Monogram 1/48 P-40 Rebuild

[LSP_Kevin]

Well folks, with airbrushing a no-go activity until my newly-ordered second moisture trap arrives (7-14 days from Honkers), I'm not able to continue with my Speed Spitfire build for the moment. My bench doesn't really have room for two LSP kits, so I thought I'd sneak something smaller onto it: Monogram's ancient 1/48 P-40B kit. But with a twist! I've already built this kit, so this will be another one of my rebuilds, and it also marks a bit of a shift in my modelling focus, which I hinted at in my Yak-40 thread.

 

To expand on what I mean by that, my tightly constrained free time has left me with very little quality modelling time these days, to the extent that I feel like my modelling is no longer moving forward. In fact it feels like it's going backwards in many ways. Recently I started to drift into simply slapping kits together with what little time I had, or trying to build difficult kits while not really having enough time/energy/motivation to do them justice. Inevitably I've been unhappy with the results.

 

So I decided to try to switch my focus to smaller projects that I'm really keen on, which can be more easily accommodated by my schedule. And one of the areas I'd really like to concentrate on is my painting and finishing, so I figured I might start working my way through my non-LSP stash with the primary goal of improving my finishing - and especially weathering - skills. So in most cases they'll be quality shake'n'bake kits to allow me to get to the finishing stage quickly. But there'll also be some more challenging projects like this one. And never fear, I haven't given up on LSP builds! As soon as the Speed Spitfire is finished, my long-waiting Trumpeter Birdcage Corsair conversion will join this one on the bench. And this one will be followed by some 1/48 Corsairs...

 

Anyway, enough ranting from me (sorry guys!). Let's talk about this model. I built it probably 20+ years ago in one of my first several airbrushing attempts. Here's what it looked like in the only photo I have of it:

 

 

Not great! And the underside was horrible, as I tried spraying straight Tamiya Flat Base on it as the flat coat! I've been wanting to rebuild it for ages, but I kept putting it off until recently, when I was able to obtain the Legend cockpit set for this kit:

 

 

 

It looks great and I think I only paid about $13 for it brand new. Quite a long while previous to this though, I came across a MSAP decal sheet on eBay for cheap, and decided to snap it up 'just in case':

 

 

 

Quite frankly they're terrible - kind of dried up and poorly cared-for, with an aborted attempt to cut some out from the top. Since they came from the UK for next-to-nothing, I didn't bother pursuing it with the vendor, but I was certainly disappointed. Not sure if I'll use them, but they're what I've got for now.

 

More in the next post...

 

Kev

[Sparzanza]

Interesting enough project! I'll be keeping an eye on this.

[LSP_Kevin]

So, how does one go about rebuilding a kit? Well, you start by unbuilding it! I thought I might detail my method, in case anyone else is crazy enough to do this to their old models. First, remove whatever loose items you can, or anything that can be worked free without the risk of breakage. Then, place the model in a freezer bag and place it in the freezer overnight:

 

Now, before you all think I've gone crazy, the purpose of doing this is that the extreme cold makes the glue bonds brittle, and even give completely in some cases. Caveat: this really only works well if you've used either tube glue or CA at the time; hot 'welding' cements that melt the plastic together are not really susceptible to this technique. My memory told me that I'd used Revell Contacta cement on this one, so I knew I'd be good to go.

 

Remove it from the freezer when you have time for the dis-assembly phase. I start by twisting the wings against the fuselage in opposition to each other. Some joints will just pop apart, some need to be coaxed with a little force, and others still will need the assistance of a hobby knife. Tip: if you have some white spirits on hand, brush a liberal amount onto stubborn joins and leave it for a minute or two and try again. I'm not sure if this softens the glue or the plastic, but it works!

 

Be warned however, that even with all these techniques, damage is inevitable:

 

 

The moral of the story is that, if you're not prepared to deal with something like that, or see your old model as too precious to risk it, don't take this path! If you do though, you should end up with something like this:

 

 

The next phase is paint removal, and in this case it's relatively easy, since I used mainly Gunze acrylics back in the day, and they melt off the model when soaked in any ammonia-based window cleaner. In my case, Windex:

 

 

I placed the parts in an old microwave meal container and poured some Windex over them (you can just spray it on too in many cases):

 

 

After giving it a few minutes to soak in, I went to work with an old toothbrush and scrubbed most of the paint off:

 

 

That wing tells quite a story. Firstly it gives a bit of an insight into how I built models at the time. Plenty of putty and indiscriminate sanding in the wing roots, for starters! You'll notice some damage on the aileron and wing tip. And the decal didn't come off! This is common, and these old Monogram decals are particularly stubborn. In the end I sanded them off, along with all the raised surface detail.

 

Not all of the paint came off so easily though, and I suspect the red on the prop spinner is something other than Gunze acrylic. It's not critical to get all the paint off though, so this is not really a concern.

 

And that brings us up to where things are now. This one will be quite some work before it looks like a P-40 again, but I'm really looking forward to tackling it! I hope you can join me for the ride.

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Cool!  That is quite an interesting technique for loosening the glue joints in the freezer.   Makes total sense. I just seem to have one of these attitudes that once Im done with a model, good, bad or indifferent, Im done with it.

I dont think that its that im attached to them, or that im scared to disassemble, I think its just that I get that "been there done that" feeling..........even if its a model I wasnt particularity proud of or majorly screwed something up on.

 

That being said, the process here is VERY interesting to me!  Ill definitely follow this one to see if you can pull a silk purse out of that Windex soaked sows ear!

[spacewolf]

Nice 'how to'... going to enjoy watching this !

 

 

Vaughn

[Sparzanza]

It's a bit painful to look at this; I know I could never have done anything like this to my kits .. if I had one that was 20 years old. But I have a feeling yours will turn out nicely! I've also learned a few things. Awesome.

[Guest Peterpools]

Kev

What a great project. Never thought of doing anything like this and already picked up a few wonderful tips. Will be following along for the entire adventure.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

:popcorn:

[fightnjoe]

i am following along for sure.  the revellogram kit is (tbh) one of my favorites.  so much room for so much detail. 

 

 

 

joe

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks for your comment fellas. Glad to have you following along! This kind of work is really not that difficult to be honest, although a lot hinges on how the dis-assembly phase goes. Those of you who remember my old Revell Zero rebuild will know what to expect. There's an enormous amount of satisfaction to be derived from completing a project like this, and doing an A/B comparison between the new and old photos can really make you feel good about how far your modelling has come.

 

Let's see how I fare!

 

Kev

[LSP_K2]

Wouldn't it just be a whole lot easier to build a new kit? (All of the stuff I built when I was younger is long gone now, so I couldn't do this even if I wanted to.)

[Out2gtcha]

Wouldn't it just be a whole lot easier to build a new kit? (All of the stuff I built when I was younger is long gone now, so I couldn't do this even if I wanted to.)

 

 

Probably............but I think this is an endeavor of modeling skills............I could be wrong but it does seem like a good way to get a very satisfied feeling at the end comparing the before and after.

[LSP_Kevin]

Wouldn't it just be a whole lot easier to build a new kit?

 

Indeed it would! But it's hard to find a cheap, original Monogram P-40 kit these days. Most are later boxings, churned out when the tooling was already knackered - and it shows on the parts. Plus, I really enjoy doing this kind of thing, and it means building a model without having to add another one to the stash. The alternative was to toss this model in the trash, and I hate doing that. Much better to turn it into something worth keeping I reckon. We shall see!

 

Kev

[LSP_K2]

I follow your logic. The old Monogram B still holds up well though, despite its age.

[LSP_Kevin]

Well, I thought I'd better have a close look at the Legend cockpit. I've never used one of their products before, but this is what the parts look like:

 

 

As you can see, the detail is really quite amazing for such an inexpensive set - and remember, this is 1/48 scale! The parts seem crisply cast with no obvious defects. The main drawback with this set is that there are no instructions! All you get is the photo on the box:

 

 

Easy enough to figure out though I reckon. It will require some very careful painting however! Speaking of which, interior colour on early P-40s? Interior Green? The photo looks more like GZC to me.

 

I'll definitely have to get to work on the cockpit sidewalls though; all that moulded-in detail will have to go:

 

 

By the looks of the rear bulkhead in the Legend set, the moulded-in head-rest half on each fuselage will have to go too. I've definitely got my work cut out for me!

 

Kev

[BradG]

Cool. I am surprised you managed to get it apart with minimal damage if you did use Contacta as that stuff does weld the plastic.