joeg

Really a nice job. I like the cowling area, you nearly can smell the oil...

Hi John, that is a nice Spit. I like the exhaust stains!

O am really looking forward to this built........got the kit in my stash too

Thanks Tim

This was really a nice build and though the Gladiator is certainly not my favourite biplane - I much more prefer the Gauntlet - as soon as I had purchased it in December I had to start with it. I nearly - apart from some small additions including strenghening of the undercarriage and adding more dihedral to the lower wing - as I had for both the concern of being too weak and sagging after completion - built it out of the box. The sutton harness was DIY as are the cockpit hatches, the starter crank and the rigging. Here pre-stretched clear plastic strips from old school binders came to use as they perfectly straighten after fixing when a heat source is placed nearby for a second time. As I love silver wings and was relieved that all metal panels were painted aluminium with the Gladiator I chose K6130 - the second production aircraft as it flew with 72 Sqn. This was the Flight Commanders (A-Flight?) aircraft, hence the red tail sections. The wing guns were intentionally omissed as my referrence foto showed them not to be installed at least during the foto-session. I might add the note that the exhaust collector ring was painted with several layers of silver, burnt iron and Klear in succession, including some patches of clear blue to give the impression of that heat resistant steel. Panel lines and main part of weathering were made primarily with a Faber Castell PITT artist Pen No. 117 walnut brown. Except small stencils no decals were used. Humbroln MET191 was used for the silver dope.Enjoy Cheers Joachim

A very attractive scheme for the XVI. Well done!

Hi Nick, I like the chosen subject and you´ve really done very well!!

Hi Tim, a real awesome build! The camouflage is spectacular! Greetings Joachim

Great work! Congrats to that pair of fantastic looking B-24s!!

great conversion of a rare bird! Looks good!

Very impressive build!

An absolute stunning piece of art, I still hold my breath!!!

It really looks the part. Great skills in both modelling and taking pics! Hats off to you!!

Normally used to finish one or two models a year a broken ankle helped to turn out a very fast build of the P-40F I had just bought before the incident in January. And so within four weeks (for me an incredible short time) I had finished Trumpeters P-40F with all its advantages and disadvantages, of the latter not all completely discovered and remedied. On the plus side there is the very good fit of the kit and fine surface detail and the fact that this is the first F-Version on the market. But on the other hand there are indeed some shape issues that should not be there at a kit selling for about 50 € and so trying to compete with the Japanese. Quite easily to correkt is the too bulged shape of the upper cowling and with some gentle and careful sanding no rescribing is required. More work will be needed to deepen the again too shallow cockpit tub and to correct the chin intake shape. Other errors included the shape of the rear quarter windows, bulged sides panels on the sliding canopy, a right hand fuel filler cap on the fuselage and too pointy (at least for my taste) propeller blades. Except for the clear parts I was able to correct these items with more or less effort. I didn´t care about the fact that the exhaust stub openings and the subs itselves seemed to be too large. For the paint scheme I chose an aircraft being handed over to the French quite after the Morocco landings. The Indian head was taken from Berna Decals Sheet 32-34 that offers two different P-40F and several P-39s, while the rest of the markings were painted. I especially liked the idea of the overpainted US-insignia that resulted in a spot of much darker colours around these areas (some sources state olive drab being used but I opted for a dark brown that seemed to match my referrence pictures). For the chipped paints, two layers of maskol were applied over first aluminium paint and then an coat of zinc cromate yellow with a sponge. When removing the maskol this resulted in a very irregular chipping either down to the primer or through that aswell down to the "bare metal".

I really love that old Matchbox kit as it offers plenty of possibilities for very late Mark Spitfires and Seafires at a very low price and no regretts if that project fails and might end up in the bin. All you need is patience, some replacement canopies from Hasegawa and quite some plasticard...I might build some more.....21, 22,24?