Peterpools

Ernie Sounds pretty neat, which Curtiss Hawk?

Rob WOW, you hit a Grand Slam. The stencils look fantastic - remarkable work

Ernie That's a huge plus and when you start the next Helldiver, I've already reserved my front row seat.

Ernie Well said 👍

Thanks Mrk - appreciate the information. I've done a lot of soldering in my model railroad days and yours look next to perfect. I normally use a Weller - nothing fancy and one with a soldering station for the sponge and replaceable tips. No temp control. Looking so good

Gaz I'm right with Chriss

Chris I'm right next to you on the scribing train ... my least favorite part of any build and one where I struggle endlessly. If I'm lucky, I get close and I do keep trying, just don't really see an improvement. Putty and filler ... OMG haven't ever built a kit without it. These days I use almost nothing but Mr Surfacer 500 & 1000 and Tamiya Fine White Filler. I do use CCA when called for, especially correcting the numerous scribing misses.

Carl Sounds like a great tradeoff for the extra commute time

Mark Nice stat on the PE chassis and our soldering skills looks mighty good. Did you use CCA to tak the parts in place or did you make a jig?

Ernie Awesome progress and the Big Gal is looking mighty good. Looking forward to seeing her progress through the paint shop. Absolutely stellar work. Jumped the gun a bit on posting and those flaps are going to be a ton of work - can't wait to see how you work your way through the assembly procedure.

Gaz I'm right with Rob. if I could paint figures a tenth as good as yours, I would be doing cartwheels - OK at my age, smiling from ear to ear is closer to it. I did look closely at the painted details and they do look mighty good.

Carl Just love the way your pre-shading and weathering is looking - just the right touch. So glad your position after the closing of the retail store isn't going to change and a twenty minute commute isn't that bad at all. Look at the bright spot, you now have time to drink a cup of 'commuters coffee' on the way to work each day. All kidding aside, just glad you still have your position and no other changes to deal with.

Rob A ton of work and the masks are a game changer. Your solution to actually adding the air brush into the mix seems exactly the way to go. I've been to their web site and surely will be adding some to a build down the road that they offer masks for. Awesome work for sure

Thanks Gaz Greatly appreciated and your right on the money. I'm sure as other build the P-40, they will find alternate ways to build the kit and most likely will not have needed to resolve the issues I did. I've followed you 109 from day one, have the kit and when I'm ready to build it, your thread will be one of my building guides and references.

Ernie Completely agree that the kit surely seems accurate and is an excellent representation of the early P-40. Just wish GWH, would have eased up on the hidden details and offered some one-piece parts as an option to multiple piece parts in certain areas. Seems a better option then going with all the hidden details that are beautifully molded. So far, I build, painted, weather and installed all of them and there are more that go on the underside that will be completely hidden as well. Still tossing on what to do.

Kev Hopefully, I'm close to being done with seams and gaps. I don't remember building a kit before where the actual floor is the top of the wing was so detailed. If memory serves me correctly (not a chance), a good number of WWII aircraft had the wing as the cockpit floor but there was structure above it, so the pilot wasn't actually standing and kicking the wing top. Kit details here are exceptionally good though.

Dennis Absolutely, one of those iconic aircraft with the perfect shape for a hungry, right to tangle shark mouth. Hopefully by the end of the week, I'll be priming in the booth.

Thanks Phil, right on the money Just a shame some kits go down that route and for me it tends to be a mojo killer at times and greatly lengthens the build.

Thanks Carl Getting there step by step and today, I hope to resolve the last of the nose fit issues. See how it goes.

John Ask me, the masks you made worked perfectly and the paint work is as perfect. Looking so good.

Thanks Rob, much appreciated. For me the enjoyment in building a kit, is not going to battle against sloppy fitting parts, which always seems to be the seeds of frustrations. One such example was the three-piece panel over the nose MG's. They could have been designed as a single piece, helping the modeler in a achieving a much more accurate fit. The P-40 seems to be one of those kits were a small part not aligned perfectly for whatever the reason, causes more and more problems down the road. GWH decision to have the entire nose section replaceable by using a magnet seems to be a great idea but the execution just didn't work for me. I'm still massaging and tweaking assemblies to fit and this has left the realm of fun. The old saying for me: movable and replaceable parts - fit issues for sure, holds true.

Thanks Hubert Slowly but surely, I'm getting there.

Absolutely devastating .. our hearts go out to all who lost their lives. RIP as you fly west.

TWEAKING AND TEST FITTING Since the last update, bench time has been a bit rare as both my wife and myself have had more then the usual doctor appointments and she also underwent a serious procedure. Our schedule of appointments seems to be increasing as we age and thank goodness, we’re still kicking. The main wing assembly is nearly done, required a lot of sanding and filler to get the numerous parts to fit smoothly, including the gear wells (still needing more work). The PE on the upper wing was just too small and thin and I had no confidence in them that they wouldn’t pop off, especially if nicked during the pre-priming stages (one already did). I replaced them with duplicates from the thinnest card stock I had and then sanded them even thinner after gluing them into place. What I thought were speed breaks on the undersides of the wings, apparently seem to be the ammo trays, meant to shown in the down and loading position, which I didn’t want to do. Again the PE covers were here are way too thin and I needed to make new covers for the second time with Evergreen strip. I spent a lot of time sanding and cleaning up the seams and smoothing things out. (photographs in the next update). The wing to fuselage fit wasn’t that good and a lot of time was needed to correct the fit. Once I was happy with the overall fit, the wing fairings were next up; the fit is tight and each has a nice size seam completely around the part that will need to be filled. I’m thinking of using Mr Surfacer 1000, as I want the gap filled but the panel line to show prominently. The fit at the leading edge of the wing fairing still needed work. Lastly, I again test fitted the nose assembly with the wing in place as per the instruction sequence and to my surprise, there are fit issues. When I had originally tweaked the nose assembly, I had the fit pretty well resolved but with the addition of the MG panels, fit issues again. Of course, I'm betting a good deal of these fit issues are mine as getting all the parts to fit and align perfectly is a tough act. Not much of an update but a lot of work just the same. So here is where I am and hopefully in two or three more bench sessions, I’ll be ready to glue everything up and start aiming for the priming stages.

Ernie Thanks for posting the pics - one terrific looking kit