find an aircraft that tics all the boxes of the GB theme as I already had my mind pretty much set up on what I wanted to build... but finally, I managed to get everything come more or less together.

 

I wanted to build an aircraft from the Burma Banshees as these big skulls on the nose of the P-40 have always captivated me.

This said, the 80th Fighter Group did not produced that many aces and then, I had to find the specific decals for one of those aces.

 

So, finally, I choose to go with Samuel Eugene Hammer who was the one and only P-40 "only" aces of the 80th FG; there was some other aces but they scored some of their victories on other types of aircraft (P-38 and/or P-47 if I am correct).

 

I initially wanted to buy Hasegawa P-40N but was not able to find one so I bought Trumpeter model and found a set of decal on the other side of the planet.

This is where I started to get wrong... in fact, Hammer's P-40N was an early N so it did have the "old style" canopy and rear framing, just like a P-40M but both Trumpeter and Hasegawa have the "new style" canopy and framing ... I'll have to leave with that I guess 

 

I also bought a few after market stuff which is quite unusual for me as I often claim I prefer to do things by myself but let's say it this way, I want to maximise my chances to finish this build for once  

 

We have Eduard Look instrument panel which looks very good to me, Eduard pre-cut mask and Eduard threaded wheels.

 

Here is the kit:

 

 

And the aftermarket stuffs:

 

 

 

That's it for now, the kit has been waiting for me to start for almost 3 weeks now so it is time to get back to the bench!

 

Thanks for following !

 

Cheers,

Loic

[BradG]

Nice choice, I look forward to seeing your progress.

[Loic]

All right !

 

Thanks Brad for the kind words.

 

I have been waiting for the GB to start before I start building but I have been "studying" a lot while waiting .

 

Trumpeter P-40 are not bad kit at all, they apparently have some flows here and there and for most of those, I am not able to tell wether these flows are real or not... so that's fine by me BUT, there is one thing that I know I have to work on and this is the cockpit floor.

 

On P40s, cockpit floor is in fact the top side of the wing so it is curved while Trumpeter's floor is flat. That means it is not deep enough and even if the most curved part is in fact bellow the seat, it still shows and give a wierd feeling about the all thing.

 

Here are the kit parts 

 

 

They are not bad to be honnest appart that flat floor thing.

 

Having to redo the floor, I will also have to extend the rear bulkhead and side panels... which will give me a chance to upgrade them as they do not quite depict P-40N model.

 

Well, that's the plan at least, we will see how it turns out 

 

Thanks for following!

[Scale32]

Hi Loic I’ve built this kit and despite some issues in accuracy, canopy and top fuselage too round in cross section, prop blades wrong and details missing from rear tail area you will not have issues with the fit of this kit.

 

cheers Bevan 

[Loic]

Hi Bevan,

thanks for the head up.

From what I have seen so far, the fit seams pretty good indeed.

Cheers

[Loic]

Hello all,

 

I guess this is time for a first "real" update with some plastic being cut and glued...

 

I spent almost all the weekend  building 2 new side walls for the cockpit and update the rear bulkhead .

 

Took me several atempts to get a decent result but well, it could have been worst I guess.

 

Here are the sidewalls

 

 

Those 2 holes are made to accomodate the 2 bulges that are present inside the fuselage halves.

 

And this is the parts dry fitted in the fuselage as well as the rear bulkhead that had to be increased in lenght and width.

 

 

 I would have like to call this done but after extra checking, these 2 parts are too long and should be reduced by almost 1cm at front end 

 

At least I know what I have to do during next bench session!

 

Thanks for following,

 

Cheers

Edited September 3, 2023 by Loic

[MikeMaben]

Great start, have fun Loic 

[Phantom2]

Great start and  nice cockpit walls!  

 

Stefan 

[Loic]

Thanks Stephan !

I ´ve been following your own P-40 build on the other GB and I like it a lot.

Those tiger nose art are awsome 

[Loic]

Thanks Mike, 

so far so good and I am enjoying it a lot. I just need to try to keep myself away from wired ideas like super detailing and such things and try to keep it simple.... as much as I can 

Primary target for this build is to complete it... 

[Slav-one]

Looking good so far. 

[Loic]

Thanks Slav-one!

[Gazzas]

I have not had much luck with Trumpeter.   Looking forward to yours.

 

[Loic]

Thanks Gazzas.

So far, so good... the kit looks good to me actually, it even has instructions which I am not quite used to 

I have only made little progress during this week as I have had quite a busy week at work but I should post an update during this weekend.

 

[Loic]

Hello all,

 

we have progress !! not wild but as I said, I had a very busy week so that's not too bad I guess.

 

First of all, I have trimed the side wall approx 9mm so now they stop where the engine fire wall is supposed to be...

 

 

That will allow me to create a new firewall on which I will glue rudder pedals and IP as IP is located on the floor on both Trumpeter and Eduard parts... but as I changed the floor, I need a new way to set / locate IP.

 

We also have a new curved floor and its central rib started 

 

 

That's not the best quality pic, sorry...

 

Thanks for following!!

 

Cheers