1to1scale

Hello everyone, some people here may know me from the other site, as well as some local get together and shows. I started building large scale models about 18 months ago after a 25 year break from the hobby. My first was the P-40B, now i am up to maybe #10? I may come close to doubling that number when I finish my current batch of P-40’s

I spent a while today chopping up a perfectly good, brand new, P-40M kit in prep for the F conversion. I am about 50% done fitting the resin parts, so far so good, I chopped up the plastic already, I also rescribed all the panel lines on the resin nose, they were very light, and did not match the Hasegawa panel lines. The resin is going to need some filler, it’s not super smooth, and there appears to be some mold damage as there is a depression on one side, that looks like the mold ripped before they cast it. I’ll take some pics tomorrow, as I was concentrating on not screwing up.

Today I spent a couple hours working on the cockpits, most of that time was reasearching the seats and harnesses for each. I cut 3 CMK resin seats off their pour blocks, they fit so well, I didn’t need to do much fitting. I built a late PE seat for one N model. I also built up one of the pilots for an E, that was one of the poorest fitting pilots I built in a long time, lots of hacking, sanding, and scraping to get him to fit. I decided he would be the only one. After that I became thoroughly confused as to which harness fit which models. The ones with question marks, I’m not sure of. Here is what I have so far: late model N = std US harness RAAF early N = std US harness ??? (It seems that these were prepped and assembled by US mechanics) Russian K = US harness ??? (I don’t have a clue on this one) US Africa K = std US harness ??? (This plane was transferred from the British, so not sure) French F = std US harness ??? (Transferred from 33FG) Canadian E in Alutian Islands = Sutton or US ??? British E in Africa = Sutton im still looking, but the books I had don’t cover the subject, and don’t have pictures of foreign service P-40’s. Back to do more research.

With this...

Lol, trust me I’m fine! Actually, it’s not so crazy, most of the pre-paint work is identical, there are some minor cockpit internal changes, but except for the different tail plugs, it’s all the same assembly and fitting. Where it will really start deviating is at the paint stage.

For the first time in over a week, I had a chance to work on them today. Right now I need to get the fuselages closed up so I can continue, so a nice base layer of paint was in order. I ended up using about 6ml of XF5 paint on all these!     And of course, you need a whole pile of these too...  And on top of the previous six, this one followed me home as well a Grey Matter F/L conversion. So I decided to paint these up before assembly. It’s going to end up as a French long tail F, specifically “Madkot” in the British desert camo. 

So, just to prove I have been sitting on my ass, working on planes...  Oops, wrong picture. The assembly line method actually works pretty well, but I did have to modify the method a bit. I have been building the planes in pairs because the different versions, so build by type (E, K, N) made the most sense. I also decided that the two Trumpy P-40’s will have to wait for another time since I still have not received one of them yet, and the P-40F conversion will be on its own since that is still on its way over the Atlantic. I won’t lie, the cockpits were a bit confusing building the N’s and a K, because they were all different, plus I used PE on both N’s. I have some resin seats coming for the K’s and one E, and I also plan on using a pilot with one of the planes. Building this way definitely saves time, my first cockpit took me nearly an hour, the last two planes I did everything in about an hour.

After studying the tail plugs, I tried gluing the tail to the fuselage half, that didn’t work perfectly as the profile is a little off, the fuselage is flatter than the tail, leaving a small step. next I tried the approach that Hasegawa recommends, which a twist, I taped the halves together instead of gluing. I held the halves together and tried to line up each half as best I could. This came out a little better.

I still don’t have a workbench, and I’m still unpacking my stash, but I started the production line today. The cockpits are a little confusing, because I am building a late N with all the PE, and early N with only a PE panel, then two K’s, and two E’s. So far I have the two N cockpits glued up, and started one K before I quit today. I also started fitting and gluing the tail to the fuselage on one of the N’s. After studying how they mate, I figured that gluing the tail to the halves is the best way to make it join up well. I am going slow so I can makes sure there is no step. 

I spent the last month buying every P-40 I could get my hands on, and accumulating some AM bits and bobs for them. I have also been trying to chase down the final versions of what I wanted to build, the last one decided this morning. To keep me on track, I’m going to stick with these. I now have all the decals and masks on hand or ordered, with the only exception being the Turkish version, which I have not found any decals, so I’m going to use a Hurricane set that has Turkish markings.

I love GSB 1-D's!

So I was thinking, with all the WW2 bombers being put out by companies lately, which represent most of the major ones, it seems like there is on smoking hole left in the lineup...the B-29. Am I the only one who thinks it’s time for this bird to be tooled in 1/32? What is the likelihood of HK or Hobby Boss pumping one out?

nice sir, i like it.

1/32 - B5N2 Kate (I would take a Val also) 1/35 - AH-1G Cobra (early) 1/48 - nothing

Looks awesome John! FYI, if you build anything else with that radar pod, Lone Star Models has them in 1/32 resin. I ordered 2 of them. one for my PB1J and one as a spare.

I have been there, we had a dog door in our Texas home so the dogs could come in and out as they need. Well, one night a 3:00 am, i was woken up by a horrendous smell. As soon as I opened my bedroom door, it was like someone swung a skunk by the tail and its ass hit me in the face. I saw my dog cowering under dining room table, drool pouring out of his mouth and eyes swollen and bloodshot. When he came in to dog door, he rubbed against it, the kitchen cabinets, all the dining room chairs and table legs, the wall, and his bed. My solution...he slept outside all night with his bed, and we were up all night cleaning the house and wiping everything down with soap and bleach. In the morning I called a mobile dog groomer and offered them any amount of money to come clean him, they charged $180, which i would have paid twice that. They did come out later that same day, and made him smell 80% better, the rest wore off after two weeks. He has never messed with a skunk again.

I have two B-25H's, I will trade you all my H parts from one kit for all your glass nose parts. PM me if you want to trade.

I plan on posting my current P-40 production line, as well as progress on my new office/hobby room. It’s good to see a lot of familiar faces here.

I see DIVORCE written all over this story.

The gang is all showing up here.

I’ll try hanging out here for a while, my even put my production line on here too.

I was wondering if you were ever going to build this one.

You just need younger fingers to bend PE.

Very nice, I just ordered one myself, your build gives me some inspiration

Very nicely abused!