P-40B

[dknights]

My LHS tells me they will have this kit in this week. I will be doing one of the P-40s that got a kill on Dec. 7th. I hope to start this weekend.

[Dirkpitt289]

I look forward to it DK.

[jssel]

Good call David. Mine should be arriving today Fed-Ex along with a Tiffie II.

[dknights]

Yep, the faithful LHS came thru. I got a good start yesterday and will post photos soon.

[IrishAir]

I'm doing it now, it's a good kit but I found the fit of the nose pieces and wing to be fairly bad, hopefully it was just an isolated incident though.

Cheers,
Paul

[jssel]

Hi Brews. Yes I got mine also. It is real and it is magnificent!

[dknights]

Thanks to the local hobby shop I got my Airfix P-40 in. It is a nice kit. You can't beat the price. A weekend visit from Jim Bates encouraged me to get started on the model. I am going to work hard to finish in the time alloted, but given the fact that the GB falls over the Thanksgiving holiday here and that we travel to family on the holiday, it may be tough.

First impression is that this is a nice kit. The only thing I noticed is that the exhausts don't have the slight upturn in the stacks the is present on the real P-40B. Trumpy got that bit right on their kit. I just built the Trumpy kit a year or so ago, so this will make a nice comparison.

Here it is so far.

The kit has nice sidewall detail. The raised areas look good and a little washing and drybrushing will help even more.



I like the way the cockpit floor mounts to the wing. This gives the floor a more realistic depth. (A plus over the Trumpy kit) The seat and dashboard are adequate. The dash is done with a decal and that is ok in this scale.

[dknights]

The real cockpit mounted on the top of the wing's upper skin.

Yes, I know, which is why the way Airfix does it makes sense. It simulates it much better than the Trumpy tub.

[dknights]

OK, I have made progress, but a recent bad cold has thrown my chance of inishing in doubt. Haivng just finished the Trumpy kit last year, the comparisoons with that kit are fresh in my mind. I'll post more on that subject separately, but for now, suffice it to say that the differences come down to personal preferences and at 1/3 the price, the Airfix wins out in my book.

Here is where I am now. Pretty much ready to put on primer and do some rescribing.



Another view



Disaster struck this weekend. When I was very carefully removing the windscreen from the sprue with a razor saw, the windscreen fractured. It couldn't be fixed or covered up with filler. Luckily the LHS had another one in stock on hold for a modeling friend, Scott King, and he graciously allowed me to buy it and have the LHS order him another one. You can see the sliver of the windscreen attached to the sprue in the photo below.

[Dirkpitt289]

That sucks.. Sorry to hear that but lucky you were able to work out another canopy.

[dknights]

That sucks.. Sorry to hear that but lucky you were able to work out another canopy.

That is the great thing about the Airfix kit. It was another $6.30. I didn't feel bad at all buying another, and it is still cheaper than the Trumpy buying two of them.

[Dirkpitt289]

Very true. Not to mention cheaper then a vac canopy

[dknights]

Yep

[Dirkpitt289]

Very true. Not to mention cheaper then a vac canopy

I beg to disagree. $5 gets you two vac canopies.

Well how about that. I stand corrected.

[Dazzled]

I think I'll be extra careful with the canopy on mine.